Pirates: The Ship Has Sunk As Jason Bay Lights Up Beantown

Scribe Written on August 03, 2008

The MLB trade deadline has passed, and so far the easy winner is the Boston Red Sox, making the ultimate loser on the day the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Not only did the Pirates trade away Xavier Nady, who went to the Yankees, but for some reason they compromised their immediate future in the Canadian kid Jason Bay.

What was the rationale of that deal? Did the Pirates need to get any younger?

Pittsburgh has been the epitome of mediocre in major league baseball, hovering around .500 level or below and never in the playoff hunt. However, the team had a tremendous upside with a bundle youth and a potential down the road MVP in Bay.

Now, the Pirates are in the rebuilding stage again, after dishing their franchise player to Boston for minor leaguers. That's right, I'll say it again, because it's hard to believe. Pittsburgh dealt the former Rookie of the Year and one-time All-Star for absolutely nothing.

Bay has relished in his new diggs, scoring the winning runs in both games as a Red Sox, including a game-winning home run last night which was belted over the Green Monster.

The Pirates should be kicking themselves or at least the GM because something went terribly wrong.

With the trading of the Pirates' core in Bay and Nady, Pittsburgh is primed to be the next Montreal Expos-like franchise: a team that at one point holds on to an abundance of talent but either loses them as free agents or stupidly trades them away before hand.

Need a short list? How about Larry Walker, Vladimir Guerrero, Jose Vidro, Pedro Martinez, and Orlando Cabrera? The worst part is that's just a short sample of the past 10 years before their move to Washington. The Expos even lost Andre Dawson to the Cubs and Gary Carter to the Mets back in the older days. I could go on all day as it became a Montreal trend; something that prevented the team from winning consistently.

If you take a look around the league, many of the contenders have a some sort of link to the now defunct Expos.

If the majority of teams have an ex-Expo, maybe the future of baseball lies in the Pittsburgh Pirates' organization. Or will they stop the bleeding with only losing Jason Bay?

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written on August 03, 2008 Opinion

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