Pirates blogs react to Milledge, Hanrahan

Posted by Ian Koski on Jul. 1, 2009 at 1:04 AM
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Pirates' fan blogs seem to agree that Pittsburgh got the better end of Tuesday's four-player deal. Not surprisingly, neither Joel Hanrahan nor Sean Burnett emerge as factors in most of their assessments, which tend to look at Lastings Milledge as a big-hitting player with lots of potential versus Nyjer Morgan as a mediocre speed player past his prime.

Dave Harrison at Bucs Trade Winds writes:

These trades are more about the future than 2009.  Milledge is coming of the disabled list due to a broken hand, which could affect his power this year dramatically. Milledge has far more potential than Morgan who is about all he will ever be.  The Pirates are in need of power bats, and Milledge should fill that role in the future. While I was dead wrong about Morgan this year, I still hate to see him go.  It could have been fun to see what kind of havoc he and McCutchen could have caused at the top of the lineup. As for the rest of the trades, Hinske and Burnett won’t be missed much if at all.

Pat Lackey at Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke, writes:

What this trade comes down to is this: a rebuilding team can never turn down a trade that offers a net talent gain as big as this one does for the Pirates. I'm not trying to knock Nyjer Morgan here, either, but Morgan is what he is; he's a great defensive player that doesn't offer much at the plate. In left field, that's not really an option for any team. Some people will try to spin this trade as speed for power, but Morgan's speed on offense is incredibly overrated. His OBP hovers around .350 and he's been thrown out in 10 of his 28 stealing attempts. Lastings Milledge is a risk for any team at this point. He's hit OK in his Major League career, but questions about his attitude have overwhelmed everything. The thing to remember is that if he turns out to be a bust and we give up on him in two years, we still ventured very little to get him here in the first place. Morgan isn't a long-term starter in left field; he was fun to watch, he was funny, and he probably would've been awesome to grab a beer with, but he wasn't a long-term answer. Milledge, quite simply, might be, and that's a risk that we have to take.

You can keep tabs on the Pirates and the fallout from this week's trade on the Pirates page here on NationalsPride.com.  It is constantly updated with news from the Post-Gazette and Pirates.com, as well as with fan posts from eight fan blogs.

Nyjer Morgan at bat against the Cubs in April. (Flickr photo by David Watson)