Again. This time it's Nate McLouth, who made the All-Star team last year and won a Gold Glove. He heads to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for three prospects who are no immediate threat to make the Big Club. Pirate fans are up in arms about this, believing it's yet another in a seemingly never-ending list of great player the team has traded away for little return. I'm hardly what you'd call a Pirates apologist...though I still identify myself as a Bucs fan even after almost two decades of shitty baseball and shittier management...but I don't really have a problem with this move. Sure, on the Pirates McLouth is a star...but as my baseball stats-obsessed pal Greg likes to point out, "A star for the Pirates is a fourth outfielder on a good team".
Maybe the prospects pan out, maybe they don't. I was all ready to decide McLouth was my favorite player, until I recently discovered that A. He's a Red Wangs fan, and B. He skipped his team's recent meeting with the president because, as he told Stan Savran and Guy Junker on their ESPN 1250 radio show on May 20th, "I don't like this administration." (pretty amazing how ardent these conservative creeps are in their demand that you "respect the office", as long as their guy is occupying said office. Otherwise, go ahead and blow off the president. Classy.). So, good riddance, jagoff.
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4 comments:
As a Reds fan I have always been able to symapthize with the Pirates as a small market club, and everyone likes to root for the underdog. However I did hear a good quote today that summed up the Pirate's plight pretty well..."They have a lineup with 7 Number 7 hitters." Mclouth is good but not someone to build around. Hopefully the prospects will pan out for them.
If Nate is a Redwings fan, that's enough for me to Welcome him here to Atlanta, land of fairweather fans if there ever was such a thing. I've hated this Atlanta Ballclub ever since Joe Torre managed them and he wouldn't sign my baseball as a kid at 3 Rivers (don't ask why I was trying to get a manager to sign my baseball...I just saw a friggin uniform)...and hated them even more when Sid Bream SCREAMED around the pads to beat Barry Bonds weak ass throw home in '92. So...The Bucs won't be any worse without you Nate. Last in the division is last in the division with or without you. But welcome to the truly shittiest franchise in baseball...the Braves. Urggh.
True 'dat, boys! Kinda hate to see him go, but he's definitely not the answer.
Great quote too, Ben. Sums up the Buccos to a T.
Rob's stat-obsessed friend Greg here. Too often the Pirates last front office did pay star money to players such as Freddie Sanchez who really didn't perform like stars. Nate had a career year last year, and it made sense to trade him. But to the Braves for three prospects who are all having very disappointing years?
Rule #1: never trade for Braves prospects--I don't think there's one guy they've traded who's amounted to anything. More than that, I'm kind of stunned that the Pirates don't appear to have gotten nearly as much in prospects as the Indians did from the Dodgers last year for Casey Blake, who isn't good enough to carry Nate's jock.
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