I hate to make essentially the same post I did on Sheehan's column, but don't we need to really stress the amateur player acquisition angle? There was a lot of noise about the Pirates taking a cheap route in the draft in order to get Sano, then Coonnelly said they wouldn't cut costs in the draft for that reason. Shouldn't we hold out judgment until we see what they do in that regard? Because if McClouth not only nets them Hernandez, Morton, and Locke, but also allows them to be elite players on the international market and sign their favorite available player in the draft, regardless of price tag, then I think the timing of the trade is a huge point in its favor.

Is it me, or are we now seeing a weird trend? In the last year and change, the A's, M's and Pirates have all traded their best players (of varying actual quality) for quantity, not quality. I realize nobody's going to deal six-star studs, but why have these teams just acquired depth for kicks?

In 5 years, Jeff Locke is going to be viewed as the prize of this trade, and I think he ends up pitching closer to the front of a rotation than the back.

Simply a salary dump, as always.....

Baseball life in Pittsburgh never changes.

A salary dump when the Pirates are only commited to $12m for the next two years? The other day, before the trade, Pirates' announcer Bob Walk opined that the risk is not in giving $5m to a draft pick or to Sano, it's giving $120m to Mike Hampton. They should be able to give Sano $5m, their first pick $5m and still pay McLouth.

Morton has looked good in Triple-A the last two years. He had a 6 ERA in 15 starts in Atlanta last year, but the periphals weren't as bad. Despite what Christina says about Snell's contract, he is clearly #5 right now on the starting pitcher depth chart. Morton can go into the rotation, forcing Snell to the bullpen where I think it's quite possible he could succeed as did Tom Gordon.

Dear Christina,

I'm a big fan of your work, but I don't think it was quite appropriate to call Garrett Anderson, Slapless Slappy. He's had a fine career for 16 years. Looking at his career numbers his progression and eventual regression just looks "amazingly normal."

He's been a pro, arguably a role model. At 37, he's just trying his best to contribute.

You guys might want to hire a better proofreader.

There's another angle that might be worth considering. The Pirates right now have a +8 run differential and there are 8 MLB teams with worse records than they have right now, which suggests that there's a chance they don't finish in the top third of next year's draft. The Pirates have a prospect wave coming to the majors soon (McClutchen, maybe Alvarez/Tabatha) etc and their pitching is performing solidly this year. In other words, the Pirates might finally be getting better...

So, maybe the Pirates think this might be their highest draft pick for a few years so it makes sense to free up some room in their budget and grab the best prospect available regardless of asking price.

"Pirates didn't need to make this deal in a hurry, and certainly could have afforded themselves the opportunity to shop around; if this really was the best they could do for McLouth, that says something about how McLouth might, of all things, be underrated despite a silly Gold Glove selection, because we in the chattering classes like to pillory that particular process, and McLouth was such a disappointment initially, and he's not going to be a great player for years and years"

Maybe I'm just in BP Idol mode, but this sentence just seems too long. You lost me after one of the commas following the semicolon.

Yeah forced verbiage in here. That's the issue IMO. I am not looking for Thoreau, just some insight.

I think the biggest question mark about Nate McLouth is which Nate McLouth are the Braves getting. Based on the Nate that took the NL by surprise in the second half of 2007 and first half of 2008, the Braves steal this deal. Or, did the Braves acquire the post 2008 All-Star break - present player, the one who has just 38 EBH in his last 400 AB's, .260 BA, a sub-.800 OPS and 114 K's?
In addition, it's interesting to see this wave of Pirate trades and acquisitions having some of Director of Baseball Systems Development Dan Fox' (BP Alumn) philosophy and fingerprints on them. Is it posible that this trade and it's return is birthed from some significant statistical analysis that has identified indicators in McLouth's decline and/or something significant in the prospects they are receiving?
On the surface, this deal doesn't appear to be the trade you make if you're the Pirates, but something tells me that Fox was providing Huntington statistical analysis that supported what scouts saw, making this deal for Huntington "one that he didn't pursue, but one that he couldn't refuse".
One thing is certain though. You don't make a trade like this unless you are extremely confident in what your scouting and analysis is telling you. Otherwise, Neil Huntington just purchased the rope from which he will be hung.

It seems to me that the Pirates are placing a much higher premium on defense than they had in the past. They aren't fooled by McLouth's gold glove and they recognize that he is poor defensively. With their type of pitching staff that doesn't strike a ton of guys out, defense may be more important to them than average. They may in fact now have the best defensive outfield in the league; I'm sure Zack Duke et al appreciate that.