Braves 5 Pirates 4- And the ensuing trade

First things first, the Pirates lost today. They had a lead and lost it, then couldn't get it back. I didn't see much of the game so there isn't a whole ton I can say about it. We let Rafael Fucal kill us today, with one homer from each side of the plate, one off of the celebrated John Grabow. And let's face it, beating John Smoltz is something we've been no good at for a good 13+ years now.

As of almost immediately after the game, we are also officially Matt Lawtonless. We shifted him to Chicago for Jody Gerut, making the three-team outfield swap with the Indians compete (the Indians sent Gerut to the Cubs for Jason Dubois about two weeks ago). I don't know a whole ton about Gerut at the moment other than what the stats tell me. He had a good rookie year with the Tribe (22 homers, 75 RBIs, .830 OPS) and if I'm not mistaken he's a very good defensive outfielder. His offense has dipped mightily in 2004 (11 homers, 52 RBIs, .739 OPS) and he's hardly played this year (I think he had knee surgery after the season ended last year). I know a couple Indians fans that are usually pretty honest with me when we trade with the Tribe (they were dead on with what they told me to expect from Lawton) so when I know more I'll share it. Right now I'm just happy to be rid of Matt Lawton and his laziness and that we got a serviceable player for him.

I'm also pretty disappointed that we didn't trade Mark Redman. We still have the waiver deadline coming up, but let's be honest with ourselves, if Redman doesn't pick things up we don't have much to hope for there. We probably should've dealt him in June when he was at peak value, but Dave Littlefield was determined to try and hang around .500 to make the fans happy. That was a hallmark of his predecessor, making moves to please the masses, not make the team better. If we put Duke in the rotation for Redman in mid-June, then give Snell starts when Perez went down we couldn't possibly be worse off than we are now. I suppose hindsight's 20-20 but Littlefield should know that having a good team down the road is more important than having an average on this year. Best case scenario is that Redman pitches better, someone gets desperate, and we get him through waivers. Until that happens, though, it looks like he overplayed his hand, again.