Quick summary for you. My all-out Rant™ To End All Rants™ has been put off another week due to the fact that Dave Littlefield hasn't made any awful trades yet...actually, he hasn't made any trades period. There are still rumors about a couple of trades that would produce something worth having, but those rumors will turn out to be false, I'm sure. In the meantime, let's quickly catch up.
* After starting 5-2 after the all-star break, the Pirates have lost 4 in a row, 3 to the Florida "Cheaper than A-Rod by Quite a Bit" Marlins and one in last night's 12-8 debacle to the Brewers.
* Things have gotten to where Bucco Blog is starting to post profiles of potential #1 picks in next year's draft.
* One of the best blog posts ever about the Pirates was written by Where is Van Slyke's Pat this week, in which he spells out everything a certain Pirates General Manager is lacking. Just a wonderful (and totally depressing) all-around post. And yes, all signs really did point to the Pirates trading Kip Wells for Ryan Howard last June, but Littlefield didn't pull the trigger. That's 2006 Home Run Derby champion Ryan Howard. For Kip Wells.
* Zach Duke, the Tom Glavine-like future-ace-wannabe of the staff, posted the worst start of his career last night, giving up an Oliver Perez-like 8 runs in 2 1/3 innings. His ERA is now a cool 5.51. At 23, Glavine's ERA was 3.68 (though at 24, it jumped to 4.28, so maybe Duke can make up ground in '07).
In summary, under the tutelage of new pitching coach Tom Colborn, Zach Duke's ERA has gone from 1.81 in '05 to 5.51 in '06. Oliver Perez' has gone from 5.85 to 6.63. Paul Maholm's has gone from 2.18 to 5.02. Though on the bright side, Tom Gorzelanny's has gone from 12.00 last year (in one start) all the way down to 7.13 this year!! That's a 41% improvement!!
And it goes without saying that the man who hired this lovely coaching staff...got a contract extension a couple of months ago. Until next week, when I'm driving to Pittsburgh to carry a protest sign...
UPDATE 10:32pm - Via BucsDugout, I find a quote from an ESPN Insider column about certain GMs and their alternate universes.
Each July, you can count on baseball front-office people griping that some executives live in a parallel universe. This year Pittsburgh general manager Dave Littlefield, one of the game's few bona-fide sellers, is the focus of lots of carping for what colleagues perceive as unreasonable expectations.
"It's one thing to aim high," said an executive whose club recently inquired about Pirates reliever Roberto Hernandez. "It's another to scare people out of the conversation."
Wonder why Littlefield hasn't made a trade yet? Because what he's asking for in return for his retreads is prime, A-caliber talent. Jeromy Burnitz for Melky Cabrera (the Yankees' #1 prospect)? Yeah, sure. Sean Casey for Humberto Sanchez (the Tigers' #1 pitching prospect)? Uh huh. Craig Wilson (who he's spent most of the last four years crapping on) to the Angels for a top-caliber starting pitcher AND a top prospect? Right...let me know how that goes. It's a rite of passage, really. In 2003, he offered Kris Benson for all-everything third baseman David Wright, and in 2005 he offered Mark Redman for Baseball America's #3 overall prospect, Jeremy Hermida...he kept asking for way too much, then settled for crap in the 11th hour. It happens every year, and the "ask for the moon" strategy has yet to actually work. Guess what's going to happen come trading deadline?
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