The Trade

Well, the Pirates have made their big trade for the season. They traded Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte to the Yankees for four minor leaguers. Three of them are pitchers at AAA (two of which pitched a little for the Yankees) and the other is a 20-yr-old AA outfielder (young for AA).

When Beth and I were driving home from my softball game last night and I heard about Nady and Marte being pulled from the game, I immediately said to Beth, "Marte and Nady, they must have gotten a top pitcher like Ian Kennedy." Unfortunately, this did not come to be. But, this trade did address their issue of not having depth in minor league pitching at AAA. Hopefully these three pitchers can contribute to the Pirates over the next couple of years.

The outfielder, Jose Tabata, has been called a "little Manny Ramirez." That sounds exciting from an offensive standpoint. But, does that mean there's a lot of baggage, too? Also, he's 5'10" and only 160 lbs. I'm his size?!!? Can he possibly have any pop in his bat?

It seems that the rest of the major leagues did not value Nady and Marte as much as us in the Pittsburgh area did. But, I guess if you look at it critically, this is the best year Nady's ever had and he's good for going on the DL a few times each year. Marte was chased out of the White Sox bullpen and was regarded as mentally weak and not good a throwing strikes. Marte's improved, but labels may be hard to escape. This is definitely a trade that doesn't look too hot right now, but may end up being a solid deal depending on what the three pitchers contribute and how Tabata turns out in three years....

Other than that, we won the softball game last night, making us undefeated when Beth shows up. Okay, so last night was the first game she made this year, but it's an hour away from the house and some games don't end until 11pm. That's tough. But, she was a great fan last night and cheered with the grandparents. I pitched and had another bad 6th inning (5 runs). Other than that, we won 16-9. I actually had a triple too.....must of been because Beth was there!

This morning, we went to the pool and while Beth did her workout, I swam a 1650. It felt good, but I I started getting lazy around 800 yds and slacked off to about a 2:20/100yd pace. I finished my last two 100 yds in 2:03 and 2:06 and a 0:59 last 50, so at least I finished strong. My legs were glad to not run after doing 6+ miles Tuesday through Friday mornings with the XC team and pitching softball Tuesday and Friday nights.

Next weekend, we're off to Benton Harbor, Michigan for Beth's first half-IM of the year. She's excited for it and I'm excited that it'll be a much less stressful equipment manager weekend. First of all, we did it last year, so we know the general layout and procedures. Secondly, it's rural western Michigan along the lake so no traffic/parking issues. To keep it all in perspective, I think our biggest decision for the weekend is where to go for breakfast. It comes down to:

a) Panera Bread with the wireless internet (we don't have it in the hotel)
b) IHOP (Jen Harrison's favorite!!!)
c) The local choice of Sophia's House of Pancakes--it sure looked good last year!

Stay tuned for the result of that....

We're going to also appease me on the way home on Sunday and stop in Akron, Ohio for a minor league AA baseball game between the Akron Aeros and the Harrisburg Senators (don't forget, Beth married a baseball nerd). We were going to do one closer to Michigan, but South Bend, Toledo, Lansing, and one other one were all on the road next weekend. We've seen a game at Akron once before 3 years ago when we went out there to do a 10k.

Well, time to finish printing out the maps and directions for next weekend.