Monday, July 07, 2008

It's nice to have a smart GM on our side

I failed to post this earlier today, but apparently the Jack Wilson to the Dodgers rumors are heating up. John Perrotto wrote a story about it today, one popped up in the LA Times, and one showed up at a site called PE.com (links via Charlie and BBTF). I'm still guessing that the trade would center around some lesser prospects (I'm thinking James McDonald, just because we're so pitching poor), but Colletti's been making some crazy quotes that are making people think that he might be willing to part with a top prospect (think James Loney or Matt Kemp) to get Wilson. This quote (from the PE.com article) is the one that have the wheels churning:

"We're more open-minded to who we may have to move," Colletti said.

[...]

Colletti's comments echoed what owner Frank McCourt told me earlier in the week when asked about the possibility of trading some of the kids. He said the ones they will hold onto are "the ones who are prepared to put in the work, listen to coaches and get better every day." The kids who they would be willing to part with are "the ones that can't do those things."
Now, as much as I'd like to believe that Huntington is going to pull a 23-year old super-prospect that's killed the ball at every level of the minors out of his hat for the shambles that the Pirates have to offer, I'm not getting my hopes up. Still, Colletti is a bad general manager. Think about it this way: if the Pirates were still being run by Dave Littlefield and they had a player like Kemp (improbable, I know), while DL was known to be interested in a player like Jack Wilson, how terrified would you be? I wouldn't be sleeping at night. The Pirates might not end up with Kemp from this deal, but what's obvious is that Colletti wants Wilson real bad and he looks willing to overpay to do it.

We've been waiting on Huntington to make a big move for almost ten months now. Pencils out, class. The test is about to begin.

UPDATE: Alternately, you could choose to believe the article that went up on the PG's site two minutes after I made my post, saying that the Pirates are leaning towards keeping Wilson. Maybe the Pirates are serious about that. Maybe they're posturing. Doesn't this time of year always drive you nuts?