buried in this Robothal article is the following:

Regardless of what happens with Bell, the PADRES want to trade either shortstop Jason Bartlett or second baseman Orlando Hudson, major league sources say.

Bartlett, 32, is signed for $5.5 million next season with a $5.5 million option or $1.5 million buyout for 2013.

Bartlett was worth almost 2 fWAR last year, so the price certainly isn't unreasonable.  He had a lousy year with the bat, going .245/.308/.309 which would seem to be the product of bad plate discipline.  His swinging strike and pitch chase rates were both career highs.  His defense at SS is average and possibly on the decline, though last year was his best year by UZR/150 standards since 2008.  

Personally I'd say no, but given our past interest and since the market for shortstops is so thin I would expect that NH will at least inquire.  He doesn't seem to offer much beyond what Ronny Cedeno could have done for a smaller price, but he could make a reasonable stopgap to hopefully one of d'Arnaud/Mercer. 

Fangraphs began releasing its annual organizational rankings yesterday, and since they're starting from the bottom it didn't take long to get to the Buccos at 28th.  Their methodology is strongly biased towards present talent and past performance, which, much like the NL Central, we've got little chance of competing in this year.  There's seemingly no place for projection here and little consideration paid to the franchise's outlook beyond Opening Day.  This is especially evident today, when the site lists the Royals as having the top farm system in baseball and then calling them the 25th best organization a mere three stories later.  They've chosen 4 categories for evaluation and here's how they've weighted them:

Present Talent – 30 percent

Financial Resources – 30 percent

Baseball Operations – 25 percent

Future Talent – 15 percent

With a weighting like that, where 60% goes towards the franchise's present talent and financial resources, it's no wonder we rank so low.  Future talent, the area where the Pirates have made the greatest strides in the last few years, is almost not worth mentioning.  It's been dismissed as essentially class participation points or correctly spelling your name on the SATs.

Here's our categorical breakdown:

Major League Talent: 67.50 (t-27th)

Minor League Talent: 85.00 (t-5th)

Financial: 70.38 (27th)

Baseball Operations: 75.00 (t-25th)

 

Overall Rating – 72.87 (28th)

The 5th place ranking in minor league talent may be a bit misleading.  Instead of using their well published and dissected organizational prospect rankings, they only consulted two of their staff writers to provide values for the organization's future talent.  This created a ten-way tie for 5th place, meaning our 5th isn't much different than 15th.  Without this... interesting statistical contribution it's entirely possible that we could have ranked lower on the overall list.

As far as their allocations go, I'm disappointed that the major league talent portion only put us at 27th but based on the 2011 projected standings, it's hard to quibble with that.  The financial ranking of course is not news to any of us and just underscores exactly what the franchise is up against.  It's unlikely in the current state of baseball that we could advance much in that category.

The only area I could really take issue with is baseball operations, and even then it only goes so far.  We're only ranked 25th, in a dead heat with Arizona, which recently fired its GM and made a series of highly questionable moves in between stealing Dan Hudson and hiring Kevin Towers And then there's Cleveland, which hasn't exactly set the world on fire in recent memory with it's big major league deals (Hey how's that CC Sabathia trade working out?  What about Cliff Lee?  Boy that Travis Hafner extension is sure paying off!) outside of stealing Carlos Santana but if fleecing Ned Colletti is what it takes to place your management team 13th, then our GM has a serious case to make.

As I said earlier, these rankings are heavily weighted based on past performance and the author falls into the common category of criticizing management for not getting value out of Jason Bay and Nate McLouth, a horse that any Smizik blog reader has already beat to death, brought back to life, and then beat to death again with its own leg, without considering the value of the two players at the time of the deal.  Docking our staff for failing to get a big return on those two players while failing to cite Cleveland's management for not getting more on the deals for Sabathia and Lee, two players of an unarguably higher caliber, or even mentioning Arizona's Mark Reynolds deal is unfair and inconsistent.

In the end though, the ranking is probably about right - based on the criteria they've laid out.  If I were just eyeballing it, it sounds about right.  At most I could see us moving up a few spots with a correction to the management score, but it's likely that would be offset by a reduction in the ranking of our farm system and thus we'd likely not move out of the mid-to-high 20s.  The relative usefulness of Fangraph's rankings from last season has been discussed in detail so I won't go around badmouthing something that's taken that much flack since they've redesigned it for this year, but as much I hate so say it, they've got it pretty much right.

A bunch of small stories via MLBTR while we wait for the Bucs to take on the Manatees:

• John Van Benschoten signed with the Yankees.  JVB put up a 6.35 ERA in AAA with the White Sox last year.  (via BA)
• BA also reports we signed Jack Taschner, which actually happened back in December.  Taschner shares the distinction with new teammate Jason Jaramillo of having been traded for Ronny Paulino.
  
• Brad Eldred signed with the Rockies.
• The Bucs apparently at one point offered 2/3 of the '27 Yankees outfield (Nate McLouth and Xavier Nady) to the Padres for a deal centered around Chase Headley.  Too bad Dave Littlefield doesn't work for the Pads. (via mlb.com)

The list (link) contains several Buccos.  Keep in mind that these are not top prospects but players that could contribute at the major league level this year.

There are 5 Pirates among the top 100:

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Now we see what 16 consecutive losing seasons can do to a fan base. In a city where half the population would consider letting the waters of the confluence consume them if the Steelers finished the season 8-8 or 9-7 ... in a city where they expect a hockey team led by a 21- and 22-year-old to win the Stanley Cup ... when it comes to baseball, all many fans dream of is mediocrity.

Arrrgh! you ready for some Pirate facts?

Jeez, this saga has enough drama to draw attention from the "Worldwide Leader in Sports (Soap Operas)."  Must be hard to file baseball stories without "Manny Being Manny" again until July.  Seriously though, Gallo is an excellent and hilarious writer (you may have also heard of his solo project, the Sports Pickle).  It's a very well thought out and written article.

When Nady was dealt last year, the Pirates were 48-55. When Bay left, they were 50-58. When McLouth was traded on Wednesday, they were 24-28. The Pirates aren't exactly breaking up the '27 Yankees. The '67 Yankees, maybe.

In the Nady trade, the Pirates got 40 percent of their current starting rotation and a possible future star in Jose Tabata. (Yes, he has a 43-year-old wife who is an alleged baby-stealer. These are still the Pirates.) That trade was a clear win for Pittsburgh.

In the Bay trade, the Pirates got their current starting third baseman and several other prospects with high ceilings. That trade was a win for both sides.

In the McLouth trade, they got three highly regarded minor leaguers and cleared the way for potential superstar center fielder Andrew McCutchen, who went 2-for-4 with 3 runs, an RBI, a walk and a stolen base Thursday in his major league debut.

Lots of good stuff in there.

As an aside, Gallo seems to be the one guy at ESPN aware of any baseball teams outside of the NL and AL East divisions.  Gallo and Peter Gammons are the only people I'm remotely interested in at ESPN, and Gammons gets by on his legacy at this point.  I did enjoy Nate Silver's informative, if awkward appearance but I'm about one fake Steve Phillips press conference from swearing off Baseball Tonight for life.

This was originally going to be a reply to zogger's post but it got way out of hand so I made it a diary... err fanpost.  I don't mean to pick on his premise because I know he means one player in terms of making us a better team, not necessarily a good team.  It just raised a related point to me as I was writing it.  Plus it's fun to argue about these things.

 

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I'm impressed so far with the Pirates' ability to hang in there so far, but I still don't see them being a .500 team.  Here's why, and feel free to disagree:

 

-P- The bullpen will not continue to pitch at this level.  There just isn't that much talent there.  While it's nice we appear to have fleeced the Braves for once -- IMO,  Neal Huntington hasn't gotten enough widespread praise for this move yet, because nobody out-talent-evaluates the Braves -- there's just not enough depth (with Evan Meek and Phil Dumatrait at the back of the pen) when someone slumps or gets hurt.  Really, there's not enough depth anywhere on this team.

Players are overachieving and will return to normal.  Xavier Nady's fast start will end. It always does. Nate McLouth can't hit this well forever, though I'll be rooting against this prediction.  He can go a lot of ways from here - he could be this year's Freddy-Sanchez-out-of-nowhere breakout and hit .340 with 50 doubles, or pitchers could figure him out and he ends up hitting .260 with 15 hrs, which certainly isn't bad for a CF, but our expectations are sky high for him.  Jason Bay's hitting is very encouraging, particularly his k/bb of 10/11, but it's too early to say he's back Through six games he was hitting .182/.357/.227, though in the last five games he's pulled his average up 100 points and three homers have remedied his Abe-Nunez-like slugging percentage. Still, it's too small of a sample size to say he'll continue to hit this well all year.  I love seeing Zach Duke pitching the way he is - man, did he look good blowing a fastball by Derrek Lee in his last start - but there's no way he's this good.  His ERA is 2.13 but his WHIP is 1.58.  He's given up 18 hits in 12 innings.  His ERA will at least double by the end of this month.

Lingering injuries.  There's no way Tom Gorzelanny doesn't end up on the DL in the next few months.  Then who starts?  Dumatrait? JVB? Bullington? Freddy's shoulder isn't going anywhere.  I was at that 15 inning marathon against the Cubbies and every throw he made to first, including double play turns, was a rainbow.  There's no way he avoids the DL for an extended period of time.  at least Chris Gomez can cover second adequately and his hitting has been better than expected.  Jack Wilson hasn't even been cleared for a rehab outing yet and will do another turn on the 15 day DL. The Rivas/Bambi platoon continues at SS for another two weeks, and it's going to get really ugly. They both look like amateurs both in the field and at the plate. Who, between Nady and Ryan Doumit, will tweak a hamstring first? My money is on Doumit.  Again, just not enough depth, particularly in the middle infield, and any injury to an outfielder not named Nady will result in Nyjer Morgan having a starting role. 

Who's going to step up to keep this pace when others slump?  who's underperforming?  Adam LaRoche?  Jose Bautista?  Does anyone expect them to carry the team and keep us out of the annual late May / early June season-killing slump?

Matt Morris gets to start every five days. I want to believe that this is a competitive major league team (really I do!) but I think this is as good as this team gets right now, so let's enjoy our bout with relevance while we can.  First pitch is at 10:05 tonight.

 

Kevin Goldstein put out his top 100 prospect list over at BP today.  As expected, your Pittsburgh Pirates put up their characteristic ho-hum showing with three appearances - Andrew McCutchen at 24th, Neil Walker barely cracking the list at 94th and a surprise appearance by Steve Pearce at 43rd.

McCutchen's ranking no doubt was hurt by his poor showing at AA and his position fell from last year's ranking of 15th.  That's still enough to make it as a 5-star prospect on Goldstein's list but as even he admits, the talent level of prospects is down this year.  Personally I think he should start back in AA and hopefully move up to Indy quickly, but management may disagree and start him in AAA.

We all know what Pearce did last year and KG's also noticed, putting him in the company of players such as Josh Vitters, Jose Tabata and Fernando Martinez.  Pearce wasn't even on KG's radar last year.  We've already heard (and judged the hell out of) management's plan for him this year.

Walker makes the list this year after being on the fringes last year.  This may not indicate that he's taken a step forward as much as the talent level has stepped back.  Goldstein even admits there's a handful of 3-star talent at the tail end of the list, which I suspect includes our third baseman of the future.  My guess is he, like the rest of this trio, will take the field for Indy when the season starts.

Other notable Pirate-centric rankings have former-bucco Brent Lillibridge at 63, almost-bucco Jair Jurrjens at 86 and should've-been-a-bucco Matt Wieters at 12th.  If you weren't mad about passing on Wieters before, you should be now.

Cincinnati's Jay Bruce is #1.

From the mothership:

"In a perfect world, Steve deserves a chance to win an everyday job at the Major League level, but with Xavier, with Jason, with Adam [LaRoche], we're not in a position to give that to him," Huntington said. "He's not going to want to hear this, but a young player needs to continue to play, and as a result, Steve will probably end up back in [Triple-A] Indianapolis where he can play every day and develop."

I have mixed feelings about this.  On the one hand, it shows that the bucs probably aren't going to move Nady before the season starts and commit to a rebuilding project, which has been discussed at length and with much grinding of teeth in threads outside this one.

On the other, Pearce is obviously no sure thing and since the team seems committed to this "what the hell, let's see what happens and maybe we get 83 wins" plan for now Pearce would do nothing but rot on the bench for at least the first half of the season, much like McLouth last year.  No question that this would be a bad thing for his development.  I'd rather see him getting regular at bats in AAA than spotty ones on the ML roster.

Ideally I'd like to see them move Nady for whatever low-level prospect they can get and let Pearce split time with Doumit in right and occasionally spell Laroche at first.