Outfield Competition

If you were to just peruse the articles written this spring, you would think that John Raynor really had no chance at all at making this team. It has been very quiet in terms of press coverage for the Rule Five draft choice from the Marlins. In what was a battle of sorts for the last spot on the bench, Raynor has been in competition with Brandon Moss. Yet in one of the more out of left field developments of the spring, Neal Huntington said that Raynor is ahead of Moss at this point.

I have to wonder if Huntington did not just look at these two and think, who cares? Raynor has put up good numbers, though it is the spring, he has been slumping as of late. There are also questions about how Raynor is defensively in centerfield, which he'll need to know how to play just in case this Andrew McCutchen guy is for not for real I guess.

Perhaps Huntington did the math and finally thought that no one would be really interested in a corner outfielder with little power and not much contact ability. Perhaps he is finally seeing that the odds of Brandon Moss making it through waivers are better than what he might have originally thought. I can't imagine many teams wanting to jump at the 'opportunity' to have a player like Moss, especially with how little he has shown this spring.

It might be a risk in losing Moss to waivers, but one that I would think the team should make. The odds of Moss doing much to help the Pirates in the near future are not that great to begin with. For one you have two solid regulars in McCutchen and Milledge. Add in Jones and Tabata and the picture gets crowded for him. It might be time to admit the error and move on. Moss will be better served playing everyday in the minors, to see if he can find what made him a notable prospect. He is not going to regain any luster on the bench in Pittsburgh, that much is for certain.