Buccos Have a Plan, and So Do The Braves
As much as I want to lay into the Neal Harrington regime of the Pittsburgh Pirates for trading away the recent face of the franchise in Nate McLouth, its clear they are running the team in what is best for the team in the long term. In this case, McLouth opened up a lot of eyes last season with his breakout year, but seems like he was never in their long term plans. They signed him to an extension in the beginning of this year, as it was a deal that would neither hurt his overall value, nor was it one that would prevent them from locking up one of their other cornerstone players.
The Pirates have properly allowed Andrew McCutchen the time to develop in the minors leagues, despite looking like he could contribute to the big league club the past two years in spring training. With the emergence of Pirates OF Nyjer Morgan as an everyday player, it seems the Pirates were using the strategy of selling high on McLouth. Its not clear if the Pirates were actively shopping McLouth. It does seem like they jumped in on making a deal pretty early in this trade window over the next month or so. I am not sure there was a better deal out there to make on McLouth.
Based on what we saw in the offseason with the Padres shopping of Jake Peavy for young talent, its not so easy to find a trading partner. Sure, the Braves had much greater talent in their organization to acquire, but they were holding onto those players. The players the Pirates recieved are decent prospects. In particular, Gorkys Hernandez has the potential of emerging into just as good of a player that Jordan Schafer will be.
The Pirates used a similar approach that Andrew Friedman has used in changing the face of the franchise of always acquiring pitching arms to throw into the mix. Charlie Morton has a small sample size at the major league level, but he is sure to get an opportunity to impress with the Pirates. Pitcher Jeff Locke has drawn the praises of Baseball Prospectus and John Sickels in their writeups on him this off season.
All things considered, this is a trade you can't really properly evaluate today. Two years from now, I think this is a win win deal for both organizations. Its clear to me with the acquisition of McLouth for the Braves, it signals the end of the Jeff Francoeur in a Brave uniform even sooner than once believed. In the Pirates case, when your are building for 2011 and beyond, and you are offered several players that will help the franchise to better improve the overall talent, you make the deal.
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With the MLB draft on Tuesday, I participted in the Mock draft at MVN Outsider and selected for The Tampa Bay Rays http://mvn.com/outsider/2009/06/mlb-outsider-mock-draft-tampa-bay-rays-select-andrew-oliver.html
The Pirates have properly allowed Andrew McCutchen the time to develop in the minors leagues, despite looking like he could contribute to the big league club the past two years in spring training. With the emergence of Pirates OF Nyjer Morgan as an everyday player, it seems the Pirates were using the strategy of selling high on McLouth. Its not clear if the Pirates were actively shopping McLouth. It does seem like they jumped in on making a deal pretty early in this trade window over the next month or so. I am not sure there was a better deal out there to make on McLouth.
Based on what we saw in the offseason with the Padres shopping of Jake Peavy for young talent, its not so easy to find a trading partner. Sure, the Braves had much greater talent in their organization to acquire, but they were holding onto those players. The players the Pirates recieved are decent prospects. In particular, Gorkys Hernandez has the potential of emerging into just as good of a player that Jordan Schafer will be.
The Pirates used a similar approach that Andrew Friedman has used in changing the face of the franchise of always acquiring pitching arms to throw into the mix. Charlie Morton has a small sample size at the major league level, but he is sure to get an opportunity to impress with the Pirates. Pitcher Jeff Locke has drawn the praises of Baseball Prospectus and John Sickels in their writeups on him this off season.
All things considered, this is a trade you can't really properly evaluate today. Two years from now, I think this is a win win deal for both organizations. Its clear to me with the acquisition of McLouth for the Braves, it signals the end of the Jeff Francoeur in a Brave uniform even sooner than once believed. In the Pirates case, when your are building for 2011 and beyond, and you are offered several players that will help the franchise to better improve the overall talent, you make the deal.
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With the MLB draft on Tuesday, I participted in the Mock draft at MVN Outsider and selected for The Tampa Bay Rays http://mvn.com/outsider/2009/
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