Ian Snell Retires; Trades of Bucco Past

During the Pirates 18 season losing streak, the Pirates have been criticized for poor draft choices, frugal financial decisions, and horrible trades or "salary dumps".  While that has been true for the first decade, or so, making that determination to the Pirates' trade moves in the last few years is incorrect.  I hear it all the time: "the Pirates are bad because they trade away all their good players for bums."  I challenge any Pirate fan to give me five players the Pirates have traded that went on to have excellent careers since 2007.  Heck, I'll throw in the last 10 years; 2001.   



This whole topic was brought up to those that turned their nose up to the trade featuring Jack Wilson and Ian Snell to Seattle for Jeff Clement, Nathan Adcock, Aaron Pribanic and Brett Lorin.  I understand the negative reaction to trading Wilson because he was a fan favorite.  However, blaming the losing seasons on trading both he and Ian Snell away is a little ridiculous.  As if we did not already know, Ian Snell's retirement earlier today proves he did not have as much upside as some may of thought.  Lets look at the few All-Star players the Pirates have actually dealt.  And no, making the All-Star team is not the prerequisite to this list.  Wilson and Sanchez would have never been All-Stars had the rules left out the importance of all teams being represented.




I'll start with the most obvious answers:




Aramis Ramirez

Oh hell yes this was a bad deal.  An obvious salary dump in every way possible.  I attribute this trade, alone, which has caused Pirates fans to lose hope in seeing a winner before they die.  Ramirez and Kenny Lofton were packaged in a deal for Jose Hernandez, Matt Bruback and Bobby Hill.  Free-swinging Jose Hernandez hit .223/.282/.326 while striking out 56 times in 213 plate appearances.  Matt Bruback never made it out of AAA while Bobby Hill was a utility player who fizzled after 2 full seasons.  Meanwhile, Ramirez's career numbers are.282/.340/.499 with 289 homeruns and 1029 RBI's.  Not to mention 2 All-Star appearances.


Jason Schmidt

 Jason Schmidt, acquired in 1996 in a deal that sent Denny Neagle to the Braves, was a solid pitcher for the Pirates from 1996-2001.  His ERA was consistently just a hair over 4.00 (other than his rough year in 2000) but he never became the explosive pitcher everyone remembers him by until he went to San Fransisco.  In 2003 and 2004 he finished top 5 in the Cy Young voting, and he was the starter for Game 1 of the 2002 World Series.  In 2001, he was traded by the Pirates for John Vander Wal, Armando Rios, and Ryan Vogelsong; all three were absolutely awful.  Worse yet, Vogelsong neededTommy John Surgery after just two appearances after the trade and Armando Rios tore his ACL.


Other than that, what trades in the last 10 years have been truly detrimental to the organization?  What about the last 3 years?  Many point to the Freddy Sanchez trade that brought in Tim Aldersonas a major error in Pirates management.  However, many forget Alderson was the 7th best prospect in the Pirates system when he was acquired.  He was a 20 year old kid, dominating AA throwing consistently in the low to mid 90's.  Sanchez went on to win a World Series with the Giants, but his production was hardly a major factor in their success.  Don't get me wrong, I loved Sanchez when he was here, but I think it is ludicrous for a small market team to pay 6.25 million dollars for a singles hitter with poor defensive skills.  And, can you really get down on his replacement? Neil Walker his .296/.349/.462 as a rookie last year.


What about the other trades?  Nate McLouth?  Let me ask you something.  What do Nate McLouth, Charlie Morton and Jeff Locke all have in common?  They all played in the minors last year.  Difference is, Locke is still 23 years old and could be a solid piece to the backside of the rotation in the near future.  


If we want to criticize the Pirates, we can criticize them for bad moves in the draft and  free agency.  We can even criticize their trade moves in the early 2000's as a reason for their losing streak.  It takes talent to attract talent.  Hanley Ramirez was traded to the Marlins for Josh Beckett.  The Pirates never had a player of that caliber and thus, were never able to get a return.  The only exception is Littlefield's refusal to trade Kip Wells for Ryan Howard.  I think we can all agree Littlefield decimated this club when he left.  However, the recent moves by Huntington have been warranted.  The purpose was to cut dead-weight salary and restock the minor league system.  As I stated in my post a few weeks ago, this current regime cares about winning.  They aren't going to waste tons of money on free agents and they aren't going to draft based on signability.  In due time, we should see the results.  


written by Jon Pennline