Chris McGuiness Is Not The Answer!

Jun 15, 2013; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers first baseman Chris McGuiness (21) bats during the game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The Blue Jays won 6-1. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports.

The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired 1B Chris McGuiness from the Texas Rangers for hurler Miles Mikolas. If you aren’t familiar with Mikolas, he was just obtained a month ago from the Padres in the Alex Dickerson deal. Goodbye, Miles, we hardly knew ya!

I admit I know very little about Sir Alec McGuiness, or whatever his name is. I quickly looked at his stats and was quite honestly underwhelmed. At AAA last season Chris McGuiness hit under .250 with 11 homers in over 400 + at bats. Egads. His pedigree isn’t much better. A 13th round pick five years ago who was once taken in the Rule 5 draft by the Indians and then promptly returned to the Rangers.

Not good.

I understand this is probably a depth move. Geez I hope it is. If Chris McGuiness is the Pirates answer at who’s on first then the question needs to be changed – asap. What this trade does signal to me is that Mitch Moreland isn’t coming here. Can you imagine two separate trades with the same team to get a player that plays the same position? Unlikely. I’m not a Mitch Moreland fan so this is great news to me.

McGuiness has two options, so it appears that he is no more than an option should Gaby Sanchez get injured.  Yeh, McGuiness actually had better numbers against lefties than righties in AAA last season.

Ike Davis seems to be a pipedream at this juncture since the Mets are asking way too much for him. Until Mets GM Sandy Alderson come down from his high horse, I don’t see Davis leaving Queens. I heard rumors that they asked the Pirates for Nick Kingham for the struggling first-basemen. This after asking the Brewers for Tyler Thornburg, who in 66 major league innings last year had a 2.03 ERA.

I like Ike, but I wouldn’t trade Nick Kingham for any position player on the Mets roster not named David Wright. The Brewers would be dumb to move Thornburg and there doesnt seem to be any other team bidding for Davis’s services. The Orioles were rumored to be interested a month or so ago yet that seems to have died down after the Mets asking price was over the top. If I had to guess where Ike Davis plays next season I would venture to say with the Mets.

So with Ike Davis and Mitch Moreland not being likely options for the Pirates, it looks like what the Pirates will do to occupy their hole at first-base is to give Andrew Lambo a chance to platoon and if he fails give the job to Gaby Sanchez full time. If the Lambo/Sanchez combo can hit around .250 with 20 homers in 75 RBI’s I’ll be okay with that. Anything less and it might be a long season for the Buccos at first base.