I know I write a lot about the Pittsburgh Pirates on this site but I find them really 
interesting. The Pirates have had a loosing record in each of the seasons I have been alive but they are starting to turn it around. Through savvy personnel decisions on a mostly small scale, Pittsburgh has positioned itself, if a lot goes right, to actually win more than 81 games this season.
The most recent Pittsburgh acquisition, Casey McGehee, is a great decision by GM Neil Huntington. The Pirates were looking for an insurance policy for third basemen Pedro Alvarez, who struggled mightily last season. In McGehee, the Pirates got that and an everyday player who will hit in the middle of their order. Rumor has it, Alvarez will move to first to accommodate the new guy. This is a good idea, it allows four men (Alvarez, Garrett Jones, Jose Tabata, and recent addition Nate McLouth) to fill three spots: 1st, right and left, and lets manager Clint Hurdle play the hot hand. McGehee’s big bat will likely be missed by Milwaukee now that they face the possibility of missing Ryan Braun for the first 50 games in addition to the loss of Prince Fielder but he’ll be a huge help compensating for Clint Barmes’ bat at short in Pittsburgh. Barmes is the most questionable signing for Pittsburgh this offseason but he is without a doubt an improvement over Ronny Cedeno, whom I believe is the single worst position player on a 40 man roster right now. It was embarrassing that he started for the Pirates last season. How you tell me there are only 29 shortstops on earth better than him? Simply not true.
Other than McLouth, the other guy the Buccos left the winter meetings in Dallas with is Eric Bedard. Bedard was once an elite pitcher in the AL but injuries have sidelined him recently. He will now try his hand in the National League (which we all know is basically AAAA) for the first time and will lend a veteran presence to a young rotation. Perhaps most importantly, he is the left hander the team so desperately needed. I advocated earlier that the Pirates consider Roy Oswalt for their rotation and obviously Eric Bedard is no Oswalt, but he’s a good pitcher with a lot of potential who could really help.
It’s finals week so I’ve only got 380 words in me today. Sorry, I wrote about 1,500 this morning and have about 10,000 left this week.
-Max Frankel
