Saying bye-bye to Nady and Bay could be OK

Pirate fans, put down your pitchforks. Leave your tar and feathers at home, don’t go out and… Pirate fans, put down your pitchforks. Leave your tar and feathers at home, don’t go out and buy that red can of spray paint, and please refrain from lighting torches. There remains no reason to head down to 115 Federal St., otherwise known as PNC Park, to find general manager Neal Huntingdon and throw some vile words in his direction while burning and destroying his office. Sure, Huntingdon spent the week before the MLB trade deadline trading away three of the best Buccos in exchange for prospects, but this wasn’t a rerun of the typical Pirates sitcom. First, let’s recap. On Friday, July 25, Pittsburgh was just beginning a meaningless game at home against the San Diego Padres when Xavier Nady was pulled from the game after one inning. Speculation instantly ran rampant of a deal, and then TV cameras caught reliever Damaso Marte hugging teammates in the dugout. After the game it was announced that Nady and Marte were traded to the New York Yankees for minor leaguers Jose Tabata, Jeff Karstens, Ross Ohlendorf and Daniel McCutchen. Six days later, Huntingdon made his most gutsy move yet, dealing star Jason Bay only seconds before the trade deadline at 4 p.m. In a spectacular three-team trade, Bay was sent to the Boston Red Sox to take over left field for Manny Ramirez. Ramirez was shipped from Boston to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Pittsburgh picked up four more prospects in this deal, two from each club involved. Third baseman Andy LaRoche and Class A pitcher Bryan Morris came from the Dodgers, while relief pitcher Craig Hansen and outfielder Brandon Moss entered from Boston. LaRoche, Moss, Hansen and Karstens were immediately placed on Pittsburgh’s active roster. Ohlendorf, who was in New York’s bullpen for a while, joined McCutchen in AAA Indianapolis. Both could end up in the starting rotation after September call-ups. In the aftermath of each deal, reactions of analysts and fans alike have been decidedly mixed. The raging battles have formulated debates that could emulate a prize fight. In one corner you have the proponents of the trade, who applaud Huntingdon for possessing the audacity and guts to trade his top performers to rebuild the farm system. In the opposing corner, a faction of Pirate diehards and media skeptics sits, criticizing management for recycling the all-too-familiar routine of shipping away the only productive Pirates for unproven youngsters. Who is correct here? It’s easy to sense the disdain of the latter group and sympathize with them. After all, the Pirates had the best outfield in baseball offensively, and two-thirds of it was gone by the first day of August. Only Nate McLouth remains. Bay was enjoying a fantastic comeback from a truly disappointing 2007 campaign. He was batting .282 with 22 home runs and 64 RBIs before the trade, numbers on par with his career norms. Nady’s season was the most surprising of all. He was expected to be a key contributor but not one of the most consistent offensive forces in the National League. With a .330 average (fifth in the NL), 13 home runs and 57 RBIs, Nady’s breakout was integral to the league’s third-best offense (in runs) before July 25. Now, along with Marte, both are gone. The main culprit? Affordable contracts that expired following the 2009 season. But make no mistake: These trades were not salary dumps, like some irate fans seem to be claiming. This isn’t the Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton to the Cubs trade of 2003, when the two stars were dumped for a sack of baseballs and free coupons to a Chicago hot dog shop. This was about building up Pittsburgh’s minor league system. Despite the Pirates’ surprising offensive success, the club was still eight games under .500 at the deadline. The pitching has been absolutely putrid, performing even worse than the newest ‘X-Files’ movie. The starting rotation’s ERA is the worst in baseball. To go along with that, the Pirates’ minor-league affiliates are among the worst of any franchise. If you scan through a summary of their records, you’ll find that no squad has a winning record throughout all the ranks in the system. Worse yet, minor league scouts have only projected a few Pirates’ prospects as having a future major league impact, like Andrew McCutchen, Steve Pearce and Neil Walker. Walker has flat-out stunk in AAA, last year’s first-round choice Daniel Moskos is a complete disaster as a starting pitcher, and Brad Lincoln appears to be the only pitching prospect with any hope of reaching the majors, let alone becoming a good player. Dave Littlefield left Pittsburgh’s minors in shambles, with Huntingdon serving as the housemaid to clean the mess. The value for Bay and Nady was through the roof because of their cheap contracts with a year left on them. Neither is entering free agency after the season, so their services are not a two-month rental. For the Pirates to get maximum value in return for Bay and Nady via trades, it had to be done now. So, did Huntingdon make the right moves for these guys at his first trade deadline? The Nady/Marte deal to the Yankees looks unspectacular at first glance. All three pitchers the Pirates received will turn 26 by the end of the year, hardly a restocking of the lower minor leagues. Tabata, the only ‘high-end’ prospect in the trade, could prove to be the real jewel. But the 19-year-old outfielder has shown some maturity problems despite being one of the Yankees’ top prospects for three years running. He’s exactly the high-risk, high-reward player the Pirates’ system has lacked for years. Grading this trade may rest on Tabata’s shoulders in the future, but all three pitchers could help Pittsburgh’s depleted staff sooner rather than later. Huntingdon may have pulled the trigger on this deal a little early, six whole days before the deadline. A better deal could have come across in the ensuing days if a contender started to panic. But Huntingdon’s comments gave the hint that teams didn’t want to part with top youngsters for Nady and Marte. If the Yankees trade was a single, the Bay trade was a triple off the wall. A fan favorite, Bay wanted to stay in Pittsburgh and had dropped hints that he would resign with the Pirates sometime before his deal was up in 2009. But Huntingdon capitalized on Boston’s desperation to unload the problematic Ramirez to acquire a true group of top prospects. Andy LaRoche joins his brother Adam as a Pirate, and he might already be a better player than his older sibling. He ranked near the top of the Dodgers’ prospects for a few years, but the major league club never seemed to give him a chance. Hansen and Morris are former first-round picks, with Morris instantly becoming the team’s best pitching prospect. Moss should be a solid contributor in left field for the Bucs, as well. As sad as it is to let Bay, Nady and Marte go, the moves had to be made. The Pirates haven’t had a winning record since yours truly mixed his baseball fanaticism with episodes of Sesame Street and Rugrats at age five. Huntingdon is ushering the first true rebuilding effort in Pittsburgh since Barry Bonds failed to throw Sid Bream out at home in 1992. Instead of wishing on a .500 season now, management seems finally to have a plan on how to succeed and build a winning franchise the right way. It’s about time. You have to trust me. So please, don’t show up at my house with torches.