Disappointing

It's December 27th, Troy Glaus has just been traded, and Dave Littlefield is sitting in his office with about $13 million of the $15 million he was told he could spend still unspent. Are the Pirates better than last year at this point? Probably. Maybe. If. Probably because they were pitiful last year and we've jettisoned some deadweight from that team. Maybe if the young pitching can reach it's potential for once. If guys like Sean Casey and Kip Wells can stay healthy and have bounceback years. Will the Pirates compete next year? Maybe, but probably not. If Casey returns to 2004 form AND Bay keeps getting better AND Jack Wilson bounces back AND Zach Duke and Paul Maholm continue as young Tom Glavines AND Oliver Perez turns back into Randy Johnson AND Kip Wells pull his head out of his ass AND the NL Central has a down year, maybe we can compete. When you consider everything Littlefield has done for a net of about $2 million this offseason, it isn't bad. We turned Dave Williams into Sean Casey, an acceptable risk given that Josh Fogg and Mark Redman won't be paid by the Pirates next year. The more I look at Roberto Hernandez, the more I think the signing wasn't as bad as I originally thought.

The problem is that it isn't enough. You could argue that Jason Bay, in his second full season, was easily one of the five best hitters in the National League next year. The problem in 2005 was that no one protected him, and no one in front of him got on base. Sean Casey could get on base for him, but he certainly can't bat in front of him (do you want Sean Casey batting 2nd or 3rd? Neither do I) and doesn't offer much protection behind him unless he's healthy all year, something he probably won't be. Craig Wilson is one of those guys like Trot Nixon or Kevin Millar that makes a great extra cog in the offense when you have Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz to carry the offensive load. He's not that protection even when healthy. The Pirates were presented with opportunites this offseason to fill either one of the two major voids in their Jason Bay-centric offense, and maybe both. They didn't do either.

The first opportunity was Milton Bradley, a guy that in all likelihood would have done everything we wanted Matt Lawton to do last year. Leadoff, get one base 35-40% of the time, play decent outfield, hit ~20 homers. Hell, out of the limelight of LA and in Pittsburgh with a manager he must've gotten along with (because we would have never pursued him if they didn't get along) he might've been even better. Instead, we focused on Bill Mueller, got used badly by Mueller to get the deal he wanted from LA, and watched Bradley go to Oakland for nothing particularly special (it's likely we could've gotten him for Marte and a minor leaguer). OK, we thought to ourselves. Freddy Sanchez will probably make a pretty decent #2 hitter and maybe Chris Duffy will be better than we think in the leadoff spot.

The second opportunity was Troy Glaus. Apparently Dave Littlefield was interested. Apparently, that's bullshit, I say. The trade isn't final yet, but it looks like he's going to Toronto for Orlando Hudson, Miguel Batista, and a minor leaguer. If Dave Littlefield was interested, we certainly could've topped that offer. As Charlie suggests, if Hudson and Batista got it done, Jose Castillo and Salomon Torres would have almost certainly got the deal done. Castillo is essentiall a younger version of Hudson. Torres is a year younger and probably a little better as a reliever than Batista. Sure, everyone sees a ton of potential in Castillo, but Freddy Sanchez is certainly capable of handling second base and it would appear, at least to me, that Sanchez/Glaus is a better combination than Sanchez/Castillo. I mean Glaus kills the ball. In his last three healthy seasons he's hit 41, 30, and 37 homers and slugged .531, .453, and .522. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Glaus is more banged up than we know, maybe the spacious left field at PNC would kill his power stats, maybe he just isn't a National League player. I'm kind of skeptical though, because the BOB isn't exactly a hitter's park and when Jack Wilson plays short there simply isn't as much ground to cover at third.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe four years of Castillo will outweigh the two we would have of Glaus (color me as unconvinced for this one, though). Maybe we can pick up one of the Jays glut of other hot cornermen with decent bats (Hillenbrand, maybe Hinske) for a much cheaper price and they'll end up being a decent solution (probably not though, Hinske sucks and the latest I've heard is Hillenbrand is off the market). Maybe Milton Bradley will go Ron Artest in Oakland and end up in jail (I wouldn't bet on it). Maybe Chris Duffy really WILL be that leadoff guy we need, maybe Casey, CWills, and Gerut WILL all be healthy and tear the cover off the ball, giving Bay the protection he needs (Pirate fans are probably the only people alive that believe this has a snowball's chance in hell of happening). Still, given where we stand now, with $13 million or so to spend on no one and a team that's only marginally better than last year's 67 win debacle, I would've taken my chances. That's why I've been so disappointed in this offseason so far. The moves we have made haven't been bad, but the moves we failed to make are the ones that would've made us a better team.