Details

At the end of the article about Jeromy Burntiz's day yesterday (woke up, flew to Pittsburgh from California, took a physical, signed a contract, flew back to Cali in time for the Rose Bowl, incidentally if everything lived up to its hype the way that game did we'd have nothing to worry about for the Pirates next season) we've got a fantastically patronizing quote from Dave Littlefield.

(Littlefield) also said he did not intend to trade Craig Wilson, even though Burnitz and Casey would start in right field and first base, Wilson's two positions, and even though Wilson could make $4 million or more next season.

"Whether it's media or fans, everybody has to realize that, if we are going to get better, part of it is having better backups," Littlefield said. "Through ownership, we've been able to increase payroll, so you're going to have the opportunity to have quality backups. Craig brings things that we need. He has power, gets on base and has versatility in the field. To me, that piece makes a lot of sense for us."

Dave is of course forgetting two things. First off, he absolutely is thinking about trading Craig Wilson, he just said that to keep people from getting too angry. Secondly, it's not paying Craig Wilson $4 million to sit on the bench that we're angry about. It's paying someone worse than him $6 million to start over him. I love the second to last sentence, too. He justifies Craig Wilson as a bench player because he gets on base and has power, like there's something else to hitting besides getting on base and having power (which is the exact definition of OPS, On-base Plus Slugging). Maybe my "Evil Genius" series is misguided. Maybe DL is just an idiot.

UPDATE (8:03 PM)- Somehow, I forgot to add that comments like the one Littlefield made in the paper today are EXACTLY why I think he's an evil genius. Now that he's talked down Wilson and done his best to convince the fans that Craig Wilson is worthless, he hits the key talking points that a team like Oakland (where Craig would be the best fit) would want to hear. After a month full of not caring about things like OPS, it's the key point in his "why Craig Wilson is a backup) spiel. This is why I really think Littlefield can't be as stupid as he appears to be, whenever it suits him, things like OPS or on-base percentage come up. He knows that the average fan doesn't know or care what it is though, and so it's ignored when building a team.