Remembering Roberto

Every New Year's Eve I think about him. I am sure many do as well. This piece here ran in the Washington Times taking a look back at the man, more than the ballplayer. It is amazing how Clemente has transcended baseball like so few have. Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth perhaps being the only others to have the lasting effect.

The article sums it up nicely with this from sportswriter Elliott Castro, "That night on which Roberto Clemente left us physically, his immortality began,"

Trades of the Decade: #5 Getting a Shortstop

Lloyd McClendon was not yet the manager of the Pirates and he would never be confused for a general manager, but in 2000 he provided some insight on a young minor leaguer that General Manager Cam Bonifay was looking to add from the Cardinals. In a trade that seemed minor at the time, it effected the whole decade for the Bucs as it gave them a fixture in the lineup for almost the entire decade.

Near the trading deadline of 2000, Jason Christiansen was starting to wear out his welcome in Pittsburgh. He was becoming a cancer in the clubhouse and was starting to voice some opinions in the media. It was only a matter of time of when Bonifay would be looking to trade the troublesome lefty. Christiansen would surely fetch something, as he is a lefty reliever one would think that he would be able to get something for him.

On July 29, Bonifay pulled the trigger on a trade that probably did not look like all that much then, but it would shape the team for the next decade. Bonifay sent Christiansen to the St. Louis Cardinals for a minor league shortstop, Jack Wilson, who had been coached the year before in the Arizona Fall League by Lloyd McClendon.

I remember Wilson being sent to Altoona, as I saw him play a game up there towards the end of the 2000 season. I can remember thinking that the young kid had quite the range in the field. It was in the offseason, heading into the inaugural year at PNC park, that talk started that the young Wilson could be the opening day shortstop.

He kind of fell into the job by default and was not quite ready, as he was demoted to AAA during the season. He never returned there because of his poor play. Wilson became a fixture on the all the Pirate teams to have played in PNC Park. He had his ups and downs, capitalized by his All-Star and Silver Slugger season in 2004. No matter your opinion at the end of his tenure with the Bucs, he was a solid major league shortstop for 9 seasons with the club.

How did the Cards make out? Well they had Christiansen for about 1 season, before shipping him out to San Francisco. In 51 games for the Cards, he 4.91 ERA and struck out 31. He was dealt to the Giants for Kevin Joseph and cash. Joseph only appeared in one season for the Cards. Christiansen was later dealt to the Angels after a fight with Barry Bonds. His name perhaps last came up in the Mitchell Report.

It is quite easy to see that this is one of the best trades of the past decade. It is not every day that one can pawn off a disgruntled reliever and get a solid shortstop for the next decade. It is not as though the Cards missed having Wilson, they have done plenty fine at shortstop, but the value they gave up doesn't seem to make sense now.

Trades of the Decade: #6 Boston Trading Party

In 2003 Dave Littlefield was a very busy man as far as trades went. He had plenty of players to move, both for financial and baseball concerns. Among two of the players that were looking to be traded were lefty reliever Scott Sauerbeck and right handed discounted starter Jeff Suppan. Both players were in demand and the Red Sox liked both of them.

On July 22, Littlefield dealt them Scott Sauerbeck and young prospective bullpen arm, Mike Gonzalez to Boston for Brandon Lyon and Anastacio Martinez. That trade, while perhaps not the greatest, was not all that bad of a trade. Lyon for Sauerbeck was a good move, I would quibble with Martinez and Gonzalez, as I would have really wanted to have Gonzo to replace Sauerbeck. It really would not have made much sense to send both lefties to the Sox.

Turns out it did not matter as, Brandon Lyon had an injury issue that forced the teams to redo the trade. So we sent back Anastacio Martinez and Lyon to Boston, along with Jeff Suppan, for Mike Gonzalez and Freddy Sanchez. In the end the trade can be looked at like this:

Boston Gets: Scott Sauerbeck and Jeff Suppan (while keeping Brandon Lyon and Anastacio Martinez)
Pittsburgh Gets: Freddy Sanchez (while keeping Mike Gonzalez)

Boston initially made out in this deal as Sanchez was stuck behind veterans and was not going to be playing anywhere anytime soon, so they get two pitchers in the deal. It could have been much worse had we not gotten Gonzalez back. When looking at the stats, we see that the Red Sox really did not get all that much.

Suppan lost more games than he won for the Sox and was not a part of the postseason roster. He would leave via free agency to St. Louis the next season. Sauerbeck did little as well, having an ERA over 6, and only appearing in one ALCS game. Brandon Lyon was indeed hurt, but was traded later that year in the Curt Schilling deal to Arizona. Anastacio Martinez has only appeared in 11 major league games, all with Boston in 2004.

When looking at the little return that Boston got, the Pirates made out like bandits. For one we kept Mike Gonzalez, who was groomed to be a closer and was dealt for Adam LaRoche prior to 2007. Freddy Sanchez is the story of this trade, as he seemingly beat all expectations to become a batting champion and All-Star. Sanchez was a solid player for the majority of the decade for the Bucs and provided excellent offensive production.

This trade is remembered for the fact that it had to be reworked a little over a week later. Some may think of it as the trade that brought Freddy Sanchez to the Bucs as well. I like to think of it as the trade we were lucky to keep Mike Gonzalez a Pirate. In all honesty looking back at this trade it is amazing that it just did not all fall apart. It had the potential to be a horrendous trade, but instead it was one that worked out well.

Trades of the Decade: #7 Gold Glover to Georgia

There were many players that you could have easily guessed that might have gotten traded during the 2009 baseball season. Jack Wilson, Freddy Sanchez, Adam LaRoche, and John Grabow to name a few. All of those did get traded, but perhaps no one saw the trade of Nate McLouth to Atlanta coming.While some may argue that it may be too early to put this trade on a list of trades of the decade, the fall out from the trade, as well as some reflection, really warrant its inclusion.

Nate McLouth had just had his breakout season. He was named an All-Star, hit over 30 home runs, and won a Gold Glove. Things really seemed to be looking up for this overachieving fan favorite. Add in the fact that he had just signed a long term deal and it looked as though we would be watching Nate for some time to come. Then on June 3, almost 9 years to the day that the Pirates had drafted Nate, they dealt him to Atlanta for minor league pitcher Charlie Morton, prospect Gorkys Hernandez, and prospect pitcher Jeff Locke.

The Pirates gave up a useful player in Nate, perhaps a little overvalued in some respects, but nonetheless a very useful major leaguer, signed at a decent rate, for three younger players. Charlie Morton came to Pittsburgh immediately, and after some waiting for his Pirate debut, he displayed stuff that Pirate fans had not seen from a pitcher in some time. The movement that he has on some of his pitches and his success with them, made it plainly easy to see why the Pirates would have wanted him.

Gorkys Hernandez is a once highly touted prospect that has been traded once before. He posseses natural athletic skills that few in the system can attempt to match. While he may turn out to be a spare part, it is still a little too early to place that label on him.

Jeff Locke had a bit of a rough go, but slowly figured it out and pitched well down the stretch in the minors. While many say that there is no such thing as a pitching prospect, I'd rather have guys like Locke than not. He looks to be pretty promising, probably more so than fellow minor leaguer Bryan Morris is currently.

An analysis of the Nate McLouth trade can not be complete without looking at the fallout from it. The next day, Andrew McCutchen made his debut in Pittsburgh and we have had the pleasure of wathcing one of the more exciting young players in the game. McCutchen had nothing else to prove and with Nate gone, he could come up and show everyone what he can do.

This trade stands out from many of the others on the list because the club was not forced to make a move. They made the trade because it made baseball sense. They gave up a fine player, but got three good ones back and opened the door for an excellent player. If only more of the trades on the list were more like this one.

Trades of the Decade: #8 Robbing the White Sox

Cam Bonifay had signed Todd Ritchie as a free agent in 1998. Ritchie was coming from the Twins, where he had brief appearances in the majors. In Pittsburgh, Ritchie would become a solid workhorse in the rotation. In 1999, he won 15 games. By 2001 he as the lone remaing reliable starter for the club, and Dave Littlefield, surprisingly was able to take him and build a pitching staff in one trade.

Kenny Williams probably is still wondering how this all happened, but he sent the Pirates a group of pitchers that had promise but had made the Sox weary. The Sox sent to Pittsburgh Kip Wells, Josh Fogg, and Sean Lowe for Todd Ritchie and minor league catcher Lee Evans. I can still remember thinkikng how cool it was to get the young Kip Wells.

The Sox got little in return for this deal. Todd Ritchie lasted only 1 season in Chicago, where he lost 15 games for the Pale Hose. He would go on to be a baseball vagabond, stopping in a new city for each of the next two seasons, stopping in Milwaukee and Tampa before leaving major league baseball. Lee Evans spent only 1 season in the Sox system, before leaving as a minor league free agent to Atlanta.

The Pirates made out like actual pirates in this deal. Sean Lowe was the worst pitcher in the deal, as he sported a 5.35 ERA, prompting his release that September. Kip Wells would step right into the rotation as the number one starter and having two excellent seasons, despite not posting great win totals as the Pirates failed to get him much run support. Josh Fogg, would use his talents to the maximum and post double digit win totals in his first three seasons in Pittsburgh.

Wells and Fogg would form the basis of the Pirates' rotation for the next three seasons, with Wells staying int he rotation a little longer. The fact that you could get that that for essentially one guy is amazing to look at. Granted we may look back and think that Kip Wells could have pitched much better with is stuff, or that Josh Fogg might have been a reliever in the perfect world, but baseball is far from perfect and you have to pat Dave Littlefield on the back fro this one as he pulled a fast one on Kenny Williams, who is still the GM of the White Sox.

Trades of the Decade: #9 Adam LaRoche comes North

In the 2006-7 offseason the Pirates were looking to finally add that ever elusive power hitting left hander to take advantage of the short porch in right field. The team looked around and focused rather early on to Adam LaRoche of the Atlanta Braves. LaRoche was just coming off a year in Atlanta that saw him hit 32 home runs for the Braves in a ballpark that skews to the pitchers. Add in the fact that he was not a huge problem in the field and that he was just entering his prime years, LaRoche seemed to be the answer we had been looking for.

In order to get him the Braves would surely need to get something in return and that something was going to be the newly made closer, Mike Gonzalez. Gonzo had just spent the past four seasons in the Bucco bullpen and has just finished his first as the closer. He was able to notch 24 saves that past season for the Buccos and he was power lefty arm. Add to it, he was only 28 and it looked to be a pretty good lefty guy in the bullpen. He could close for the Braves or he could serve as a setup man.

In addition to the swap of the two major leaguers, the Pirates sent Brent Lillibridge to the Braves for Jamie Romak. Lillibridge had just finished the season at Lynchburg and had hit a combined .282 with 13 home runs that season. He was a pretty decent prospect, mid level guy, that had some promise and had a well rounded set of tools. Romak, at age 20, had just finished up his first go at the Sally league. He hit only .247, but had 16 home runs and looked to be a budding power prospect.

It looked to be a pretty even trade, that may have slightly tilted to the Pirates at the major league level, if only because closers are somewhat overrated, but may have tilted to the Braves at the minor league level, if only because Lillibridge was a better polished prospect.

How did it work out for the teams? Well for the Braves they ended up getting a chronically injured Mike Gonzalez. He logged only 125 innings in three seasons and actually had more saves with the Pirates than the Braves, though in his defense he was not always the closer. Gonzalez never was healthy enough to live up to the value that the Braves thought they might be getting. Lillibridge, worked his way up the ladder in the Braves system, reaching the big leagues in 2008, where he hit .200 in 29 games. In the offseason, he was part of a package to bring Javier Vasquez to Atlanta, and he appeared in 46 games for the White Sox in 2009 hitting .158.

For the Pirates, Adam LaRoche was dubbed as some sort of mythical savior when he was brought here. He was 'unveiled' at Piratefest that season, wearing the red uniforms, which I will always associate with him. LaRoche never turned into that middle of the lineup guy that was thought of when he came here. He never came close to the 32 home run he had in Atlanta, as he settled in the mid 20's in home run totals, 80 - some RBI, and a .270 average. The real story with LaRoche was the extreme slumps that he would go into, and that would be more of a pain to Pirate fans than anything.

LaRoche was dealt to Boston for a pair of minor leaguers, Argenis Diaz and Hunter Strickland, this past season. Boston then dealt him back to Atlanta for Casey Kotchman. LaRoche blossomed in Atlanta again, as in 30 games less than what he played in Pittsburgh that season, he was able to match his home run and RBI totals. It seems he can only hit when he is with his fellow Buck Commander, Chipper Jones.

Jamie Romak would continue to hit for power, though there seemed to be a power outage, once he hit Altoona. He never seemed to get over the bump there and was demoted to Lynchburg mid way through this season. What was once promising, is now an after thought with him.

When this trade was made it was refreshing to see the Bucs make a trade to better the current team. Unfortunately, expectations made LaRoche's stay here not seem to be what it could have been. He was billed as something he wasn't, and because of that we seem to have suffered due to that. The LaRoche trade typified an era in Pirate history, one that many perhaps don't want to see again, just like those red jerseys.

Preview: Evaluating Baseball's Managers by Chris Jaffe

If you are like me, when you watch a baseball game, you sometimes wonder why a manager is doing things a certain way. Why is it that they bunt now? What is it that makes a manager successful? What has worked for other managers throughout baseball history? If you sometimes ask these questions, then you may want to take a look at Evaluating Baseball's Managers by Chris Jaffe, of the Hardball Times.

Chris had emailed me to ask if I'd be willing to take a look at what he wrote of the Pirates' managers for his book. I agreed, as I cannot turn down an opportunity to read anything about baseball history, especially if he was going to send me some stuff on Pirate history. I must say, I found a lot of interesting stuff on the Pirates' skippers in the excerpts that he had sent to me to take a look at.

How exactly did Jaffe rate the managers? Well he used various algorithms from Phil Birnaums, Birnaum database, as well as a database that he had designed on his own, dubbed the Tendencies Database. With these two tools, he was able to quickly come up with ranks, standings, and tendencies of managers from 1876 to 2008. He has a more detailed explanation here.

The little that Jaffe had sent to me, it seems that this book will appease the history folks, the stat heads, and anyone looking for arguments on the history of baseball. One such argument that I would take up is that he lumped Pie Traynor into a class of borderline Hall of Famers, I totally disagree there as I am sure many of you would as well.

As you may have guessed, I am more of a history guy, so I really enjoyed reading about the development of the game from the different eras. What worked for Fred Clarke did not work as much for say Chuck Tanner, though there really aren't as many differences as you may think. Or even the changes in a single manager's style, like Danny Murtaugh who juggled a pitching rotation to the max in his early years, to one that just relied on the more typical rotation when he returned to managing.

Since I was reading selections about the Pirates, it was even more interesting to read about how the team had changed. The differences in pitching staffs, from the workhorses of the turn of the 20th century Pirates to the aces of Friend and Law, to the differences in the lineups from a solid defensive club to one that was more athletic.

I found it very interesting to read, especially since the Pirates have had some of the more influential managers in baseball to have come through the team, especially in the early years. Ned Hanlon, who managed the team in teh 1800's, tutored John McGraw, and was a real innovator. Connie Mack, who would later gain fame in Philadelphia, getting his start in managing here in Pittsburgh. Wilkinsburg's own Bill McKechnie, perhaps the most underrated manager in baseball history.

Evaluating Baseball's Managers looks to be a pretty good read. If anything it will help start arguments, perhaps one of the best parts of being a baseball fan. As I had said it appeals to stats heads and regular old baseball fans alike. If you are someone like me, you will always like to learn more about the game, how it is played and its history, you might want to keep an eye out for the book when it comes out.

If you are interested in learning more about the book and when it is due to come out, check out the link here from the publisher.

Melville Braves vs. Gosnell Hawks - Baseball Down Under

As many of you may know from reading this blog, I’m not just a Pirates fan but also an international baseball junkie. Recently while on a trip to Perth Western Australia to visit my sister in law, I had the opportunity to check out one of the state league games that were going on near where we were staying. As you can see from the box score, it was a high scoring affair and a bit sloppy from the number of errors but all in all it was an interesting and fun experience. Here are a number of photos that I took from the event and hope that everyone enjoys them. There are about 30 or so in the slide show below. I hope that next time we head over for a visit; I’ll have the opportunity to check out one of the Claxton Shield games since I missed the start of the season by a week.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Gosnells Hawks	3	0	0	0	0	0	4	5	1		13	11	5
Melville Braves	6	2	0	0	4	0	1	0	1		14	18	4

Trades of the Decade: #10 A Sad-song

Barely on the job for 17 days, Dave Littlefield approached the 2001 trade deadline with one of the prime trade chips on the trade market, starting pitcher Jason Schmidt. Many teams would have loved to get a hold of the Pirates' ace, as many thought that he could be a missing piece for them as they went down the stretch that season.

After looking around, Littlefield had decided to try to get close to big league talent and seemed to find that in the offer from the San Francisco Giants, who where offering up intriguing pitching prospect Ryan Vogelsong. In a real world, the Giants probably should have offered up yet another prospect or player just for Schmidt. Instead, Littlefield added outfielder John Vander Wal, then the starting right fielder for the Bucs and the Giants evened the deal with Armando Rios, their starting right fielder.

On the face of it, this trade should never have been player for player. The Pirates were giving up the top pitching commodity on the market in Schmidt, as well as throwing in a productive outfielder in Vander Wal, for a prospect and the outfielder that the Giants no longer wanted. To this day I still don't know why we threw in Vander Wal to sweeten the pot.

The Giants made out like bandits in this deal. Schmidt would go 7-1 for the Giants and would become their ace for the next 5 seasons. During that run, Schmidt was one of the best pitchers in the National League, becoming an All-Star and finishing second in the Cy Young balloting one season. Seeing Schmidt perform so well, stung very much for Pirate fans, especially considering that we had to put up with all the frustrations of Schmidt leading up to that.

John Vander Wal would be an average hitter for the Giants, but was a useful player down the stretch for the Giants. Of course Vander Wal could have played in only three games and gave the Giants more production that season than Armando Rios. Rios only played in 2 games, yes 2, for the Bucs that season. He tore his knee, ironically enough, in San Francisco if I remember correctly. For his Pirate 'career' the diminutive Rios would hit, .265 with 1 home run and 25 RBI in 78 games. That was extremely unproductive for a guy that was supposed to be a major league bat for us.

The center piece of the trade on our end was the hot prospect, the Pride of Kutztown (or is that Andre Reed?) Ryan Vogelsong. In a sad twist that makes this trade look so horrible, Vogelsong too only appeared in two games for the Bucs that season, losing both, before blowing out his arm and needing Tommy John.

Vogelsong would miss the next season and would be a shell of the prospect that he once was. He would end up bouncing around in the bullpen in Pittsburgh and in AAA for the next 5 seasons. After his run in Pittsburgh, Vogelsong went to Japan and has not had much success there either.

We all knew that Schmidt was going to be traded. His contract was up and he was not going to resign here. Littlefield, just days on the job, made a bit of an ill advised trade for his first one. We gave up two much and got too little, even before the injuries. Add in the injuries and this trade was really, really unbalanced. It hurt the Bucs in that trading Schmidt away left a gaping hold in the rotation that would take years to replace. For Pirate fans, that hole would never before filled by Ryan Vogelsong.

Non-Tendered

What in the name of Rich Loiselle is going on around here? It seemed all week that the Pirates were to be offering contracts to their three eligible players for arbitration. Turns out that they only offered to two of the three and on top of that, they let another go as well.

I must say it was a bit of a stunner that Matt Capps and Phil Dumatrait were let go by the Pirates. First with Dumatrait. He had worked his way back from injury late in the season, to be the left handed savior that the Pirates were looking for down the stretch. While he was no savior, he was at least a left arm that the Pirates did not have, and well, now they don't have him. Without Dumatrait, the Pirates have only three lefties on the roster, Zach Duke, Paul Maholm, and Donnie Veal.

As for Matt Capps, well it is not everyday you see a team just let their closer walk out the door. Now I am of the school of though that closers are very overrated and you can make one every year if you have the right people, but the Pirates don't have much of a bullpen to begin with and can't let one of the better ones just walk out the door. Well he didn't walk out the Pirates showed him the door, but you get the idea.

Why would you let a guy of some value, leave for nothing? Well maybe the Pirates did not see the value in bringing him back? There could have been some fear that he may command too much in arbitration, though that would seem very cheap, or the negotiations beforehand may have taken a turn that made any deal too difficult.

My thought is that the Bucs' brass saw a pitcher that was wildly inconsistent last season and decided that no matter what they did not want to have him around. When Capps came into the game last season, you were on a ride more wilder than the Thunderbolt, and that was even when he got a save. Those experiences, coupled with nagging injury issues, control problems, and a rising ERA, well you get the picture. I am going to guess that other teams got the picture as well, as the Pirates tried to trade Capps, but to no avail.

While it is a surprise to see him just leave and have us get nothing in return, perhaps that was the best way out of the situation. As getting something in return might have given us an even bigger headache or stomach ache than Capps would have.

So who is in the bullpen right now? Good question! The closer by default, will be Joel Hanrahan, followed closely by Evan Meek. Steven Jackson should be back in the pen and probably Chris Jakubauskas. I would think other candidates include Anthony Claggett, Justin Thomas, Jeff Karstens, and Mr. Outside Hire. They might as well invest in name tags for these guys as we will be seeing yet another revolving door in the Pirates' bullpen.

There is Another Crosby in Town

The Pirates made their 'big' splash in free agency by signing free agent shortstop Bobby Crosby to a one year deal worth $1 million plus bonuses, making it possibly worth 1.5 million. You may remember Crosby as one of the many wunderkunds that were to make the Oakland A's contenders for years. Crosby did win the Rookie of the Year, but injuries have derailed him since then.

Crosby was a guy that had some pop in his bat, but has not shown much of it since his rookie year. My guess is that we should be ecstatic if he were to hit say 10 home runs this season, at the rate he has been going. His average is something that is not all that great either, as he has hit in the lower .200's the past half decade or so.

The Pirates are not bringing in Crosby to be some savior, no he is coming here to provide competition for Ronny Cedeno. The Pirates brass feels that Cedeno is not playing up to his abilities and this is an open challenge of sorts to him to play better. If anything, Crosby is coming as a pretty cheap challenger for Cedeno.

I would also say that Crosby is a challenger to not only Cedeno, but any other infielder. Take a look at where he played last season, mainly third base and first base. I would not rule out the idea that Crosby could be pushing Andy LaRoche rather quietly, or as an option at first should Clement and Jones fail.

In the end there is not much to hate about this signing. Crosby is not coming here to take playing time from some younger player, instead he is here to push players and provide competition, add to that his rather inexpensiveness and he looks like a good move. He is the type of guy we would like to have on the bench, as he is not an over the hill veteran, at least I would not think just yet, who has a little more upside than your typical grizzled veteran.

Is this a championship move? No, but it is a move that will make this season's Pirates better, while not hurting the advancement of the players of the future.

Opening the Books

Dejan has a great series going that has the Pirates and Frank Coonelly talking as candidly as you could reasonably expect, about the finances of the team. On the eve of the winter meetings, this is a juicy little nugget that we as fans had been waiting to read about.

In the piece, Coonelly says that the team has made a profit the past two seasons. I don't think anyone would really have though otherwise. Forbes Magazine had the team making above $14 million in each of those two seasons. Coonelly says that the team has made $11 million total those past two seasons, and those profits have been plowed into long term investments, like the Dominican Academy and the purchase of the new Bradenton club.

If they indeed did make the $11 million, I can easily see that the majority of that could be used to pay for or finance the projects that they have undertaken the last two seasons. I also don't think that many could argue that those investments were bad investments for the ballclub, if any thing they may have been long overdue, as is the case with the Dominican academy.

While the candid to an extent nature of Coonelly's talk is refreshing, it does not fully answer all questions many may have about the payroll, until they actually see the books opened. I don't ever expect the club to do just that, but some out there call for it every year. This change in the team's approach to the money issue, is striking in its nature. For years this team ran away from any question about money, but Coonelly seemed to want to change that. (Maybe Scott Boras is hitting his buttons from afar?)

I agree with Coonelly that the money is not so much the issue, as we really should be more focused on smart baseball decisions, but inevitably money will be a part of those decisions. When we do reach that point, I want to feel with some confidence that the team is not going to motivate by financial greed, but instead does look to have those good baseball decisions. We are far from that point, but it may not be long before we are confronted with that type of decision on a player.

Decade of Trades: Chris Young for Matt Herges

First in the Trades of the Decade, this trade just missed the Top 10, but is still an important one worth taking a look at.

After the 2002 season, Dave Littlefield was sitting around somewhere in PNC park thinking that he needed to add a bullpen arm. He targeted Matt Herges as a trade target. Herges had pitched for the Montreal Expos that season before, posting a 4.04 ERA in 62 games. He had 6 saves, making him seem like a closer candidate, but other than that he was nothing more than really your typical right handed major league reliever.

To get this typical right handed reliever, Littlefield traded not one, but two prospects to the Expos to get this extremely rare commodity. Going to the Expos were two Hickory Crawdads in pitcher Jon Searles and pitcher Chris Young.

Searles was drafted in 1999 in the 8th round out of high school. He was not much of a prospect, as he was knocked around that year in the Sally League. He was still a younger guy that was only 3 years out of high school, perhaps a little too young to be giving up on. But if giving up one guy was not enough, Littlefield included yet another prospect.

Chris Young was drafted out of Princeton in 2000 in the third round. A former basketball player for the Tigers as well, Young was a work in progress, as most taller pitchers are. Young was coming off a season where he struck out 136 in 144 innings. Things were starting to click for the young man and things looked promising for him.

How did the trade work out? Well Jon Searles bounced around a bit after a few years in the Expos organization. He never made it higher than AA and ended up playing Indy ball then disappeared from baseball.

Chris Young? Well he spent the next season, doing what he had done the previous season in the Expos system, until he was traded to Texas for Einar Diaz. He would work his way to the majors with the Rangers, then get traded once again to San Diego where he became an All-Star. He has become, when healthy, one of the better pitchers in the National League.

As for Matt Herges? Well he never had an official Pirate career. He was cut prior to the start of the season in spring training and never appeared in the black and gold. He has somehow overcome that shame to hang around the majors the past 7 seasons. No matter what he does, he will be forever remembered by Pirate fans as the guy we literally gave away Chris Young for.

Trades

We have been working on putting together some things here to run as we move along in this offseason and the focus will be on trades.

We will look at the trades made this year, revisiting them now and seeing what we can learn from them. What the overall approach Neal Huntington has been making with the evaluation of these players, as well as where we may be headed.

We are also going to take a look at the top ten trades of the decade, from 2000 up to now. What trades changed the Pirates the most in the past ten years, for better or worse. There will be one of these coming up shortly to start off the countdown.