WE WILL: Trade Somebody

The poor performance this home stand put the nail in the coffin for those wishing the Pirates to reach .500 this year.


Now's it is time for the Pirates to concentrate on the second part of their season, the one they have been getting really good at the last 14 years, the rumor mill season. Players will be talking to everyone and anyone who might know what is in store for their future. The Tribune Review printed a list of Dave Littlefield's deadline deals since taking over the helm of the sinking Pirates ship:

2006
Acquired: Brian Rogers, Tigers
Gave up: Sean Casey

Acquired: Shawn Chacon, Yankees
Gave up: Craig Wilson

Acquired: Xavier Nady, Mets
Gave up: Roberto Hernandez, Oliver Perez

Acquired: Jesse Chavez, Rangers
Gave up: Kip Wells

2005
Acquired: Jody Gerut, Cubs
Gave up: Matt Lawton

2004
Acquired: Ty Wigginton, Jose Bautista, Matt Peterson, Mets
Gave up: Kris Benson, Jeff Keppinger

2003
Acquired: Freddy Sanchez, Mike Gonzalez, Red Sox
Gave up: Jeff Suppan, Brandon Lyon

2002
Acquired: Darren Lewis, Cubs
Gave up: Chad Hermansen

2001
Acquired: Armando Rios, Ryan Vogelsong, Giants
Gave up: Jason Schmidt, John Vander Wal

Acquired: Tony McKnight, Astros
Gave up: Mike Williams

Acquired: Mike Fetters, Dodgers
Gave up: Terry Mulholland

Looking back at these deals, the infamous Jason Schmidt deal aside, Littlefield has not faired too poorly at extracting some warm bodies. The other trades in 2001 sent over the hill relievers away and got a very suitable reliever in Mike Fetters and a "projection arm" in Tony McKnight. Littlefield thought he was getting R&B singer Brian McKnight in exchange for Williams so he would have someone to perform at his daughter's super sweet sixteen party. When he screwed that up for her, she put a "loser" curse, declared herself a free agent, and ran away to live with her role model, Miss USA.

Miss USA knows how to rear young women.

The 2002 trade is not even worthy of mention so we move on to the blockbuster that went down in 2003. DL almost screwed this deal up initially, but thanks to Brandon Lyon's arm trouble, he got reconciliation in the form of Freddy Sanchez. Suppan was one of the top names at the trade deadline in 2003, and it should be noted that DL signed him for a measily $500,000 before the season as a free agent. He turned that 500k investment into an everyday infielder who is an NL batting champ and an all-star that I like to call "dirty".

Screetch paid more than 500k for his sanchez

DL tried to rectify his biggest mistake, the 2004 rule V draft, when making his 2004 deadline deal for Ty Pigginton, Jose Bautista, and a minor league disaster Matt Peterson. The Pig hit like Adam LaRoche in April for the remainder of the 2004 season. He showed some promise in 2005, but was limited to less ABs than he saw in 2004 after coming to the Pirates. Not given a real change to succeed, Pigginton was released. He's been putting up X-man like numbers for Tampa Bay the last two years. Bautista came back to the Buccos in the deal which ended up making this trade a wash. Had he not panned out, this deal would be DL's second worst because of the hype that surrounded Kris Benson. Unlike Suppan, who was the talk of the trade market the year before, Benson was not healthy for all of his Pirates' 2004 campaign. Combine that with DL's insistance that some form of pitching be returned in the deal and the names of Scott Kazmir, Hank Blalock, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, David Wright, and Justin Morneau. Yes, all of those names were being tossed around, and all, Blalock aside, were still in the minors, or not starting at the time. I believe I broke some things in my apartment when I learned that none of those eventual all-stars would be wearing black and gold.

If DL was ever on the Lifetime hit game show
Supermarket Sweep, he would go straight for the cheapest
aisle he could find and fill up his cart...
oh, and he would get pitching.

2005 he traded a player on steroids for a player who needs steroids to rehab his many, many knee injuries. The money aside, talent and production wise this was a wash.

The 2006 deals will need some time to be evaluated, but two of them are already looking like steals. Getting anything for Kip Wells was a major win. Derek "operation shutdown" Bell produced more than Kip Wells has since his trade from the Pirates. He got only 2 starts in with Texas before hitting the DL for the rest of the year. He performed so badly with St. Louis, a team desperate for pitching, that he was removed from the starting rotation. Chacon for fan favorite "Oh Craig" Wilson has turned out to be a gem of a deal too. "Oh Craig" hasn't hit a curveball since, and is currently trying to find his way around the minors.

Susan Sarandon played Craig Wilson in the
1988 movie Bull Durham

I don't know of many who liked seeing "Lots of Heat" Perez go and his stats this year exemplify why:

Tune in Thursday for a reminder of what made his "lots of heat" commercial so good

Nady's strong performance this year makes the trade a lot more palatable... but young, hard throwing, left handed pitching is so tough to come by. Colbourn could not get Perez back on track the way Mets' pitching coach Peterson did. One has to wonder if Duke should be traded to the Mets for him to find success again. One also has to wonder if the Peterson Littlefield thought he acquired in the Benson trade was the pitching coach and not the minor league pitching washout.

The Pirates don't have much to shop at this year's deadline. If history is any indication what they should get back, one shouldn't be too depressed if we make a deal or two. Serviceable, but not exemplary major leaguers should be coming back this way

... of course, that's how you lose for a decade and a half. D'Oh!

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