Will Ohman disses the Pirates and other weird happenings in Bradenton

Look, I'm well aware of the many shortcomings of our local baseball club. I know they are on the verge of setting the all-time record for most consecutive losing seasons in major professional sports history. And I know how miserable that culture of losing can be for the players.

But this just seems weird to me. Will Ohman was so against signing with the Pirates he turned down a guaranteed, major-league contract with your hometown Buccos to sign with the LA Dodgers on a minor-league deal that offers him no guarantee of big-league pay or time in the majors. I know Ohman wanted to play on the West Coast, but that is a BIG difference between the two deals. Suffice it to say, I think this might have had a bit to do with the letters stitched across the front of the uniform. If, say, the World Champion Philly Phillies had come calling with the same offer the Pirates extended to Ohman, I imagine the veteran lefty would have jumped at that chance. Not to mention that Ohman left the Pirates major league deal sitting on the table for 9 whole days, despite the fact that he had no other offers whatsoever at the time. If I'm the Pirates' management, I am sooooooooo pissed right now at Ohman and his agent for embarassing them like this. Unfortunately, no embarassment from not being wanted by a below-average lefty reliever can match the embarassment of the worst run in the recorded history of sports.

I'm not sure what exactly is going on down in Bradenton or what is in the water, but there is some other weird stuff happening too, it seems. Let's take a look at some of these weird happenings:

-The Pirates open up against the Cardinals in exactly 7 days, and someone named Virgil Vasquez, who may or may not have pitched in the California Penal League last season, is still in the mix for a rotation spot. I follow the Pirates as closely as almost anyone, and I have no friggin' idea who in the world Virgil Vasquez is. I'm hoping and praying he is being used just to push Jeff Karstens and will be discarded to AAA never to be heard from again just before the season starts. If he comes north as the fifth starter, though, I'm going to have some serious concerns.

-Freddy Sanchez and Jack Wilson are both making pushes to stay with the Pirates for the foreseeable future. And Jumpin' Jack even approached the Pirates about an extension and it appeared that they are at least willing to listen. Oh, and on a related note, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. Look, I have no problem with Jack and Freddy holding the fort down this season. They lock down important positions on the diamond for a team that is in flux. But neither one, not even the former batting champ Sanchez, is a building block for a team that's most realistic timetable to contend is 2011. Both are 31 years old (Freddy is a whopping 8 days older) and would then be 33 before the 2011 season commences. And neither one is exactly aging very well.

Look at the numbers. Jumpin' Jack has had two good seasons in his 8 with the Bucs (04 and an underrated 07), but has never had much consistency at the plate, too often going hot and cold to be seriously relied upon. And you can't possibly tell me you think he isn't about to fall off a cliff offensively. Unless of course you want to argue he already fell off that cliff last season. Then I might listen. He was never exactly Alex Rodriguez to begin with, but I think a .270/.320/.380 is the best we can hope for this year, and that is only going to go downhill from there. Folks, those are dreadful numbers. Just dreadful.

And the exact same things can be said for Freddy Sanchez. Freddy probably can put up better numbers than Jack, but I just don't see him aging well. If he hits .290/.330/.420 that's probably as good as we could hope for. Like I said, I'm fine with that as a placeholder in a rebuilding effort while guys like Shelby Ford develop. But I am not fine when he's batting .270/.300/.380 in 2012 and unable to move to his right.

And I definitely am NOT fine with ignoring proven metrics like OPS and VORP in favor of fan logic like "he won a batting title a few years back" "he's a good guy to have around" "he makes good plays in the field" and "stats don't measure all he contributes." If either one of those guys gets an extension, especially Wilson, I am going to lose a ton of faith in this management team.

-The Jose Tabata story. I'm not even remotely going to blame the kid for what happened there, as I am only a little bit older and have definitely done some dumb stuff in my life, and I have no pressure on me and live in the same city I've spent my whole life in. Quite a bit different from Jose, so I can see where the issues come from. Tabata's life has been chaotic to this point, and I was struck most by his display in the face of the turmoil. Hell, I expected some kind of immaturity from him at some point, but I thought the character he displayed was tremendous in the face of this adversity. Good for you Jose. I hope you turn out to be the tremendous player you are expected to be, for more than just my own selfish reasons now. Anyway, let's hope he learns from this. But whatever your opinion of all this, there's no denying it certainly was a weird one.

-Nyjer Morgan has probably been one of the 2 or 3 worst hitters on the entire roster this spring, yet he is still being considered for the opening day left fielder job. I thought Huntington and Coonelly were all into sending messages and stuff. If that's the case, Nyjer should be taking outfield instruction with guys like Tabata and getting ready to make the trip to Indy to open the AAA season. That said, I won't be terribly upset if he makes the opening day roster, as he's too old to be playing AAA at age 28, but if he is starting in left over Hinske and Monroe, and especially if he is leading off, my head might just explode. That would be a Littlefieldian move. And I just threw up in my mouth a little bit again.

-Brian Bixler, all of a sudden, actually has a future as a major league player it seems. After that disastrous debut last season at the ripe old age of 25 I had just about written him off as being a noteworthy prospect. Best case scenario I figured Bix would be a mediocre utility backup infielder. Nothing to get excited about. Well, he absolutely tore it up this spring by all accounts, and while spring training results can be quite deceptive at times, everyone seems quite impressed by this. That includes Neal Huntington. I still am wary of Bix as anything more than a utility infielder, but his ceiling as a potential low-end everyday player has been re-established. And when Jumpin' Jack is (hopefully) traded this summer I have no problem with Bix getting a 2+ month tryout to prove himself at shortstop.

DON'T JUMP! YOU HAVE SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR!

Well, slowly but surely, I have been talking myself into this Nady/Marte deal to the Yanks for the (not-so) fearsome foursome that is Tabata/ McCutchen/ Karstens/ Ohlendorf, and now, after running through the whole spectrum of emotions, from pissed off to confused to curious to intrigued to mildly satisfied, and that’s about as far along this spectrum as I will probably ever get. I think that’s a step in the right direction, though, and I will do my best to now talk all of you into this very deal.
I know, I know, it’s a typical Pirates defense mechanism, where you talk yourself slowly into it because you really have no other option at this point. But hey, if it weren’t for defense mechanisms, the attendance at Pirate games would be encroaching on single digits. If you don’t like the trade, and are calling for blood and are convinced that Neal Huntington is really just Dunce Littlefield in disguise, hey, I don’t blame you. And I also won’t blame you if you don’t want to read this work of spin, but for those of you who still have that glimmer of hope residing somewhere in your soul, read onward.
Let’s start with the supposed centerpiece of the deal, the (apparently crazy) Jose Tabata, who, naturally is an outfielder, our one area of depth. Tabata is evidently a five-tool player and some say he has even more natural ability then Andrew McCutchen, which is downright stunning to hear. He is the type of skill player that the Bucs haven’t typically targeted because of his incredible upside and the fact that he is probably at least 2 years away and more likely 3-4 years in reality. Of course, as there always is with the Buccaroos, there is a certain downside. That, of course is his inability to stay on the field. He has been suspended on more than one occasion and also has had a number of injuries that have derailed him. Still, he is highly regarded, and if he is able to turn his career around under the watchful eye of a system that definitely needs him to pull through for them.
And now, for the pitchers that we’ve acquired. Jeff Karstens is the only guy on the ML roster right now, but there is without question a good shot at seeing all three of them in the bigs by the end of this coming season, and certainly have the expectation of being up by the 09 Opener. It has been reported that Karstens will start for the Pirates Friday night, so we will see how he fares with a bit of job security and a fresh start, but it would be an understatement to say I’m not much of a Karstens fan. Personally, I don’t expect to ever amount to much more then a borderline major leaguer, not exactly a ringing endorsement. And while I think he could put up some decent starts at first, I don’t envision him as a long-term viable option in the rotation, and think that he may have been acquired simply for stopgap purposes.
Ohlendorf is probably the most highly regarded of this crew, and I have liked what I’ve heard about him thus far, but most experts tend to agree that they think he would be best served as a reliever, and could truly be a stud in this role. As a starter, he likely projects more as a back of the rotation type, so it will be very interesting to see what role the Pirates start him off with, and what role he eventually settles in to. Make no mistake, I fully expect them to try to push him to start, and he likely could see time in September if he gets his arm stretched out sufficiently in AAA, and I have some hope for a middle of the rotation starter, and truth be told, for this team, maybe that’s significant enough.
Lastly, we come to Daniel McCutchen, who will be 26 by season’s end, just like the other two, and is hard to project, just like the other two. He appears to have the best overall stuff of the bunch, but has never appeared in the major leagues, so he clearly is something of an unprocen entity at this point in his career. He had done well in the lower minor leagues in the early stages of his career, but has struggled in a brief stint at the AAA level, and he may not make an appearance in 2008, but if he can get to the level of success that he has had in the lower stages of the minors, then he will certainly be in the mix for what is suddenly a somewhat crowded rotation in 2009. Albeit that rotation is crowded with mediocrity, but hey at least there’s some competition and we aren’t just handing starter spots to guys with ERA’s in the neighborhood of a touchdown.
So, yeah, I have moderately talked myself into this deal under the premise that we should be able to patch together a pretty solid rotation with these parts and the existing group. Sure it took me a few days to get here, and some extensive research on numerous scouting websites, but I don’t totally hate the trade, and when it comes to the Pittsburgh Pirates, sometimes that’s the best that you can ask for as a fan. And hey, if they trade Jason Bay tomorrow, rest assured that I will be ready to talk you off the ledge by, oh say, August 3rd or so. Until then folks, rest assured that the Steelers and the Penguins are not far from the regular season…