Today's Q&A

Another good one. Allow me to remind you to catch up with Paul Meyer's weekly Q & A.

I admire the line of thought he takes with Kip and will adopt it as my own.

The Aramis rant is not thoroughly right. "Exactly the kind of player we have been trying to get to play third base?" Not exactly. For sure, we could have used him this year, but he still fails to look like "exactly" the kind of player we need there now and long-term. His errors are down, but Ramirez's other fielding abilities have been consistently bad or, shall I say, not Rolenesque. DL is right, he'll be playing first base before long. If we had kept this year, there's little doubt in my mind that we would have traded him this past July or would be letting him walk at the end of the season. He'd be too expensive and not the right fit for the Pirates.

A team rebuilding around pitching needs better fielding at the hot corner. That's another reason why this guy won't be the answer even if/when he starts to hit. And why this guy - look what the zone rating suggests - is no better as a long-term solution. I'm not defending the trade here so much as I'm suggesting that it's not likely that we'd all be loving Ramirez and wanted him re-upped to a long-term deal if the Bucs had kept him and dealt Benson last July.