The Pirates' trade for Orioles first baseman Derrek Lee was finalized fairly late on Saturday night, but reaction is already flowing in from local pundits and observers. Here's a quick look at what people are saying about there deal.
Former Pittsburgh Post Gazette columnist Bob Smizik likes the trade, but wants to see more from the Pirates' front office.
But the Pirates need to do more. They need to sacrifice more of their farm system than a Class A position player. That’s nothing.
This has been stated before in this space but it needs to be stated again: Although the Pirates fell 3½ games out of first place with this latest loss, they remain in contention for the championship of the NL Central. Opportunities like this for teams like the Pirates don’t come along very often.
They need to act is an aggressive fashion to secure more offensive help than Lee. He is not enough.
Pat Lackey of Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke likes the trade, and wonders if general manager Neal Huntington has any other plans for deadline day.
Lee won't be the player that pushes this Pirate team into the playoffs in 2011, but he'll definitely make them better and the club managed to make the deal without giving up much from their farm system. That makes it a good trade. The question now is whether or not Neal Huntington's done dealing before tomorrow's 4 PM deadline.
Tim Williams of Pirates Prospects believes he's an upgrade on what the Bucs have been fielding at first base.
If you look at his overall numbers this year, he doesn’t look like much of an upgrade from Overbay. If you look closer, you’ll see that he’s on a hot streak, and had a big second half in 2010. That makes him an upgrade from Overbay.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Dejan Kovacevic is a big fan of the trade, but also want to see more.
I like Lee for many more reasons than that he’s better than Overbay. (I wrote in my column the other day that a random Fed Leaguer from Pittsburgh would be better.) I like Lee’s history of OBP, I like the fact that he’s right-handed, I like that he’s had a .297 career average at PNC Park (which he’ll tell you is not his favorite place to hit), I like the fact that he’ll play outstanding defense, and I like more than anything this second-half trend.
All that said, the Pirates need more.
Watching Jose Tabata barely handle any activity here, he doesn’t look like he’ll be back soon. Another outfielder would be welcome, even if it means Tabata returns and either he or Alex Presley comes off the bench. More pitching would be nice, too, even though most of the players disagree with me on that.