What be the price, Aaarrrggg……

At the time I’m writing this the Pirates are now 1 game back of Milwaukee in the standings and a half game in front of St. Louis.  They are 8 games above .500 and are one of the winningest teams in the last few months of the season.  After that less than great start that is what it took to get back into the race.  So, what will it take now to overtake the Brewers and pull away from the Cardinals in the NL Central? 

The Pirates have a few options and those options involve a lot of other options.  Option number one was to stand pat and play with the cards Neil Huntington has dealt to them at this point.  Who do the Pirates have to trade and what do they get in return?  Here’s how I see it.  The Pirates farm system is stocked and they have a few pieces on the major and minor league rosters that could be traded for the right price. 

The ideal major league team has a player that can provide quality play at each position day in and day out, while once in a while getting a day off.  Very few teams have a player at each position that can do that.  So they try the platoon system.   The Pirates have 6 positions that I’m confident that they are set at and 2 that are basically unstable.

Second base is set with the Pittsburgh kid, Neil Walker.  He’s living up to his first round status this year, a breakout year, that even included a short derailment due to emergency appendectomy surgery.  I thought that would cause him to get off track for an extended period of time, but when he came back he has been just as good as he was before the surgery. 

This year it looks like Mercer might be someone that the Pirates can depend on.  He has provided quality play at short and after a slow start he has hit the occasional home run and also hit for a respectable average. 

Pedro has been a major problem this year.  He has steadied his average, but his power numbers are not what was hoped for after he shared the league lead last year in Home runs and his throwing problems on defense have led to Clint Hurdle replacing him with late game leads.  But, there is always the chance that he’ll go on a tear and start slamming home runs left and right.  I keep thinking this will happen at some point, but I think his defensive issues are causing his offense to suffer.    The problem with trading Pedro is that his value is low right now.  But, the only way for his value to increase is for him to start playing better and if he’s playing better why would they want to trade him.  It’s hard to trade someone who could win a game with one swing of the bat.  So, for me, I’m going to hang onto Pedro and hope that he can do enough to help the team to the postseason.  Then there’s always the chance that he’ll be a postseason monster.  After all he was a pretty big part of the Pirates playoff successes last year.

The other weak link in the Pirates infield is first base.  This has been a sore spot for several years now and it is not any better this year.  It seems like Gabby is just there.  He doesn’t help out too much, but also he doesn’t usually hurt too much.  Really the same goes for Ike.  The problem is if you’re not helping and you’re not hurting, you’re just there.  The Pirates need a lot more than just being there.  At the least they need someone that will hit for a decent average.  That doesn’t mean .300.  It means .270 or so.  Then, most guys that hit around there will end up with a few home runs in some key situations.  I’ve heard Ike say that he’s a second half player.  Yeah, I’ve waited and waited for other first basemen to play well in the second half.  Adam LaRoche, Garrett Jones.  Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.  We can’t wait Ike, we want to win a pennant and the World Series.  Unfortunately, Ike and Gabby have no value whatsoever in trades.  We need a first baseman that will start the year at least at a mediocre clip then at least kick it into another gear as the year goes on.  Not one that will hit .200 for a few months and then start hitting .220.  In short that is still a need for the Pirates.  Frankly, the Ike trade was a wasted one.  It was a gamble, one that Huntington has tried several times.  Find a player that has had a very good year but gone downhill and hope that they will rebound and return to that one year form with the Pirates.  Gabby has been another wasted gamble.  One very good year with Miami and that’s it.

The outfield is set.  If there is even one iota of a crazy thought about trading the Marte partay someone needs to take a sledgehammer and knock it out of the head of anyone in the front office’s head that thinks it may be a good one.  This outfield has the makings to be historic.  They may not hit 120 home runs each year, but they can save a lot of runs by running down nearly anything hit to the outfield and they all have the speed to create runs. 

We know what Mr. MVP can do.  But we are just scratching the surface of Marte and Polanco’s abilities.  I, for one, want to see what they’ll do while they are under the Pirates contractual control.  Even if Polanco doesn’t sign long term, he’s still here for 6 years.  In other words, the outfielders are untradeable and should be pieces of the long term plan. 

At catcher, Russell Martin, is the veteran glue that holds the team together.  The only issue the Pirates have with him is whether they can resign him for next year and that is an entirely different story.  For now Martin is a must in the chase for a championship. 

The discussion about the starting pitching staff and relief staff could go on for days.  The good thing about the issues with the starters is they’ve found several within the organization that can pitch and a couple pickups they’ve made were good decisions.  Did anyone expect Vance Worley to pitch as well  as he has.  He has 1 of the Pirates 2 complete games.  Not bad for a reclamation project.  Same goes for Edinson Volquez.  Worley’s counterpart in the complete game category.    Volquez has had a few bad games, but I’d have to say the good has outweighed the bad for him.  The other starters have been erratic at best.  Liriano was being counted on to be the ace of the staff along with Gerrit Cole, but  injuries and inconsistency has caused their output to be undependable and their win total to be low.  Charlie Morton has also provided nothing in the win category, although he has escaped the injury bug and provided innings in most of his starts.

The Pirates have also counted on Brandon Cumpton to fill in and Jeff Locke to provide innings when the others have gone down.  Cumpton has been reliable to provide innings.  Locke started out strong in his recent term as a starter but has not fared well in recent outings.  As the season began, we thought Jameson Taillon would be arriving at a similar schedule as Gerrit Cole last year, but that train was derailed when we found out that he would be having season ending Tommy John  surgery.  So, here’s where we stand with the starters:  Liriano, Morton, Locke, Worley, Volquez, Cumpton, and Cole.  If Cole comes back that gives them two spare parts to choose from.  I’m guessing that the top 5 will be Liriano, Morton, Worley, Volquez and Cole.  Number one option of the fifth and sixth guys would be Locke, and then Cumpton.  Those two guys have options left and can be sent back to AAA without the risk of losing them.  Hopefully Cole will be back soon and return to a high level of performance.  So, now that we’ve passed the trade deadline and the big guys have already moved from team to team, the main team with pieces left to trade is Philadelphia.  Cole Hamels and AJ are still around and could most likely make it through waivers and be available for trade, but do they provide the Pirates with a higher quality of starter than what they have now.  In their prime the answer would have been yes, now I think the answer is no.  That is as long as the Pirates pitchers can stay off the DL. 

As far as relievers, the Pirates have been rumored by many sources to be going after closers on other teams that have been labeled as sellers.  But nothing has been substantiated and again is there someone that is better out there than what the Pirates already have.  I’m sure that they could find someone better than how Ernesto has pitched since being swapped for Grilli, but again who and what be the cost.  Really, I think the Pirates have a very competitive team if many things happen with current players and I would really like to plug in some of the minor leaguers that should arrive by next year into the current roster.  How does this sound.  Cole, Taillon, Glasnow, Liriano, Morton, (Worley),(Cumpton).  Josh Bell at first, Walker at 2^nd, Mercer at short, Pedro/JHay at 3^rd, the 3 headed center fielder in the outfield, and Martin catching.  That sounds like a World Series caliber team to me. 

The bullpen is a question mark, but Melancon has been dependable since Grilli was sent away and Watson definitely appears to be a closer in waiting.  They should be able to find a few quality guys in trades or the minors to fill in the rest.  

I know Pirates fans have been waiting for a winner for a long time and they don’t want to wait til next season.  It is obvious from reading comments that they were unhappy that they didn’t secure an ace for the staff, but this team has the players on the roster and in their minor league system to win this year and I mean win big.  If they go and trade those players away they might have enough to restock, but if they already have those players whether it be this year or next why trade them for a player they will control for a few months for their future staff ace or number 2 or 3 pitcher or for that first baseman they have been waiting for since, um Pops.  I’m not going to even mention SB.  Too many bad memories there.  I want to see this team come together and have a great nucleus for many years. 

Yeah, I would have liked to see them pick up Price or some other ace, but they are not lacking proven starters right now and there is help arriving in Glasnow and Taillon within a year.  Don’t trade Glasnow for a few month rental player and don’t trade your future power hitting first baseman for a rental player.  These guys could lead the Buccos to a title in the next few years.