Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Winter Meetings 2010 - Part 2

The Pirates have been busy just as they promised. Two major signings have taken place since the last update.

Kevin Correia signed a deal worthy about 4 million a year for two years. However, I sort of doubt that the Pirates will keep him around for two years. If he has a decent year, I think the Pirates will shop him mid year. Still this signing is excellent. Correia is a solid pitcher and a clear up grade over Zack Duke. This also takes a lot of pressure off of James McDonald as I think this bumps McDonald to the 4th slot and Correia takes the 3rd slot with Ohlendorf at 2 and Malholm at 1. I also think that this means Brad Lincoln starts off in AAA, as I am pretty sure he has some options left. Jeff Karstens is probably back in the pen, Daniel McCutchen may still have a shot at the pen, but might be in AAA himself or traded by opening day. If you are going to get J.J. Hardy someone has to go. I think it spells bad news for Charlie Morton as well because in all probability Scott Oleson is your 5th starter.

The Pirates also signed Matt Diaz to play corner outfield for the Pirates. This guy is 32 and his deal is a two year deal, but it is only about 2 million a year. Reasonable. Diaz can hit lefties, but has struggled against righties. Last year was bad for him, but his career average is about .301. Probably not going to get that high as he is aging. Some are worried that this is not any better than Milledge. Milledge had a higher OBP and AVG against lefties than Diaz, although they had the same Slugging percentage. Milledge is much younger and would have been a little cheaper. I for one and much happier with Diaz. There are three main reasons.
One, Diaz is tradable. There was a lot of interest in Diaz when he was non-tendered from many teams. Diaz has a decent year and those teams like the Yankees are going to be willing to trade for him. Milledge was not tradable because of his bad reputation.
Two, Diaz has more power. Milledge had no power. It was completely gone last year, and I think the Pirates did not see it coming back. He has always underachieved in the power department. He is about at the age where you can say that what you see is what you get. The PIrates desperately need power.
Three, Milledge just did not try and that sort of attitude eats a team away. Milledge loafed in the outfield and often on the basepaths. I can remember at least two clear instances of bad defense from Milledge costing the Pirates games. I mean basic stuff like rout running and hitting the cutoff man. Add in all the times he failed to advance when he should have, got thrown out at third costing the team a run, and other dumb stuff and Milledge had to go. Diaz is going to be a player who knows how to run the bases and play defense. It is a shot in the arm of professionalism that the Pirates can use.

This does make getting rid of Doumit in a trade and near must.

All in all the Pirates are having a good meeting. I believe they still have one spot open on the 40 Man and the Rule 5 Draft is tomorrow.

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