What to do
So July 31st is fast approaching and the season is slipping away, even at the All-Star break. Thirteen losing seasons in a row seems like a lock at this point, so the question is, what can we do to keep #14 from coming along next year? I have some suggestions for Mr. Dave Littlefield himself. I'm no GM, but then again I'm not exactly sold on DL either. So here we go.
- Trade Mark Redman. So he wants an extension, big deal. The fact is we already have Dave Williams and two of our best pitching prospects over the last five years, Burnett and Duke, are both soft tossing lefties. Mark Redman is a soft tossing lefty. In the three years prior to this one, Redman played on one bad team and two good teams, putting up a record of 33-36. Josh Fogg was 33-31 over the same span, playing for three bad teams. If we give him the extension he wants for anything more than his option (~$5 million) we're making a mistake. There's interest in him now, trade him now before this slump continues into the second half, making him worthless.
- Trade Matt Lawton. This opens up more playing time for people like Doumit and potentially McLouth and Duffy, especially with Craig Wilson back. Lawton has a good bat, and the next time an outfielder gets hurt or goes into a slump someone will panic. We have to take advantage of it. We have no use for him simply because he's taking at bats away from young guys and he's lazy everywhere except in the batters box.
- Listen to offers for Kip Wells. I'll admit, the thought of him another uniform scares me. He's capable of pitching like he did against the Philles every night. Right now we hold all the cards when it comes to Kip. If he keeps pitching poorly we won't take a big arbitration hit in the spring. Since it's a contract year, he'll probably be worth whatever we pay him next year. The key is making people come to you about Kip. If someone makes a great offer, take it. If not we can wait until next year. Pitching is our strong suit and I'm not sure if Kip can ever excel here in Pittsburgh. The key is not trading him for the sake of trading him and ending up with another Benson trade on our hands.
- Shop Daryle Ward. We got Ward for a good price this year. If he puts up decent second half numbers someone will overpay for him next year, and I hope it isn't us. Getting rid of Ward lets us put Craig Wilson at first base and let's people play in the outfield that deserve to be there. So who would want Ward, you ask? Well the Cubs wanted Randall Simon in 2003 and we ended up with Ray Sadler for him. I wouldn't be opposed to a similar deal with Ward. He's improved himself a lot and his value is highest right now, so let's see if we can ship him out of town.
- Keep Duke in the rotation and get Snell there. This is, of course, contingent on a couple things. I'll assume a trade of Redman to keep a spot open for Duke. I haven't heard anything about Perez, but that toe injury could be a nasty one and he might be out for a while more. The thing is, Snell is a starter and needs starts, not more work out of the pen. Let's get him starts.
- Do your best to get rid of Mesa and White. I'm not sure either of these two would have a ton of trade value, but they're both killing our pen and we need to get rid of them, one way or another.
- Stop wasting roster spots. Instead of Restovich, who is a defensive liability and isn't living up to expectations at the plate, bring up a young guy, get him some at bats. Don't forget about Bobby Hill on the end of the bench. Don't bury Vogelsong and Meadows in the bullpen. Sure they've been awful, but then again they both only pitch once a week or so. It's tough to get anything going pitching that rarely. If you don't trust em, get rid of em, otherwise us them. It makes no sense that a young team that should be growing only plays 21 players on a regular basis.
- Fire Lloyd. OK, so the first couple suggestions on this list are plausible. This one will never happen, as much as I'd like to see it. It's become clearer and clearer that Lloyd is little more than a buddy for everyone in the clubhouse. It worked for Terry Francona last year. Some might argue that Chuck Tanner was little more than that in 1979. Sometimes that's all teams need. This isn't one of those teams. This is a team that needs direction, and it's not being given by Lloyd.