The Pirates have to consider changes, many of them, not next winter, not next week, NOW! 

1. Laroach, can't hit and can barely field, taking up a roster spot

2. Milledge, can't field and can hit, can be traded

3. Church, can't hit and can field, taking up a roster spot

4. Duke, soft tossing lefty, far too eratic, needs a team that can hit around him.

5. DY, can't field or hit, taking up a roster spot

6. Donnelly, okay pitcher, but we have Moskos, bring the hard throwing lefty up for the same spot.

We have a 25 man roster, with these guys on it, we are playing with a 19 man roster. Milledge can be traded for someone of value, Duke can be traded for something, a contender might want Donnelly.  LaRoach, Church and DY will bring us nothing and that is what we have with them, nothing. Pearce, Presley and Negrych can all hit, none of the 3 are considered prospects by the Pirates, so why not bring them up? The Pirates say they don't want to ruin players bringing them up too fast, how can you ruin someone that is not a prospect? If Negrych can't hit any better than LaRoach, I would be shocked. If Presley can be plugged into right field and he fails, what did we lose? Somewhere in this movement of players that I have suggested I would think there would be room for the Bucs to make a deal that would bring a 2 or 3 hole pitcher to this team, the whole starting staff is 4 and 5 hole pitchers.

While we are at it, bring the hitting coach up too, all the Pirates hit the same way, they roll their wrists over on every outside pitch and hit their little bouncers to the left side far to frequently, they have to be taught to go to the right side or up the middle with those pitches. They are already tinkering with Pedro when the minor league teams were not allowed to tinker with him when he advanced to different levels.

The big question with the Bucs from this point on this year is whether to fix this team or scrap it?

IMO, it can be fixed.

There is not much to scrap when you think about it, Aki will probably be let go, LaRoach has had the time, he is not the answer at 3rd base, Milledge and Church are not the answers in left field. Karstens and Burres are not the answers for the 4th and 5th pitchers on this team, Morton is a question mark. But for now Tabata would answer a couple of problems for the Pirates, he can bat leadoff, sending Cutch back to the the 3 spot and play a very good left field, not a lot of power, but his overall game makes him much more valuable in left. The 3 spot is a killer on this team right now. Until they bring Tabata up my suggestion would be to move Doumit into the 3 spot, two switch hitters in a row, plus bunching the best hitters on the team gives them a better chance to score some runs. Cutch, Walker, Doumit and Jones, do what you want with the rest of the order, just bat the pitcher ninth. Right now moving one of more of these guys will be necessary (Church, LaRoach, Aki, Milledge). Aki will surely be moved.

Clement would be a good project for a built team, but this team can't carry him without losing, the Yankees could, I would like to see him stay at 1st base because I think he will develop, even this year, he might hit 15 HRs. Don't forget for all intentional purposes he is a rookie, this is going to be his first full year. I would keep him on the major league roster.

Something else this team could do to improve, let the batting coach work with the pitchers instead of the 3rd base coach, these pitchers have to at least be able to make contact, what an advantage other teams have over the Bucs in the batting order with pitchers that can hit.

Bring Lincoln up, he may struggle, probably not worst than Morton did and they were willing to wait a long time for him to get it together, how much worst will Lincoln be. He is old enough, age is not a problem. Burres and Karstens are valuable, but they have to be used correctly.

Wehner, has a better book on how to pitch to the Phillies than the Pirates do.
He wanted Morton to go inside to Werth and they kept going outside.

Morton gets the blame, but if you look at the homerun that Werth hit, Morton's pitch was going to go exactly where Doumit set up. Doumit continuned to set up outside.

Is Doumit setting up where he is told or is he doing it on his own?
Howard should not have had a hit, much less the RBI's that he got. Again Wehner was right, you have to set that guy up with a fast ball, but not down the middle waist high, then nail him with breaking stuff. Morton has the stuff to beat the Phillies.

They continue to get beat on just about every shift they try, Howard beat them every time, Morton did pitch him inside, he fisted one off and we had the shortstop out of position and bounced one to where a shortstop would have been.

Then we have the famous no-triple defense that we play on the road as well as home, we had the infield shift in St.Louis and their catcher beat us twice with that one.