General Manager Kevin Reitmeyer

It is time to play General Manager For A Day with the Pirates again, as we lead up to the MLB Trade Deadline.

As always, we have to decide where the Pirates are, and if they should be Buyers or Sellers at the deadline.  That one is pretty easy.  They Pirates should be Sellers.  I keep seeing columnist writing that the Pirates should go for it this year.  Radio personalities are advocating that the Pirates push their chips into the middle and go after a weak NL Central division this year.  Let’s slow down…

The Pirates are 42-47, 7 GB in the division and according to Fangraphs have a 4.2% chance of winning the NL Central this year.  So, although the Pirates technically have a shot, there was nothing that I saw from there play in the 1^st half of the season that makes me believe they can win the division.  People claiming that the NL Central is weak and very winnable, well Milwaukee is in 1^st place with a .549 winning percentage at 50-41, that isn’t all that terrible.  If that W% were to play out the rest of the season the NL Central Champ would have 89 wins.  Not too shabby.  Just to give you an idea, the Pirates would need to go 47-26 in the 2^nd half to reach 89 wins.  Are you still a Buyer?  Didn’t think so.

So, now that it is clear that the Pirates are Sellers this deadline, let’s have some fun.

To be clear, I really like the core of this Pirates team.  I think they had a ton of bad luck this year already and if it hadn’t been for the Kang DUI, Marte PED’s and the Tailion cancer, the Pirates could have a real shot at making a nice post season run.  The Pirates could trade away a few pieces and build around the core, much like they did last year.  This would allow them to keep competing without a huge dropoff, but it also probably doesn’t give you enough return to make a giant impact either.  These moves would be simple ones.  Mainly just moving guys with expiring deals (Watson, Nicasio, Jaso) awful contracts that you might get a team to eat (Hudson, Cervelli), or a player that you feel is at absolute peak value (Harrison).  You likely won’t get a ton back in return for these guys (except maybe Harrison), but since you will be losing them in the offseason, you might as well get something.

The Pirates also could just blow things up, knowing that the do have a nice young nucleus and with the right pieces could be very competitive soon, if they are able to make the right deals.

That’s where General Manager Kevin Reitmeyer comes in.

I see 3 moves the Pirates should make if they are available to them.  All 3 of these moves are completely fabricated by yours truly.  I honestly believe that all 3 deals are fair and equal for both sides.

NEW YORK YANKEES:
Pirates trade:
SP – Gerrit Cole
RP – Juan Nicasio
3^rd – David Freese
SS Prospect- Kevin Newman (#89 in Baseball America’s Midseason Top 100)

Yankees Trade:
SS – Gleyber Torres (#3 in BA Top 100) – Tommy John surgery in June will keep him out til mid-2018.
OF – Clint Frazier (#49) – Just called to MLB on July 1^st.  Batting 292 with 1 double, 2 triples and 3 HR in 7 Games with NYY.
SP – Justus Sheffield (#7 LHP prospect according to MLB Pipeline). Currently in AA, scheduled to make MLB debut during 2018 season. Potential to be a 2-3 Starter.
RP – Domingo Acevedo – Lower level prospect in Yankees organization. Very raw, but throws gas.  Currently a starter, but forecasts to be a back-end RP.  Throws 100 regularly and has been known to hit 103 on the gun.  Projected 2018 MLB debut.

The Yankees are desperately looking to upgrade their starting rotation and they want a guy that they would have future control over.  Gerrit Cole does both, having 2 ½ years remaining on his contract.  Juan Nicasio gives the Yankees a big upgrade to their bullpen as they have struggled to get the ball to their 2 dominant back-end relivers.  The Yankees acquired Garrett Cooper from Milwaukee on Thursday, but he looks to be more of a September call-up type and a future possibility for the team.  If they want to win now, they are still in need of a 1^st baseman.  David Freese is a 3^rd baseman, that can play 1^st base.  The Yankees have a major need at 1^st base.  They have had the least productive 1^st base bat of any team in the Majors this season.  Kevin Newman helps replenish the farm system at SS, after giving up their top prospect.

For the Pirates, this would be a haul, but one that is very realistic after seeing what Jose Quintana brought back for the White Sox on Thursday.  Clint Frazier gives the Pirates a solid OF bat for if and when McCutchen leaves.  It also gives them flexibility with Gregory Polanco who has continued to struggle.  Torres, becomes your everyday SS once healthy and replaces Mercer who will be in his final year of his contract in 2018.  Sheffield and Acevedo are arms any organization would love to have in their system.

BOSTON RED SOX:
Pirates Trade:
2^nd – Josh Harrison
RP – Tony Watson

Red Sox Trade:
SP- Jay Groome (#87 in BA Top 100, #2 LHP in MLB Pipeline) – Young but a monster of a man.  Just 18 years old (1^st RD 2016), he is 6’6, 220lbs.  Already touched 97 mph, and will probably improve on that as he gets stronger.  Not expected in the MLB until 2019-20.

The Red Sox need another left-handed arm in their bullpen and even though Watson has not been good, he would still be a really good option considering what Boston is currently working with.  The Red Sox are also seeking help at 3^rd base, which is why Harrison makes sense.  Harrison’s versatility will help find a spot for him over the final 3 years of his contract as well.  The Red Sox top prospect, Rafael Devers, will likely take over the Hot Corner for Boston next April.

LA DODGERS:
Pirates Trade:
OF – Starling Marte
RP – Daniel Hudson

Dodgers Trade:
2^nd – Willie Calhoun (#74 on BA Top 100, #4 prospect in LA organization) – Calhoun is a power hitting 2^nd baseman, that is MLB ready.

The Dodgers need outfield help and Marte gives them a young player with team-friendly contract control.  He would also immediately be the team’s best defensive outfielder.  Marte would help stabilze a rotating door in the Dodger outfield that has already seen 10 different players man the outfield in their first 90 games this season.  Despite having the best ERA of all bullpens in the NL this season, like all other contenders, the Dodgers believe you can never have too many arms in that area.  The Dodgers have already been looking to add to the bullpen.  Hudson would be someone that could help them get the ball to Kenley Jansen.

With Calhoun MLB ready, the Dodgers might not be willing to part with him on this exchange.  The Pirates may have to pay some of the future salary of Hudson (owed $5.5M in 2018), but it would be worth it if you are the Pirates.

I would also not rule out the idea of moving Cervelli to a team like Arizona, who is in need of a catcher badly.  This would get the Pirates out of the awful contract they gave him last offseason, which he will still be owed $22M on over the next 2 seasons.  The Diamondbacks farm system is one of the worst in baseball, so this would likely have to be just a complete salary dump.

Making these moves would obviously put up the White Flag on the 2017 season, but they aren’t winning anyway this year.  The faster the Pirates realize that the better.  The remaining 2 months of the 2017 season become a Spring Training of sorts, a chance for the many question marks in the organization to prove themselves.  The Pirates should be creative with how they use their roster (crazy concept for this organization, I know).  Steven Brault should be in the rotation, maybe Tyler Glasnow gets another shot too.  Maybe even Huntington’s man-crush, Drew Hutchison.  Nick Kingham should probably be ready for a few starts as well come September.  Heck, run a 6-man rotation the last few months.  Use that 10-Day DL to your advantage and just rotate pitchers through it giving everyone some extra rest down the stretch.

 

As for the field, bring up Austin Meadows, let’s see what he can do.  Adam Frazier and Max Moroff (even Chris Bostick and Eric Wood), get to know 3^rd base.  If you are going to help the 2018 team, it will have to be at that spot.

I know that most Pirate fans don’t like the idea of a “rebuild” but I don’t see these moves as being that.  With the pieces they would acquire from these trades, the Pirates would be able to put a very competitive line-up on the field in 2018.  Who knows, maybe they surprise some people like the Brewers have done this year or the Astros did in 2015.  These moves also extend the window for the Pirates, which many thought would be closing as McCutchen’s contract comes up and Cole nears Free Agency.

Keep a competitive team on the field, while stock-piling prospects to promise a bright future AND cutting salary... Sounds like a win-win for the fans and ownership!

RANDOM RANTING

REASONS I HATE THE YANKEES
As much as I respect the Yankees and their organization I cannot stand them. I love that they give their fans value for what they pay for, unlike the baseball owners in Pittsburgh. I love the fact that they want to win, again unlike the baseball owners in Pittsburgh. Basically I love the fact that they are a complete 180 from everything the Pirates do from an operations stand point. Despite all of that, I still can’t stand their huge egos. I can’t stand how they throw around money. I can’t stand pretty much every player on the team. I didn’t mind George Steinbrenner, but I can’t stand his idiot son Hank. And I can’t stand their fans.

As I mentioned, I like the fact that the Yankees spend money and put a competitive team on the field, but I don’t like how they spend so much money that it is not competitive for the rest of the teams. The Yankees spent over $201M this season, which is $66M more than any other team in baseball. There were seven teams to not spend $65M this season, and that is the difference in spending between the Yankees and the second highest paid team. I don’t mind them being the highest paid team every year, but how about making it competitive and stay in the same ballpark as the other teams.

On to the people that represent the team, the faces of the organization. You have loud mouth son of the owner, Hank Steinbrenner. The most overrated SS of all time in Derek Jeter. Two guys that as recently as this off-season where under the microscope due to past drug problems with A-Roid, Andy Pettitte (wonder if he juiced between WS starts. Last time he pitched on 3 days rest was 6 years ago, he may have been looking for his body to recover quicker.) Finally you have the only two guys on the team that seem to be good guys, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera.

Among all of the annoying things about the Yankees, which include their obnoxious fans, this is by far the worst, the Jeter Fist Pump!

What is that stupid little fist pump he does? It is like nothing I’ve seen before. It isn’t even a real fist pump; never does he actually pump his fist. Instead he holds his hand in a fist up by his ear then snaps it downward like he is try to get something off his hand, then he pulls it back up to his head and holds that pose for the cameras.

STAY CLASSY STATE COLLEGE
In this portion I my Rant I will bash Penn State. There are a few things that have happened this week that kind of have me irked and I wanted to air it out a little. First of all, as many of you have read before, in my opinion there is not a better atmosphere to take in a college football game than at night at Beaver Stadium during a white-out. That being said, I am growing tired of the white-out. It should be done maybe once a year for big games only. It shouldn’t be EVERY GAME like the student section at Penn State likes to make it.

While we are on the subject of the White-Out’s at Penn State, let’s talk about the shirt that was to be sold and used for this week’s game, which of course is another white-out. I understand that in any sporting event, especially college ones, fans will harass the opposing teams star player, but how about when the university does the harassing? That is what Penn State was about to do this week, before they wised up and changed their minds. Here is the shirt that was designed and okayed by the university and was set to go on sale at the university bookstores today, before the university pulled them off the racks.


The shirt was created by the Penn State Marketing Association. What tops it off is the apology that the PSMA’s chief executive director released regarding the shirt. He said, “We did not intend for this shirt to offend Terrelle Pryor, The Ohio State University, or Penn State Athletics, and we apologize for any offense it caused.” REALLY? You didn’t intend to offend anyone by using that design on a t-shirt? You mean to tell me that you were not specifically trying to offend Terrelle Pryor, a kid that the university tried as hard as anyone to recruit to no avail? Yeah, sure!

I hope that he has a career day and the Ohio State beats the Nits by 40. I realize that will probably not happen, but one can dream!

RANDOM RANTING

BASEBALL, AMERICA’S PAST PASTIME
I love baseball. As many of you know, it is my favorite professional sport. However, once again I am amazed at how poorly the sport is being run. Bud Selig is killing Major League Baseball. Not only is it the only professional sport in America in which money is the biggest factor to fielding a winning team (Yankees 2009 payroll is $201,449,189, Phillies is $113,004,046. Both in the top quarter of the league), but now Selig is apparently in support of not always getting the right call on the field.
Today Bud came out and said that he is not a fan of expanding replay, “I do like the human element and I think the human element for the last 130 years has worked pretty well.” Well that is great, let’s never move forward for the betterment of the sport. The playoffs this season have been scattered with blown calls and this is how the commissioner of the league reacts to it, unreal! What is more shocking is that the owners just extended his contract and he will continue to be in charge for another 3 season, minimum.

Hey Bud, if you are looking for things to not change about baseball due to the way it worked over the last 130 years, here is a list I have put together for you:
*Do away with the DH. It is a joke of a position and is not how the game was meant to be played.
*Don’t play until November. Who wants to sit outdoors in NY, Philly, Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Denver or Chicago to watch a game that will drag on early into the night? Sorry, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Cubs fans, I know you will never play in November due to the financial set-up of the game (and for simply never winning for the Cubs fans) but those were the cold weather cities with outdoor stadiums that I could think of.
*Cool it with all the off days during the playoffs. These guys play for weeks at a time during the regular season they don’t need a day off every time they get to a new city. The Yankees will have more off days in the month of October then they will have played games by tomorrow night. Not only do they have off days every time the travel, but twice they had off days to stay in the same city.
*Speed up the game. I know that MLB will do just about anything for the TV networks, but can’t you put a limit on the length of time between innings. You know it is bad when the game ended last night, I thought to myself, “wow, that was a fast game,” and it took 3:25!

PARITY IN THE NFL IS GONE, IT WENT BACK TO COLLEGE
In the past 10 years or so the NFL has been about as even a playing field as you can get. In that time every team has had at least a little success, I mean even the Browns have made the playoffs in that time frame. In the last 10 Super Bowls 14 different teams have been represented. Not this year. This season parity has only grabbed hold of about 10 teams that are incredibly average. This season, there are more bad teams then I can ever recall at one time. We are approaching the eighth week of the season and there are still six teams that have not won more then once so far. And if it weren’t for the Washington Redskins (2-5) there may be more. Last week was the first game of the season that the Redskins opponent had a win coming into the game.

While this is happening in the NFL the college game has gone the opposite direction. What happened to the 66-3 wins that Texas and USC used to put up on teams? What happened to Urban Meyer being up by 40 on his conference rivals? What happened to Ohio State dominating every game until their BCS game? This stuff just isn’t happening anymore and I can’t decide if it is good or not for the sport. It is always fun to be able to watch a team play and be in awe of how easy they make the game look. You also can’t match the excitement and tension as you watch a team about to pull off an unthinkable upset versus someone in the top 10. Unfortunately we haven’t seen much of either this season. The dominate teams, just aren’t that dominant and the upsets aren’t happening because ranked teams seem to do just enough to squeak out a win despite playing terribly all game. Here is a brief overview of my thoughts of the BCS conferences this year and how disappointing they have been.

ACC- Minus Georgia Tech they have nothing. It is a bunch of teams that beat each other up, but nobody that could win against anybody near the elite level from another BCS conference.
Big XII- This conference was supposed to have all the fireworks and be the one to challenge the SEC, guess what, they haven’t! Texas is good, but no one really knows how good, because everyone else in the conference has just been BLAH so far. If OK State can hang with UT tomorrow we can add them into the group, but right now it is completely just a one team conference.
Big East- Cincinnati, West Virginia and Pitt are carrying the torch this year for the Big East, but after those three there is nobody. USF did its annual rise to the rankings before getting pasted by Cincy and Pitt (WVU tonight). Rutgers was a huge disappointment as well.
Big Ten- Iowa? Really you are going to give me Iowa? With all the hype behind Terrelle Pryor and Ohio State or Rich Rod at Michigan or Penn State when the season starter how is it that Iowa is the face of the Big Ten this year? And after Iowa (which looks as vulnerable as any top 5 team in history) you have a very good Penn State defense (not sure about that Spread HD this year, looks like low definition so far), a very inconsistent Ohio State offense and a RichRod led Michigan team that doesn’t know what they want their identity to be.
PAC-10- I’m going to actually utter the words, The Pac-10 is the second best conference in college football this season. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that, and that it is actually true. You can’t argue the depth though. USC, Oregon, Arizona, Stanford, Washington, Cal and Oregon State can all play with just about anyone on any given day.
SEC- Yes, we all know the SEC is the best conference in college football. I’m glad to see that the folks at Sports Illustrated are finally catching on too. But to be honest, the powers in the SEC aren’t looking so powerful. Florida is 5-0 in conference play, but four of those games have been decided by 10 points or less, compare that to the fact that their closest win in conference play last year was a 30-6 win at Tennessee. Alabama is solid too, but their offense is full of question marks. They have not scored a passing TD in their last 3 games and have struggled to beat average Tennessee and South Carolina teams. After those two, I think LSU, Georgia, Arkansas and Mississippi can be good, they just haven’t been consistent enough or showed me enough to prove it.

IT’S BACK
Every year around Labor Day I get duped into believing that my favorite sport is college football. I enjoy college football as much as just about anything, except college basketball. I attended the Pitt Blue-Gold scrimmage on Tuesday and now I can’t wait for the rest of the games to get here. Sunday is their first exhibition game vs Slippery Rock. What a great way to spend a non-Steeler Sunday. Heck, in my opinion that would be a great way to spend a Steeler Sunday too. I can’t wait for all of the preseason tournaments to kickoff and all the big-time non-conference match-ups. Heck, I won’t even mind hearing Dickie V yell some incomprehensible non-sense about how AWESOME everything is for the first few times. Because for once he is right, college hoops is AWESOME BABY with a capital “A”!

Those Damn Yankees

Well, the Yankees have done it again. I mentioned last week after the signing of CC Sabathia that the Yankees are what is wrong with baseball. I realize that they are not doing anything against the rules, however this off season is the perfect example of the need of a salary cap in Major League Baseball.

With the signing of Mark Teixeira for $180M over the next 8 years the Yankees have now spent just under $430M in the past month. Let's look at that number again, $430,000,000.00.

So, that got me wondering and I hit the research lab. Here are some tidbits that I came up with:

* With $430M dollars the Yankees could purchase nearly one quarter of General Motors, and help the entire US economy by doing so.

* The Yankees now have the rights to the four highest paid players in baseball, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia. They owe those players $805M dollars throughout the life of their contracts.

* The Yankees just received a $26.9M bill from commissioner Bud Selig for the luxury tax the Yankees owe from the 2008 season. That is more than the entire Florida Marlins team salary last season.

And the tough one for any Pirates fan to read...

* Through the Pirates current streak of 16 consecutive losing season the team has spent a TOTAL of $478.2M in salary over those 16 seasons. The Yankees spent nearly that much in the past few weeks.

America's Former Pastime

The New York Yankees gave baseball fans across the country 161 more reasons to hate the Yankees on Wednesday.

The Yankees have received nearly $850M in taxpayer investments from the city and state of New York and have recently asked the city taxpayers to pitch in another $259M to complete the new teams new stadium. Then the next day the team goes out and out-bids only themselves to offer free agent pitcher CC Sabathia a record contract of $161M over seven years.

Something needs to be done in baseball to change these spending methods, not just by the Yankees but all teams. Sabathia will make more per year in this deal than the entire Florida Marlin team made last year.

I understand that the Yankees are playing by rules and are not doing anything wrong. I understand that they have the money to spend, and that is exactly what they are doing. I do not understand two things about this. First, how can Major League Baseball can sit around, watch this spending, and not see anything wrong with it? Secondly, how are the taxpayers of New York not rioting in the streets about the Yankees asking them to pay more towards their new stadium, when the they go out and spend their money like they do?

This is not good for the people of New York. Yes, the Yankees ownership has the money and can afford to do this. I understand this. The Yankees ownership is also very dependent on the people of New York City to sell out the brand new, two billion dollar stadium that will open in April. Now not only do they want to the city to come up for more money, but they will also need them to by the tickets to their stadium, tickets that cost up to $2,500 a seat. In this current economic struggle that most of America is dealing with, this is a terrible message being sent by the entire Yankee organization.

Okay, let us move past the economy factor and look at why this deal is terrible for baseball.

Sabathia is from the west coast. He is currently building a house in southern California. The Angels, Dodgers, and Giants were all very interested in his services for the next few years. They were all offering him substantially less than what the Yankees originally offered ($140M). Yet, Sabathia considered these offers (the highest reported offer excluding the Yankees was $115M). Sabathia did not want to play in New York. He did not want to be a Yankee, but the Yankees upped their offer another $21M and he took it because nobody else stepped to the plate.

Can you blame Sabathia? Not at all, I do not think anyone can blame him. However, you can blame baseball.

Baseball has not been played on an even playing field since the 1994 strike. This move by the Yankees just shows how uneven that playing field really is. The story out of Las Vegas this week during the Winter Meetings was that GM’s were told to cut back because teams were cutting back their budgets due to the economy. Not the Yankees, they did not have any competition for Sabathia so they started out-bidding themselves. How can cities like Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Cleveland compete with a team like the Yankees unless Major League Baseball steps in and does something? Cleveland offered Sabathia a $72M deal for four years during this past spring training and he turned it down. Again, do not fault Sabathia, fault the system that he knew would allow him to make much more in the open market of free agency. These smaller cities just become farm systems for the bigger market teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox and Angels.

Look at the Pirates. This year will mark their seventeenth straight season with a losing record. This will set the all-time mark by any professional team in any professional sport. During this time, the Pirates lost players like Tim Wakefield, Bobby Bonilla, Barry Bonds, Doug Drabek, Jay Bell, Denny Neagle, Esteban Loaiza, Jason Schmidt, Jeff Suppan, Brian Giles, Oliver Perez, Jason Bay and Xavier Nady because they could not afford to sign them. All of these players have gone on to very successful careers for other teams.

A signing like the Yankees made with Sabathia give little to no hope to the smaller market teams and shows everything that is wrong with the game I love. And that is exactly the reason that baseball is no longer America’s Pastime.