Smizik cracks me up because as he said he was supportive of the moves from the beginning. The Burnitz move was a bad one because they Burnitz in the form of Craig Wilson. As Tim Benz pointed out this morning on the radio though Littlefield has wanted Burnitz for years and he finally got him. As I type this Burnitz comes up with a big two out hit to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead.
I thought the Randa move was okay, for me it gave the Pirates better depth and a better bench. I would not have handed him the 3B job like they did. I think though it would have been a better move to decide Bautista was going to be here all year and use him at 3B, CF or wherever depending on how Sanchez played but thats a different story.
I liked the Casey move, it gave the Pirates a quality major league bat to protect Bay, granted he does not hit a lot of home runs but he does hit for a high average. (Since 1999 he has only been under .310 twice, one time hitting .291 and .261 in 2002 when he only played 120 games).
What makes all the moves dubious is that in some way they block a younger player the Pirates should be either trying to develop or just finding out if they can play a full season. I think it would have been a lot easier to see the direction of this team if Eldred was playing 1B, Wilson in right and Bautista/Sanchez at 3B. The real question that should be asked is why the Pirates continue to bring in aging veterans instead of finding out about the talent in their system.
Collier's column is just another way to point out how bad the Pirates have been, which I have to give him credit for finding a new way to say it.
Also a real nice job by Ron Cook to skip over the fact that Florida management bought Jim Leyland his world series title.