But five years in, with the club that he has assembled given the assets he had available to him in terms of players to trade, draft picks to make and money to spend, he should be fired.

I hope that this post eventually – maybe within a couple of weeks – makes me look like an idiot and a jerk. I hope that this post causes my name become a synonym for moronic bloggers and that I’m ostracized from Pittsburgh fandom the way Steve Bartman has been from Chicago. I hope that in spite of being persona non grata in Bucco Nation that I’m in attendance in Cooperstown on the induction weekend when Huntington is enshrined, if only to eat my words once again. That is what I hope. But I believe Neal Huntington has not done a good job and should be dismissed.

Why?

1. He didn’t get nearly enough in return for dismantling the team he inherited. It goes beyond – well beyond – the Jose Bautista deal. He didn’t get enough in return.
2. He doesn’t recognize hitting ability. The resulting lack of talent he got in the trades that dismantled the Pirates over a couple of seasons has been compounded by an inability to recognize hitting talent on the free agent market or in the amateur market. Out of all the hitters in the NL with 300 plate appearances in 2012, the Pirates employ four of the 20 worst in terms of OPS+. Rod Barajas, Clint Barmes, Jose Tabata and Alex Presley. The team needs/needed a substantial offensive upgrade at four positions out of the chute in 2012 after Neal Huntington had five years to assemble a team. That’s four out of eight positions that were not just subpar, but among the worst in the league. Positions that Huntington had five years to figure out and failed to do so.
3. He has spent frugally but not well in the free agent market.
4. He has spent with reckless abandon but not very successfully in the amateur draft. The Pirates minor league system has some good players, courtesy of picks that were awarded to the Pirates based on their lackluster win total at the Major League level. I’m reasonably sure that if given a week and a subscription to Baseball America’s online content, Rinku Singh’s parents could’ve picked Pedro Alvarez (or Eric Hosmer or Buster Posey), Jameson Taillon (or Manny Machado or Yasmani Grandal) and Gerrit Cole (or Trevor Bauer or Dylan Bundy) and the club would’ve been in roughly the same spot (although I’d trade Alvarez for Posey even up without hesitation). Credit Neal Huntington for knowing what to do when he had a top five pick in the draft. That should be the easiest part of the job and he did that part well. Too much of the rest of the drafts have been misses on overslot players. Credit Neal Huntington with emphasizing Latin America again. That effort has yielded some exciting young players who will hopefully continue to develop.
5. He has not assembled a good team. Not last year. Not this year. The offense is not good. I thought the pitching staff was pretty solid, but it has faltered. This is not a good team. The Pirates are twelve games over .500 against the five worst teams in baseball (the Astros, the Cubs, the Rockies, the Twins and the Indians) and are eight games under .500 against everyone else.
6. He shouldn’t get credit for merely breaking the losing streak. Breaking the losing streak – the certainty of which is now in jeopardy – is not enough. I don’t want to settle for mediocrity. I want to see Andrew McCutchen playing post-season baseball (for the Pirates). I don’t want him to play for a continuing series of also-rans that fell just short.
7. He hurt the 2012 team by not picking up the options on three players and bringing in three lesser players. All else the same – even with injuries – Neal Huntington could’ve upgraded this team a three positions simply by exercising options (and, yes, taking on more payroll) on three players – Ronny Cedeno, Ryan Doumit and Paul Maholm. Cedeno, whom no one really liked as a player, would be better than Barmes. Even with Cedeno missing time (all else the same) in 2012 and his spot being filled by Jordy Mercer while he was injured, it would be an upgrade at short offensively with a likely drop off in defense (as measured by the currently accepted metrics). A tandem of Doumit and Michael McKenry would be an upgrade at catcher (or even Doumit as the primary) with basically the same defense. Doumit is by no stretch a good defensive catcher. Neither is Rod Barajas. And Doumit’s bat would’ve been available to start at first base or a corner outfield spot to exploit matchups. Paul Maholm is better than Erik Bedard. Had he merely retained two of those three players, the team would’ve been better. Credit Neal Huntington for getting A.J. Burnett. But essentially every other move he made in the off-season didn’t work out well.

That is what I believe. Neal Huntington has not done a good job. He has had ample time and ample resources at his disposal. He should be fired for a lack of results. I don’t believe for a second that Neal Huntington will be fired.

Back in late June I wrote about the Pirates chances at making the post-season. That was just as the offense was taking off. At the time of that blog post, the Pirates were on pace for 85 wins in spite of having scored fewer runs than allowed. Since then, the team saw the offense peak and then settle back to middle of the pack in the league while the pitching regressed. The result was a nice spike to being 16 games over .500 on August 8th. That was followed by the most recent stretch of awfulness that saw the team go from being 2.5 games off the pace for the division lead to double digits behind the Reds. The division race is all but over.

But the Pirates are just 1.5 games off the 5th playoff spot. The exact same place they were in late June. There are 25 games left. I figured back in June that 90 wins would get the fifth playoff spot. That means an 18-7 record over the final 25 games. Here are some wants/needs/hopes/wishes/requests for the final stretch.

1. Bench Clint Barmes. At the risk of being labeled someone who undervalues awesome defense, bench him. He should’ve been benched months ago. August was Barmes’ high water mark for batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage. He posted a .672 OPS. That placed him 10th in OPS among NL shortstops in August who got at least 50 plate appearances. He is awful. He should not start anymore.

2. Bench Rod Barajas. He is terrible. We have known this for quite some time. Opposing teams have run unfettered against him. He has registered a sub .200 batting average in four of the five months. His OPS has been less than .600 in four of five months. He should’ve been released some time ago. He shouldn’t start another game all year. With all do respect to the pretty good year he has been having, A.J. Burnett isn’t good enough to have a personal catcher. Michael McKenry is the starter and Eric Fryer spells him. Stick Barajas in a glass case with a note that says, ‘Break glass in case of 19 inning game emergency.’ Barajas has started ten of the last 16 games. That’s 100% the fault of Clint Hurdle. He needs to stop putting his name on the lineup.

3. First half James McDonald and first half A.J. Burnett return. McDonald, post All-Star break, is just 3-4 with an ERA over 7.00. He has allowed four runs or less in a game just twice in those ten starts. Since beating Cincinnati on Sunday August 5th, Burnett is 1-5 with an ERA of 5.50. I don’t really expect them to pitch as well as they had been in the first half. But this team desperately needs them to at least be decent.

4. Andrew McCutchen has a .950 OPS over the final 25 games. That value would be right in line with his season average. But he had a pedestrian August and is off to a so-so start in September. As Cutch goes, so goes the offense.

5. One more microburst of brilliance from Pedro Alvarez. Not too long ago when the season was 128 games old, I wondered how much of Pedro’s value in 2012 came in his 20 best games of the year. So, I sorted his individual games, pulling out the games where he had the highest combination of RBI and runs, then then the highest number of hits and then in case of a tie, the most total bases. In those 20 games that I deemed to be his best, his OPS was 1.744. He had driven in 46 runs and scored 24 times, while bopping 15 homers. In the other 97 games, his OPS was .588 with 17 RBI and 26 runs scored. To get a gauge on just how streaky he is, I compared Cutch’s 20 best games. Cutch had a 1.772 OPS with 51 RBI and 31 runs scored. In his other 104 games, his OPS was a still decent .792 with 28 RBI and 57 runs scored. So, one last streaky stretch of eight to twelve games from Alvarez would be wonderful.

6. Neil Walker returns to health. And also to mashing.

7. When Neil Walker returns, Brock Holt is given some starts at shortstop. This seems very unlikely given the comments of both Clint Hurdle and Neal Huntington regarding Holt not really being a shortstop. But Clint Barmes isn’t really a Major League hitter. Drew Sutton wasn’t really a Major League outfielder and they gave him two weeks of starts. Do likewise with Holt. Let’s see what he has. Then send him to where ever he needs to go in the Winter to engross himself fully in shortstop play.

8. Keep the awful relievers off the bump. Chad Qualls, if/when he returns, and Hisanori Takahashi should only pitch in white flag, all hope is lost situations. Do not pitch them when the game is still winnable.

9. Forget about winning 82 games – focus on making the playoffs. I’m not concerned about winning 82 games. I want the post-season. I’m not a fan of settling for mediocrity, which is what a .500 season represents. If this team does not make the playoffs, this year will be a failure. The team was 16 games over .500 with two months to play. Andrew McCutchen is having what will likely be his career year. A season that ends with ~85 wins and no post-season games will not cause me to celebrate.

That got me to thinking about two players from the 1980s. They weren’t full time players, so their at bats were pieced together over the years, but they put up similar lines to what Barmes has done in 2012.

Heading into the game of Saturday September 1, Barmes, who was 0-3 before being lifted mercifully for a pinch hitter, posted the following numbers:

380 at bats
28 runs
84 hits
15 doubles
1 triple
6 homers
39 RBI
8 walks
90 strikeouts
.221/.247/.313/.561
55 OPS+

Mystery player #1 played for the Pirates primarily from 1980 to 1986
545 at bats
39 runs
126 hits
30 doubles
0 triples
5 homers
48 RBI
12 walks
66 strikeouts
.250/.265/.339/.604
67 OPS+

Mystery player #2 was primarily a Pirate from 1978 to 1986
359 at bats
31 runs
96 hits
14 doubles
0 triples
6 homers
4 RBI
11 walks
94 strikeouts
.267/.292/.357/.649
78 OPS+

That looks like your run of the mill, mediocre, good glove/no hit utility guy. Any guesses who the mystery players are?

Player #1 is Rick Rhoden. Player #2 is Don Robinson. They were both pitchers. This isn’t entirely fair because Robinson and Rhoden rank among the best hitting pitchers of all-time. There was talk of turning Robinson into an outfielder when he was having persistent injuries that kept him from pitching.

Nonetheless, if the Pirates were in the AL and either Rhoden or Robinson were on the 2012 team, it would make sense for either of them to hit and have the DH hit in place of Barmes in games they were pitching. Clint Barmes should be the fifth shortstop option on this team right now. Jordy Mercer. Josh Harrison. Brock Holt. Chase d’Arnaud. Any of of them before Barmes. In the late innings of a close game when the SS spot in the order isn’t due up soon, Barmes should be used as a defensive replacement. Nothing more.

From August 1985 to November 1987, the front office of the Pittsburgh Pirates dismantled the core group of Pirates players in a series of trades. Harding Peterson was fired as GM in May 1985. Joe Brown came out of retirement to handle GM duties for the balance of the season and the Pirates hired Syd Thrift to be GM in November 1985. Trading those players was the right move. There was some outrage from the fan base, not so much because the players were traded but because the team was awful. Attendance was down and the Pirates had bad teams for the first time since the mid-1960s. The hope was that the return would be decent. Was it good?

Let’s have a look at the results, starting with the record of the club at the Big League level.

1985 – 57-104
1986 – 64-98
1987 – 80-82
1988 – 85-75
1989 – 74-88

Expectations
Obviously the 1985-1986 Pirates weren’t very good (neither was the 1984 team). But there were some valuable players on those clubs. I don’t think it is unfair to expect a solid return for those players. 18 players (nine hitters, four starters and five relievers) were traded off the Pirates active roster in between August 1985 and November 1987. Did the team get fair value in return?

The Deals
Let’s look at each trade one-by-one. For the sake of this, I’m going to concentrate on players the Pirates traded off their active roster.

August 2, 1985 – Pirates trade John Candelaria, George Hendrick and Al Holland to the Angels for Mike Brown, Pat Clements and Bob Kipper
Candy had been the longest tenured starter on the team. He was very good but not great, although he showed absolute flashes of brilliance. He finished 5th in the NL Cy Young vote in 1976 when he was 23 and then never got another vote in his career. He had been put in the bullpen by Chuck Tanner as 1985 began and he was vocally unhappy with that. The Angels put him in the rotation and he won 17 games for them over the next season-and-a-half with some injuries curtailing his time on the diamond. His last season in a rotation was 1989 for the Bombers and then he spent several years as a reliever/spot starter (including a return to Pittsburgh in 1993). Hendrick was acquired before the 1985 season even up from St. Louis for John Tudor. He was all but finished as a player. He lasted through the 1988 season and had a decent 1986 season as a part time player for the Angels. Holland had been acquired earlier in 1985 from Philly for Kent Tekulve. His first stop in Pittsburgh was to testify and the on-going drug trials. Nice! Holland had a big year in 1983 when the Phillies went to the World Series. He lost his effectiveness when he gained weight and after the trade to the Angels, he pitched in just 43 more games. Mike Brown looked great at first glance. He showed gap power and hit .332 in the final two months for the Pirates in 1985. He didn’t hit for average or power in 1986 and found himself squeezed out of the outfield picture with Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, Joe Orsulak and R.J. Reynolds all emerging. He was released in Spring Training 1987. Clements was a run of the mill lefty reliever who was eventually traded to the Yankees (see below in the Doug Drabek trade). Kipper was used as primarily as a starter in his first couple of seasons in Pittsburgh. But he was more effective as a lefty reliever. He had back-to-back solid seasons in 1989-1990. But had a down year in 1991 and left as a free agent For Minnesota.

August 31, 1985 – Pirates trade Bill Madlock to the Dodgers for Sid Bream, Cecil Espy and R.J. Reynolds
Madlock was an underrated four-time batting title winner who had dogged his way through 1985. Upon the trade to LA, he immediately started hitting again and helped them to the NL West division. He hit three homers in a losing effort in the 1985 NLCS. He was the primary third baseman in LA in 1986 and put up decent numbers. After a slow start he was cut free in 1987 and caught on in Detroit where he hit 14 dingers and knocked in 50 runs in 87 games to help Detroit to the NL East title. That was his last season in the Majors. Everyone knows about Bream. He was the Pirates starting 1B through 1990 and left for Atlanta as a free agent. Espy was a light hitting speedster. He was lost via the Rule 5 draft to Texas. He was a semi-regular in Texas for two years, but didn’t hit enough to stick. He eventually found his way back to Pittsburgh as a free agent in 1991, filling in as a backup outfielder. Reynolds was capable of playing all three outfield spots and did just that over the next several seasons. He averaged about 120 games played and 350 plate appearances as the Pirates figured out what they were doing in the outfield. Reynolds left for Japan following the 1990 season.

April 3, 1986 – Pirates trade Marvell Wynne to the San Diego Padres for Bob Patterson
As the sign used to say, Wynne was Marvellous. But by the beginning of 1986, it was clear he had no spot in the Pirates future. He had solidified the Pirates outfield in 1983, coming in a trade, shortly after Lee Mazzilli was injured. He so-so in 1983 and 1984, but had an awful season in 1985. He suffered through some injuries, didn’t hit and lost his starting job by the end of the season. He was dealt to the Padres for Bob Patterson. By most accounts Cowboy Bob didn’t throw hard, but he posted decent strikeout numbers. He was primarily a relief pitcher in the Majors, but was the Pirates Opening Day hurler in 1987. He missed most of 1988 with shoulder surgery. He spent most of 1989 in the minors. But he established himself as a reliable lefty out of the bullpen in 1990. He bounced back from a down year in 1991 to have another fine season in 1992. He was released outright by the Pirates after 1992 in a move that was 100% cost cutting in nature. But he was picked up by Texas and went on to pitch in seven more seasons with the Rangers, the Angels and the Cubs. During the run of three straight division championships, Patterson was second to only Stan Belinda in appearances among Pirate pitchers.

April 4, 1986 – Pirates trade Jason Thompson to the Montreal Expos for Ben Abner and Ronnie Giddens
Acquired from California for Ed Ott in 1981, Thompson took over at first when age and/or ineffectiveness hampered Willie Stargell, Bill Robinson and John Milner. Thompson had a solid strike shortened 1981 and busted out in 1982, making his third All-Star team. He was only 27 at the time. With precious little power around him to get him some fastballs, Thompson’s batting average and power totals dropped. And so did his RBI. He continued to draw walks. But, that’s not what anyone looked at in the mid-1980s. He had three straight down seasons and his replacement – Sid Bream – had already been acquired. So, the Expos took him for a couple of players who never reached the Majors. Ben Abner was the brother of Shawn Abner, who got the Bigs, but never lived up to his billing. Ben was a member of Team USA in 1983 and was well thought of. But he didn’t hit much – batting just .211 as a 24 year in a season that saw him split time between A and AA in 1987. And that was that for him. I’m not sure how exactly Giddens – primarily a second baseman – got on Montreal’s roster. He had played in the minors with the Reds in 1985. His 1986 season would be his last as he had practically no power with a career minor league OBP that equaled his career minor league SLG.

July 23, 1986 – Pirates trade Jose DeLeon to the White Sox for Bobby Bonilla
If I could go back and give one player a ‘do-over’ from this era, it is Jose DeLeon. He was unbelievably gifted. He came up with a bang in 1983. He won his first start. He took a no-no into the 7th inning and a shutout into the 9th in his second start. He no-hit the Mets for 8-2/3 in his third career start. But he was plagued by wildness and likely some lost confidence when losses piled up in 1985. He wrapped up 1985 with a 2-19 mark after being moved to the bullpen to avoid losing 20. He stayed primarily in the bullpen as 1986 got underway and he was struggling. The White Sox dealt him to St. Louis prior to 1988 and he won 29 games over the next two seasons for the Cardinals, tallying more than 200 whiffs in both campaigns. He lasted until 1991 as a starter then become a bullpen arm, finishing up his career in 1995. The switch hitting Bonilla was signed as an undrafted free agent by Pittsburgh in 1981. He progressed through the minors, posting solid numbers at AA as a 21 year old. But he missed most of 1985 when he broke his leg in a Spring Training game (colliding with Bip Roberts, also a Buc farm hand at the time). He was left unprotected in the Rule V draft and was taken by the White Sox. Bonilla went on to play in four straight All-Star games with the Pirates and he twice finished in the top 5 in the NL MVP vote. As everyone knows, he was the first big name player to bolt, leaving for the Mets and what was at the time the top salary in baseball, at just over $6 million annually. When his career was over, he was much traveled and he put up solid career numbers. But never had quality seasons like he had in Pittsburgh. He would make two more All-Star games, but never got another MVP vote. He played in the post-season with the Orioles, the Marlins (winning a World Series in 1997 with Jim Leyland), the Mets and the Braves.

November 26, 1986 – Pirates trade Pat Clements, Cecilio Guante and Rick Rhoden to the Yankees for Doug Drabek, Logan Easley and Brian Fisher
Thrift took a couple of months off before making his second straight franchise altering move. Three pitchers for three pitchers. Clements was a lefty as noted above. He didn’t pitch well for the Yankees and would spend part of each of the next several seasons in the minors. He made his way to San Diego in the Jack Clark deal and had some success with them before concluding his career with Texas. Guante had averaged 90 plus innings over the previous two seasons. He also struggled with the Yanks, posting the worst numbers of his career in 1987. He rebounded in 1988 and was sent to Texas for Dale Mohorcic. Guante wound down with a below average stint in Cleveland in 1990. The prize of the trade for the Yankees was Rhoden, whose talents as a hitter were wasted as with the designated hitter in the AL (although Billy Martin started him at DH on 6/11/88). After coming to Pittsburgh for Jerry Reuss in 1979, Rhoden recovered from an injury (bone chips in his shoulder that eventually required surgery) and then was the picture of durability. He made at least 33 starts every season from 1982 to 1986 (and 21 in the strike shortened season in 1981). His final season in Pittsburgh was his best and it earned him his lone trip to the All-Star game. He won 28 games in the next two seasons for the Bombers. He was sent to the Astros prior to the 1989 season and retired after an ineffective stint with them. He since played pro golf on the senior circuit. Drabek was the ace of the clubs that won three straight divisions. Over those three seasons he won 52 games and also won the 1990 Cy Young Award for the NL. He was the top winner in the National League between 1988 and 1992. He left for Houston (where he had played collegiately) as a free agent following the 1992 campaign. But he was only effective in one more season. He retired following 1998. Bill James, in his most recent ‘Historical Baseball Abstract’ gave Drabek the ‘A Better Ballplayer than a Human Being’ award for the 1990s. I have absolutely no idea what kind of off-field, humanitarian activities Drabek was involved in. For reference, Andy Thornton and Kevin Bass were noted by James for the 1970s and 1980s. Easley threw less than 40 innings in the Majors, with some service time in both 1987 and 1989. He was released after 1989 and pitched a couple of more seasons in the minors with other franchises. But he never got back to the Bigs. Fisher had been a reliever for the Yankees. The Pirates primarily used him as a starter. He made 20+ starts in both 1987 and 1988. He started well in 1988 (3-0 with a 1.84 ERA) when he was shelved with shoulder issues. He came back and lost some effectiveness and eventually lost his spot in the rotation when Dave LaPoint was acquired. Fisher missed most of 1989 and was released following the season. He remained in baseball through 1993 but pitched in just 26 more Major League games.

March 27, 1987 – Pirates trade Jim Winn to the White Sox for John Cangelosi
Winn was the Pirates first round pick in 1981. After elbow and back issues in the minors hampered his development, he had been only moderately successful as a reliever in the Major Leagues over parts of four seasons. After a so-so season with the ChiSox in 1987, he was released and spent one more year in the Majors with the Twins. Cangelosi was short and fast. He would take a walk but didn’t hit well enough or for enough power to be anything much than a spare part. He left Pittsburgh as a free agent after 1990. He lasted in the Show until 1999 and was reunited with Jim Leyland and Bobby Bonilla in 1997 in Florida. He also tossed four shutout innings of three mop up relief appearances in his career.

April 1, 1987 – Pirates trade Tony Pena to the Cardinals for Mike Dunne, Mike LaValliere and Andy Van Slyke
A team re-made. A franchise re-born. In a span of nine months, Syd Thrift would acquire Bobby Bonilla, Doug Drabek and Andy Van Slyke. Most everyone knows the details on this. Pena continued to be a good catcher. But was never as good as he was in Pittsburgh. He hit .400 in a losing cause for the Redbirds in the 1987 season. He also appeared in the 1995 World Series with Cleveland. He retired in 1997 at age 40. Dunne had a big year in 1987, winning 13 games and finishing second in the NL Rookie of the Year voting. But he was a low strikeout guy and never duplicated the performance of that season. He was traded in 1989 to Seattle for Rey Quinones. Dunne would retire after winning just twelve more Big League games. The tremendously slow afoot LaValliere formed a nice catching tandem in Pittsburgh first with Junior Ortiz and later with Don Slaught. During the playoff run, Pirate catchers were 5th, 1st and 2nd in the NL in OPS. In a salary purge, LaValliere was released shortly after the 1993 season started. He finished his career as a back up with the White Sox. He appeared in his fourth straight losing LCS with Chicago in 1993. Van Slyke was the best defensive centerfielder in the NL during the time. He won five Gold Gloves. He made three All-Star teams. He finished fourth in the MVP voting twice. His greatness was curtailed on June 14, 1993 when Van Slyke broke his collarbone against St. Louis. He was allowed to walk after more injuries hampered his 1994 season and he signed with Baltimore. He was traded early in 1995 to Philly and retired after the 1995 season at the age of 34.

May 29, 1987 – Pirates trade Bill Almon to the Mets for Scott Little and Al Pedrique
Ivy League educated Almon was the first overall pick by San Diego in 1974. He appeared in the Majors that same season and was a regular at age 24 in 1977. He never developed any power and his time as a regular was short lived. His 1977 season was the only one in which he got more than 500 plate appearances. He spent the rest of his career as a utility player, toiling for the Mets, Expos, White Sox and A’s before coming to Pittsburgh as a free agent in April 1985. He did everything but pitch, catch and play second for the Buccos. Almon got less than 100 plate appearances in the Majors after the trade and was finished after the 1988 season. Little’s career in the Show totaled three games. The outfielder out of organized baseball after 1991. Pedrique had more success. He spent four full seasons struggling to hit in AA for the Mets and had been passed on the depth chart by Kevin Elster and Kevin Mitchell, who believe it or not played shortstop when he was younger. But Pedrique hit .293 in his second tour of AAA (with no power) in 1986 and was inserted into the Pirates lineup the day after the trade. He hit .301 the rest of the way (with no power) and it looked like maybe the Pirates had a solution at shortstop. Wrong. Pedrique was the starting shortstop on Opening Day in 1988 but was hitting less than .200 when he was demoted in early June, with Rafael Belliard taking over starting duties. Pedrique was released following the season and picked up by Detroit, where he made his last ML appearance in 1989. He lingered in the minors until 1994.

July 31, 1987 – Pirates trade Don Robinson to the Giants for Mackey Sasser
Don Robinson, like Rhoden, was also a very good hitter. He also couldn’t stay healthy. He was a starter early in his career and was second in the NL Rookie of the Year vote after going 14-6 in 1978. He spent the next couple of years battling various injuries. By the mid-80s, he been converted into a reliever and occasional spot starter. He was the Pirates leader in saves in 1986 with 14 as Jim Leyland was employing a committee. When he was traded in 1987, he remained in the bullpen. But he would make 19 starts in 1988 and would remain a part time/some time member of the Giants rotation through 1991. He was ineffective in both 1990 and 1991 and left as a free agent for California. He was released in May 1992 by the Angels and was signed by Philadelphia. He made eight starts with them before being released. Sasser was a catching prospect with a plus bat. He was only briefly up with Pittsburgh in 1987 and was traded to the Mets following the season for Randy Milligan. Sasser was slotted to take over for Gary Carter but in 1991, Sasser began having trouble throwing the ball back to the pitcher – often double and triple pumping his throws. It shortened his career quite a bit. He played a couple of stints in Mexico and his last Major League action came in 1995 back with the Pirates.

August 7, 1987 – Pirates trade Jim Morrison to the Tigers for Darnell Coles and Morris Madden
Morrison was a pretty solid utility infielder. When pressed into duty, he was good for 15-20 homers and a decent batting average. He was capable of playing 2B, SS and 3B and settled in as the Pirates third baseman in 1986 after Bill Madlock was traded. Morrison came to the Pirates in 1982 from the White Sox for Buddy Solomon. He was having a slightly down year in 1987 when he was traded and Bobby Bonilla was there to take over at third (for the time being). He played in just over 100 more games in the Majors after the trade (with Detroit and then Atlanta) before retiring. Coles had socked 20 homers and posted a 112 OPS+ as a 24 year old in 1986. But he was hitting less than .200 at the time of the deal. Though he came up playing third, the Pirates primarily deployed Coles in RF. He was the Opening Day starter in right in 1988. But his hitting woes continued and he was sent to the Mariners straight up for Glenn Wilson in July 1988. Coles finished out the year strong with the Mariners. He was a full time starter in Seattle in 1989 but failed to hit much and his days as a regular were over. He never got more than 200 at bats the rest of his career, which wound down in 1997. He played a utility role for Seattle, Detroit, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Toronto, St. Louis and Colorado. Madden was a minor pitching prospect who didn’t reach AAA until he was 26. His Big League experience totaled 21.1 innings. He was released by the Pirates after 1989 and played one more year in the minors (in the LA system) and that was it.

August 21, 1987 – Pirates trade Rick Reuschel to the Giants for Scott Medvin and Jeff Robinson
For the second time in a month, the Pirates and Giants swapped players. Big Daddy Reuschel revived his career with Pittsburgh. From 1972 to 1981, Reuschel averaged 13 wins a year (primarily with the Wriglies), finished third in the Cy Young voting and made an All-Star team. He pitched in the 1981 World Series after being traded from Chicago to New York. But he missed all of 1982 and most of 1983 and 1984 with shoulder issues. He was a non-roster invitee to Spring Training in 1985 with the Pirates. After eight excellent starts at AAA Hawaii, Reuschel was called up and went 14-8 with a 2.27 ERA, earning him Comeback Player of the Year honors. Never a high strikeout pitcher, he had become even more reliant on control. After a down 1986, Reuschel rebounded with a strong 1987 that would see him lead the NL in BB/9, WHIP, complete games and shutouts. After the deal to San Francisco, he won five of his nine appearances. He won 19 times in 1988 and another 17 games in 1989, starting for the NL in the All-Star game. He also made five post-season starts for the Giants. He missed time in 1990 and was ineffective when active. San Fran released him in June 1991. Righty reliever Scott Medvin saw action in 23 games as a reliever between 1988 and 1989. He was sent to Seattle even up for Lee Hancock in 1990. He got into five games with Seattle in 1990 in what would be his last season in organized baseball. Jeff Robinson went 18-18 in 125 appearances (all but 19 as a reliever) for Pittsburgh in 1988-89. After the 1989 season, Robinson was sent with Willie Smith to the Yankees for Don Slaught. He spent a year with the Yankees, a year with the Angels and finished up with the Cubs in 1992.

August 29, 1987 – Pirates trade Johnny Ray to the Angels for Bill Merrifield and Miguel Garcia
Johnny Ray was my favorite Pirate of this era. This is my least favorite trade. I was 16 when this trade was made and it still crushes me to think back on that day. It sucked. With Chico Lind and his good glove on the way, Ray and his good bat were deemed expendable. Ray led the league in doubles a couple of seasons and always seemed to be the odd man out when it came to naming the reserves for the All-Star team. He made his lone All-Star team for California in 1988. After a couple of more seasons with the Angels, Ray played in Japan. Bill Merrifield never got out of the minors. He was a strapping third base prospect he hit for a decent average and power at every stop. After being invited to Spring Training as a non-roster invitee, Merrifield was sent to Texas in April 1988 for light hitting catcher Dave Sax. Everyone remembers Los Angeles media darling Steve Sax stealing the 1982 Rookie of the Year Award away from Ray, right? Well, Dave is Steve’s brother. Oh, the agony. It was awful. I’m not sure what happened, but 1988 was Merrifield’s last season in organized baseball. He only hit .222 and his power suffered as well. I have no idea what happened to him. Miguel Garcia pitched in 20.1 innings in the Majors, with the last coming in 1989.

November 6, 1987 – Pirates trade Joe Orsulak to the Orioles for Terry Crowley, Jr and Rico Rossy
The Slak was a decent hitter. He had little power. He was relatively fast. His value was tied directly to his ability to get on base with a hit. He hit .300 as a rookie in 1985 and then slumped. He missed most of 1987 with a badly sprained ankle, only appearing in 39 minor league games and never in the Majors. Over his five years in Baltimore, he posted a .731 OPS and qualified for the batting title just once. He signed with the Mets as a free agent and had a diminished role with them before moving on to Florida and Montreal to finish his career after the 1997 season. Crowley was a slap hitter who lacked power. He hit .302 in A in 1987 but struggled to hit at higher levels and never made it out of AA. Rossy spent parts of twelve straight seasons at AAA. He broke through in the Majors after Pittsburgh dealt him to Atlanta for Greg Tubbs in 1990. Rossy never hit much in the Show, but did make the Royals Opening Day roster in 1993. His last activity in Organized Baseball was 1999.

The Results
The Pirates acquired a total of 28 players from these trades. Nine of them were members of the 1990 NL Eastern Division Champions.
Bob Kipper
Sid Bream
R.J. Reynolds
Bob Patterson
Bobby Bonilla
Doug Drabek
John Cangelosi
Andy Van Slyke
Mike LaValliere

Seven players were contributors on non-winning teams from earlier in the decade – Mike Brown, Pat Clements, Brian Fisher, Mike Dunne, Al Pedrique, Darnell Coles and Jeff Robinson. With two of them being parts of trades that helped land members of the 1990 club – Clements and Robinson. Twelve players either never made it to the Majors in Pittsburgh or had minimal impact at the Big League level either through their play or what they fetched in subsequent trades:

Cecil Espy (came back later)
Ben Abner
Ronnie Giddens
Scott Little
Logan Easley
Mackey Sasser
Morris Madden
Scott Medvin
Bill Merrifield
Miguel Garcia
Terry Crowley, Jr.
Rico Rossy

The Data
In 1990 the hitters combined for a .274/.346/.442/.788 slash line in 2,077 at bats. That includes 283 runs and 315 RBI.

Drabek won 22 games and the Cy Young Award. Kipper and Patterson combined to throw 150 plus inning with an ERA of less than 3.00 and a WHIP of less than 1.15.

The Conclusion
The flurry of trades was nothing short of a stunning success. The Pirates got nine members of a division winning club in 1990. The players contributed six Gold Gloves, seven All-Star games, four Top 5 MVP seasons and two top 5 Cy Young seasons.

Comparing/Contrasting the Rebuilding Efforts
In 1990 only three of the twelve players who batter 100 or more times were developed by the club – Barry Bonds, Jeff King and Jose Lind. Of those twelve hitters, King finished 10th in OPS and Lind finished 12th. Five of the top twelve hitters were acquired by the trades mentioned above. Three others – Jay Bell, Gary Redus and Don Slaught – were acquired after the scope of this examination. Wally Backman was signed as a free agent.

Only two of the top twelve hitters on the 2012 Pirates were acquired in the dismantling of the of the Pirates by Neal Huntington – Jose Tabata and Josh Harrison. If you count Mike McKenry, who was outside the original scope of the deals, then that makes three. But then the mid-80s deals would have eight of twelve.

Doug Drabek alone tossed 231.1 innings in 1990. All the pitchers from the Huntington deals combined in 2012 have pitched 188.1 to date.

The importance of Barry Bonds can’t be overstated to the 1990 team. He was the team’s first round pick and was in his age 25 season in 1990. Pedro Alvarez was also the team’s first round pick (and a higher pick overall) and is also in his age 25 season in 2012. So, I can’t look at Huntington’s situation and claim he was disadvantaged by the development of a first round pick. He has one of his own. I think it is also fair to say that there was no one in the Pirates system emerging in 1990 who was as good as Andrew McCutchen or Neil Walker are today. In other words, Huntington had a definite advantage in home grown talent.

So, does anything think that Neal Huntington got a fair return? What Thrift and Brown got is likely a swing to the other side of the spectrum toward being unrealistic. But not every one of their trades worked. Certainly they didn’t get enough for what Reuschel was worth in the immediate future. I don’t see any future All-Star appearances for any of the talent that Huntington acquired, let alone seasons where the player is an MVP candidate or a Cy Young candidate. Thrift and Brown used the current ML roster to get great players and useful players to add to the handful of strong prospects the Pirates had. Huntington has added useful players to the handful of strong prospects the Pirates had.

Looking at the players who were traded away, the crop from the 1980s would have been of minimal help to the teams in the early 1990s. Orsulak or Wynne would have been a better fourth outfielder than Gary Varsho or Mitch Webster perhaps. DeLeon would’ve probably been in the rotation (the club dealt for Zane Smith down the stretch in 1990), but the trade for Bonilla was a clear win. Pena was a decent catcher, but the duo of LaValliere and Slaught was clearly better. Maybe my fav Johnny Ray would’ve been a good bat off the bench and/or useful to spell Lind against tougher pitchers. Everyone else was pitching in relief, out of baseball or at the end of their shelf life as a Big Leaguer. Looking at the more modern crop of trades, Jose Bautista and Adam LaRoche stick out as players who were not only given away but also would be an upgrade for the Pirates in 2012. Gorzelanny’s arm wouldn’t be a bad thing to have available right now. It is quite possible that Ronny Paulino is a better hitter than Rod Barajas. The Reuschel deal is the only trade from the 1980s that was an absolute, slap-in-the-face, knee-to-the-gut bust the way the Bay, Bautista and LaRoche trades have been.

Sam Wyche and Neal Huntington
This might come off weird, but bear with me. Back in the 1980s, Sam Wyche was the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals generally weren’t all that good when Wyche was the coach. They frequently got out of the gate slow and would come on at the end, needing some wins and some help in the closing Sundays to make the playoffs. There were frequent calls for Wyche to be canned. He finished below .500 overall in eight seasons in Cincy. But the Bengals got to the Super Bowl one year under him and made the playoffs in one other season. After Wyche was fired by the Bengals, the Cincinnati club went into a horrible tailspin of ineptitude (sound familiar). It was so bad that by the early part of this century, delusional Bengals fans believed that Wyche was actually a good coach. He wasn’t a good coach. But he was the coach the last time the team was anything approaching good. So, they looked back upon his tenure as if he was a good coach. A colleague of mine had a ‘Wyche Litmus Test’ that he used on any new person he met who was a Bengals fan. He would ask the fan if he thought Wyche was a good coach. If they guy/gal stated that Wyche was a good coach, my buddy’s first instinct was to dismiss any thoughts or opinions these types of fans had about the Bengals. It had been so long since the Bengals had a good coach, that their fans forgot what a good coach looked like. Or in some cases, the fans were too young to remember what a good coach looked like.

Neal Huntington is the reverse Sam Wyche. Huntington isn’t doing a terrible job. But he also isn’t doing a great job. This team is in contention for the first time in a long time. The result is some fans believe that Huntington is doing a better job than he actually is. Just like Bengals fans looking back on Wyche as being better than he really was. It has been so long since the Pirates have been run well, that we don’t know what it actually looks like. We think we are witnessing it. We are not. It is better than it has been. It is not good. I am not ready to settle for mediocrity and call it success. Nor will I ever be ready for that.

Final Thoughts
It has been five years since Huntington took over. This team is struggling to keep pace in the playoff hunt. The return from the various player trades he made has been terrible. Outside of what was in the organization or available with an early draft pick, the only two hitters that Huntington has found are Garrett Jones and Michael McKenry. And hopefully Travis Snider. And maybe the half season of Eric Hinske. In five years. In five years. In five years (repeated thrice for effect). The greatest strengths in this organization came to the club as the result of ineptitude – the draft picks that produced Pedro Alvarez, Jameson Taillon and Gerrit Cole. Huntington has done a nice job in putting together a pitching staff in 2012. Give him credit for that.

I hope this club goes on a five to ten year tear of making the post-season more often than not. I hope Taillon, Cole, Luis Heredia, Gregory Polanco and Alen Hanson all turn into studs. When that day happens, I’ll gladly admit that I was wrong about Neal Huntington being the reverse Sam Wyche. But I do not believe right now that he is doing a good job running this team. It has been a while, but I remember what that looks like.

Let’s say for this exercise we look at catchers. Specifically let’s look at Rod Barajas since June 10th, 2012. Since that date, the Pirates primary catcher has put up a .153/.242/.253 slash line in 157 plate appearances covering 45 games played. Over that span he has amassed 36 total bases – 14 singles, three doubles and four homers. Over that same time frame, opposing players have successfully stolen a base off of him (and whatever pitcher was chucking it) 35 times. I’m not making this up: since 6/10/12, the primary starting catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates has contributed 36 total bases on offense while opposing teams have stolen successfully against him 35 times (and were caught stealing only two times).

Maybe that’s not entirely fair. So, let’s include other stuff. For this bastardized definition of ‘total bases,’ let’s give credit for walks (10 during that time frame) and HBP (seven) while also taking away a base for every time he has hit into a double play (just once). He also gets credit for the two times he threw someone out. Doing the math, that totals to 19 ‘total bases’ since June 10th.

No matter how you dice this data up, it begs two questions:
1. Why is Rod Barajas continuing to see the field? I know A.J. Burnett loves him (guess which NL pitcher has been stolen off of most in 2012?) and Rod’s a veteran and I haven’t been in the locker room and I don’t know about intangibles and I don’t know the intricacy of how he communicates with the pitchers and I don’t know blah blah blah. 36 total bases. 35 steals against. Since June 10. There is no universe that exists, there is no kingdom that has been imagined where such a performance would be tolerated. And not just tolerated but rewarded with on-going playing time.
2. Why don’t opposing teams run on him at every opportunity? Every opponent should give their two or three best base stealers a green light out of chute and regardless of the game situation.

And what if this club misses the post-season by a game or two? I’ve written here before and I’m writing it again: the 2012 Pittsburgh Pirates (Neal Huntington and Clint Hurdle specifically) could very well be wasting the best season Andrew McCutchen will ever have by giving playing time to a catcher who is inept at seemingly everything except for those things that can’t be measured or captured in the form of data.

Let’s have a look at the results, starting with the record of the club at the Big League level.

2007 – 68-94
2008 – 67-95
2009 – 62-99
2010 – 57-105
2011 – 72-90

Expectations
Obviously the 2007-2009 Pirates weren’t very good. But there were some valuable players on those clubs. I don’t think it is unfair to expect a solid return for those players. 17 players (10 hitters, two starters and five relievers) were traded off the Pirates active roster in between December 2007 and November 2009. Did we get fair value in return?

The Deals
Let’s look at each trade one-by-one. For the sake of this, I’m going to concentrate on players the Pirates traded off their active roster. So, no mention of Todd Redmond for Tyler Yates.

December 7, 2007 – Pirates trade Salomon Torres to Milwaukee for Kevin Roberts and Marino Salas
The rubber armed Torres had clashed with the Pirates (before Neal Huntington arrived) over the usage of baseball academies he had built in the Dominican Republic. He pitched one year for Milwaukee before calling it quits. Kevin Roberts and Marino Salas didn’t last much longer. Roberts is out of organized baseball, with his last season coming in 2008 at AA, which was his peak level. Salas pitched in 13 games for the Pirates in 2008 and played in Mexico in 2009 after leaving the Pirates as a free agent. The Pirates traded a reliever for essentially zero return. It happens, but it happens to the Pirates all too often (see Iwamura, Aki).

July 26, 2008 – Pirates trade Damaso Marte and Xavier Nady to the Yankees for Jeff Karstens, Daniel McCutchen, Ross Ohlendorf and Jose Tabata
In the regular season, Marte didn’t pitch all that well for the Bombers, whom he ended his career with in 2010. He did help them win the 2009 World Series with four scoreless appearances in which he whiffed five of the eight men he faced. He stranded every runner he inherited and pitched against the heart of the Phillies order, retiring Ryan Howard four times. The Yankees – if only for those brief appearances – benefited from this trade. Nady was never a regular again after 2008 and he wasn’t a Yankee after an injury plagued 2009, leaving for the Cubs via free agency. His stats continued to diminish and he was cut free by the Nationals in June of this year. Soft tossing Karstens has battled injuries but has been valuable when healthy. I’d argue that he is the best player the Pirates acquired in all of these deals. It’s probably between Karstens and Hanrahan. McCutchen was on the hill during the decisive Jerry Meals call. He was effective last year until a three game stretch in September that saw his ERA rise from 2.96 to 3.97. He has pitched just once in 2012 in the Bigs. Ross Ohlendorf led the club in wins in 2009 with eleven. Since then he has been both injured an ineffective. He was released by the Pirates following the 2011 season and resurfaced this year with San Diego where he has struggled with an ERA approaching 8.00 in nine starts and four relief appearances. Jose Tabata was highly touted, but somewhat troubled with a wife who faked a pregnancy and kidnapped a baby in an attempt to deceive her spouse. That’s the kind of stuff no one could make up. Tabata’s early marks looked pretty good. He had an OPS+ of 103 as a 21 year old. He was about the same in 2011, but he missed some time in July. The club rewarded him with a long term, team friendly contract that was signed in August of 2011. He has been awful this year in all facets of the game – hitting, running, fielding. He appears to be showing little effort. He was demoted due to at least some of the above but was recently called back up. Did I mention there were questions about his actual age? It is fair to say the Pirate won this trade. It is also fair to say that they haven’t won it by much given what Tabata has been doing in 2012. There is still time for this to become a very good trade for Pittsburgh. But it largely depends on Tabata. I’m not a fan of largely depending on him.

July 31, 2008 – Pirates trade Jason Bay in a three team deal that brings Craig Hansen, Andy LaRoche, Bryan Morris and Brandon Moss from the Dodgers and Red Sox.
Bay was a stud for the balance of 2008 and all of 2009. He finished 7th in the AL MVP vote in 2009 and then signed a big contract with the Mets. He has battled injuries and inconsistency since then. He is hitting .148 as I write this in 2012. Hansen pitched 21 games of ineffective relief for the Pirates between 2008 and 2009. He was released in April 2011 and is currently with the Mets in the low minors. LaRoche was awful for the Pirates in 2008. He was okay in 2009 in full time duty (a 94 OPS+) and then awful again in 2010. He was replaced at 3B by Pedro Alvarez in 2010 and left as a free agent following that season. He is currently at Pawtucket and with the Red Sox looking to gut their Major League roster might find himself back in the Bigs. Morris, a righty, was a starter when he was acquired but has pitched only in relief in 2012 at AAA. He has yet to make the Majors, but it’ll likely be this year for him. He ranked #19 in Pirates Prospects pre-season scouting rankings. Moss was perhaps even worse than LaRoche. He didn’t hit for power or average. He also walked as a free agent following 2010. He has since resurfaced in Oakland, where he is trying to pull a Garret Jones. In 184 PAs for the A’s in 2012 he has as many taters (13) as he did for Pittsburgh in 628 plate appearances. He has just one homer since the All-Star break. So, perhaps teams are figuring him out. This was an abomination of a trade. No excuses at all for this one – the best player on the team, the face of the franchise was dealt for players who had no immediate or long term impact on the club (unless Bryan Morris turns into something special).

August 21, 2008 – Pirates trade Jose Bautista to the Blue Jays for Robinzon Diaz
Umm, uh, umm. Let’s look at this for what it was at the time. Bautista was a valuable utility player. It was unlikely that he would be an everyday player in Pittsburgh in 2009 (LaRoche at 3B, Sanchez at 2B and an OF of McLouth, Moss and Morgan). He had made $1.8 million in 2008 and was going to get a raise in arbitration. (The Blue Jays avoided arbitration and signed him for $2.4 million for both 2009 and 2010.) So, the Pirates traded him and then signed Ramon Vasquez, who was more limited in his versatility in the field and also an inferior hitter compared to Bautista. Vasquez was given a two year $3.8 million deal. He was released after the 2009 season as Pittsburgh ate the second year of the deal. Diaz had been a well thought of catching prospect. But an ankle injury limited him in 2008 and, by the time of the trade, he was passed on the minor league depth chart by both J.P. Arencibia and Brian Jeroloman. Diaz got into 43 games with the Pirates, left the club as a free agent and is currently with Texas at AAA (recently released from the Angels AAA team). Forgetting about what Bautista went on to do, here is how this trade looked in 2008 and in its immediate aftermath: The Pirates traded to Toronto a valuable utility player who was due a modest raise for the third best catching prospect in the Blue Jays farm system and then signed a far less capable utility player for a modest savings. There’s one way to describe this: dumb. And I’m not even taking into consideration what Bautista has gone on to do. This was an impossibly stupid move when it happened merely for what it was when it happened. Excuses can be made to say that this was a waiver wire deal and the Pirates had little leverage as a result. Hogwash. The Pirates got a failed prospect in exchange for a solid utility player because they didn’t want to give him a raise and signed a washed up utility guy for nearly the same amount of money. The front office should have a vision of what kind of team they want to put on the field. They clearly didn’t in this case or if they did, their vision was awful.

December 10, 2008 – Pirates trade Ronny Paulino to the Phillies for Jason Jaramillo
Paulino played his way out of Pittsburgh after a strong rookie campaign. All three components of his slash line fell in 2007 and 2008. In spite of that, he has been a somewhat capable part time catcher/back up catcher in 2009, 2010 and 2011. He spent some time with Baltimore in 2012 and is now with their AAA team. While Paulino was getting nearly 900 plate appearances, Jaramillo was struggling to establish himself with Pittsburgh. He played well enough in part time duty in 2009, but then hit less than .150 in a limited roll in 2010 and was squarely out of the mix. He left as a free agent after the 2011 season. He is now in AAA with Oakland. Paulino needed to go. Count me surprised that he has lasted as long as he has and that he has even contributed anything at the Major League level. The Pirates weren’t done with acquiring back up catchers.

June 3, 2009 – Pirates trade Nate McLouth to the Braves for Gorkys Hernandez, Jeff Locke and Charlie Morton
Pittsburgh shocked everyone by pulling the plug on the 2009 season when it was barely two months old. McLouth had his best year with the Pirates in 2008. He was alright in 2009, finishing with numbers just a touch off his career marks in 2008. But he failed to hit in 2010 and 2011. We know what happened in 2012 and he is now contributing in Baltimore. Gorkys Hernandez, #24 in the pre-season Pirates Prospects rankings in 2012, projects to spare part/late inning defensive replacement. He was dealt to Miami in the Gaby Sanchez deal and is hitting less than .200 in August. He has one extra base hit in 75 career PAs. Jeff Locke has been successful enough in the minors as a starter that I don’t believe he has anything left to prove. Yet, other than four starts at the end of 2011 and a brief stint with the big club in relief in 2012, he has not been given much of a chance in the Show. Locke occupied the #11 spot in Pirates Prospects pre-season rankings. A week after the trade, Morton started for the Pirates. He was alright in 2009. He was among the worst starters in the NL in 2010. He showed flashes of excellence in 2011 in finishing 10-10 with an ERA about league average. He was off to a bad start in 2012 and is out with Tommy John surgery. Here’s to hoping he recovers and contributes. If Locke doesn’t do much at the Big League level and if Morton doesn’t recover, this one is a wash. It looked pretty good going into 2012. But Locke, for whatever reason, hasn’t been given an opportunity in spite of the hiccups from the starting staff and Morton was inconsistent before going down with his injury.

June 30, 2009 – Pirates trade Sean Burnett and Nyjer Morgan to the Nationals for Joel Hanrahan and Lastings Milledge
Former first round pick Burnett was converted to a reliever after an injury to his pitching arm. He was in his second season in that role when he was dealt. He has been an effective lefty option for the Nationals since the deal. Tony Plush is an attention hog who has brief flashes of brilliance. He has hit over .300 twice. But when his average is low, his value is too. He was flipped from the Nats to the Brewers for a 23 year old who is repeating A ball in 2012. Hanrahan has been nothing short of stellar, especially after becoming the Pirates closer in 2011. He has made the last two All-Star games. Milledge, like LaRoche and Moss, was highly thought of at one point but didn’t play well and certainly didn’t hit for power. He failed to slug .400 in 651 career plate appearances as a Bucco and was allowed to walk after 2010. He is currently playing in Japan. Closers are overrated. But the Pirates win this one.

June 30, 2009 – Pirates trade Eric Hinske to the Yankees for Casey Erickson and Eric Fryer
As bad as Eric Hinske was, he’s among the best in terms of actual production in Pittsburgh of the aging veteran power guys that Neal Huntington has signed. Even though his power seemingly evaporated when he was with Pittsburgh, he was still drawing walks. His .373 OBP during his brief stay with the Bucs helped lifted his OPS+ to 99. When he left Pittsburgh, his power returned. After a half season with the Bombers, he went to Atlanta and he clubbed 21 dingers in 584 plate appearances as a part time player between 2010 and 2011. Casey Erickson never made it past high A. He was released in 2011 even though he put up respectable numbers – an ERA south of 3.00 and a WHIP of less than 1.300 primarily as a reliever. Fryer is a back-up catcher who is still with the Pirates in Indy. He is hitting near Mendoza for his AAA career in about 300 plate appearances. Prior to the 2012 season, Fryer was ranked #41 on Pirates Prospects list. This was another losing trade for the Pirates. Hinske remained productive for a couple of seasons. Certainly more productive than Ryan Church, Lyle Overbay or Matt Diaz were – and the Pirates got nothing for him that couldn’t have been picked up on the waiver wire.

July 22, 2009 – Pirates trade Adam LaRoche to the Red Sox for Hunter Strickland and Argenis Diaz
Much to the chagrin and dismay of Pirate fans, Adam LaRoche got off to slow starts in both 2007 and 2008. He walked enough and pulled out of the slump enough each year to post good but not great stats – 20 plus homers, and 80 plus RBIs to go along with an OPS in the .800 to .850 range. Other than a terrible, injury plagued 2011, he has continued to play at that level. He is in the middle of such a season right now for Washington. Strickland missed all of 2011 and most of 2010 with an injury to his forearm. He is currently putting up mediocre stats at Altoona as a 23 year old. I’d like to tell you Argenis Diaz was the answer. But in order to do that the question would have to be, “Name yet another failed shortstop the Pirates have acquired.” He didn’t hit in the minors. He didn’t hit in a brief stint in the Majors and left for Detroit as a free agent following 2010. He is currently the Tigers AAA shortstop. The apologists for this trade would point to LaRoche’s pending free agency and how the Pirates had no leverage. I’d point to the fact that LaRoche took a pay cut for a one year deal in Arizona in 2010 and is now only making $8 million a year (a two year $16 million deal) with the Nationals. His salary in 2009? Just above $7 million. To paraphrase the late Cincinnati Reds pitcher and broadcaster Joe Nuxhall, ‘There isn’t a woman alive who is uglier than this trade.’

July 29, 2009 – Pirates trade Ian Snell and Jack Wilson to the Mariners for Nathan Adcock, Ronny Cedeno, Jeff Clement, Brett Lorin and Aaron Pribanic
I really wanted Ian Snell to be good. He seemed to pitch with a chip on his shoulder. In spite of being durable, he wasn’t all that consistent. He made twelve starts in Seattle in 2009 and then just five in 2010 before being let go. Wilson was a classic good glove/no hit shortstop. In his best years with the bat, he was decent. But he quickly went from being the Pirates regular to being a back up in Seattle and then in Atlanta. His hitting continued to decline and he was demoted to AAA by the Braves earlier this year. Adcock was plucked by KC in the Rule 5 draft prior to the 2010 season. He has been so-so with the Royals as a reliever and spot starter. Cedeno was the Pirates regular SS for the rest of 2009 and all of 2010 and 2011. He played about as expected. Which is to say not very well. His OPS numbers were in the mid .600s. He was allowed to leave as a free agent after 2011 as the Pirates set their sights on Clint Barmes, who has played even worse than expected. Clement was a former first round pick of the Mariners. He was given 150 plus PAs in 2010 and posted an OPS+ of 62. He was just promoted after spending all of 2011 and most of 2012 in AAA. Brett Lorin was dealt for Robby Rowland. Lorin has struggled in 2012 at AA. Rowland has been successful at West Virginia this year. He continues to post low strikeout rates, which makes me think he won’t develop into anything special. Hopefully I’m wrong about that. Pribanic has not been a high strikeout guy and has struggled with control in 2012 – 7.7 BB/9 in 23.1 innings. In spite of the low strikeout numbers, he was somewhat effective as a 24 year old in Altoona in 2011, posting a winning record and a sub 4.00 ERA in 27 starts. I’d give a slight nod to the Pirates on this one as Cedeno was clearly better than Wilson would’ve been in a similar role, although having a slightly better shortstop than the incumbent on 90 loss team certainly isn’t all that important. Snell fizzled and Clement might yet get another shot to prove he can hit Major League pitching.

July 29, 2009 – Pirates trade Freddy Sanchez to the Giants for Tim Alderson
Freddy Sanchez won the batting title in 2006. The Pirates probably should’ve traded him then. He has not come within 40 points of that league leading mark ever since. As his average dropped, so did his value as a hitter. Since the trade he has been injured nearly constantly for the Giants. Back surgery has shelved him for 2012 after he missed most of 2011 with a dislocated shoulder. He was the starting 2B for San Fran in 2010 when they won the World Series. Tim Alderson was a 20 year old with a 6-1 record and a 3.47 ERA as a starter in AA when the trade happened. He has not been that effective ever since. He spent some time on the minor league DL this year and remains in AA. This was a gamble by the Front Office – a one for one trade. It hasn’t worked out as Freddy, when healthy, is a steady, known quantity. Mark this trade in the Loss column for the Pirates.

July 30, 2009 – Pirates trade Tom Gorzelanny and John Grabow to the Cubs for Jose Ascanio, Josh Harrison and Kevin Hart
Gorzelanny won 14 games as a 24 year old in 2007. It was down hill from there. He varied from inconsistent to terrible in 2008. He lost his rotation spot in 2009 and was dealt to the Cubs. It would be fair to say that he did not turn his career around with the Wriglies, although he had stretches where he was very good. He was sent to Washington for three minor leaguers and has had a decent 2012 for the Nats pitching out of the bullpen. Grabow was a somewhat effective and very durable lefty. He was not very good in 2010, a little bit better in 2011 and allowed to leave via free agency before 2012. He was picked up by LA but cut before the season began. So far as I can tell, he is out of baseball currently. Ascanio’s career in Pittsburgh consisted of eight appearances, nine innings pitched and seven earned runs. He missed 2010 with a torn labrum. He left for LA as a free agent following 2011. Not sure what he is up to now – not in the Majors and no record of him tossing in the minors or being released by the Flat Bush Refugees. Harrison is a decently effective utility guy. He can play five positions. Not a bad player to have on the team, but certainly not the kind of player you’d go after in a trade. Hart was not very good for the Pirates. A month after the deal, he was placed into the rotation. He went 1-8 in ten starts with the Pirates, posting an ERA near 5.50. Slated for the rotation in 2010, he couldn’t find the strike zone in Spring Training and instead was sent to AAA. He continued to struggle with his control and was diagnosed with a torn labrum. He didn’t pitch anywhere in 2011 and is currently pitching in an independent league. This trade has basically become a starter and a reliever for a utility player. Even though Gorzelanny has not put it all together, this was an awful trade.

November 3, 2009 – Pirates trade Jesse Chavez to the Rays for Aki Iwamura
At some point in 2010, the Pirates decided to convert Neil Walker from 3B to 2B. Pedro Alvarez was behind him and Andy LaRoche was on the Big League roster ahead of him. The Pirates had on their team two players capable of playing second base while they waited to see if Walker would develop – Delwyn Young (53 games at 2B in 2009) and Ramon Vasquez (22 games at 2B in 2009). Young spent the whole year with the Pirates, but was primarily a pinch hitter. Vasquez was released in April without having suited up for a game in 2010. So, in spite of a couple of options, the Pirates traded for Aki Iwamura. He had hit for a decent average, but had no power and struck out a lot. I’m not allowed by law to actually print his numbers for the Pirates. They were awful. He was demoted and eventually released. Chavez never pitched an inning for the Rays. They traded him a month later to Atlanta for Rafael Soriano in what was likely a salary dump by the Braves. Soriano led the AL in saves in 2010, was inked by the Bombers as a free agent and is now filling in for the injured Mariano Rivera in New York. Chavez is still active, but has never been particularly effective. He is with Toronto in 2012 and has actually made a couple of poor starts for them.

The Results
The Pirates acquired a total of 31 players from these trades. 16 of them were either released or left as free agents. Two were traded (Gorkys Hernandez and Brett Lorin) and thirteen remain active with the Pirates in some capacity. Of the thirteen remaining active players, only five of them have made any kind of contribution to the team in 2012. Jeff Karstens and Joel Hanrahan have had the most impact. Jose Tabata has been dreadful. Charlie Morton was off to a rocky start before going on the shelf. Josh Harrison is a typical utility player. There are eight players still with the franchise (nine if you include Rowland) that have primarily or exclusively been in the minors this season. Here they are in alphabetical order:

Tim Alderson
Jeff Clement
Eric Fryer
Jeff Locke
Daniel McCutchen
Bryan Morris
Aaron Pribanic
Hunter Strickland

Out of those eight, only Jeff Locke has much of a chance to have an impact at the Major League level. Morris is a reliever. McCutchen is a reliever. Alderson has been both a starter and a reliever in the minors and just returned from the DL. Clement is a failed power prospect who couldn’t even get an at bat with the big club in April and May when the team was having all kinds of trouble scoring runs. Fryer is at best a back up catcher. I wouldn’t bet on either Pribanic or Strickland making the Majors at all, let alone as actual contributors. Rowland is a wild card. Low strikeout rates don’t portend a great future. But he is only 20 and is otherwise having a pretty good year for West Virginia. Only Locke and Morris are in the current Pirates Prospects top 20 prospects.

The Data
In 481 at bats, the five players from these trades are posting a meager .227/.392/.343/.636 slash line. They have 61 runs scored and 26 RBI. The majority of at bats have come from Tabata and Harrison. Each of them has an OPS+ of 80. If you throw Gaby Sanchez (acquired for Hernandez) in the mix, it gets a little better as his OPS is shade under .700 in 49 at bats.

Karstens and Morton combined to make 23 starts in 2012. They are 7-9 with an ERA that is right about league average. Good control has put their WHIP at better than league average in spite of being worse than league average in hits per nine innings.

Locke and McCutchen have combined to face 16 hitters in 2012. So, the vast majority of the relief numbers belong to Hanrahan. He has been excellent.

The Conclusion
The flurry of trades is nothing short of an abject failure. Forget about what Jose Bautista has done. Let’s just look at what the Pirates got in return in terms of contributors:

A below league average corner outfielder with poor power skills, poor base running skills, poor fielding skills, poor work habits and a questionable age. There is hope for Tabata to become productive. But I’m not banking on it.

A standard, off the shelf utility guy in Josh Harrison. Other than his age, I’d have a hard time finding one advantage he has over Drew Sutton or any number of similar players available throughout the season from waivers.

Joel Hanrahan is a front line closer. He is valuable. But he likely isn’t hard to replace.

Jeff Karstens looks like he is a solid #3/#4 starter. He doesn’t have impressive velocity. But he somehow gets it done.

Jeff Locke projects to a middle of the rotation/back of the rotation starter.

Everyone else is one of the following:
1. Gone
2. A small contributor/non-contributor in 2012
3. At best a small contributor in the future with the best bet being a relief pitcher emerging from the muck

To recap: a below average corner OF, a utility guy, a really good closer, two (or if Morton recovers three) middle of the rotation/back of the rotation pitchers and hopefully one or two average relief pitchers. That’s what this club has to show for all of the trades above. That and some inconsequential contributions to 90+ loss teams between 2009 and 2011 (inconsequential because the team lost 90 or more games with a great closer, the best season of Ross Ohlendorf, below average shortstop, etc) and some savings in salary.

My biggest concern out of all of this is that the 2012 Pirates might be wasting the best season Andrew McCutchen ever has. If he winds up with a .333 batting average and 25+ dingers and an OPS+ of 150 or more, this would almost certainly will be his best season. Since divisional play began, there have been 60 such seasons. Only ten players over that time frame have done it more than once: Barry Bonds, Miguel Cabrera, Jason Giambi, Vladimir Guerrero, Todd Helton, Mike Piazza, Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez, Frank Thomas and Larry Walker. Take away the steroids and the mountain air and you have merely a handful of guys who have done this more than once. It is possible that Andrew McCutchen is one of the 10 or 20 best hitters of the last 40 years. It is more likely that we are witnessing his career season. And this club is faltering in spite of the Front Office unloading 17 players from the roster over the last four years. The lack of return from those trades is frighteningly awful. Hopefully this club will remain in the pennant race and actually make the playoffs in spite of this huge failure.

He had a pretty good 2011. He split between high A and AA and ran up an ERA in the low threes with 13 wins against four defeats. His strikeout to walk ratio was nearly 5.0 with a K/9 of seven on the nose. After getting news of his promotion, I was excited to see him pitch (especially after seeing Chris Leroux start in my previous two Indians contests).

Count me impressed with the results. Nancy Zinni wrote up the recap. Irwin didn’t have impressive stuff on paper. His fastball was in the low 90s all night. But he worked quick, changed speeds and kept the Louisville hitters off balance. He walked the first hitter of the game (causing the Astros scout sitting in front of me to mutter to another scout, ‘You’d think he’d come out with some fire in his belly, trying to prove he belongs up here.’) and then didn’t walk anyone else. That walked batter came around to score. And that was the only run he allowed all game. The line was six innings, five hits, one run, one walk and nine whiffs. Here’s hoping he can keep it up.

For those of you into breaking down mechanics, here is a link to a short video I shot of Irwin warming up in the bullpen before the game.
watch?v=NiPK0ayXt3c&feature=plcp.

On a different note, I’m not sure what to make of Tony Sanchez. I want to like him. He seems like a likable guy. He was interacting with the crowd (and he has funny interactions with fans on Twitter) as he was getting stretched before the game. He was talking to people and signing autographs. Hard to not like that. But then the game starts. He had two hits yesterday but has not been all that good with the wood at AAA. He is either really slow or doesn’t run hard down the line when he hits a routine grounder. Not sure which. He banged a double high off the wall in left center but was nearly thrown out at second base. I was watching the ball and not Sanchez. So, I don’t know if he was on cruise control or what was up with that. But someone with normal speed running all out would likely have made it into second standing up. My expectation for a catcher on a drive like that is in safely with slide but the throw isn’t close. Sanchez had to slide and even then it was very, very close. I don’t care if he runs like Ernie Lombardi so long as he also hits like Lombardi. I don’t think he is going to hit like him. He seems to have mental lapses on defense. He looks good, but then out of the blue on a ball he should handle – out of the zone outside or in the dirt – he let’s it get past him. On the positive side, on infield grounders with no one on base, he sprints up the line to back up the throw to first. The last catcher that I recall doing that routinely was Bo Diaz. The defense won’t matter so much if he doesn’t hit. So, here’s hoping he isn’t as slow as he appears and that his bat picks up.

I plopped Taillon’s numbers in the middle of what I would consider to be two different types of starters. The top group is middle of the rotation guys. Then Taillon followed by bottom of the rotation guys.

As I noted in my previous post on this topic, I don’t pretend to know what all is going on with Taillon’s development (Fastball Academy and all). But I know that when I look at these numbers, I not enthused. He paled in comparison with the most of the guys who developed into front of the rotation starters. Josh Beckett, Yovani Gallardo, Brad Penny, Homer Bailey and even Kris Benson have better stats than what Taillon has accumulated. To me – based solely on the stats – he looks most like Gavin Floyd or maybe Matt Clement.

This doesn’t send me running for the Tylenol. But I’d feel much better if Taillon had put up numbers at high A that gave an indication that he was going to be a future ace. Based on what I’m seeing – and granted I’m certainly not seeing everything – I don’t feel confident that he will be a future MLB ace.

EDIT: Added Dylan Bundy’s numbers at high A for 2012 after seeing the comment from BlueBomber72 below.

The 2012 Pittsburgh Pirates were last in the league in runs per game in both April and May. An abrupt about face saw the team lead the loop in runs per game in June and then finish second in that category in July. The team is currently third in August.

What caused the turnaround? I don’t have a good answer for this. I think it was simply a bunch of players getting hot all at once. Through the first two months, the Pirates only had two players who put together an OPS of .800 or better (in 25 or more PAs) in a single month (Andrew McCutchen and Rod Barajas both in May). Then in June, five different players did it. Five more did the same in July. A big portion of that hot streak and the corresponding lift in runs was the long ball. The Pirates had 38 homers combined in April and May. Then the team went out and smashed 39 in June and another 39 in July. I don’t believe it was the pitching that the Pirates had faced early on in the season. The collective group of starters the Pirates faced was good. But the Pirates made them look like candidates to start the All-Star game. It also certainly wasn’t an increase in getting on base more often. The team still struggles to draw walks and in spite of what is currently a league average offense (9th in the league in runs per game), the Pirates are 15th in the NL in OBP.

Two questions from me on this. First, how often does a team go from the outhouse to the penthouse in runs per game per month in a single season. It happens more often that I would’ve figured. I went back to 1998 and found seven different teams (including four in 2006!) who have led the league in runs scored per game in a month while also bringing up the rear in that department in a different month of the same season.

Let’s have a look (all data from baseball-reference.com):

1998 Cincinnati Reds – finished 77-85
In June, the club posted a season worst in homers, doubles, walks and batting average. Reggie Sanders slumped, posting a .666 OPS. The result was a league worst in runs per game. All eight regulars – led by HOF SS Barry Larkin – posted a .750 or better OPS as the team led the league in runs scored in August.

League rank for the whole season
Runs per game – 7th
BA – 7th
OBP – 7th
SLG – 8th
OPS – 8th
OPS+ – 8th
ERA – 10th

2001 Chicago Cubs – finished 88-74
The Cubs finished last in the league in runs in June. It wasn’t so much an inability to score runs versus other months or someone slumping as much as it was the rest of the league heating up. The Cubs played one more game in June 2001 than they did in May 2001. They scored eight fewer runs overall in June and that dropped them from 8th in the league in May to last in June. Sammy Sosa and Fred McGriff (acquired in late July) combined to hit 20 homers and each posted an OPS of greater than 1.000 as the team led the league in runs in September

League rank for the whole season
Runs per game – 7th
BA – 8th
OBP – 7th
SLG – 6th
OPS – 6th
OPS+ – 2nd
ERA – 4th

2005 San Diego Padres – finished 82-80
In the second year of Petco Park, the Padres won a very weak NL West with a record just a smidge above .500. Then they were swept in the first round of the playoffs. After hitting the ball well in May and leading the league in runs per game at 5.71, the Padres went cold the rest of the year and failed to average 4.0 runs per game over the final 110 games. They were 14 games over .500 on 5/31/05 and played substantially lower than .500 the rest of the way. Brian Giles and Ryan Klesko posted their best month of the year in May. Phil Nevin was bothered by back spasms and missed about a month before being traded at the deadline. The club scored a league worst 3.37 runs per game in June and followed that up with a 14th place finish in July with 3.38 runs per game.

League rank for the whole season
Runs per game – 13th
BA – 12th
OBP – 7th
SLG – 15th
OPS – 12th
OPS+ – 7th
ERA – 7th

2006 Atlanta Braves – finished 79-83
The Braves offense abandoned them in June and they finished the month 6-21. The club scored the fewest runs per game in June (3.48) only to follow that up with a league leading 7.18 runs per game in July. 26 homers in June was nearly doubled (a total of 50) in July. Seven different players posted an OPS of .900 or better in July after only three reached that plateau in June. In limited time, Chipper Jones hit .500 in July 2006 and had a 1.556 OPS. Independent of June, the club averaged nearly 5.6 runs per game, but it wasn’t enough to get them in the playoffs.

League rank for the whole season
Runs per game – 2nd
BA – 2nd
OBP – 5th
SLG – 1st
OPS – 2nd
OPS+ – 1st
ERA – 11th

2006 Cincinnati Reds – finished 80-82
The Reds got out of the gate strong. They led the league in runs per game in April with 5.96. They ended with a whimper, scoring just 3.25 runs per game in September. The Reds had a share of the lead as late as August 24th. But they scored more than five runs in a game just twice in September. Two of the starting eight – Felipe Lopez and Austin Kearns – were shipped to Washington in July for some bullpen help. The rest of the offense struggled in September with the following guys retreating the most severely – Adam Dunn (1.047 OPS in April to .595 in September), Ryan Freel (.763 to .613), Edwin Encarnacion (.937 to .560), Scott Hatteberg (.871 to .585) and Brandon Phillips (.970 to .457).

League rank for the whole season
Runs per game – 10th
BA – 15th
OBP – 7th
SLG – 7th
OPS – 7th
OPS+ – 9th
ERA – 7th

2006 Colorado Rockies – finished 76-86
The Rockies scored a touch over 5.0 runs per game in 2006. But that number was just 3.04 runs per game in May when they finished last in the league. The team went off in September, averaging 7.03 runs per game. What caused this? Stop me if you have heard this one before. In May, Clint Barmes was allowed to bat 91 times and posted an OPS of .319. In September he had just 37 plate appearances and posted a .424 OPS. That’s far too simplistic, but partially true. In September, the Stones had three guys go over the 1.000 mark in OPS – Garrett Atkins, Matt Holliday and Jeff Baker. That and Troy Tulowitzki made his Big League debut earlier in the year, supplanting Barmes as shortstop. His .640 OPS in September was modest, but doubled what Barmes had done in May when the team was struggling.

League rank for the whole season
Runs per game – 5th
BA – 3rd
OBP – 3rd
SLG – 5th
OPS – 5th
OPS+ – 10th
ERA – 13th

2006 Los Angeles Dodgers – finished 88-74
Los Angeles averaged better than six runs per game in May, good enough for the top spot in the league. The offense slumped in July to just 4.00 runs per game – a last place slot. The team made the playoffs, but was knocked out in the first round by the Mets. Jeff Kent missed all but seven games in July after putting up a solid 1.066 OPS in May. Nomar Garciaparra slumped from 1.051 OPS in May to .673 in June.

League rank for the whole season
Runs per game – 4th
BA – 1st
OBP – 1st
SLG – 6th
OPS – 3rd
OPS+ – 3rd
ERA – 4th

2012 Pittsburgh Pirates – currently 63-50

League rank for the whole season (through games of Saturday 8/11/12)
Runs per game – 9th
BA – 12th
OBP – 15th
SLG – 7th
OPS – 10th
OPS+ – 6th
ERA – 5th

My conclusion from this is that none of these teams were great. None of them were awful either. None of them managed to win a post-season round. Only the 1999 Reds (96 wins) and 2007 Rockies (90 wins after going 26-10 to close out the season) managed to improve by ten wins or more over the previous season.

The other thing I wonder is what will the Pirates final record be. Here is something earth shattering: the truth of how good this offense is lies in the middle of where this team was in April and May versus where they were in June and July. I’m kidding. That’s not earth shattering. That is obvious. I think the result of that league average offense and a pitching staff that is starting to bend (14th in the NL in ERA at the 1/3 point in August) will be a team that plays about .500 in the second half of the season. The team was 48-37 in the first half of the year. That leaves 77 games for the second half. So, I’ll say a second half finish of 39-38, which puts them at at 87-75 on the year. Over the remaining 49 games, that puts them at 24-25. I don’t think that’ll be enough to get them to the post-season. I’ve been wrong many times before. Hopefully I’m wrong again.

Yet, I also can’t help but think that this team isn’t as good as it has been playing. I hate thinking that way. But I can’t help it. While the offense took the first two months of the season to get going, the pitching was outstanding, finishing third in April in the league in ERA and following that up with a 6th place finish in May.

The pitching regressed to middle of the pack (9th in both June and July), while the offense woke up and finished first and third in the league in runs scored over the same time period

The path to get the current record is weird. I like the end results. But it makes me question the sustainability of the performance. What happens if/when the pitching remains middle of the pack and the offense falters? Can this team stay in the race? I think it can, but some things need to change. More on that in a second. Looking back at what I needed in July:

1. Clint Barmes starts fewer than five games in the month. That’s a miss. The Pirates played 26 games in July. Barmes started 22 of them. He should have started no more than four.

2. Pedro Alvarez posts a .950 OPS. He had a pretty good month, posting an .820 OPS. I think he will homer on Sunday in Cincinnati. He hasn’t homered since July 22nd. Hopefully the day game Sunday will set him off on a hot streak that carries the club. This is also a miss.

3. Jose Tabata posts an .800 OPS. Tabata is in Indy. With Starling Marte and Travis Snider, Tabata might not ever be a regular in Pittsburgh again. Pirate left fielders come into today’s game with the worst OPS in baseball. They are 18th in MLB in OPS among right fielders. I think it is reasonable to expect Marte and Snider to help. Hopefully that help will come in 2012. I count this one even.

4. No regression from the pitching staff. Pirate starters have had their ERA increase each month. It was 2.69 in April. Then it was 4.16 in May. In June it was 4.59. I said before I didn’t want it the ERA to climb over 4.75. It was a solid 4.41. That’s a mark in the positive column.

5. No injuries to Cutch. Thank goodness he hasn’t been injured. The fastball that Aroldis Chapman bounced off him was nearly enough to start a riot. Today’s game will be interesting. Cutch staying healthy in July is also in the positive column.

Two things that the Pirates should consider for August. Neither of these is all that surprising or original.

1. Bench Clint Barmes. It is simple. He is terrible. He has an OPS+ of 48. He has an OPS of .529. That OPS value would make him the worst offensive player in a full season since Alfredo Griffin’s .512 OPS in 1990. He should be part of the Sunday lineup and maybe a late inning defensive replacement. If they don’t release him, he should be a bench player in 2013. Let’s see what Jordy Mercer can do.

2. Bench Rod Barajas. It is simple. He is terrible and there is a better option sitting on the bench in Michael McKenry. Barajas has hit above .200 in just one month of the season. Since June 10th, he is hitting .129. He should be part of the Sunday lineup. His option should not be picked up for 2013.

The Pirates are essentially giving away six or seven outs every game that these two guys play. If you toss in another two or three outs from the ninth spot, then you have about 1/3 of the game given away. Count me shocked that the offense was as great as it was in June and July with these two guys taking part in the majority of the games.

The argument for veteran presence doesn’t hold water for me. These guys are all big boys and should be able to play without having to be guided by an aging, scrappy vet. Don’t tell me that Barajas has deftly handled the pitching staff. Both of those arguments are the kind of nonsense that sportswriters think make good copy and team PR departments blather on about to justify a pair of awful free agent signings.

If the Pirates miss the post-season by a couple of games in 2012, it’ll be awful. Two simple and obvious changes can be made that will almost certainly aid the cause. Will Clint Hurdle bench Barmes and Barajas? My guess is that he will not. But he definitely should.