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Yeah, that was pretty much the thinking. Not necessarily to have more all-stars themselves, but to put a more competetive team on the field to keep fans in the seats and build off the season ticket sales for the all-star game. Also, they are planning on using the money that the all-star game will bring in for them to help pay for the increase. I guess the ownership has been quoted with saying the 50-60 range so that would be a plus. Also, did anyone else hear the rumored trade of Redman and Ward. Just wondering what anyone else thought about it. Seems to be one of the worst moves to be made yet if it happens. The deal would give us Mike Lowell from the Marlins. Decent career numbers but this years numbers look like this. .230 average, 4 HR, 40 RBI's. Wow. Big power third base numbers there. Any of our guys playing now can give us that. And the other player is a AAA outfielder estimated to be 3 years away from the big leagues. I guess this trade seems to have died out, at least the Pirates portion, which may be a blessing in disguise. Lowell is also overpaid (but they wanted the Marlins to pick up a huge part of his salary) and that would also leave us with no real first baseman with Wilson on the DL. I'm hoping the deal never happens.

I had read about the Lowell trade on ESPN.com or someplace like that but its not even that good at this point. This was in the paper yesterday -

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05201/540573.stm

The only upside is that Daryle Ward is not involved in the talks. Also there is no AAA outfielder - Just Larry Bigbie! I don't think its worth it, but hey thats never stopped the Pirates before.

IMO there are two things that would determine whether this is a good deal:

1. how much of Lowell's salary the Pirates would be responsible for? If they can get him and only have to pick up 3-5 million of his salary that makes the deal more appealling.

2. what is the follow up deal? The follow up deal is rumored to be trading with the Phillies to get Ryan Howard.

If those two things happen, I think it is great deal. Granted Lowell is struggling this season, but he has hit an average of 24 HR's the last five season and is solid defensively. Also his career numbers are almost identical to A. Ramirez's numbers, and who, in a heartbeat, wouldn't take Ramirez back to be the starting 3bman. He is under contract for two more years and that would give the Pirates a few more years to develop Bautista.

With the short fence in RF in PNC Park, Howard could easily be a
35-40 HR for the Pirates. The questions arises what about Eldred? I can see the Pirates putting Howard in RF and Eldred at 1st. If those two guys can match their minor league power numbers, wouldn't that make for an interesting lineup?

Sorry about that someone just pinched me.

Voncap, where did you hear this? That would be great if we got Ryan Howard. We're probably dreaming though, right? What would make the Phillies want to trade Howard after they've put so much into developing him?

The only thing is that the Post Gazette says that the trade talks do not involve sending Lowell to Pittsburgh. We only get Larry Bigbie. I don't know if we could trade Bigbie and Daryle Ward to Philly.

I just don't know if I could see that happening, even as much as I'd like to.

I've heard for some time (since last year) that we have been interested in Howard. The Phillies seem interested in getting rid of players possibly and are somewhat interested. Yeah, the Burnett/Lowell/whoever else deal changes daily. Lowell may be a solid man at third but i think its not that great of a return for who we would have gotten rid of in that deal. But its all changed now. I think keeping Ward is ok, as he is a good bench guy and spot starter.

We just called up Eldred to see how he does. Duffy is playing well. Cota is improving and Doumit is finally seeing some at-bats and is getting there. Our Youth is doing us well at this point so hopefully Eldred can do the same.

Also, we keep hearing from Lloyd how Ward's collapse lately is from playing so many games in a row. #1 who's fault is that but his own. #2 why are we not worried about Bay playing every game this year? I know he is our only offense but we can't be beating him down too. Until he went 3-4 last night, his average had dropped 20 points in the past week or two.

And lastly for now, i'll put this hear instead of in the GM for a day post. I have come to a new conclusion on who needs to go. Not that the other guys i thought needed to don't but i've found new blame. I say its time for a new pitching coach. Spin has been there for how long now. we have 3 guys on the DL with arm/shoulder problems this year alone. Match this with the potential of guys that never happens until they leave pittsburgh (Schmidt, Loiaza, Arroyo, Benson) and it seems like a must do. We have the pitching coming, so lets find someone to manage it correctly.

You know what would be great -- I'm going into the world of Pittsburgh Fantasy now -- if Mark Cuban bought the entire team, hired Lou Pinella to be the manager of the club, traded for/bought Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez, and Brad Eldred and Ryan Doumit hit 30+ homeruns every year.

Yeah - and monkeys might fly out of my butt!

Sorry about that guys, but I was kindda back tracking.

If the deal (which included Ward) happened, there was some discussion that the Pirates would then need a 1Bman and it was rumored (or speculated) the trade with the Phillies would include Wells and Cota. The reason the Phillies would be willing to trade Howard is Thome. The Phillies have too much money invested in Thome to sit him on the bench.

The deal apparently took a down turn when C. Wilson got hurt. It was believed the O's were interested in Wilson not Ward. Ward's name may have been thrown into the deal to keep the talks going, but O's don't need a LH stick. They needed a RH hitter.

I was baseing my discussion on the original deal, and it looks like the deal details have changed dramatically over the past week.

Sometimes these deals surface and then talks cool down only to have the deal happen at or near the trading deadline, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen with this deal.

So all this trade talk, and all we trade is Matt Lawton. What is anyones thought on this. No big deals were made, so to be able to even make a deal is a plus for us. Gerut seems to be a solid prospect who should be better next year when his shoulder/knee problems are healed and ready to go. He had a great rookie season and is a good pickup considering if we didnt get rid of Lawton, we would have got nothing in return at the end of the year.

Doumit and Eldred still arent hitting but what about Duffy!! He has a hit in 13 of 14 games and is batting around .350. And man is he quick. He seems to be our legit centerfielder with some nice catches and a legit leadoff man who gets on and steals bases. Did anyone see Doumit throw out Juan Pierre of the Marlins the other night at 3rd. What a gun. The ball was waiting for him long before he got to the bag. Now if he could just get the bat going....