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where did i say i hate him? i just don't see why he'd automatically be everyone's favorite player. it's fun watching him compete and hit and stuff, but by all accounts the guy is a big time a-hole, and really he's not a great pitcher anymore. he's a nice player. but nice try acting like i'm the only one who realizes that this guy is pretty much a d-bag

what trend? i see that he's never had an OPS over .892 in parks other than coors. you don't see that? even in his monster years he didn't do it. what makes you think he's some badass .900+ OPS guy? coors inflated numbers? i didn't think people still fell for those

No, but some people are desperate for offense. my point is that some people are okay with soriano at second which is crazy.... especially when we're talking about doing it to get a get who would be a rental player and might not even be that good out of coors to begin with. it would be a terrible move His numbers are better on the road. well obviously........ he plays in oakland. here are his career road numbers 04- .240/.287/.367 (.654) 05- .256/.313/.416 (.729) 06- .280/.333/.485 (.819) 07- .301/.374/.485 (.860) 08- .308/.405/.486 (.892) 09- .305/.392/.476 (.868) obviously he was helped a lot by coors. he looks to be a mid to high .800's OPS guy in a neutral park. obviously he's a good hitter, i'm not denying that. but a great hitter? no, i don't think so. if we're talking about moving soriano to second base and trading for a guy who is only under control for a few more months, he better be a badass hitter. holliday is not worth all that. even if he wasn't in his contract year i wouldn't really like it. it seems like a desperation move. seriously, a middle infield of theriot and soriano is a really really bad idea. adding an .865 OPS bat to the lineup isnt worth that

Meanwhile were looking at a washed up Rich Aurilia, a journeyman Russ Branyan or a bust Wilson Betemit to help save us. but even branyan would be better than what we have. i don't understand how we can keep trotting andres effing blanco out there every day when you consider this organizations situation. i mean, really. one injury and we're forced to play complete trash every day? and it's not like ramirez being out for a while is something you couldn't have predicted. i mean obviously nobody oculd have predicted he'd suffer a severe injury that owuld sideline him for months, but he often has trouble with his legs and has to go on the dl at some point almost every season. how can we not have a backup 3b. miles? freel? blanco? scales? those are the guys we had to fill in foro ur best player? c'mon. remember how deep our team was last year? last year we were looking for a way to get a .900 OPS bat (fontenot) in the lineup. now we're looking for a guy who can ops over .700

Why do you think Cashner is so good? He's not. It's ridiculous to act like he would be some kind of key piece when trading for a big bat He really has regained that 1st round luster with his performance in Daytona this year. He isn't anything special but he definitely has a decent amount of value and will likely be once again in the Cubs top 5 prospects. I don't know if he would be a large enough prospect to be a centerpiece for a player like Holliday (because of his control) , but it isn't an absurd notion either (because of his stuff and success in high A). hmm. i guess his minor league numbers are better than i thought this season, which is weird considering i check the boxes every day. still though, i want to see him dominating at at least tenn before i get excited. his overall numbers are still pretty unexciting at this point. if he's gonna walk that many guys i want to see him missing a lot more bats than he is.

yea dear, you're right

he's been doing pretty well, but this wasn't really a good start imo. his biggest problem in the majors has been walks. 5 walks in 5 innings is no bueno. at this point of his career i'd rather see him give up 5 hits and a couple runs with like a 5:1 k:bb as opposed to walking 5 guys but not giving up any runs

am i the only one who is more excited about vitters getting a walk than a home run at this point? i'm not even being sarcastic

thats what i said like 3 years ago when he was good enough to make me forget about how much of a d-bag he is congrats to him for win number 100 though

Why do you think Cashner is so good? He's not. It's ridiculous to act like he would be some kind of key piece when trading for a big bat

i cant believe we have this gigantic payroll and a FO that is admittedly in "all out win mode" and we're being forced to start blanco at 2b and fontenot at 3b every day. absolutely unnacceptable.

No, but some people are desperate for offense. my point is that some people are okay with soriano at second which is crazy.... especially when we're talking about doing it to get a get who would be a rental player and might not even be that good out of coors to begin with. it would be a terrible move

wait, so some people actually want soriano at second?

That's not really true at all If Zambrano and Harden are healthy, yes it is. if carpenter is healthy, no it's not

I like how you leave out the most obvious choice, which is that the Pirates FO are poor at their jobs and don't know how to correctly evaluate talent The fact that you're here posting on a messageboard rather than working in a MLB FO just boggles the mind, since obviously you're much better at evaluating talent, and would do a better job than the current Pirates GM. you're right. no GM in the history of baseball has ever made a move that looked bad enough at the time it was made to say " that's a crappy move". obviously these gms are gods and when a move doesn't work out, it's just because they were unlucky. personally i can't believe the bad luck the angels ran into when they signed sarge jr for 50 mil. there was really no way to know that he'd suck. i don't understand how everybody in the world knew it was a horrible signing at the time. clearly everyone just luckily guessed that he would suck, and really the gm is the one who was on the right track when he signed him.

I don't know that his value is clearly reflected in the return the Pirates received here. My guess is it is, but it's quite possible they settled for less than what they could have gotten in another deal, especially if they waited until the deadline. Well there are three possible explanations here: a) this deal accurately reflects the trade value McLouth has around baseball; b) Huntington didn't perform the due diligence necessary to gauge the trade value McLouth has around baseball, and a better deal was out there that he didn't discover; c) Huntington knowingly took less than the best offer for his player. C) is laughable, and b) is highly unlikely IMO, especially when we're talking about the Pirates' marquee player. Huntington himself said it was a very difficult decision to trade McLouth, so I doubt he went about the process haphazardly. Trading McLouth now limits the pool of players they could get for him significantly, there are many more teams actively seeking an outfielder in mid to late July than there are at the beginning of June. Not to mention that those additional teams would drive the price up for him. In a sense you can say they got decent value for him, it is after all two Top 10 prospects in Atlanta's system plus a ML ready starter. Problem is that Gorkys Hernandez is a particularly terrible Top 10 prospect, and the other arm isn't stellar either. That's why waiting until another team entered the fray would've been a smarter move. That deal isn't likely to go away by waiting, and if it does, who cares? It was awful to begin with. I trust you won't be offended that given the choice between you and Neil Huntington, I'm going to go ahead and assume that Huntington has a better pulse on the value Pirates players have around MLB. He gets to actually talk with other GMs, and stuff. Conceivably anyway, he might have a better handle on where things stand, what other teams are interested in McLouth, what they're willing to give up, etc. etc. Just spitballing of course. Maybe I'm wrong and you're the better authority. :D) the whole "he's a gm and you're not" argument is the biggest copout ever. as if the fact that he's a gm means you can't criticize the move. a gm that knows more than us gave p juanna pierre 5/50. a gm gave GMJ 5/50. andruw jones got 2/40. barry zito got 126. a gm traded scott kazmir for victor zambrano. were we supposed to shut up and give the gm's that made those moves the benefit of the doubt? i mean, they're gms! we're just internet posters. gm's make awful moves all the time....awful moves that look awful even right when they're made. to give a horrible organization like the pirates any benefit of the doubt when talking about a trade that looks crappy is pretty foolish.

will ramirez hit enough for a 1B at the time vitters is ready? plus he'll have reached free agency by then most likely.

"may be out for at least another month" doesn't really make sense

Sorry but delaying play for 6 minutes after a goal is irrational and sickening... the league love for Crosby is reaching sickening heights. youve got issues this would be like me rooting for the cards in the world series over the rays because of some creepy hatred i have for evan longoria

oh my

cyno it's pretty sad that you're rooting for the wings. really sad actually. your irrational hatred for crosby is reaching sickening heights.

That's not really true at all

I like how you leave out the most obvious choice, which is that the Pirates FO are poor at their jobs and don't know how to correctly evaluate talent

So does the game of baseball in general. I really don't see the point in flipping out over someone using a corked bat when most players are doing every little thing they can to gain an advantage. It's part of baseball. Keeping someone out of the hall for that would be like keeping out one of the best pitchers of an era because he got caught once with sandpaper. Like I said, he got caught for the bat and was suspended. That shouldn't keep him out. Like it or not, nothing and nobody has come even remotely close to busting him when it comes to steroids. That doesn't mean he didn't use them, but for now he should be judged based on his performance. The corked bat should have negligable impact in that regard since use of them over his career would have been detrimental to his numbers. I just meant that the cork incident is relevant in the speculation of him using drugs because it shows that he has cheated before

i don't think i'd trade fontenot for sanchez or cantu