The Third Base Front

In today's Q&A Dejan mentions that he thinks Corey Koskie or Eric Hinske may be a viable trade solution to the Pirates third base question (since the Jays now have way more third basemen than a baseball team needs). He cites the fact that they are both left handed and both good with the glove as things that might make them attractive to the Pirates. I don't think either of these is much of a solution. Koskie isn't getting any younger (33 next year) and he had quite a down year last year (.249/.337/.398). Add to that the fact that he's owed over $11 million in the next two years and we'd have to trade for him, and I'd vote for staying away. Hinske, on the other hand, has never come close to duplicating his .845 OPS Rookie of the Year 2002 season. He can't be as good with the glove as Dejan suggests because he got moved from third to first last year, and that always happens for a reason. A quick glace at his fielding stats shows that in two of his three years at third he had below average fielding percentage and in all three years he was below the league average in range factor. Again, his offense isn't anything particularly special and I can't see anything that would justify trading for him.

On the positive side, the ESPN rumor mill reports, via Jerry Crasnick, that the Pirates are close to signing Joe Randa (link is Insider only). Going out on a limb and assuming Randa would be signed fairly cheaply (he made $2.15 million with the Reds and Padres last year and didn't do much to justify making any more than that) to back up Freddy Sanchez, this is probably the best move we could make at this point in the offseason at third base, adding a cheap, veteran to the clubhouse to stabilize things if something doesn't work out. Of course, the Insider link suggests Randa would be used to start at third and Sanchez would move into a utility role. This would be stupid and maddening, and the Pirates would never do anything like that... right?

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