Bucco Chatter: Bay, Snell to Seattle Rumors Addressed

Saturday’s Steeler meltdown has this Yinzer a little down on his luck. What better remedy for a broken heart than Pirates baseball chatter?

…oh man, if you could only feel the sarcasm of that intro ‘graph…

John Sickles, often considered the source for MLB prospect info, has posted his annual list of the top Pirates prospects. Pretty thin, if you ask me. Time to unload and re-build?

Apparently not if your Neal Huntington. Take a look at the offers he’s supposedly getting from Seattle for Ian Snell and Jason Bay. Somebody tell Neal to pull the trigger already.

The link above reports that Huntington passed on a Snell for Adam Jones, Brandon Morrow, and George Sherrill deal earlier this off-season.

By throwing Bay into the deal, it’s more than likely that the Bucs could entice the M’s add Carlos Triunfel to the deal, if not more. My suggestion is to try substituting either Ryan Feierabend or Tony Butler for Morrow. That adds up to:

Bay
Snell

for

Jones
Triunfel
Feierabend/Butler
Sherrill

More specifically that’s:

Snell

for

Jones (B+ to A- prospect, depending on who you ask)
Feierabend/Butler (both B to B+, with Butler probably being the better prospect)

and

Bay

for

Triunfel (B+ to A-)
Sherrill (poor man’s Damaso Marte)

That leaves the 2010 Bucs with:

• A border-line all-star outfielder in Jones, who will only be 24 years old
• A solid, affordable lefty 1-2 punch in Gorzelanny paired with either Feierabend or Butler.
• A shortstop of the future who should make some impact from day one (see below)
• A solid lefty set-up guy

Considering Bay will already be years into the decline of his career by this point, and Snell will have maxed out as a number 3 starting pitcher, I’d consider that a successful deal if made.

(This is the see below part)

Triunfel is the guy that screams to me as a must have in these discussions. The kid is a stud, and is already ascending through the minors at age 18. He’s drawing some comparisons to both Alex Rodriguez and Hanley Ramirez, mostly because of his early success, and while asking him to live up to either of those two might be a stretch, expectations for Triunfel aren’t far off.

The Pirates are looking for Jack Wilson’s replacement, and let’s face it, Brian Bixler is not the answer. The smart move: get rid of Wilson to give Bixler some time at shortstop. When the experiment is deemed a defensive failure about halfway through 2009, slide Bixler over to second, where scouts say he could actually be a solid everyday player, and plug in Triunfel.

Geeze this GM stuff is easy, somebody get me on the phone with Bob Nutting, I’m ready to take Neal’s job.