Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 by Adam Wagner
Fallout to Matt Morris and Continuing Jack Wilson Talks
The Matt Morris trade has been lambasted in essentially every possible corner, as CBS Sportsline said that the Pirates should, “Turn in [their] books and go home;” ESPN claimed that the move was , “. . . in the Monongahela;” and FOX’s Ken Rosenthal stated that, “Dave Littlefield just keeps digging himself into a bigger hole.”
The consensus is generally that the Pirates have traded for a pitcher who, while being a great guy and a former ace, is at the point in his career where he is simply overpaid and startlingly terrible. The other problem is that he really has no place on a small-market team like Pittsburgh.
If Morris continues to be as ineffective as he has this entire month, he has no place on most big league rosters (Royals and Tampa Bay not included . . .at least I can still take shots at them). Apparently, however, the Pirates are beginning to realize that they need to spend money to build a team (look at Jeff Suppan’s contract . . . before the past month and a half, you would undeniably take Morris over the ex-Pirate), even on aging back of the rotation-type starters. The only issue is that they still don’t know how to spend it properly. Pirate fans would undeniably rather know that Matt Wieters is getting ready to fly through the minors and hit PNC soon than that Matt Morris is ready to make his first start in a Pirate uniform Saturday against a Cincinnati Reds team that is almost as bad as the Pirates.
As for other potential Pirate trades, the PG reported that:
One source intimately familiar with the matter said that a deal was virtually done Tuesday and that the Pirates would receive two of Detroit’s top six prospects, including an unnamed pitcher ready to join the major-league staff. But the sides haggled on how much of Wilson’s contract the Pirates would pick up, the source added, and the delay was on.
If I had to make a guess as to who the two prospects whom they are referring to are, I would say Brent Clevelen and Eulogio de la Cruz. Clevelen has seen some big league action before and is rated as the number three prospect by Baseball America. The publication also claims that he has the best outfield arm.
De la Cruz is a little more interesting. He’s at about the right age for his level (hitting AAA at 23), is the number six prospect in the Detroit organization, and is rated as having the best fastball and curveball (even better than Andrew Miller’s) according to Baseball America. He started out as a starter this year, doing pretty well at AA Erie (3.57 ERA) and then turning into a reliever once he hit AAA. He has fared pretty well in that role, going 2-0 with a 2.59 ERA and 15 strikeouts over 24.1 innings. Still, it would be nice if the Pirates went after someone like Jordan Tata or Jair Jurrjens instead of de la Cruz simply because they are starters and the Pirates’ system is so bereft of talent (Tata is also relatively close to the majors . . . I’d say Jurrjens is probably out of the picture in a Jack trade).
If they can get Wilson through waivers, it would be very interesting; it would serve the team well, however, to wait until the off-season when it may have a plan after Littlefield and the PonTracyCator are gone.
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