Wanting the world, Pirates are missing out on too many deals to get better

I hear the Bucs are walking past deals left and right.. some were understandable as they had short returns, others aren’t as defensible. Now it also appears Bob Nutting and company aren’t going to be buyers because they have had also the chance to make a splash but wanted everything on their own terms — other teams aren’t buying into their valuation schemes. Nor do they seem to have the cash available for baseball operations to spend from what I’m hearing.

I don’t get it.

I don’t want to talk about lost opportunities right now because they may eventually become fruitful over the next few days. We’ll see. But’s it’s no likely.. it’s almost as if those who rang Huntington’s phone and hung up laughing have spread the word because talk around the circuit is that the Pirates want the moon in every deal.

Our core players need a stronger foundation that can only be achieved through acquisitions and right now is the time to be spending the jingle. Not next winter.

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Maholm with a Benson-like trade deadline performance Thursday. Sure, it’s just coincidental, but still.

Numerous errors, base running blunders, poor managerial decisions, and other miscues cost us a chance but I suppose we should be grateful we walked into their house and took two away from them while they were snoozing. And we did it without playing well which is a rarity in this game, but our norm it seems.

Now it’s on to St. Louis where the Cards are a mismatch. First we face Carpenter who has helped to provide a win for the Cards in every game of his last 32 starts except for 4 when they were the home favorite. Oh, and the Cards are 12-0 last 12 against us when Carpenter starts and the Bucs are 0-6 in Karstens last 6 road starts.

That’s just plain rude.

But funny thing, we’re catching another club who are snoozing right now and the last time we played the Cards at Busch we took 2 of 3 (before the deadline last year), so who knows.. anything is possible. And one other thing to note.. there have been quite a few huge upsets this year. The Bucs are going off at a season high 280 so if you are looking for the longshot bet of the year with our Bucs, this is probably going to be the game.

I assume Daniel McCutchen will the starter Saturday night against Suppan. Say a prayer for the kid, he’s going to need it. And then Duke starts Sunday against Wainright who is one of the strongest home starters in the game this year — 10-0 with a ridiculous 1.22 ERA and has only allowed one earned run in his last five home starts over 35+ innings. Somebody needs to check the mound height at Busch.

Three of the next four starters we face are all at the top of the NL in ERA so we have our work cut out.

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McCutchen, who was in a sling in his post-game interview after Wednesday nights game, was inserted into Thursday’s lineup but was a late scratch.

I’m begging the Pirates FO to put him on the 15-day DL and give him some rest. We all understand Tabata won’t handle CF like McCutchen does but we’d rather have McCutchen around long-term than Tabata. I hope someone with a brain is listening.

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I see Anup Sinha over at Bucs Prospects is on overdrive. His latest article was on the GCL rookies and he had a surprising view on Exicardo Cayonez you won’t want to miss reading.

I heard today that they plan on picking up some Curve games over the next week with pro scout Bob Smith and then will have a pro scout spending a week or so traveling with the State College Spikes in mid-August as well as picking up a few more Curve games during that stretch. It’s the third deep look at the Pirates system this year. Lastly, their plans are to follow the system all the way into instructionals and then finish the year with an organizational prospect guide to die for.

Good stuff.

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How about DJ Carrasco? He went to Huntington and told him he wouldn’t mind a shot at playing for a contender. That much is no big deal to me.. it probably happens quite often with veteran journeymen. But the fact Carrasco then told the local media of his desire probably cost him his chance at an exit visa the way Huntington frowns on the players broadcasting anti-Pittsburgh Pirates sentiment (I’d rather be somewhere else since this team stinks) to the media.

Curiously, one reader shot me an e-mail suggesting Carrasco might be using reverse psychology on Huntington. It’s an interesting proposition because we know Huntington boots perceived culture problems out the door in a hurry.

This will be interesting to see what happens. One one hand we have Carrasco who is using the media to try to gain an advantage, and on the other hand we have players like Maholm who have refused extension talks and want out.

Who goes first? Do any of them go? And more importantly, do we get true value back if any of them are shipped out?

On the flip side, why aren’t we dealing guys like Hanrahan if we can’t field five #4 or better starters? Take a look:

9:04pm: The Twins are “close” to acquiring Capps from the Nationals for Wilson Ramos, a source tells Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports 

My goodness.. Ramos has a cannon arm and receives pretty well. He would have been a nice addition to the Pirates system, especially for a reliever.

We’re just missing too many deals to get better. Too many.

Related posts:

1. Three ring circus act continues, Pirates call up Burres
2. Are you missing the messages?
3. Paul Maholm deals, Ryan Doumit crushes, and Bucs win
4. Doumit had to block two too many pitches so Bucs lose
5. Karstens checks Cards thru six