The 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates are overachieving so far this season.  The pitching has been great with the exception of Ian Snell and some shaky middle relief.  The offense has been almost bearable as compared to seasons past.  So where does this team go from here?

With the trading deadline fast approaching and Pittsburgh right there in the hunt, wouldn’t it be cool to see management make a trade to go out and get a big name free agent pitcher?  Show the fans you want to win.  Many Pirates fans are under the impression that the front office has been more concerned about minimizing finacial losses instead of paying people to create on the field wins.

Go back one year.  Jason Bay and Nate McLouth in the outfield.  Bringing up Andrew McCutchen would have given the Pirates one of the strongest outfield trios in all of MLB.  But no…  Bay had to go, he had a contract coming up, McLouth was one of those deals where quantity exceeds quality, and had McCutchen not been a mandatory call-up, they might have left him down just to keep him in the organization at league minimums.

Paul Maholm is the new meter to me.  If they trade this guy less than 6 games out, you know that their hearts are in the pockets instead of on the field.  I would be completely ecstatic to see them do something nobody would expect.  Go get Ryan Spilborghs from Colorado.  Let the hot Delwyn Young play second base and for God sakes, do something with the LaRoche brothers.  Eric Hinske should be the everyday third baseman.  Ryan Doumit will be back in about three weeks, teach Jaramillo to play first and keep Robinson Diaz to back up Doumit.

Shake it up.  Want people in the seats?  Put them there.  A Matt Capps bobblehead doll won’t sell you a seat on a Tuesday night non-promotional game.  Putting a quality product on the field that can win, will put people in the park.  If management is confused, call the Rooney family for tips on how to win wiithout spending millions on free agents.  Call Mario Lemieux and ask him how important it is to snag guys from teams that have no chance to win anything.  They must know something, look what they did in 2009.

This isn’t rocket science to me.  It is not a bocce league where teams don’t usually know much about each other, it is Major League Baseball.  Get busy and try to deal some of these stale prospects from Boston and Atlanta to get some star power back.

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