Where have you gone, Andy Van Slyke?

I've seen a lot of reactions to this trade and I'm getting a ton of traffic, so I'm going to start this post way back at the beginning. If you're a regular reader and the first two paragraphs or so seem obvious to you, bear with me. One year ago, Neal Huntington inherited a wreck. He was handed a baseball team built for 75 wins through 2009, at which point it would be completely disbanded, and a minor league system that was so barren that Steve Pearce hit his way to being the #2 prospect in the organization with only one good season. Faced with a choice, he decided to try and let his players maximize their value before trading them off to rebuild the entire organization from square one. The key piece in doing that has to be the best player on the major league team. That is, of course, Jason Bay. Trading Jason Bay today is not a salary dump, because the Pirates can afford to keep him. Because of the sins of the past, the Pirates have no choice but to look to the future. ...

Ken Griffey's already been traded to the White Sox. The Bay talks seem pretty intense after everything that happened yesterday and he's probably headed to somewhere in the AL East. I'll update this post all day as things happen and if really big things happen, they'll get their own posts as soon as I can work them up. You can use this thread to talk, speculate, leave me links, etc. Starting at 1 PM, I'm going to be helping with FanHouse's Deadline Chat, but I'll be updating here all day as well. Also, I will be at work, so if I'm not right on the ball, bear with me. This is going to be a wild day. 10:47- Most things I can find about this trade seem to peg it at about 50/50 (there's about ten links I could give you to that). One of the sticking points is certainly what prospects the Pirates are getting and another is that Manny Ramirez is insane. ( UPDATE: and five minutes after I posted this, DK put up an update confirming my guess that Huntington a...

Is this going down? Is this not going down? There are a million variables and a million rumors being passed around tonight. The main tenants of this deal right now are: 1.) Manny Ramirez to Florida, 2.) Jason Bay (and maybe Grabow) to Boston, 3.) Jeremy Hermida and prospects to the Pirates. Will Carrol says it's almost done , but the Commish has to approve and that we might want more for Bay. What to take from this? Where there's smoke, there's fire, and there's smoke all over the place right now. There are some things to consider, though. Hermida is an incredibly promising young player, but he's 24 and he's got 2-3 seasons worth of major league time. As centerpieces for players like Jason Bay go, I don't know that he's who I'd have my eye on because of service time. And it's possible that Huntington is using all of this Red Sox talk to drive up an offer from the Rays. The Rays have so much young pitching that they can almost certainly afford to ...

Aaron Cook and Zach Duke take the mound tonight in a game that will be secondary over the focus on Jason Bay, as talks between the Pirates and Rays seem awfully serious. I don't have a lot to add about the game, but I will say this: if Huntington isn't getting the offer he wants from the Rays, he should be waiting to see if the Sox pull the trigger on a Manny Ramirez trade. If they do and are suddenly in the market for a corner outfielder, we can write our own check for Bay, likely to either Tampa or Boston. Just something to think about. UPDATE: I know it's just the MLB.com guys, but seeing what I wrote above, this is worth a look . The rumor is a Pirates/Marlins/Red Sox three way trade that would include Hermida coming our way. The players aren't important. What's important is that Huntington is working every angle of this Bay trade and it sure seems like he knows what he's doing. If you're looking for more sources on this one, Will Carroll is in on it as ...

Lest you were worried that Neal Huntington was done after last Friday's trad e: The Pirates are deep into trade talks with the Tampa Bay Rays and other parties regarding left fielder Jason Bay , one team source with direct knowledge said yesterday, but it remains far from certain that Bay will be moved by Major League Baseball's deadline tomorrow afternoon. DK says it's a slightly better than 50% chance that Bay stays in Pittsburgh, but geez, a deal with the Rays just makes SO MUCH SENSE for both sides that I find it hard to believe that Huntington and Friedman won't find a way to make it happen. UPDATE: From ESPN's trade deadline blog : The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Wednesday that the Pirates are deep into talks with the Rays about Jason Bay. Separately, with about 29 hours to go before the trade deadline, sources indicate to ESPN that while nothing is imminent, the two sides are talking constructively and trying to bridge the gap. We won't get Price,...

So ... another ugly start, another decent recovery by a starter, another comeback against a shaky Rockies starter and another win. I didn't get to see much because I was busy being extorted by the people that towed my car in an evil alliance with my apartment complex ("Wait, so I owe you $180 ... in cash ... even though I can see places on the bill that clearly say I can pay with a check or a credit card ... how is this different from you stealing my car and holding it hostage?"), but it looks like Herrera was not particularly great last night and was bailed out the Pirate offense and good luck. I'm sure he's not complaining too loudly.

Glendon Rusch and Yoslan Herrera start tonight. Also, my car got towed. By my own apartment complex. Because they sent me a letter telling me that the parking lot would be resurfaced in "August" when they really meant "July." And I have to pay to get it back. Also, other bad things are happening that I can't talk about right now, but if you are an avid reader of the internet, you've probably stumbled upon yourself during the day today. Go Bucs. Woo m$%&#@#@$%ing hoo.

Adam LaRoche goes on the disabled list , which is a shame because he's finally been hitting like the guy we traded for two winters ago. His line is currently at .265/.343/.470 and his .390/.472/.805 line in July to go with his 7 homers would probably make him a player of the month candidate if he didn't get hurt and didn't play for the PIrates. In his stead, the Pirates are calling up Brian Bixler. Reaction #1 is of course, "OMG! Jack's getting traded!" The question, though, is who else were we going to call up? Pearce is already up after the trade and McCutchen isn't on the 40-man and I don't think the team has any intentions of putting him there this year unless Bay gets traded. Bixler's it and he hasn't really been hitting terribly at AAA since we demoted him. That being said, Nomar Garciaparra is probably headed to the disabled list again (via Baseball Musings ) and the Dodgers are about to get really desperate for a short-stop. Just sayin...

If you can think back to the late part of 2006 and the first half of 2007 when Ian Snell was a budding ace for the Pirates, you might remember the one thing that was repeatedly said about Snell before his starts: "Get to him the first time around or you're not getting to him tonight." It's actually something that people say about most good pitchers and like most old baseball sayings, it probably doesn't have a whole lot of basis in fact. It was certainly applicable to Snell tonight, though, as he struggled through two innings, giving up six hits (including a homer to Matt Holliday) and only being spared from a deficit greater than 3-0 by an absolutely insane laser beam of a relay by Jack Wilson from shallow center-field to nail Troy Tulowitzki at the plate. In his next five innings, he only allowed two hits and a walk and he struck out seven. That gave the Pirates plenty of time to rally against Valerio de los Santos (who I failed to recognize from before the game...

Two teams that are headed in opposite directions face off at PNC tonight, with Ian Snell and Valerio De Los Santos taking the mound (most places are saying Jason Hirsch is starting, but DK says de los Santos ). Both Adam LaRoche and Freddy Sanchez are going to be on the bench for this one with the back spasms that they suffered in Sunday's game, so we don't need to fire up the trade rumor machine just yet when they aren't on the field to start this one tonight. The Rockies have won nine of ten since the break and we're sputtering pretty badly with three straight losses to the Padres. Snell hasn't showed much since his return from the DL beyond some increased velocity. To be honest, if this one doesn't look promising in the first hour, I'm probably flipping to the Brewers/Cubs game. You can decide on your own if that's the Ian Snell insult or just a sad statement of fact.

I've been sent this link a couple times and I see it being discussed in the comments. I wasn't really planning on weighing in because I don't think it has much substance, but people seem kind of panicky over it, so I'll toss my two cents into the hat. The rumor is that the Pirates and Braves had mostly agreed on sending Jason Bay to Atlanta for four prospects, most likely including Brett Lillibridge and Brandon Jones, only to have the deal nixed by ownership. Let's put this one through the ringer: It's from Mark Bowman, the Braves MLB.com beat writer. You know what MLB.com beat writers can be like. Lillibridge has been terrible since being traded to the Braves and is maybe a fringe prospect at this point, if we're being kind. Jones is a semi-promising 24-year-old outfield prospect. Given what Huntington just traded for, does it seem like either one would be on his radar? The Braves are almost certainly shopping Mark Teixeira and looking to sell at this dead...

There's some good news from the PG today regarding the remaining unsigned picks in the draft; apparently the Pirates are still targeting all of the remaining unsigned players in the top ten. Beyond Alvarez (who I'm still confident will sign, despite everything that's recently happened) the most important player in the group is Robby Grossman. I had kind of thought things were bleak on that front, but he came to PNC Park recently and apparently things are looking up: Grossman, a California high school player considered to have potential above his sixth-round position, said during a brief visit to PNC Park Saturday that he considered himself "50-50" between signing with the Pirates and honoring his commitment to the University of Texas. A team official gave much the same chances of signing him. The word on Scheppers remains the same as it has since draft day: the Pirates want to see him throw before deciding to sign him, presumably because he's going to cost fi...

As anyone could've guessed before the game, Maholm and Peavy cruised through seven innings apiece this afternoon, each holding their opponent to one run and four hits with Maholm striking out nine and Peavy striking out ten. From there, the difference was the bullpens. As bad as the Padres have been this season, Heath Bell and Trevor Hoffman are much better than what the Pirates have to offer in the 'pen. They shut us out over two innings while John Grabow gave up home runs to Scott Hairston (who somehow has 17 bombs this year) and Josh Bard, presenting us with our final score. Anyways, if there were any lingering thoughtst that this team could contend this year, losing three out of four at home to the Padres should pretty much take care of that. The worst part about this loss today is that it deals yet another blow to Grabow's trade value. Speaking of which, go work those phones, Neal. Give us all something else to talk about.

Peavy and Maholm at 1:35 today. Given the way these two can work and the offenses at hand, we might have a really quick game this afternoon.

It's amazing that I'm still finding new things to read about the trade, but almost two days later, I am. There's two more things that I think are important reads about this move. The first is from Joe Sheehan at Baseball Prospectus : While 2008 is a lost year for Tabata, he represents the type of talent the Pirates have generally had problems getting into the system: young, high-upside with superstar potential and some risk involved. It’s not clear what he’s going to become, but what he could become is more impressive than any other Pirate prospect’s ceiling. This is the type of deal Neal Huntington needed to make. Considering that he flipped an impending free agent (Marte) and a player having a career half, this is a very good deal for the Pirates; first-year GM. This is an indelicate comparison, but if you want the optimistic viewpoint, think about Hanley Ramirez , who put up a desultory 2005 season in Double-A, creating whispers similar to what we’ve heard about Tabata. ...

Things of interest from this game (and other games): Steve Pearce: 1/4, 1 BB Adam LaRoche: 2/5, 1 HR- His batting line is now better than last year's and there's actually a chance that he could finish 2008 with a better OPS+ than 2006. Xavier Nady: 0/3, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 1 run scored Damaso Marte: struck out David Ortiz. Has the bizarre career arc of being traded from the Yankees to the Pirates to the White Sox to the Pirates to the Yankees. John Van Benschoten: 1 and 2/3 innings pitched, 6 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 2 HR I heard Jeff Karsten described as, "probably better than Van Benschoten." Gulp. Wreck Specs: 2 solo homers allowed Jason Michaels has 29 hits and 29 RBIs this year. Very fluky. 15 runs in two games to the Padres. That's no good, my friends. That's all from this one. Actually, I'm surprised I remember this much, what with Greg Brown and Bob Walk not mentioning anything but the auction after the second inning.

Apparently, the Pirates still have to take the field tonight, even after yesterday's trade. Allegedly, they played last night and lost. John Van Benschoten starts tonight, putting the Padres awful offense to the true test, while Steve Pearce is in Pittsburgh and batting sixth tonight. I kind of imagine that the team is very distracted right now and curious who's on their way out the door next, so it seems kind of likely that we might be about to enter an ugly stretch of baseball. I guess that's all relative when you consider the last sixteen years for the Pirates.

After last night's trade, clearly some work had to be done with the roster. Dejan followed all the moves closely . Ohlendorf and Karstens will be on the 40-man roster, while Dan McCutchen won't, as of yet. John Van Benschoten is still starting tonight and Steve Pearce is taking Nady's place on the Pirates roster. There's no word on who's going to fill Marte's slot, but I'd guess it'll be Ohlendorf. If he can't get to Pittsburgh in time, we might roll with 24 guys in tonight's game. I won't lie, I'm excited to see Pearce get the call. He hasn't hit all that well in AAA this year, but he's made it pretty clear that he was frustrated by being stuck there after the year he had last year. I still think that he can hit and am happy he's going to have a chance to try and do it on a major league level before we completely write him off.

Apparently, the Pirates/Yankees trade wasn't nearly as set in stone last night as we thought it was. According to Ken Rosenthal , the deal is going to change from Marte and Nady for Tabata, Ohlendorf, Coke, and Kontos to Tabata, Ohlendorf, Daniel McCutchen , and Jeff Karstens . They're both 25, both in AAA, and both have decent but not great peripherals. I'd say they're both better prospects than Coke, but maybe not as good as Kontos. The change in the deal makes Huntington's intent incredibly clear. His goal with this move was two-fold; to get Tabata and too add pitching depth at the highest levels of the minors, where we very clearly have none. I have, of course, been spending a lot of time thinking about this deal since it happened. I've mostly been trying to talk myself into not hating it, then yelling at myself for trying to talk myself into another Pirate trade that I don't really believe in, then countering in my head that this is a much better trade ...

It's looking more and more like Nady and Marte to the Yankees for Tabata, Coke, Ohlendorf, and George Kontos. The conversation on this trade begins and ends with Tabata, who might be a super star and might not ever make it to the majors. More later. MORE: Here's the deal; this is Nady and Marte for Tabata's upside. Ohlendorf is a warm body to fill the roster out with, Coke probably isn't much more than that and neither is Kontos. ( ETA: I'm selling Kontos short here. He's got good strikeout numbers and is age appropriate in AA at 23. He might turn out to be a decent starter.) This is a trade for Tabata. The thing is, it's really hard to project Tabata. His minor league numbers are awful, but they're also practically meaningless because he's extremely young. Prospect guys like John Sickels LOVE Tabata , but he really hasn't done much and he's suffered a wrist injury this year that seems to be pretty serious. He's a huge talent, but he'...

Zach Duke is putting the four-game winning streak on the line tonight against Cha Seung Baek and the Padres tonight. We saw last night how bad the Padres offense is, so I'm vaguely optimistic about a good start from Duke tonight. Of course, sometimes the Pirate pitching staff is just what the doctor ordered for slumping offenses. As for Baek, I'm going to be honest, I don't know anything about him. He doesn't seem to be very good away from Petco, though. UPDATE (7:22): Nady just got pulled from the game after the first inning for apparently no reason. He might be hurt, but the announcers don't seem to know and it's hard to know when he might've gotten hurt. Keeping an eye on this one. UPDATE #2 (7:41): Marte's hugging people in the dugout and the PR department has confirmed that a deal is in the works and is pending "medical review." UPDATE #3 (7:49): Rotoworld mentions that Reid Brignac isn't starting for Durham tonight . Brignac and some ...

It's not terribly surprising that Scott Boras felt the need to address the Pittsburgh media after Frank Coonelly's comments the other day, and it's also not surprising that he didn't talk much about Pedro Alvarez. For all of the things people say about him, he's really good at his job and that's why guys with Pedro Alvarez sign on with him. Check his statement to Dejan today : "One thing that fans should understand about the draft is that we've only asked for 11 players, in my 36 years of doing this, to get bonuses that have exceeded $4 million or $5 million. All 11 of those players are highly successful in Major League Baseball," Boras said. "And we've only asked for bonuses that exceed $7 million or $8 million a couple of times, and those players are Mark Teixeira, J.D. Drew, Stephen Drew and people of that nature who are all either stars or coming stars. I think it's important to have that context of the work we've done in the ...

What do you believe at this time of year? Do you believe Jayson Stark's story about teams getting frustrated with the Pirates high asking prices? That thing might as well be cut and pasted from a story about Dave Littlefield. Do you believe Danny Knobler's story at Sportsline that teams should be knocking down the door for the Pirates' players, if only Neal Huntington and Frank Coonelly could just get along? (Incidentally, do you believe that there's a bald sportswriter named Danny Knobler? Because I'm skeptical) Do you believe either of them? Or neither of them? Is the truth somewhere in the middle? Is it more extreme? I don't know the answers to those questions. The trade deadline is a fun time of year to be a blogger and a fan, but it's insanely stressful trying to separate the crap from stuff that's useful. I can tell you the following things for sure: Xavier Nady is the best outfielder that is definitely available on the market Jason Bay is the se...

Watching the Socialist Splitter take out the Padres tonight, two things occurred to me. One was that while I'm not convinced that Herrera will ever be an effective major league pitcher, I could at least see what made people interested in him tonight. His off-speed stuff can be pretty nasty and it's good enough to keep a team full of terrible hitters guessing. That brings me to the second thing: the Padres are really a terrible hitting team. Remember the Pirates last year? Remember how they'd make terrible pitchers without great control look awesome by flailing at breaking pitches that were clearly not strikes as they dove out of the strike zone? That's exactly what the Padres did to Herrera tonight. I'm happy for Yoslan. He's come a long way for this chance to pitch in the bigs and he's got a win now, which is more than a lot of people can ever say. I just don't want people to mistake this game for more than what it was; a really poor performance by the ...

After a series with the Astros, we're going back to PNC for a series against one of the few teams with a worse record than the Astros, the Padres. It's a good thing it's the Padres, too, because Yoslan Herrera is starting tonight and his WHIP is 3.84. That's not a typo. Herrera is actually allowing nearly 4 base runners an inning in his two starts with the Pirates. His problem has been well laid out just about everywhere; he's got good off-speed stuff that he's over-reliant upon, but he's over reliant upon it because his fastball is terrible. That's a catch-22 with absolutely no answer. Herrera is, quite simply, very bad and there's not anything that anyone can do to fix it.

In the negotiations between the Pirates and Pedro Alvarez, it looks like the Pirates are blinking first by going forward with their frustrations with Alvarez and Scott Boras: "I am frustrated that negotiations haven't concluded of yet," Coonelly said last night by phone from Pittsburgh. "We were very hopeful to have Pedro playing for one of the Pirates' affiliates by now. Other premier college players who signed early, like Troy Tulowitzki, Ryan Braun and Evan Longoria, have used the additional year of development as a stepping stone to get into majors within 10-12 months of being drafted, and we tried to work Pedro into that situation." This is the first time I've felt even vaguely concerned about signing Alvarez, and it's not for obvious reasons. The Pirates have the money to sign Pedro Alvarez. That's not the question. The money for Alvarez is there. The Pirates also have to sign Pedro. There's no real question there. Even if they knock ...

There's no better way to close out a delightfully weird series of bad baseball and wins against the Astros than with a horribly pitched nightmare of a game that saw Obi-Wan Mientkiewicz pulling in four hits for the first time since 1862 and the one and only Wreck Specs Osoria throwing two scoreless innings to stem the tide of the Astros' awful offense and pick up the win. If there was ever a series that took place entirely in the baseball twilight zone, this three-gamer against the Astros was certainly it. I would be encouraged, but the Astros are actually worse run than we are at this point, so rather than being encourage, I'm just happy to know we're better than someone.

It's getaway day in Houston as the Bucs and Astros are playing at 2:05 this afternoon with Ian Snell and Brian Moehler taking the mound. The Pirates have had an impressive ability to kick the crap out of the Astros this year, so hopefully they can continue that into this afternoon. This is Snell's fourth start since coming off of the disabled list and he hasn't really been all that impressive in any of them. If he's going to start turning the corner and earning the right to be insulted by me every fifth day, it's going to have to happen sooner rather than later. But hey, at least we'll all have something to do at work this afternoon.

I think the Pirates have stumbled upon a new, foolproof plan for victory. The plan is simple; hit three home runs a night. The Pirates have tried that each of the last two games, and they've won both times. I don't know why no one's thought of this before, but it seems like a solid plan to me. Of course, that's always aided by a starter that only allows six base runners in eight innings. Paul Maholm has made some good starts against the Astros in the last two years and he made another good one against them last night. If you're keeping track, the formula is (home runs) + (good start) = win. Seems easy, right?

After last night's fun win, the Pirates and Astros tee it up again at 8 tonight with Paul Maholm and Jack Cassel taking the mound. Today Ed Wade traded for Randy Wolf for no particular reason at all. I am in no way kidding when I say that as big of a disaster as the Pirates seem to us right now, the Astros are a trainwreck of epic proportions. Wade has this team headed down the dumpster so fast it's actually kind of mind blowing. Losing to them is no longer an option.

From Newsday : Manuel has made it no secret he'd like to see general manager Omar Minaya pick up a big bat for the outfield. Matt Holliday, Jason Bay and even Xavier Nady are probably out of the Mets' reach, so he might have to "settle" for Seattle's Raul Ibañez or Cleveland's Casey Blake. The Mets farm system isn't very good, so that sounds about right. Meanwhile, everyone keeps saying the Yankees are interested in our outfielders. For some reason, people seem to be upset when Ian Kennedy is mentioned as a potential return. I know the Yankees have soured on the guy a bit and he had a rough stint with them this year, but he's only 23 and his minor league numbers (including his numbers at AAA this year) are sterling. And that's my two cents on that (sorry, very busy in lab today).

What a weird, weird baseball game. John Van Benschoten and Runelvys Hernandez took part in some kind of bizarro, awful pitcher's duel in which both starters were terrible (both guys put 10 people on base, Hernandez in 5 and JVB in 5 and 1/3) but didn't give up a ton of runs. The bullpens then proceeded to shut the other teams down and the Pirates looked destined for a sixth straight uninspiring loss, thanks mostly to their sputtering offense. Then with one out in the ninth, the offense clicked to life on a Jason Bay solo home run (and I hate to bring this up, but how many huge hits does Bay have this year? I don't know off the top of my head, but I think the answer is "a lot"). Xavier Nady followed with a single and the red-hot Adam LaRoche hit a homer of his own. It all eventually ended with Freddy Sanchez's inside the park home run, which I think is like the millionth of the year in that goofy little bandbox in Houston. On the ninth inning, Ryan Doumit went ...

I don't know what the Pirates did to the schedule makers, but they got quite the bum rap having to play on the road both the Thursday after the All-Star break and the following Monday. Being on the road and not getting days off is a great way for a team to fall into a tailspin. Another great way to fall into a tailspin is to give a start to John Van Benschoten smack in the middle of a 5-game losing streak. He's made three awful starts this year and there's no proof that #4 is going to be any different than the first three. The only thing he's got going for him is that he's facing Runelvys Hernandez, who's been just about as terrible as JVB this year and has even been lit up by the Pirates once. If you're planning on watching this one tonight, make sure you're in front of your TV for the first inning, because the fireworks are going to start early.

The season's in a tailspin, the players are frustrated , and Huntington and Coonelly are playing everything about the deadline pretty close to the vest . Is there anything worth talking about in Pirateland at the moment? Gorzelanny's latest AAA debacle? The lack of talk about Pedro Alvarez? The return of John Van Benschoten? This picture ?

Sorry for the complete lack of posts since yesterday afternoon. Between the family picnic, meeting up with some friends, and flying back to NC, I really haven't had much time to be near a computer until right around now. Luckily, watching the Pirates would've done a nice job of ruining what was a fun weekend for me, so I don't feel too bad about having missed the games over the past two days. There's nothing that spoils a decent first half like a four-game losing streak to a bad team to start the second half. The Rockies stomped Yoslan Herrera yesterday and they kicked the ever-living crap out of Zach Duke today and suddenly we're 10 games below .500 and buried in last place in the Central with the third worst run differential in the National League. The sad thing is, I have a sinking feeling that things aren't going to get a whole lot better in the immediate future.

At a family reunion today, but Yoslan Herrera's taking the mound today at Coors Field. I've got a bad feeling about this.

I didn't see a whole lot of this game beyond the replay (which I didn't even know existed but discovered on FSP last night), but it looked like more of what we've seen from Snell since he's come off the disabled list, decent stuff with rough spots in his control that sabotage the outing. The problem with this game was that Glendon Rusch the Rockies pen mostly shut the Pirates down last night, leading to the loss. Not exactly a great start to the second half.

Ian Snell looks to keep moving past his arm trouble and back towards productiveness tonight against the Rockies, who are sending Glendon Rusch out against him. That's right. Glendon Rusche is still in baseball. If it seems like he's made a million starts against the Pirates in his career, it's because he has. He's faced us 24 times in 15 starts. He's also a guy we've beaten up pretty good on throughout his career (he's 2-7 with a 4.45 ERA against us). He's been terrible this year and we should probably beat up on him pretty well tonight. If Snell doesn't bring his A game ( Ian Snell insult of the night: HEY, Ian ... do you even still HAVE an A game???) we could have a shootout on our hands tonight. Of course, I'm going to see The Dark Knight, so I won't see it either way.

There's a new poll in the sidebar dealing with the trade deadline. It's a bit labyrinthine and SAT-like, but I'm curious where people are really at on this trade deadline stuff. You know the drill, vote on the right, talk in the comments.

I will admit that I'm often baffled by what to do with columns like this one that ran in the Post-Gazette a couple of days ago. After doing this blogging thing for three years, I've learned that getting worked up by little thing that's written about the Pirates in the media only leads to high blood pressure. Still, I can tell that this particular column by Smizik has lead to a lot of consternation among fans and I feel like ignoring it gives the impression that I agree with it. I don't agree with it. Signing Xavier Nady to an extension is one of the five worst ideas I've heard this year, and that's not limiting things to the Pirates. If the Pirates sign Xavier Nady to an extension, I'll probably quit this blog entirely and I'm not even close to kidding. There's a number of reasons for that, but we can start at the top. Nady is 29 years old and having a career year. That's because that's what happens when players are 28 or 29; they peak. I...

There's not much that's worse than watching a win unravel in front of your eyes (or ears, in my case, since I listened to this whole thing). The Pirates ran out to a 3 run lead in this game with Maholm cruising and Ubaldo Jiminez doing his best Ricky Vaughn impression, but things kind of shifted with the Rockies two runs in the fourth and you could feel it happen. Then the Rockies scored some more and we lost. I know that's not terribly in depth, but I didn't really catch a ton of this game and I don't really have any overwhelming desire to go back and catch up (forgive my apathy, I was in lab until almost midnight tonight).

The Pirates are one of the lucky few teams that only get a three day All-Star break this year, so they're opening up the second half tonight in Denver against the Rockies. This is a pretty unremarkable series in every single way; the Pirates and Rockies have similar records and are in similar situations with the Rox looking to deal Matt Holliday in the next two weeks. Paul Maholm and Ubaldo Jiminez have drawn the starts to kick off this four-game set. With our bullpen and the Rockies pitching, I'd imagine that the string of high school games that we were playing before the break is going to continue in the thin air.

The first link I've got for today is some pretty sweet news for Pirate fans. You may recall at the end of last Friday's Q&A, Dejan made a remark about coming back next Friday with things being very different. Speculation was, of course, that he meant a trade was going down. He was instead referring quite literally to the Q&A, as he's launched the PBC Blog at the Post-Gazette to allow him center breaking news in one place, feature the Q&A, and point to important Pirate-related links around the interwebs. He's also got some incredibly nice things to say about WHYGAVS, which really means a lot to your humble blogger here. I read a lot of stuff by beat writers for FanHouse and Dejan's work is as informative and insightful as anyone's. His starting a blog can only increase the knowledge that's available to Pirate fans and that's a very good thing. The second link is borne of the epic All-Star Game liveblog that Will Brinson and I did at FanHouse...

This happened yesterday, but Brad Lincoln got the call up to Lynchburg yesterday . I'm guessing that the team had a set number of innings they wanted to see from him at Hickory and they moved him along once he hit that number. He pitched very well in his first few starts, but not so well since then (besides his Matt Capps-like control). The most logical reason for him to be moving up at this point is that as a top draft pick that's 23 years old, he simply doesn't belong in low-level Class A. He's either hit an inning number or convinced the Pirates that he's healthy, and so they're moving him along. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to see him moved to AA before this season ends, even if he struggles at Lynchburg. Remember that in a draft that was pretty deep with pitching, Lincoln was regarded by a some people to be the best college pitching available that year and most prospect lists had him among the top two or three. He'd likely be in AAA if he hadn...

It's the All-Star Break, which I guess means it's time for me to do some kind of mid-season review, even though we're already well into the second half of the season. This year, I'm going to do three review posts and we'll call the "The Obvious" (or things from the first half that we all know), "The Obscure" (or things from the first half that I think I know and at least half of you will vehemently disagree with me on), and "The Murky" (or things that none of us know, but I will make a blind stab at figuring out). Today: The Obscure. I slacked on this one yesterday because I was burnt out from the ridiculous All-Star Game liveblog that we ran at FanHouse until like 2 in the morning on Tuesday night. As is par for the course with the Pirates, the murky things are the most important. Are the poor performances of Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny driven by poor health? This is the big one. Watching the two of them pitch all year, I felt like Go...

Reports from all over the place are making it sound like Huntington's asking price for Jason Bay and Xavier Nady are in the neighborhood of two top prospects, with an additional prospect thrown in on the Bay deal. From Joel Sherman's blog at the New York Post (via MLB Trade Rumors ): Jason Bay/Xavier Nady, Pirates – Pittsburgh is demanding a big package: two premium prospects and a second-level prospect for Bay and two premium prospects for Nady. So far, no one is biting and Pittsburgh is not blinking. An executive from an interested team said, "I guarantee if the prices do not change, the Pirates are going to wake up on Aug. 1 with both players." Buster Olney has a similar report on his blog (insider only). Whether Huntington makes any moves this deadline or not, this is an incredibly important time for him. Part of Dave Littlefield's problem was that when he'd make a demand for a player in a trade, he had a terrible reputation for asking for the moon and a...

What's cooler than a cross-over? After doing some collaborations for various sites in the past, Charlie from the Bucs Dugout and I have decided to try and run a regularly irregular feature where we discuss and maybe even debate the Pirates. Today, as the trade deadline approaches, we talk about our dream trades for Neal Huntington and company and why they might or might not work. Keep in mind that this is almost entirely speculation on our part, and we're talking about what we want to see from the front office, not necessarily what the front office is going to do. 1. Jack Wilson to the Dodgers for Matt Kemp . Bucs Dugout: There aren't many young hitters in the game as promising as Kemp, who hits for average and power, steals bases, and has a cannon for an arm. PECOTA compares Kemp to Chili Davis, Andre Dawson, Sammy Sosa, Ellis Burks, and Vlad Guerrero. Like Davis and Sosa in their youth, Kemp struggles to control the strike zone, but also like those two players, his othe...

Hey did you guys know the All-Star Game is tonight?!? And it's at Yankee Stadium?!? There's going to be a FanHouse live blog/chat tonight, which I may be helping out with a bit (though I'm taking the night off from actually running it, that was a freaking ordeal), but you can feel free to leave comments/talk about the game here and I should be in and out checking it. Oh, and I have something cool to post in the morning, so keep an eye out for that.

It's the All-Star Break, which I guess means it's time for me to do some kind of mid-season review, even though we're already well into the second half of the season. This year, I'm going to do three review posts and we'll call the "The Obvious" (or things from the first half that we all know), "The Obscure" (or things from the first half that I think I know and at least half of you will vehemently disagree with me on), and "The Murky" (or things that none of us know, but I will make a blind stab at figuring out). Today: The Obscure. Adam LaRoche is not nearly as bad as he seems I know this is not a terribly popular opinion, but it's true. In May this year, LaRoche hit .257/.328/.476. It's not fantastic, but it's serviceable. Since June 14th, he's hit .349/.430/.651, which isn't fantastic, it's MVP-calibur. That leaves us with April and the first half of June in which he didn't hit at all. Last year at the Al...

Good read in the PG today about Washington Heights the neighborhood that Pedro Alvarez grew up in in New York, and the people that know Alvarez there. "Pedro will sign and it doesn't matter what his agent says," said Miguel Montas, the owner of a neighborhood restaurant and a close friend of the Alvarez family, through a translator. "His family wants him to sign and they will make the decision. They are just getting everything straightened out right now. Believe me, Pedro will sign with the Pirates." [...] "He's like the biggest role model to all the kids around here," said a teen, who would identify himself only as "Ramon," as he stood with his back against an apartment building on a nearby corner. "Pedro Alvarez will be the best Pittsburgh Pirates player. Ever." Well, it's certainly nice to read things like that, even if the friends of the Alvarez family in New York have never met Scott Boras before. The Pirates have a ...

So, lots of people have been asking me about the FanHouse posts that usually appear at the top right. As it happens, the upgrade they did to the site last week has messed with the RSS feeds, especially the blogger specific ones. Until they get them fixed, I've got the feed to the whole MLB FanHouse in the sidebar. If you're just looking for stuff I've written (the feed didn't update after Friday, so there's about five weekend posts that failed to show), you can always go to this page here. And while we're at it, I'm going to be running the Live Chat at FanHouse for the Derby tonight, so if you're watching it and bored feel free to drop by.

It's the All-Star Break, which I guess means it's time for me to do some kind of mid-season review, even though we're already well into the second half of the season. This year, I'm going to do three review posts and we'll call the "The Obvious" (or things from the first half that we all know), "The Obscure" (or things from the first half that I think I know and at least half of you will vehemently disagree with me on), and "The Murky" (or things that none of us know, but I will make a blind stab at figuring out). Today: The Obvious. Our bullpen is really terrible. Osoria, Burnett, Beam, and ¡Romulo! would likely not make any roster other than ours. I'm not sure Tyler Yates would, either. Without Capps, the pen is a disaster area of epic proportions. I don't want to talk about this anymore. John Russell is never going to smile. He didn't even crack one after Saturday's dramatic win. Jason Bay's terrible 2007 was defi...

A lot of people are asking if I watched the Futures Game today. I didn't watch much, but I did tune in long enough to see McCutchen's first at-bat. Every time I see him I'm alarmed by how small he looks, though he quickly got me over that by launching a foul ball into the second deck of the left-field stands in Yankee Stadium. The AB I saw ended in a flyout, but he looked pretty comfortable at the plate. David Pinto at Baseball Musings had a different observation : Andrew McCutchen just led off for the USA. He's standing at the plate wearing number 24, and he looks just like Rickey Henderson. He's even playing leftfield. Well, now there's a comparison that should make every Pirate fan smile, even if it was purely superficial. Here's hoping he runs like the wind and refers to himself in nothing but the third person. Reader Trevin also passed a long a link to the fantasy baseball review of the game , which has some very kind things to say about Cutch at the ve...

Sometimes it's downright unbelievable how much can happen in one baseball game. Once upon a time, many moons ago, Ian Snell took the mound and absolutely dealt for 3 and 2/3 innings. He was snarling, throwing hard, hitting his spots, basically doing what Ian Snell does. Then, he gave up a double and another double and a walk. He started stomping around the mound, pointing to a hole in the ground while Lanny chided him, "The mound was fine when he was retiring ten hitters in a row." He then gave up a walk and a three-run homer to Aaron Miles. The FSP cameras caught him uttering the exact phrase every Pirate fan in the world was thinking at the time, "F--- me." But the Pirates weren't done. They rallied back to tie the game at four, then went ahead 6-5 against a scuffling Joel Piniero and a second unlikely win seemed possible. Until Wreck Specs (that's Osoria's name now) took the mound in the seventh inning, that is. Emma has sent along a video represe...

Wouldn't it be nice if the All-Star Break started after that win last night? If we could cruise into three off-days with that win behind us? Instead, we have to play the Cardinals one more time today, with Ian Snell and Joel Piniero facing off on the mound. I thought Snell looked a bit better in his last start on Tuesday, but that was only in the relatively subjective terms of TV-reported velocity. Really, he still walked a bunch of people and racked up a huge early pitch count. He can't do that today, as most of the pen worked last night and the two guys that didn't, John Grabow and Romulo Sanchez, are either hurt or so far buried in John Russell's mind that he won't use them unless he's absolutely forced to. If Snell can't give us seven innings today, we're almost certainly screwed. No pressure there, Ian, so draw your neck out of your collar and let's get this thing rolling.

... What do you say about a win like that? It's pretty rare that I'm rendered speechless by a baseball game, but it happened tonight. I've written and erased several paragraphs already. Every sport has it's own unique features and quirks. Baseball's biggest quirk is that it's a team sport that lacks a clock. Fall behind by a large margin late in the game in football or basketball or hockey, and you're forced to come back against both the other team and the clock. In baseball, the clock's not there. If you don't make outs, you keep scoring. Because of that, a team that has two hits and is down 9-3 going into the bottom of the seventh isn't necessarily out of the game like they might be in another sport. And so the comeback started. A single by Jose Bautista to make it 9-4. Huh. The Cardinals took it right back in the eight. A two-run homer by Jason Bay to make it 10-6. Clutch, but still, big deficit. Then Nate McLouth continued his week-long oblit...

I didn't watch any of last night's game, but I see from the gamethread that a lot of people were upset by JR's decision to let Zach Duke bat with the bases loaded and the Pirates already in a pretty deep hole. The decision made was essentially, "Welp, we're screwed tonight, let's at least try and keep the bullpen fresh." It is a maddening decision, but maybe tonight it'll make sense. To say that I don't have high expectations for Yoslan Herrera's debut would be like saying that the sky is blue. Nothing he's done since starting in the Pirates' system has indicated that he can pitch at a major league level, and yet here we are. If he can give us four innings and give up less than seven runs, I'm going to be pleasantly surprised. He'll face off against Todd Wellemeyer, who's tailed off a bit lately but is still one of the main reasons the Cardinals haven't faded out of the NL Central race yet. After being dominated by Kyle ...

Wondering what's going on on the trade front? Jon Heymann checks in from SI.com : The Diamondbacks and Cardinals are among the most ardent pursuers of Pirates star outfielder Jason Bay , SI.com has learned. The Mets and Rays, who also seek an outfielder, are among other teams thought to have checked in with the Pirates. Pittsburgh also has emerging star Xavier Nady , yet another fine outfielder, as a potential trade target. The rumors are basically that Huntington is telling everyone that's interested in Bay or Nady that it's going to cost them the cream of the crop in their farm system. That's about where we should be at this point, because besides Adam Dunn, Nady and Bay are probably the best bats available on the market.