Two huge chunks of baseball dead wood

I found this amusing. Oakland fans are just as irrational and reactionary as every other kind of fan, Moneyball or no Moneyball. Because of that book, however, they proceed with the "Beane is a genius" stuff with innocent self-delusion, even when they have to point out that Beane must have made some colossal blunders to wind up with "two huge chunks of baseball dead wood" on his roster.

Eric Gilmore may have his case. Fantasy baseball players routinely evaluate trades with the question, "Who got the best player?" Let them look at the trade this way.

But the trade can't be wisely evaluated today. All of this is premature self-gratification. (For one, the players haven't even passed their physicals yet. It's not a done deal.)

We'll attempt a preliminary judgement of the trade on Opening Day when we know for sure what the Pirates were able to do with the savings. Rhodes, like Steve Kline, has been an outstanding left-handed specialist for years and years. And like Kline, he's been so good managers have wanted to make him a closer. And like Kline, he hasn't been suited for doing that. If we hold on to Rhodes and use him in the eighth inning ahead of Mesa, I imagine it's not insane to expect a bounce-back season from him.

Mark Redman had one bad year. In 2000, he was a rookie of the year candidate and paired with Brad Radke when writers discussed how bright the future of the young Twins. In 2002, he had a very good year in Detroit. In 2003, he had an even better year in Florida. In 2004, he had an off-year. He was freakishly bad at home and freakishly good on the road. Overall, it was a down year. Is he now a "huge chunk of baseball dead wood"?

We'll have to wait and see. I'm hoping that Littlefield has followed that other fantasy baseball trading maxim, sell high and buy low. We've been expecting and hoping that the Pirates would sign some back-of-the-rotation soft-tossing lefty with the belief that one would complement the current staff while taking better advantage of the shape of our ballpark. Redman fits that order so I'm in no mood to complain.

The season starts April 4, 2005, at home against the Brewers. If the national media parrots the lines of self-gratification suggested by at least this one Oakland dittohead, Pirate fans will be in for another off-season of Test Your Patience.

Good thing we have plenty of that P-stuff. How else could we be here?