To the big 4--Maholm, Snyder, Doumit, Cedeno.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... 64749.html

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Playing football was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. If I could go out today and suit up, I would do it.--Jack Butler

If Cedeno and Snyder aren't re-signed I see the Pirates severely regretting the decision to let them go.

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And then you take a good look around and they stole your rock n roll
And once it's gone you'll never get it back

Agree on Snyder. Not so much on Cedeno.

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I would be shocked to see any of these guys in a Buccos uni again. A LH pitcher who eats innings, a solid catcher with a dearth of quality backstops in the league, an excellent LH batter with power off the bench, and a decent defensive SS. They will all get paid more than they're worth in the skewed economic world we know as MLB.

Will be interesting to see who plays SS for us this coming season. I'm not as concerned about C as some, but it definitely makes us weaker there.

By all accounts, the Bucs are not going to spend much in FA either. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... 64615.html
So it's in-house and scraping the bottom of the barrel (more Overbay, Church types) for us. To me...that is NOT Nutter stepping to the plate. This is a team that can go places. NOW is the fucking time to be bold. Not turtle and cave and collect the money.

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Playing football was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. If I could go out today and suit up, I would do it.--Jack Butler

Pirates have no major league caliber SS in system. Cedeno's glove is HIGHLY underrated. He was a great fit for this franchise.

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And then you take a good look around and they stole your rock n roll
And once it's gone you'll never get it back

Couldn't disagree more.

This team isn't ready.

This year's free agent market sucks. To spend money on FAs now would be a mistake.

Pirates would simply overpay for shit players when they can stand pat and try to develop guys they already have.

It's not about turtling or not being bold, it's about being smart and not investing money in guys who would be lateral moves over players already here.

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And then you take a good look around and they stole your rock n roll
And once it's gone you'll never get it back

The point of this being this team can't decide what it wants to do. It goes out and signs garbage free agents to high price deals while also releasing equally as bad proven players. It isn't committed to winning now but at the same time refuses to do a massive rebuilding. It's trying to retool when it should be rebuilding. Only competitive teams can retool. The Pirates forgot that memo.

I vomit at last year thinking about what prospects the Pirates could have gotten for Hanrahan or Maholm or even Karstens. This team is no closer to winning than it was four years ago, and these supposed hot shot prospects that some are gushing over are still half a decade away. What is going to happen to Mccutchen six years from now when A) The hot shot prospects are up B) they are maybe ready to contend? Will he even want to be with these team that has been mired in purgatory?

Chase, when will they be ready? Your best guess?

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When they have a pitching staff that can win in the playoffs.

I don't know when/if that will happen.

But it sure as shit isn't next season.

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And then you take a good look around and they stole your rock n roll
And once it's gone you'll never get it back

I'm going to disagree with much of this post. They have signed their share of garbage free agents but not at high prices. And frankly they weren't getting any great prospects for Maholm and Karstens, and Hanrahan has as much if not more value this offseason as he had during the season. I'm not worried about replacing Cedeno or Snyder. Neither were going to be here for the long haul and neither are anything special. The free agent market isn't great this year but the shortstop crop is the one position that is pretty decent. I think they can sign stop gaps for this year for both of these guys at a reasonable cost, though I'm hopeful they could trade for a long term answer.