SB Nation User Blog: Slick1

Pirates would trade Doumit!

Slick1 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:09:16 -0000

I saw this on MLBTradeRumors.com last night. Apparently this comes for Rosenthal on his blog and he hears that a number of teams approached the Bucs about Doumit during the GM meetings. Reportedly, NH would move Doumit for the right package.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/11/pirates-could-trade-doumit.html

Now the fact that the Pirates would trade Doumit for the "right package" isn't exactly newsworthy because I believe they would trade anyone for the "right package." The story here, IMO, is the number of teams supposedly inquiring about Doumit. The real question I have is, are teams thinking they can get a buy-low deal on 09' Doumit? Doumit has always been injury prone and that is no secret so how much does last year hurt Doumit's trade value? What kind of return could we expect to receive?

FWIW, the article mentions the Giants, Rays and Mariners as teams that could be interested. That was based on speculation though and not rumors.

JJ Hardy traded to the Twins!

Slick1 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:51:18 -0000

Wow the hot stove season has gotten off to an early start. The Tehan trade was finally made official and I just read on MLBTradeRumors.com that JJ Hardy has been dealt to the Twins for Carlos Gomes.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/11/twins-acquire-jj-hardy.html

I think Minnesota did pretty well here. I definitely thought Hardy could get more than a no hit all glove CF (albeit a really good glove). I have admit I was secretly hoping the Bucs could acquire him. He would have been a nice stop gap unitl D' Arnaud, or someone else, is ready. I have no problems with Cedeneo but I think we can do better defensively.

Iwamura on his way to the Pirates?

Slick1 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:07:24 -0000

Dejan Kovacevik is reporting via Twitter that the Bucs are involved in trade talks with the Rays for Iwamura. MLBTradeRumors.com is also reporting that the Rays are on the verge of dealing Iwamura to an NL club.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/

We need some middle IF's and the Ray's don't want to pick up that option so it looks like there is a potential match here. Iwamura is supposed to be a good defensive 2B and the move would put DY on the bench where he probably belongs. Is this a good move for the Bucs if we don't give up anything of consequence? Let me know your thoughts.

Andrew McCutchen named NL Rookie of the year...

Slick1 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:03:26 -0000

Andrew McCutchen named NL Rookie of the year...

FanGraphs posted its 2009 awards today and McClutchen was named the NL Rookie of the Year. He probably won't win the real award but it's nice to see him get some credit from reputable publications.

Is Andy Laroche better than Jason Bay?

Slick1 — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:02:05 -0000

I was browsing MLBTradeRumors when I came across a post linked to FanGraphs. FanGraphs values Andy Laroche more than Jason Bay ($7.2 million to $5.5 million). I'm guessing that Bay's defense really hurts him here. Bay, while putting up an OPS of .872, had a UZR/150 of -15.8. He has a WAR of 1.2. Andy, on the other hand, has an OPS of .707 but has a UZR/150 of 4.8. His WAR is 1.6.

I'm not taking sides on whether or not the Bay trade was a good one or not but it is interesting to see that Andy is outperforming Bay by himself...according to FanGraphs anyway.

Why we shouldn't have traded Gorzelanny.

Slick1 — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:36:05 -0000

This post had nothing to do with the players we got in return but rather that we sold low on a valuable asset. A team in our position cannot dump assets and what makes this trade even more puzzing is that there was no reason for it. We had plenty of time to let Gorzo regain some value before we dealt him. Given his 2007 success, even if he failed, some other team was likely to take a flier on him and we would have received a return not much different from what we got. I think Gorzelanny would have regained some value had he been given the chance instead of wasting innings on the worthless Virgil Vasquez. Let's take a look at Gorzo's career numbers to see what I'm talking about.

Season	Team	ERA	IP	K/9	BB/9	K/BB	HR/9	WHIP	BABIP	FIP
2005	Pirates	12	6	4.5	4.5	1	1.5	2.17	0.393	5.69
2006	Pirates (AAA)	2.35	99.2	8.49	2.44	3.48	0.36	0.94	0.252	2.71 Bottom of Form
2006	Pirates	3.79	61.2	5.84	4.52	1.29	0.44	1.31	0.26	4.18
2007	Pirates	3.88	201.2	6.02	3.03	1.99	0.8	1.4	0.311	4.24
2008	Pirates (AAA)	2.06	35	8.49	1.03	8.25	0.26	0.91	0.291	2.11
2008	Pirates	6.66	105.1	5.72	5.98	0.96	1.71	1.8	0.303	6.35
2009	Pirates (AAA)	2.48	87	8.79	3.1	2.83	0.31	1.18	0.304	2.87
2009	Pirates	5.19	8.2	7.27	4.15	1.75	0	1.15	0.256	2.83

In 2006, Gorzo had a 3.79 ERA in the majors with 5.84 K/9 and 4.52 BB/9 in 61.2 innings. His BABIP was .260 so it was obvious that he was pretty lucky but you will see numbers like that in a small sample size. In 2007 however, he had a 3.88 ERA (along with 14 wins) in over 200 IP. He also averaged 6.02 K/9 while averaging 3.03 BB/9. The walk rate was still pretty high but he was successful nonetheless. He had an FIP of 4.24 but he also had a BABIP of .311 which indicates his ERA was probably right where it should have been. Now we all know that his 2008 season in the majors was disastrous with his ERA and BB/9 skyrocketing while his K/9 declined. His ERA pretty much equaled his FIP but his BABIP was .303 which was still a little high. Regardless, he stunk in 2008. Now you all take notice, and everyone probably remembers anyway, that he worked over 200 IP in 2007 while working a total of 160 in 2006. That is quite a jump and probably explains the decrease in velocity more than the coming into camp out of shape. He was sent to AAA at the end of 2008 where he had success but his “stuff” was still not the same.

In 2009, however, Gorzo did not make the team out of camp because he needed to work on "consistently repeating his delivery." Well, his numbers in AAA showed that he had figured something out because over 87 innings he had an ERA of 2.48 while averaging 8.79 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 (about the same as 2007). He also had an FIP of 2.87 and a BABIP of .304 which is still a little high suggesting that his ERA could have been even better with some better defense and luck, albeit just a little bit. As reported by DK on the PG blog, he had also regained his velocity which helped him be so successful as a 25 year old in 2007. He was brought to the majors as a reliever for a stint where he had an ERA of 5.19 in 8.2 IP. ERA’s for relivievers, especially in extremely low sample sizes, can be deceiving but from his short time in the Burg it was obvious to me that he was throwing better than 08. While a 5.19 ERA is not good anywhere he had a FIP of 2.83 which was over 2 runs better than his ERA which suggest he was hurt by some bad defense. He also had a 1.75 K/BB ratio witch was pretty close to the 1.99 K/BB ratio he had in 2007. Additonally he had a 1.15 WHIP in Pittsburgh and a 1.18 WHIP in Indy which is a heck of a lot better than the 1.80 WHIP he had in 2008.

It can be argued that Gorzo would or would not have regained his form. The point I'm trying to make is that given his performance in AAA this year coupled with his regained velocity, there was absolutely no reason not to give him a another chance. I would have felt much better had we sold high on Duke or Maholm.

All of this being said, was Gorzo a lock to repeat his 2007 performance? Absolutely not. But was it possible? Absolutely! The numbers suggest that this wasn’t a guy we should have been giving up on. They also suggest that he would have been better in 2009 than he was in 2008. If there was an attitude problem or a conflict of personalities and it was predetermined that Gorzo was out the door, than I say he should have been starting instead of Vasquez in order to increase his trade value. At the end of the day, we sold LOW on Gorzo and that was a big misktake.

Pedro Alvarez pulled!

Slick1 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:20:26 -0000

I don't know if this is news worthy or not yet but Pedro Alvarez was pulled from today's game in the 5th inning after a walk and a strike out. I can't find any information as to the reason he was pulled but all indications at this point seem to be an injury. I can think of no other explanation as to why a #1 draft pick would be yanked in the middle of a game. Let's all hope this isn't anything too serious!

Pirates Sign Second-Rounder Victor Black, Court Zack Von Rosenberg

Slick1 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:22:32 -0000

The Bucs have come to terms with their hard throwing compensation pick Victor Black. This gets the Pirates' first three draft picks signed relatively early and will get all of them playing ball his season. Black will be assigned to State College, which is becoming a more interesting team to watch by the minute.

In other news, the Pirates have invited sixth-rounder Zack Von Rosenberg to visit the 'Burgh. Hopefully the Bucs knew what it would take to get this kid, because signing him will be extremely important in determining whether this was a decent draft or a good draft. It's going to take some "bucs" so let's hope the Pirates are ready to open their checkbook.

Adam Laroche - Arguably the Best Pirates 1B Since Pops!

Slick1 — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:02:48 -0000

With all of the people overly excited with the prospect of Adam Laroche being traded I thought I'd do a little fanpost on Adam since I'm sure there won't be any shrines set up by fans commemorating his time spent with the Bucs. Adam may be one of the most hated players in Pirates history and for reasons that continue to escape me. I've read numerous blogs where posters consantly suggest we should "dump" Laroche for a bag of balls or flat out release him because any replacement would surely perform better. Well, everyone calling for the end of the Adam Laroche tenure in Pittsburgh may soon get their wish, but I caution you all to be aware of the fact that this team will not improve simply by subtracting Adam from the lineup and replacing him with someone on our roster. Plain and simple we will be a weaker team offensively and defensively. So before he is gone I would like to conduct a little history lesson because I believe that Adam is the best Pirate's first baseman since Willie Stargell ended his career there. Hope you all enjoy the post and I'm interested to hear everyone's comments.

                                        AB     R   H    2B 3B HR   RBI BB    SO    AVG   OBP   SLG       OPS
1982 - J. Thompson: 550   87 156    32   0    31    101 101   107   .284   .391   .511       .902
1983 - J. Thompson: 517   70 134    20   1    18     76     99   128   .259   .376   .406      .782
1984 - J. Thompson: 543   61 138    22   0    17     74     87     73     .254   .357   .389       .746
1985 - J. Thompson: 402   42   97    17   1    12     61     84     58     .241   .369   .378       .747
1986 - S. Bream:        522   73 140    37   5    16     77     60     73     .268   .341   .450       .791
1987 - S. Bream:        516   64 142    25   3    13     65     49     69     .275   .336   .411       .747
1988 - S. Bream:       462   50 122    37   0    10     65     47     64     .264   .328   .409       .737
*1989 - S. Bream:         36       3     8    3    0     0       4     12     10      .222   .417   .306       .723
1990 - S. Bream:         389   39   105   23   2     15    67     48     65     .270   .349   .455       .804
1991 - O. Merced:      411   83   113 17   2     10    50     64     81     .275   .373   .399       .772
1992 - O. Merced:       405   50   100   28   5      6     60     52     63     .247   .332   .385        .717
1993 - K. Young:          449   38   106   24   3      6     47    36      82     .236   .300   .343        .643
*1994 - B. Hunter:       233    28    53 15   1     11    47    15      55     .227   .270   .442        .712
*1995 - M. Johnson: 221 32     46     6   1     13    28     37     66     .208   .326   .421       .747
*1996 - J. King:          453    69      30 24   1     17    80     51     74     .287   .357   .457        .814
1997 - K. Young:        333    59    100 18   3     18    74     16     89     .300   .332   .535        .867
1998 - K. Young          592    88    160 40   2     27   108    44   127     .270   .328   .481       .809
1999 - K. Young:         584 103    174 41   6     26   106    75   124     .298   .387   .522       .909
2000 - K. Young:         496   77    128 27   0     20     88    32     96      .258   .311   .433       .744
2001c - K. Young:       449    53    104 33   0     14     65    42   119      .232   .310   .399       .709
2002 - K. Young:         468    60    115 26   1     16    51     50   101      .246   .322   .408       .730
2003 - R. Simon:        307    34      84 14    0     10    51     12     30      .274   .305   .417       .722
*2004 - D. Ward:         293    39      73 17    2     15    57     22     45      .249   .305   .474       .779
2005 - D. Ward:         407     46   106   21   1     12    63     37     60      .260   .318   .405       .723
*2006 - S. Casey:      213     30    63 15    0       3    29     23     22      .296 . 377    .408       .785
2007 - A. Laroche:      563    71    153 42   0     21    88     62    131     .272   .345    .458       .803
2008 - A. Laroche:      492    66    133 32   3     25    85     54    122     .270   .341    .500       .841
2009 - A. Laroche:      230    37      60  21   1       9    32     36     55      .261    .357   .478       .835

*Years in which 1B AB’s were split over two or more players due to platoons, injuries or trades. In each case I chose the player with the most G’s played at 1B with the exception of 1989 when numerous players were rotated in and out of the position over the year so there is no significant split. Bream was the hands down starter so I just left his stats in there.

Below are Adam's numbers in Atlanta.

Atlanta:
2005 - A. Laroche: 451 53 117 28 0 20 78 39 87 .259 .320 .455 .775
2006 - A. Laroche: 492 89 140 38 1 32 90 55 128 .285 .354 .561 .915

Next is a look at the career numbers of the three best offensive 1B over the last 25 years: Kevin Young, Jason Thompson and Adam Laroche.

                                        AB     R      H       2B 3B   HR RBI     BB    SO     AVG     OBP    SLG    OPS
Career - Young:         3,897 536 1,007 235 17 144 606    336   882    .258     .324    .438     .762
Career - Thompson:4,802 640 1,253 204 12 208 782    816   862    .261     .366    .438     .804
Career - Laroche:      2,552 361    693 188    6 120 418    273   601    .272     .341    .491     .832

Now let's take a look at how the each performed during their Pirates career. I didn't have access to all the information to accurately state this next section (I got sick of researching stats) so I excluded statistical outliers for Thompson and Young. I eliminated season stats in which the players had less than 250 AB's. In Adam's case I left in 2009 even though he was below 250 AB's because the other players have accumulated a lot more AB's over their careers than Adam has to date. I then took an overall average of each player's OPS during their stay in the Burg. This is not exact for the reasons mentioned but my exclusions/inclusions hurt my argument more than help it. In Thompson's case it did hurt him slightly. In 1981 he had an OPS of .898 in 223 AB's. Had I left 81' in it would have raised his Pitt. career OPS to .815. In Young's case the season's I excluded he had less than 200 AB's in each season and the stats would have pulled down his OPS.

Pirates Career:
                                OPS
Young:                    .773     slightly overstated from outlier exclusion
Thompson:            .794     slightly understated from outlier exclusion
Laroche:                 .826     slightly understated from outlier inclusion

As you can see Laroche has a better OPS than both Thompson and Young. The best offensive season for the three players is listed next:

Career Years:
                               OPS
Young:                 .909
Thompson:          .902
Laroche:              .915

Unfortunately Adam's best season came while he was in Atlanta. His best for the Pirates was last year when he had an OPS of .841. However, I have a suspicion that 2009 will be his best year given his nice start in April and his numbers in June to date. Adam has a 1.034 OPS in June and he is just getting going.

So, decide for yourself who is the best Pirates 1B since Willie but given the revolving door at the position over the last 25 years it is amazing how under appreciated Adam Laroche is. It's baffling. The numbers above are simply offensive stats; I didn't even mention defense. Without spending more hrs looking up defensive metrics I'll just say that from my memory alone I don't believe that Thompson or Young were known for their defense at first. I could be wrong. Either way, we will miss Adam when he is gone...believe in that!

PROSPECT UPDATE AND "THE FINISH LINE"

Slick1 — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:43:31 -0000

This post is basically in response to the DK entry on the PG blog after the McClouth trade where he accused the front office of “moving the finish line.” His basic premise is how are we going to achieve our goal if we continually trade away our “core” players? I say “core” for a reason which will be covered in the closing of this post. I’m going to make my point the loooong way. I’m going to give an update of our top prospects and close with my point. Enjoy and I look forward to your feedback.

*Note: The 1st nine prospects were taken from Baseball America’s top ten list. Andrew McCutchen was left off because he has graduated to the majors and Morton is off for the same reason. The other players are prospects having nice seasons so far that I’ve identified as having a role in the future of the organization.

P. Alvarez High A

.236/.335/.448 .738 OPS 10 HR 42 RBI

Pedro is striking out a ton but also still drawing a high number of walks. The .738 OPS is unacceptable for a $6 million baby drafted #2 in the country that is counted on becoming a future impact player and superstar. However, the walks combined with the 10 HR are reason to be optimistic that he will reach his ceiling. Problem is Pedro is not going to get to the Burg as quickly as we all hoped.

ETA – 2011 (best case second half of 2010) Prospect Stock – No change

J. Tabata AA

.242/.315/.288 .603 OPS 0HR 6 RBI

Tabata recently came back from a hamstring injury and was promptly removed from the game after going 0-2 because of tightness in the same hammy. Tabata’s year has been extremely disappointing so far given his injury and his line to date. I won’t even mention the off the field issues except to point out that it has raised questions about his age. Jose is still young (hopefully) so it’s far too soon to give up on him but time is passing and each year that goes by his once Manny Ramirez-like ceiling gets lower and lower. Hopefully the power develops soon because he is quickly moving from future impact prospect to league average OF.

ETA – 2011 Prospect Stock – Declining

B. Lincoln AA

1.95 ERA 64.2 IP 60 K 15 BB 50 H .215 avg.

Lincoln has been a bright spot in the organization by returning to form and dominating AA. He’ll be called up to AAA any day now and if he continues to pitch as well as he is now he’ll have returned himself to impact prospect status. He is definitely pitching like a front of the rotation starter.

ETA – 2010 Prospect Stock – Rising

B. Morris High A

8.21 ERA

It’s kind of useless at this point to put up any stats for Morris since he has only played in one game. The scouting reports on Morris are really good. He’s a high upside player but just can’t seem to stay on the field. The best thing we can hope for is that he follows the recovery path that Lincoln has taken. The important thing for Morris the rest of this year won’t be his numbers but that he stays on the field.

ETA – too soon to tell Prospect Stock – No change

Neil Walker AAA

.239/.304/.446 .750 OPS 7 HR 32 RBI

Unfortunately Neil Walker is sidelined for 3 weeks to a thumb injury because I was really hoping he could get hot and turn his season around. Hopefully he won’t be rusty after coming back from his injury because Walker has to show something this year. He is still young for this level, and was rushed to AAA too soon by the previous administration, but Neil has yet to dominate any level. His numbers this year look much like they did last year and they are very pedestrian at best. He does not appear to be learning as it is obvious that he still believes that you cannot walk your way to the big leagues. On the positive side he still shows some pop in his bat and has become a very good defender. If Neil doesn’t finish the year strong and show some improvement he most likely will be in Indy at the start of next season. This once promising prospect is now looking more like a very good utility player rather than an impact player. I would not be surprised to see him working on other positions next year if he’s back in AAA.

ETA – 2011 (best case second half 2010) Stock – Declining

Jeff Sues AA

I’m not going to get into Sues stats and it has nothing to do with the fact that he is having a down year. The point of this post is to identify potential cornerstone players in the organization and I don’t believe relief pitchers, even closers, qualify as cornerstone players.

S. Ford AAA

.160/.199/.216 .4152 OPS 1 HR 16 RBI

Fords performance to date couldn’t have been any more disappointing, especially after having performed so well in spring training. With our major league middle infielders constantly being involved in trade rumors I’m sure coming into the season that Neil Huntington believed Ford would be ready to replace Sanchez if he were traded. Now we are probably looking at some undesirable combination of Bixler or Cruz. This is Ford’s 1st time in AAA so it’s definitely not time to give up on him but I think I could step on the field right now and put up a better line than that. He has been completely overwhelmed at AAA and that is not good.

ETA – too hard to tell right now (best case 2011) Stock – Declining

D. McCutchen AAA

4.38 ERA 61.2 IP 56 K 19 BB 63 H .265 avg.

McCutchen’s line this year looks a lot like last year. He will be 27 this season so what you see with Dan is what you get. His numbers suggest that he may be a serviceable major leaguer performing a role much like the one that Karstens is performing right now. Definitely not an impact player but has a chance to be useful.

ETA – 2010 (best case second half of 2009) Stock – No change

R. Grossman A

.279/.366/.365 .732 OPS 2 HR 16 RBI 19/22 SB

Grossman has been a pleasant surprise in that he is performing pretty well given his age. Grossman, as everyone is well aware, is one of the high upside players in last year’s draft who was lured away form college. His performance gives us hope the Huntington’s team has an eye for talent evaluation. I’m excited to see what Quentin Miller and Wes Freeman can bring to the table.

ETA – 2013 (best case 2012) Stock – Rising

G. Hernandez AA

.293/.337/.356 .693 OPS 0 HR 20 RBI 10/19 SB

This is an interesting player. Many scouts seem to think Gorky’s will develop some power which would be nice because right now he looks like a little better version of Nyjer Morgan. Hernandez’s numbers are down this year in part to hamstring injury he suffered so hopefully that has something to do with the low OPS and horrible stolen base %. If you listen to Neil, Hernandez is very much a part of the future of this organization. He is supposed to be an outstanding defender with plus speed. If his power develops he may be an Andrew McCutchen light (little less pop). Hopefully he can return to form soon because he’s been terrible so far in Altoona which still has posters on DK’s blog fuming.

ETA – 2011 Stock – No change

J. Locke High A

5.44 ERA 49.2 IP 47 K 29 BB 52 H .277 avg.

J. Locke has been rated as one of Atlanta’s top 10 prospects the last to years. He was #7 coming into 2009. He has run into control problems this year as the numbers show but he is supposed to have incredible stuff. Huntington went as far to say that Locke is our #2 pitching prospect. Though I’m not so sure that is an endorsement of Locke as much as it is another harsh reminder of the incompetence of Dave Littlefield. Let’s hope a change of scenery and some good instruction will help Locke get back on the right track.

ETA – 2012 Stock – No change

B. Friday AA

.290/.372/.471 .843 OPS 4 HR 13 RBI

Friday has been a very pleasant surprise this season. He’s managed to stay on the field and has displayed very nice power for a middle infielder. He may be the answer to the long asked question of who is the heir apparent to Jack. Unfortunately Friday is at least another year away from the big team, but his season gives reason to believe we may only have to endure one agonizing season of Bixler/Vasquez/Cruz/fill in the blank, should Jack not be back.

ETA – 2011 Stock – Rising

C. D’Arnaud A

.301/.393/.446 .839 OPS 3 HR 27 RBI 10/13 SB

Chase has been another nice surprise. One of the SS drafted by Team Huntington last year D’Arnaud seems poised to hop Jordy Mercer on the depth chart. He too is displaying solid power for a SS and has the ability to swipe some bases. It is unfortunate that with Freddy and Jack on their way out, that all of the middle infield depth is in AA or lower (other than Ford).

ETA – 2012 Stock – Rising

R. Owens A

2.48 ERA 61.2 IP 56 K 11 BB 50 H .216 avg.

I admit that I do not know a lot about Owens. I do know that Neil Huntington spoke very highly of him recently and feels he has the potential to be a major league starting pitcher. His numbers this year clearly suggest that may be the case. He is striking out nearly a batter an inning and has issued only 11 BB and allowed just 50 hits in over 60 innings. He is one of a couple interesting pitching prospects at the lower levels of the system right now. Of course that is all about to change assuming Neil signs a majority of his picks from this year’s draft.

ETA – 2013 Stock – Rising

R. Uviedo High A

3.19 ERA 62 IP 54K 11 BB 64 H .268 avg.

The other interesting pitching prospect I was referring too above. I don’t know a lot about Uviedo either but his numbers suggest that he deserves to be on this list. He has a very nice K:BB ratio and a solid 1.21 WHIP. Given the lack of interesting pitchers at Altoona outside of Lincoln and Moskos, let's hope Uviedo keeps it going so he can make it to AA soon.

ETA – 2012 Stock – Rising

D. Moskos AA

3.94 ERA 64 IP 70 H 26 K 25 BB 2.33 GO/AO .289 avg.

Has any player had a more difficult time feeling at home in his own organization? After another awful start to the season, Moskos has regrouped and put up a very respectable line. He is throwing a ton of groundball outs, over 2 to 1 groundball to flyball ratio, which may fit in well with what looks like is going to be a defense first organization. To top it off, he is doing this as a starting pitcher. If he can stick as a starter in the show the Matt Weiter’s fiasco won’t be as a bad as it was originally perceived. Although it still is pretty bad.

ETA – 2011 (best case second half of 2010) Stock – Rising

I put this list together not to just provide an update of our top prospects (someone else did that here recently and did a much better job than I have) but rather to point out that most of our really interesting prospects are a long way off. Some of our potential impact players, save Lincoln, will not even see the majors until 2011 (Alvarez, Tabata, Hernandez, etc.) at the earliest, IMO. This means that our so called “core” is not in place yet. We are no where near ready to build around our versions of VanSlyke, Bonilla and Bonds. This is why the McClouth trade was a good trade. This is why we are going to see some more difficult decisions made in the coming months. Maholm and Doumit, like McClouth, are nice players on good teams. They are not in any way “core” players. In fact, many of our regulars will have contract’s ending right around the time some of our impact prospects will hit. Thankfully, Andrew McCutchen will have a year and half under his belt by then.

To wrap this up, the way I see it, McCutchen, Lincoln and Alvarez are the closest things we have to core players. We need more. The only way to get quality is to give up quality which means we should not be surprised to see players like Zach Duke, Paul Maholm and Ryan Doumit being dealt because that is exactly what we need to do. Maybe not all at once but it needs to be done. Morton was acquired for a reason. We have stockpiled a little pitching depth. We have Gorzellany and Lincoln knocking on the door. Everyone will say Snell should go but what we need is a high impact prospect and Snell will not deliver that. He needs to regain some value 1st anyway. We are not playing for 2009, 2010 or even 2011. 2011 will be the year things start to get interesting. This is a harsh realization, I know. I want to see that happen more than anyone but we need more talent for that to happen. If we want to talk playoffs by 2012 or 2013 then we need to acquire impact players who will fit into the same “window” as McCutchen, Lincoln, and Alvarez (hopefully Morton too) so we can form that “core”.

So, to DK, Neil Huntington is not moving the finish line as you suggest, he is simply trying to acquire better players so we can reach it faster. Oh yeah, and the finish line is not .500.

Update 7/13/09: Corrected Uviedo's stat line. Thanks for the head's up azibuck.