Nate and the Irate

Unfortunately for the Pirates' front office, most of the Pennsylvania National Guardsmen are currently overseas engaging in the Global War on Terror. Luckily for the Buccos' brass, however, every Western PA sports fan is either focused on the Pens' Game 4 or Big Ben's tweaked knee, and therefore, the soon to be highly controversial trading of Nate McLouth is still relatively unnoticed. So maybe the potential riots will be minor, and our guardsmen won't be necessary.

For those of you that live your lives outside of the never ending saga of Pirate futility, let me break this news: the Bucs' just pulled off a trade to send the vastly popular All Star centerfielder to the Altanta Braves for three...you guessed it, prospects. In addition to the speed/power mix that Nate the Great displayed over the last few seasons, he'll be packing up his Gold Glove, as well. A nice commodity, given that his workplace, the PNC Park centerfield, was the most spacious in the National League.

Expect the scrutiny to be high on this one, but probably for the wrong reasons. This is not the classic David LittleBrain trade: quality for affordability. The Bucs' front office has maintained since their assembly in the winter of 2007 that long term competitiveness is the overall goal. Breaking the string of 16 consecutive losing seasons would be great for team and city, but it is clearly not the primary focus. GM Neal Huntington has eluded to 2010, but more like 2011, as the threshold to expect a winning product. With that being said, here are the reasons why this trade may make sense:

1. Despite his popularity, Nate is a good, but not great, ballplayer. Many baseball experts view him as performing near his ceiling, or in Buccos' brass lingo, at or near his highest possible trade value. If wins and losses in 2009 is not a concern, why not bring something in for him while he's still attractive? Again, I really enjoy Nate's game, but don't be shocked if he's a reserve or 4th outfielder somewhere in three years or so.
2. The real story here is a guy named Andrew McCutchen. For those of you that don't read this blog that closely, let me re-iterate that McCutchen is widely considered the best Pirate outfield prospect since Barry Bonds. Enough said, this guys needs to be in PNC Park getting regular at bats from real pitchers. This couldn't happen with Nate in his way.
3. Despite all those high draft picks that went into pitchers, the Bucs minor league system has virtually no quality arms. To get at least one, and possibly two, good arms, as well as an outfielder with a very high ceiling is a good thing for this team right now.

Who knows how this trade will impact us long term. The armchair and blogosphere Bucco critics are now conditioned to berate any trade that involves prospects in return. This criticism is genuinely fair, given that most of our blockbuster deals haven't panned out.

My thoughts are that if Drew McCutchen emerges, and performs as good, if not better than Nate has thus far in 2009, we may actually be better off right now. As always with the Bucs, only time will tell.