Matt Morris Fallout

A collection of quotes and links on the Matt Morris trade from baseball writers, bloggers, etc.

Bob Smizik: By making this trade, general manager Dave Littlefield has accomplished the seemingly impossible. He made the Pirates a buyer instead of a seller at the trading deadline. Perhaps, Littlefield missed the part where the Pirates lost 13 of their first 15 after the All-Star Game and went from a team with a glimmer of hope to one careening toward another 90-loss season.

FanHouse's MJD: The deal would be understandable (maybe, on some level), if it were a contending team trading for him ... or perhaps a team that can afford to blow $9 million on a risky end-of-the-rotation starter. But the Pittsburgh Pirates are none of those things.

Jayson Stark: For the next two hours, after people around baseball learned of this deal, they couldn't stop calling, e-mailing and texting reactions that could probably be summed up with three succinct words: WHAT THE BX!GRZFDQ!!!!! Don't get us wrong here. We love Matt Morris. Terrific guy. Has had a wonderful career. Should be a fine mentor to those young Pirates starters. But the Giants were just about begging teams to take Morris and offering to chomp big chunks of his money if they had to. Then this team going nowhere dropped out of the sky and took the man and the money. What a country.

Keith Law: Another year, another bizarre acquisition by the Pirates. But while last year's move to get Shawn Chacon was puzzling, acquiring Matt Morris is inexcusable.

Bones at HW: Why?

Rowdy at HW: For a bunch of reasons, I like the Matt Morris acquisition.

Cory at the Lumber Co.: If sinking 20 percent of the team’s 2007 payroll has a significant effect on spending next year—that is, if the Pirates traded for Morris and consider themselves complete—then this is a horrible move. If, though, Dave Littlefield (or a new general manager) is given the proper funding to address the offense this off-season, the Morris deal might not be so bad.

Charlie at Bucs Dugout: This trade does address a problem area for the Pirates, but it doesn't address it very well, and the bigger problem is that when you're a team in the Pirates' position, you have to ask yourself what those problem areas mean in the grand scheme of things.

More reading: Joey Porter's Pit Bulls, The Parrot, and a long discussion of the trade at BBTF.