Pirates Acquire Matt Morris For Rajai Davis, PTBNL

This is better then Tex or Gagne

Umm, okay?

this is good for the Bucs for 2 reasons: Tony Armas will not be in the starting rotation, and Nate McLouth will get a shot at the starting CF job.

a solid deal by Littlefield.

I simply dont understand this...so DL didnt trade Wilson or Marte or Chacon, but Rajai Davis gets shipped out? For Matt Morris?

come to think of it, that is all they need to compete and old back of the rotation pitcher...good work DL...

As long as the Giants didn't pick up too much salary, its a good move. They way overpaid for both Morris and Zito and getting out from under at least one of their contracts should help them in the offseason.

How did the braves not get in on Morris for that price? I know he's not great but Morris still is an upgrade over what they have. SP was also the last need on the braves and they failed to address it.

the braves should have done this...and it doesnt do anything bad for the pirates either.

The Braves should not have done this. Morris has been horrible in the 2nd half last year and this year. Plus, he is very expensive and the Braves have some financial limitations.

Trade deadline winners: Braves, Red Sox, Padres

Losers: Astros, lots of other teams I don't care about

i hope this is the deal where dave littlefield is gone he has no mind at all

Remember when Royce Ring was supposed to be the Mets closer of the future? ha

http://globalnym.blogspot.com

If you want to see Saltalamacchia play in an all-star game in 2010, you might want to start booking travel for Salt Lake City or wherever the AAA a-s game is.

Iowa, you're kidding right?

What the Braves did was:
A) trade prospects which were blocked in their system or fallen out of favor in the case of Davis. Its doubtful a single player dealt would have been with ATL making a difference in 2009 or whatever. They might have been able to get more to help longer, but they did what they felt was best.
B) got 2 of the best 3 players who switched places + added 3 arms to the pen. Tex leaves or not, if this is the difference between sitting at home vs winning the WS it was probably probably it.
C) got a guy they may actually be able to keep! I know everyone stays "Boras this, Money that", but we just don't know. His bat DOES replace Jones for 08 no matter though, so this helped big time for 1.5ish years!
D) OR if they plan on a little rebuild in 08 then they could just trade Tex in the offseason and get some of that cost back! It just gives them a ton of options
E) were the only team to really improve THAT much! Bos did, but its just another arm to an already deep pen ~ ATL fixed 3 holes with a dramatic improvement ~ 1B + 2BP spots (with even a third arm coming in incase its needed!) no one made a bigger move in the "probability of making the PS" chart ~ the Mets might need to watch themselves now...

It helps 07 by leaps and bounds, helps 08 and we have no clue beyond that ~ it was a huge cost, but most def worth it!

Dave Littlefield needs to go! He has to be by far the worst general manager in baseball. He had some good barging chips this year in Chacon, Torres, Marte, and Wilson and all he could accomplish was bringing a starting pitcher Matt Morris who is not only older at age 32 but who is owed over 9 million dollars this year and next. Now if Morris was an All Star pitcher I wouldn't have such a problem with this trade but he's not an All Star pitcher. And on the financial aspect of this deal the Pirates are a low budget team, so how much sense does it make to have your highest paid player be a .500 pitcher? It doesn't make sense to me does it to you?

ATL had the best deadline, I'll admit that. Hopefully Tex and Dotel can help them get to the WS, that would be quite an achievement.

I heard the Pirates also tried to trade for Mike Hampton and Rich Sexton. Try to get all those big contracts under one roof.......

This is why Pittsburg is a mess

did you finally get to catch your breath tim?

You know, after thinking about it for a few more mins I actually like this trade and its not the worst thing they did today...
... Problem comes in the fact that the worst thing the Rats did do today makes the Morris deal pointless.

HAD Pitt actually pulled the trigger on the Wilson deal this would have been an OK move. Take Jacks money off the books for 08-09 and add Matts for 08 and you have really traded a non-hitting overpaid infielder for a mid-level starter making about the same. Not sure how Morris is in the clubhouse, but if he can teach the kids a thing or two you are even better off.

BUT WTF was Littlefield thinking when he said no to the Tigers? If anything should get this guy fired, its that! He took a player no one wanted and found a way to get a team that didn't need him to trade for him? That's one of the most amazing things you can do, and he doesn't pull the trigger? WOW...

Also funny to think about; imagine Marks face when he found out! I think the conversation probably went something like this:
"Hey Mark, you've been dealt"
"ah man, well where am I going and will I have a chance at a ring?"
"you're headed to the Pirates"
"hahaha, yeah right... Seriously, have I been dealt?"
"yes, to the Rats..."
"yeah, yeah ~ I will never believe that so just tell me what's going on"
"Mark, just turn on the radio and you will hear its true"
"you called a radio station to get them in on the joke? Wow... Ok, I get it, who told you it was me that replaced your coffee with motor-oil?"
"that was you? Now I'm glad we sent you to the Pirates!"
"you mean you didn't know? That probably also means I'm actually headed to Pitt huh? Nah, you have to be fooling with me..."

Ok not a littlefield supporter by any means....but this isn't a terrible move. Morris is 32, good winning overall % and decent era. Granted he is a little expensive, but i mean, experienced starters don't come cheap. This trade cannot be examed as a success or failure until the offseason. By this I mean that if that Pirates stick around the 40-50 million dollar payroll...they wasted 9 million bucks cause Matt Morris isn't going to get you to the promised land by himself. If (big if) the pirates open their pocketbook up and get up to at least around 65-70 million and acquire 1 or 2 productive hitter and another pitcher, this trade will work out well. Morris is a piece, not a cornerstone. But that being said this team has a lot of pieces...but the rotation with Snell and Gorzo show signs of cornerstones.

"Way to get his name wrong..."

~ Oops. I started well then lost it in the conversation part didn't I... Wonder where I got Mark from, oh well.

"BTW Contreras only gave up seven ERs tonight. SEEEEELLLL""

~ sad thing is that they may have been able to make an ok deal had they jumped when the calls first started coming in.

Wonder if the Sox will be able to right the ship enough to deal him in the offseason now. Even though I'm a Tribe fan, I do feel the PaleHose fans pain on this one...

The Pirates are eating all $13.5M remaining on the contract, including the $1M buyout (there's a $9M option for 2009).

I think the Giants got about all that they were going to get for Morris. Speculating that they would have gotten more if they sold him earlier assumes that teams forgot how bad he was last year or even the past few years. If his contract was ending at the end of the season, then other teams might have bit and given more prospects, on the hope that he actually was improved, but with $9.5M hanging in 2008, he would not have gotten much had they tried to sell earlier.

He's slightly above a league average starter the past few years (if you subtract his stats while pitching injured last season), so the contract is actually not that bad, league average starters are getting around $9-11M per year now on the market.

Purportedly Littlefield want Morris around to teach his young players like he taught the Giants young starters. And Morris relishes that role.

I also read somewhere someone speculating that Littlefield wants to field as good a team as he can for the rest of the season because the team's record has been so bad under him and there's the fear that a really bad season would cost him his job, so he's boosting the team now.

I don't buy that, I doubt he could bring on Morris's salary without ownership buy-in on the deal, he must have some plan that the owner agreed to. Of course, they agreed to his other plans too...

I also suspect as someone else noted that perhaps they took him on hoping that a desperate playoff battling club would give the Pirates more in late August than they were willing to give the Giants in late July. But that's kind of reaching to me.

Whatever, the Giants now have $13.5M more to spend on next season (saving from this season and next) for free agents. Hopefully there are some young hitters available in free agency or maybe they can save some of that for the next off-season, isn't Miguel Cabrera a free agent after that?