Littlefield malaise

You've probably (OK, maybe is likely a better word) been wondering why I haven't been doing anything along the lines of Cory's Fantasy GM posts or sifting through the free agent list looking for potential targets for the Buccos. I've been meaning to do something along those lines but haven't gotten around to it and I've finally decided to scrap the idea. You are probably asking why, so let's get to it.

The truth of the matter is, I have absolutely no ability to get excited for another Dave Littlefield-lead off-season. Until something happens to give me reason to think otherwise, creating trades for Mark Teixeira or Chad Tracy or Marcus Giles on paper feels futile to me (note: I am not trying to take anything away from the people that do this in the offseason, I'm just explaining my own mindset for your benefit, please please please don't take out of this that I think everyone that posts about what they think DL should be doing this off-season is wasting their time, in fact, I wish I had the faith in the Pirates' front office that they have). I am unsure why I'm so particularly negative this fall. It is likely that it is at least partially the Steelers fault. It's easy to spend time in the off-season talking about the hopeless Pirates when the Steelers are winning every Sunday, but when the Steelers are as self-destructive as they've been this year, it's even more depressing to think about the Pirates. I doubt that's all of it.

We're now entering the sixth off-season with Dave Littlefield at the helm of this team. While trying to find a list of the off-season trades DL has made in his career, I've discovered that the first two Google hits are columns that Charlie wrote for Irate Fans. While depressing in itself, that little fact eventually comes to mean that we'll have to rely on my memory here. Near as I can tell, big Littlefield winter trades (big used loosely) have been:

• Todd Ritchie for Kip Wells, Josh Fogg, and Sean Lowe
• Roberto Novoa and Adrian Burnside for Randall Simon
• Jason Kendall for Mark Redman and Arthur Rhodes
• Arthur Rhodes for Matt Lawton
• Dave Williams for Sean Casey
• Mark Redman for Jonah Bayliss

If I'm forgetting any, feel free to let me know in the comments (I'm leaving out stuff like the Bobby Hill and Tike Redman trades last winter intentionally, I don't think they're relevant here, also, the Benito Santiago trade makes me want to vomit). The Ritchie trade was a great one, they shipped off a flukey late career success story for three guys, two of which contributed to the Pirates for a considerable amount of time. The Kendall trade and the resulting Lawton trade can also likely be considered a success as Littlefield eliminated the albatross of Kendall's salary for a serviceable starter and an outfielder that fits the mold of hitter we should be attempting to acquire (editor's note: I'm talking about a lefty that's good at getting on base and can take advantage of the short porch in right, not an outfielder that plays right field and runs the bases as if he's constantly in a marijuana haze), though it doesn't apply to anything DL will do this winter (we don't have a big contract like Kendall's to dump). The Randall Simon trade and the Casey trade are similarly pointless, we didn't give up and we didn't get much that could help us. The Casey trade is slightly offset by the Redman trade as somehow DL convinced Allard Baird to take all of Redman's salary, as one move, Casey and Bayliss for Williams and Redman isn't a terrible move, though it didn't make us much better.

So here's my point: Littlefield should be looking for young, left handed bats with decent pop that are either blocked at their position, viewed as too old for their level, are thought of as expendable because of other players in their system, or have some other sort of flaw (meaning "has no real position" when really he's a decent first baseman, "too passive at the plate" when really he's just got a good eye, etc., flaws like Randall Simon's "swings at anything and that includes walking Italian sausages" are flaws to stay away from) that turns GMs just like Littlefield off, and he's simply got no history of doing stuff like that. I like guys like Teixeira as much as anyone, but if he comes here in a trade he's going to eat up a huge percentage of our payroll, cost a ton of talent (at least Duke and Gonzo, probably more), and be gone in two years. If he were the last piece to the puzzle, I'd say do it in a heartbeat. I don't honestly believe that he is though; the Pirates were flawed in more ways than not having a powerful first baseman last year and filling that hole out while removing Zach Duke from the equation doesn't help things much.

As for free agents, what the Pirates need to do is what the Tigers did two Februarys in a row in '04 and '05; overpay through the nose for a top tier free agent in order to convince them to play for them when no one else will. They need to destroy the Jeromy Burnitz, Chris Stynes, Raul Mondesi, Joe Randa "elephant graveyard" stigma (meaning that I think a lot of players consider Pittsburgh to be the place where careers go to die). The Tigers managed to convince Magglio Ordonez and Pudge to play for them, doing that makes something like the Sheffield deal possible. You can say what you want about the Sheffield deal, but there's no way Sheff would accept a two year extension to come here in a trade. The problem is that Dave Littlefield is not Dave Dombrowski. Even with the Tigers in the depths of their doldrums, Dombrowski could point to his time in Florida and Montreal and tell potential free agents that he was building a winning team and he had a plan and that guys like Maggs and Pudge were part of it. How can Dave Littlefield do something similar? I don't think he can. The only off-season that he brought in any useful talent at all from the free agent market(prior to '03 when he signed Suppan, Sanders, Lofton, and Stairs) was a year that the owners have now admitted to collusion. We're four years removed from that now but it might as well have been a million years ago.

So finally, what would I do if I were DL? I know I said I wouldn't waste my breath, but I'll do it anyways. The same stuff I've mentioned at various times before. I'd be trying to trade someone like Paul Maholm or Jose Castillo or both for guys that have been mentioned in the Pirates' corner of the internet before, Mike Jacobs, Adam LaRoche, etc.; Ken Rosenthal mentions Chad Tracy today and I think he'd be a good target as well (via BBTF). All of them could give us 3-4 years and would be cheaper both in terms of the checkbook and in talent given up than Big Tex would be (it's true, I just don't want to spell his name again). I would try not to trade Duke unless it was an offer I couldn't refuse. I would shop Gonzo and Marte like crazy and look for a Rincon for Giles or a Christiansen for Wilson deal. I would throw in any of the million similar relievers we have to complete either deal. If a fantastic deal came up for a Maholm/Gonzo package, I'd do it, but it would have to address more than one of our needs. That would leave a considerable amount of money to spend on pitching, which would mean that I would try my "overpay to come here" theory. I wouldn't waste time with Schmidt, he won't come back here, he's 33, and he's declined the last two years (I know that last year was somewhat of a bounce back year for him, but it still was nothing like '02-'04 peak which was waay better than anything he'd ever done previously... say it with me now, sterrrrrrrroids). As much as it pains me to say this, Jeff Weaver has pitched very well for Jim Tracy and Jim Colborn in the past. He would seem to be a logical choice to fill out the rotation (I know he's a Boras client; we'd have to throw a lot of money at him). If another starter is needed to fill the gap that trading Maholm would create, Vincente Padilla is an intriguing option as he's pitched fairly well in hitters parks the last two years. Mark Mulder is also an interesting option, though he'd likely be a project and a half between his rotator cuff issues and his sucking issues (which are at least partially related). None of those guys are top tier guys and I think they could all be convinced to come here with lots of green, especially if DL made some logic based trades and Colby could sell them on being a rock for this young staff. None of this would be earthshaking stuff, but it would be a bunch of small steps in the right direction towards 2008 when we might be able to accomplish something. Will it happen? My hopes aren't up.