Pirates trade their only good player!!!
 

The Pirates traded away their star slugger, Brian Giles, in return for a couple of good prospects. I think this means that they will keep Kendall since they can now theoretically afford his contract without Giles. GM Dave Littlefield had said that the Bucs had 3 big contracts left and one needed to go (Benson was the other) and Giles was by far the most marketable.

The Padres are loading up for their 2004 opening of Petco park. Giles, Klesko, Nevin and Kotsay make a pretty formidable lineup, and supposedly they've got more money to spend.

Um they traded away their whole team already basically, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Kendall go either.

Loften, Ramirez, Simon and now Giles...it's exactly like what the Reds are doing, except they can't get rid of their stars cause they are always injured.

It's kind of sad because they're were prepping to be great in time for their new stadium (which looks like one of the bestb in the league from the games I've watched on TV).

They just can't seem to win. They had decent talen the last couple years too...

Yeah, it's one of those teams that just can't get it together, even though they have like all the talent in the world.

I'd like to send an open letter to all GM's who are just "shocked" this year that their teams did not live up to expectations. Yes, this goes to the GM's of the Rangers, Pirates, Reds, and others:

YOU CANNOT WIN WITH SUB-PAR PITCHING

Sorry for the caps.
You would think these guys would get it, but you need to have at least two quality starters. Noone thought these teams did going into the season. This is the Pirates problem, they had some nice position players, even som nice bullpen players, but they have crappy starters.

Agreed, the Reds got Harang which will help, and moving Graves back to the bullpen will also be beneficial.

The Pirates are just idiots, it's a good thing they traded Mike Williams, but Lincoln isn't filling the void well.

its not that they are idiots, its the fact that their payroll is maybe 40 million... the yankees' payroll is 180 million.... thats just ridiculous, how are the pirates supposed to compete over the long term... you might say giles is a good player to build a team around, but how can you build anything if you cant get enough money to sign your other quality players... the pirates have basically traded away every promising player on their team and have recieved nothing in return... salary cap now please

and dont tell me about the twins and the A's :)

How much payroll do you need to slash and burn?

I mean it's not like they traded a veteran with a salary, they traded players they could build a franchise around.

Ramirez was just starting to go back to his old form and Simon was a pretty good player for his 2nd or 3rd year.

I can understand if the Reds let go of Griffey, but letting go of Giles is the final straw for the Pirates, unless they can rebuild in 1 year, their fans will be pissed.

The Pirates lost their fans long ago, and that's how they lost 30 million bucks in their first 3 years in a BRAND NEW STADIUM. Their first year was awful, and they still raised ticket prices for the 2nd year. I don't think they've recovered from that yet. They're trying to slash their payroll down as low as possible, but they need to have someone to hit the ball next season.

Their pitching will probably be OK, with Wells as the anchor and Oliver Perez as #2. If Benson recovers he's a fine #3 with upside if he can regain it. They've got Burnett, VanBenSchoten and Bullington all on the farm, plus a handful of other fairly attractive arms. But they don't have anyone with 30-HR potential, except maybes in Jason Bay, Craig Wilson and JJ Davis. And most of next season's projected regulars couldn't crack 10 HRs in 600 ABs... Kendall at C, Freddy Sanchez and Bobby Hill at 2B and 3B, Jack Wilson at SS and Tike Redman at CF.