喬納森亞當拉羅什的桑切斯?

Why not send Adam LaRoche to the Giants with a few bucks for Jonathan Sanchez?  Talk about a win-win deal.  LaRoche has mauled NLWD pitching (204 抗體, .294 BA) and AT&T Park is one of his favorite hitting holes (43 抗體, 1.227 OPS)。

Sanchez has two plus pitches and can miss some bats, although he lacks any other average pitches. He had a rough second half last year probably mainly from an increased workload from 2007 (+83 innings due to biceps tendinitis and ribcage injuries in 2007).

One of his major problems has been an inability to repeat his mechanics leading to too many walks.  He’s high risk, no question about it.  

I hear you asking, why do we need another southpaw?  We don’t.  What we need is a pitcher who can miss bats.  Any pitcher, southpaw or not. 

LaRoche on the other hand will probably come out of the shoot wailing the ball in the NLWD giving the Giants the middle of the order guy they need.  More importantly for them, he adds plus defense, although some stat heads are sure to argue LaRoche’s glove has been MIA since hitting Pittsburgh. 

To fill the hole we could sign Minty again and let Pearce get some at bats as well.  I realize we’ll be yanking some runs scored off the board in 2009 doing this, and we’ll be adding more runs allowed as well.  But if we can give Sanchez one easy year of 160 innings without a lot of stress, plus the year with Kerrigan, we might end up with a very solid #4 guy (#3 upside maybe?) 在 2010 and on.

The Giants will argue Sanchez is worth more than one year of LaRoche and they are probably right, but they have to remember he projects to be a 30+ HR guy in that division.  Plus, maybe LaRoche would ink for two years at a home town discount before being dealt?

It’s win-win.. they get rid of a risk, we take on risk with higher upside plus reduce payroll.  If they want an arm back, we can send them a lower level arm like Matt McSwain (I can see his pop’s eyes lighting up) in the deal too, but reduce the cash we send.

Just an idea.

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‘”There’s no question that my expectation in 2009 is that we have a better team than we did last year,” 他說：. “Even as we continue to build for the long-term success of the franchise, a real, championship-caliber organization that can compete on a sustainable basis, 我們 have to have a better team in 2009 and better than what Pittsburgh has seen lately..

“As an organization, we have to continue to hold people accountable for improvement on the field at the major league level, as well as organization-wide. You saw it last year with Matt Morris. We’re not going to accept an inferior performance.”‘   Bob Nutting as quoted in the 郵報,一月 19, 2009

 hmm..

 ”And now, 真正地, the responsibility, the accountability, is shifting onto the field. It’s time for everyone to perform.” — 鮑勃納丁, 二月 21, 2008

嗯。.

‘”Nutting said he believed the Pirates can contend in the Central Division, though he stopped well short of a firm prediction.

“I certainly believe that,” he said. “I’ve never professed to be an evaluator of baseball talent, so I trust the guys we have in place to make those decisions. But the optimism I’ve heard, the enthusiasm I’ve seen, certainly gives me a wonderful feeling.”‘ — Philly.com, 二月 21, 2008

Remember that song called Dizzy?

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Every year I put together a risky list of potential Sleepers and Foolers for the Pirates.  This is my beta list for 2009:

枕木

1.  Andy LaRoche.  It all finally comes together.
2.  Jimmy Barthmaier. Something about him.
3.  Freddy Sanchez.  He knows the Bucs will pass on his ‘10 選項.
4.  Robinzon Diaz. The surprise of the year with Doumit down.
5.  Jeff Karstens.  Kerrigan’s poster boy.

Foolers

1.  Ryan Doumit.  Do they have a “he’s stoned too much” DL entry?
2.  Tom Gorzelanny.  2007 was just too much on his shoulder.
3.  Brandon Moss.  It just isn’t there.
4.  Nate McLouth.  The little engine that could just can’t find holes.
5.  Craig Hanson.  Club commits him to one-year of anger management.

Here are previous years:  2006 Sleepers and Foolers, 2007 Sleeper’s and Fooler’s, and 2008 Sleeper’s and Fooler’s.

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Evidently this is being talked about at various discussion forums from the emails I’ve received:

“Ogden Newspapers has eliminated several positions at its Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register papers in West Virginia.  True to the spirit of full disclosure, the publisher isn’t revealing any more information.”  Newspaper Death Watch

Internet research suggests they are eliminating 50 positions, but don’t hold me to that.  Ironically, this action came two days after RBC Capital slashed United Bankshares target price from $28 至 $22, but that’s a coincidence more than anything.

United Bankshares, which is one of Ogden Nutting’s larger financial holdings, took it on the chin the last week with the rest of the market (chart below).  Remember now, Nutting sits on the Board plus the Bank was just approved for about $200MM in federal bailout funds.  I don’t know if UB COB Richard Adams is of the same Adams family which are limited partners in the Pirates, but I assume that he is related. 

Banks are going to take a hit over the next year so it’s only logical Ogden Nutting is tightening his purse strings.  That’s just smart business, plus you can’t look at this stuff short-term or you’ll have a heart attack every other day right now. 

And they can’t be the only partners wondering what 2009 is going to bring..  metal prices are down and that probably hurt the Brenners who are limited partners with Don Beaver as well, but they are majorly loaded anyway.

仍然, we have to take Bob Nutting at his word and he stated the club is financially sound. If we start seeing a rush to dump high priced players for bags of peanuts, then maybe we’ll revisit this stuff.  But as a fan you need to know what’s going down.

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More than one person asked how John Perrotto could take a job with Ogden Newspapers when people who have worked for them more than 20 years are getting canned.  What a tough position to be in for Perrotto but it’s actually quite simple - his services were desired.

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Maybe there is more to the movie 2012 than we know?

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Get out and see the caravan!  Go buy Piratefest 門票!  Air fares have dropped.. I saw AirTran had a few $69 tickets to Sarasota in March.  Get out and celebrate the Pirates.

好東西.