Keep Your Mickey Ears, Pirates Get Bottled Water And A Hot Dog

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The 2010 Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida are over.  So, did the Pirates improve?  Those arguments differ from

fan to fan.  The Pirates didn’t make any moves that earn sparkling grades like the Orioles, but there were no acts of a desperate GM trying to save his job either.

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The disappointment is just a personal feeling.  It’s mainly rooted in the amount of time we spend in Baltimore.  The O’s have improved.  One can see exactly where their improvement will come from in 2011.  Their lineup card looks better.

One could argue that the Pirates improvement needs to come from the players already on the roster.  That is true.   But I was waiting for Donnie Veal to be signed.  A report on Kevin Hart would be nice too.  Some of the Pirates arms that have been acquired in the past two years, simply need to get their shit together and this team will improve without signing a single player.  It’s true, I get it, and I trust that it happens.

So in the meantime the Pirates had an opportunity to improve with something tangible–not a project, not a reject.  Because the Pirates, and every team in baseball, need to improve their pitching staff.  The Pirates added a number of arms that could, or might not be able to do that.  I know, could is a big word.  And hence, the source of my disappointment today.

The pitchers on the Pirates staff need to prove something.  They need to pitch with a chip on their shoulder, each of them growing their value for my disappointment to subside.  Several of the pitchers that were added to this roster, could certainly be valuable if their  first half of the season is impressive.

Remember Octavio Dotel?  Was anyone singing the praises of his acquisition last season?  No.  Are Pirates fans happy about his acquisition now?  Yes.

The moves make sense on paper.  But like some of the moves last season, the players need to produce.  An Aki Iwamura wasn’t added that will block a young player.  A Ryan Church wasn’t added, a Bobby Crosby wasn’t added.  Despite that strange Bill Hall rumor, not one player was brought into the club that will block any of the talent within the system.

For that we shouldn’t be disappointed.  We just thought it would be a little different this year.  In all, the 2010 Winter Meetings were just well, disappointing.   It was like going to Disney and watching all the big rides, getting a real good look at all the excitement, but the only thing we could buy was a hot dog (Olsen) and some water (Correia.)

But at least we aren’t broke when we get back home right?

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