WHYGAVS 2006 Review: October-December

I finally finished it. Not that the stuff from this last part happened that long ago anyways.

October
The season finally ended. This brought lots of good things, mainly an end to our misery as fans and the 2006 NL Batting Title to Freddy Sanchez.

I also gave out my 2006 awards, made some awful playoff predictions, and did my Pirates season review.

The '92 Pirates-run Detroit Tigers went to the World Series.

Oliver Perez started Game 7 of the NLCS for the Mets. He pitched well, but the Mets still lost.

The baseball owners admitted to collusion and no one paid any attention.

The Freaking Cardinals won the World Series. Ugh.

I made a list of who I though the Pirates should trade this off-season. As usual, the Pirates don't seem to be following my plan for success.

We got first wind of the Pirates trying to sign Yoslan Hererra, way back when everyone thought his named was spelled with a "u."

November
Not much happened in November besides crazy free agent signings by other teams and I only did 46 posts. There was lots of Hererra speculation going on early on the month.

Joe Randa retired.

I took a detailed look at the history of the Pirates uniforms and logos.

I also created a Pittsburgh Pirates political ad.

Thinking about Dave Littlefield's trade record was kind of a depressing thing to do.

Early signs pointed towards a crazy market. They were right.

I tried to translate some of DL's off-season comments.

I tried to show how the crazy market could bring good things for the Pirates.

Romulo!

The Pirates picked up Damaso Marte's option and signed him to an extension later. I assumed this meant we would trade him. You know what happens when you assume...

Baseball Reference's new toys provided new ways to look at the pitchers.

Kip Wells made an intra-divisional move.

Pirates.com got desperate for someone to push for the Hall of Fame.

Blame who?

December
Wayne Krivsky and Dave Littlefield began their sprint to the bottom.

The Winter Meetings started and Pittsburgh Pirates Roundtable launched at the same time.

Early on in the meetings we heard names like Loney, LaRoche, and Kotchman. Then we heard Nixon.

We seemed to be getting close to a deal that would help the team out tremendously... but it turned out DL was getting played like a fiddle.

We learned of Masumi Kuwata for the first time while the LaRoche rumors persisted.

And Gonzo got more popular.

Despite everything the team had indicated for months, we tendered Humberto Cota.

Sadly for Dave Littlefield, when he does nothing at all it seems good compared to his past disasters.

The Pirates made their first ever international signings of upper level players in Yoslan Hererra and Masumi Kuwata. I don't want to say Major League caliber, because that might be jumping the gun a bit, but you get the point.

The Masumi Kuwata Elimination Challenge!

Yes, Andrea, there is a Nutting Family.

With LaRoche talks stalling, we started thinking about Aubrey Huff.

The Brewers saved us from ourselves by signing Suppan to a ridiculous contract.

Barry Zito sets a new "ridiculousness" barometer.

Aubrey Huff signs elsewhere just as predictions about how bad our offense is going to be hit the internets.