Game 94: Brewers at Pirates

Late night in the lean-to.

This game is underway. The Bucs are up 2-1 on a Doumit homer.

Suppan and Maholm were the starting pitchers, and they are still in the game.

... wtf ... Deerhunter traded? Sold him low. What did they get?

... WEEI reports they might get shortstop Argenis Diaz and pitcher Hunter Strickland.

... Dejan Kovacevic confirms the haul on his rarely-loading PBC blog. Pirates have gone up 5-2 after the umps go to replay. The Bucs are pasting Suppan.

... 5:15pm ... after some thought, my reaction to the deal is that it's pretty sad all around. When LaRoche came to the Pirates, the fans had such high expectations and hopes. He did not live up to that standard. The inconsistency of his hitting was maddening as a fan; take that last month, for example, in which he has been nothing but a middle-of-the-order out machine. The highs don't make up for those lows if the highs only come when the team is 12 games under .500. The Pirates did not get much in return, by all accounts, but LaRoche is hardly a blue-chip commodity, esp. with his contract, and waiting any longer to deal him would only sacrifice at-bats which can go to Jones (at his position), Milledge, and maybe Pearce. In the end, this is much more like the Hinske trade than the Bay trade. The stakes are too low to make much of a difference either way for either team.