So, there was some discussion on these and I have one more left, so here it is - you are the GM for the 2003 Pirates.  On the 2002 quiz, most of you wanted to add one FA bat or one big name FA pitcher.  You should have picked "None of the Above" if you wanted to be as smart as Dave L.   

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They are a fairly good aggregator of baseball info, IMO. Sort of like the Drudge Report or RealClearPolitics for baseball.  One new series they have, which they are doing in collaboration with other bloggers apparently, is the "GM Trade History Series" which produces an excel spreadsheet showing the trades, signings, and draft picks made by each team's GM.  Neal Huntington's list just got posted.  It was apparently put together by a Pirates fans website named http://theburghblues.mlblogs.com/ .  Everyone should save a copy so, two years from now when we are screaming, "What idiot got us Erick Hacker and who did we give up for him?" we all have our handy-dandy references.  Maybe someone should go back in time and compile a similar spreadsheet for Dave Littlefield, but I suspect that pulling that together would push weaker soles to the brink of insanity......

and I'm okay with that.  I'm looking at MLBTradeRumors.com summary of the Winter Meetings and I would argue (if for no other reason than to pass time until spring training) that boring was good for the Pirates. Why? Let me count the ways.... 

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...as the GM.  You haven't been fired, even though a plurality (41%) of you traded a popular player and almost no one (3%) went out and hired a free agent.  About 1/4 of you untraded Jason Schmidt - I was not able to follow the Pirates in the late 90's, so I was surprised that this many people saw promise in him given his age and numbers.  Another 25% thought it best to build from within. 

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     As a long-suffering Pirates fan, I have to constantly defend my loyalty to the team – usually, I claim insanity and let it go at that.  I’m currently trapped in New York.  When I point out that the Yankees buy championships, the locals respond, “The Pirates have had good players – if they had just built around Aramis Ramirez ... or Brian Giles ... or Barry Bonds ... or Jason Bay ... or Doug Mientkewicz, they could’a been a contenduh....”  Obviously, many Pirates fans feel much the same way.   

     I say, “It just ain’t so.”

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...and he had been injured so his option did not vest. Now he can be a free agent. Iwamura is available. The Germans won the war and Spock has grown a beard and I have to get to 75 words so I'm desparately trying to come up with other absurd juxtapositions to show that we are in a bizarre parallel universe that does not bear any rational relationship to our own.  If you choose option D, explain your work in a comment below.

Only to be gunned down like so much venison by a bunch of Renegades (the New York-Penn League affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays). It was a beautiful night up here, so I went to see the Spikes. Nice stadium with 4,400 in attendance and a good game by the young Pirates.

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...although last night's game makes this strip a little less on-point for our long sufferin' Buccos. Accordingt to the website, this strip originally ran July 29, 1962. The Pirates, managed by Danny Murtaugh, lost to the Phillies, led by Gene Mauch. This has to be the father of the Gene Mauch who managed the Expos and others in the 70s and 80s. The pitching match-up was McBean v. McLish - damn Irishmen.... The Pirates lone run in an 8-1 loss came when Roberto Clemente homered with 2 out in the 4th inning. For this, he got replaced by "H.Goss," which seems a little like replacing McClutch with Eric Hinske.  The Pirates pitcher, McBean, lasted only 3.1 innings and gave up 10 hits. I wonder if Dave Littlefield tried to recall him for the 2007 pitching staff. The point of all this? None, just had to get to 75 words.

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            Fairly or unfairly, one of the criticisms of the Pirates is that, "they could be contenders if they would have built around Bay, Nady, and other players they traded away." This is often tied to the off-hand remark that we’ve traded away our entire 2007 (or 2006 or 2008) starting line-up. I’m sure I’ll hear both of these lines from Mets and Yankees fans when I report back to the salt mines on Monday. So I wanted to jump into the "way-back" machine and see if this criticism holds up.

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I'm not very enthused about the Gorzo/Grabow trade, but in analyzing the pitchers we are getting in return, I try to keep in mind two systemic improvements to the Pittsburgh Ball Club that make me a little more deferential (at least for now) to management's decisions.

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