My Buccos were busy prior to the trading deadline this year. First they shipped Damaso Marte and Xavier Navy off to the Yankees for prospects. Much as I was disappointed by the break-up of what had been the most productive (if we're talking sheer offensive productivity, anyway) outfield in baseball, it made sense to get prospects from the Yankees. And at least one of the prospects came with a tinge of glimmer and shine that makes you hopeful: He was only nineteen. He had at one point been the best hitter for average in the Yankees system. Oh, and best of all, he was just nineteen and already in AA.
And really, wasn't trading away players the Pirates were going to lose anyway better than trading for a pitcher, past his prime, making 10 million dollars a year (lest Bucco fans forget the disaster that was the 2007 trading deadline)? Though, of course such a thought only cemented the fact that, as a fan of the Pirates, I'd grown far too accustomed to trade deadline incompetence to evaluate a deal that actually appeared to be made with the right end goal in mind.
But then came the news that Jason Bay was now a member of the Boston Red Sox. After I initially cringed at the thought of rooting for the Red Sox, I found myself on the Red Sox website, watching Jason Bay's debut in Boston. Being relieved the fans cheered for him. Celebrating his successes. And being glad--really glad--that a player of his caliber was finally going to have a shot to win on a team built to win today.
Yet, in the corner of the Red Sox site, for the first time I noticed the MLB Gameday Blackberry ad. I've since seen this ad on the website of my very own Pirates, but there was something about being on the site of the pennant-contending Red Sox, pondering the $3.99 per month cost and contemplating that it would be well worth the price if I ever, you know, actually got the chance to follow a team that's in a real, live pennant race that just made me....well, to be honest, want to see Jason Bay back in a Pirates uniform.
Players like Jason Bay are necessary to win championships. For all the talk of a "championship-caliber" organization in Pittsburgh, Jason Bay was as close as the Pirates came, at least now, to having a player, in his prime, actually be a legitimate piece of a "championship-caliber" team. Sure, Jason Bay needs to be surrounded by other championship-caliber players, as he is in Boston and was not and would not have been in Pittsburgh, at least for the foreseeable future, but the major thought swirling through my mind was: Why do the Pirates always have to trade away the championship-caliber guys?
So who knows. I get the rationale for why the management team did what they did. Maybe ownership wants to save money (it's always a suspicion of mine). But, really, it's not like the Pirates were within a game, two, or even five of a wild card. And who knows. Though I've grown leery and wary of prospect lists over the years (I remember when Zach Duke used to headline those lists, along with other former first round picks who have never established themselves as big league pitchers), there's a chance Andy Laroche turns out to be good. Maybe Brandon Moss becomes like Nate McClouth. Maybe one of these guys did what Bay ultimately did for the Brian Giles trade: made it a wash. All-Star gone, All-Star in his place. Sure, knowing the Bucco's recent history and the nature of prospect lists, that All-Star for All-Star hope is probably just a dream.
But, really, dreams are all I have for the moment. And because I have dreams, I'll be pulling for the Boston Red Sox to win it all. So Jason Bay can learn how to win it all on a winning team. So he can learn what it takes. And so....
Warning. Serious warning. I'm really dreaming. You've entered the peak of fantasy land.
So that, in a few years, perhaps, when the Pirates have somehow assembled an incredibly deep minor league system (the equivalent to what the Rays now possess), and when the team is on the verge of their first pennant in eons, my team, my no longer pathetic, porous, Pirates are the team that actually makes the trade for a still-performing, still not washed-up, Jason Bay, for the player who's won a Series, who will be the final piece to the puzzle, who will be surrounded by other championship-caliber players on the team, and who will finally get to experience winning as a Pittsburgh Pirate.
Before you whine about the outlandish, fairy-tale fantasy land of the preceding paragraph, I warned you, though perhaps not starkly enough, that I have a vivid, wild, and yes, as evidenced above, at times absolutely absurd and ludicrous imagination and ability to fantasize, and in that world, the Pirates will actually develop the new Jason Bays and keep them around, and when they need a Jason Bay, they pull the trigger and get him because it's time to win now...not in a few seasons.
Alas, I don't live in fantasy land. And when my Blackberry lights up this fall, it will be with emails, not Gameday telling me Jason Bay just hit a three run homer. Bittersweet as it would be to watch Jason Bay pursue a title with the Red Sox, I'll save myself the $3.99 fee per month and dream of the day when I can justify what will surely by then be a more expensive fee. To follow a real pennant race. A pennant race in which my Pirates are actually entrenched. And perhaps, even, to follow playoff games my Pirates are playing.
In the meantime, though, I'll occasionally find myself on the Red Sox website, stare at the Blackberry ad for the Gameday package it's useless to purchase now, and ponder when and if the Pirates will ever be able to once again have the most productive outfield in baseball, but this time, have that outfield and every other component required for a "championship-caliber" organization.
And I'll miss watching Jason Bay play for the Pirates.
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