This is adapted from discussions I’ve had on the incomparable Baseball Think Factory (and by adapted, I mean mostly copy and pasted). They were long enough to be an article, so I’m sharing them with you here. The quotes in italics represent something someone else said, that I’m responding to.

The poster “B.J. & the Tear” said to me:

The Pirates traded the veterans enjoying peak years in order to buy low on a very high upside player and 3 serviceable arms, one of which could well be just as good as Marte in middle relief, and saved a ton of money, also opening up a spot to play a much less expensive, home-grown Xavier-replacement named Steve Pearce. I am seriously not trying to be snarky, or to smack a bee-hive with a big, fat stick. I just can’t see how this trade in any way resembles something Littlefield&co;. woulda done.

If I remember correctly, you say yourself in another thread that the Giles trade was anomalous for the previous GM. So, let’s then say that if Huntington&co;= Littlefield&co;then this trade is also anomalous, in that it is more similar to the Giles trade (forgetting of course that Giles was WAY more talented that Marte/Nady) than the rest of the moves Littlefield made. So, what has Huntington done that makes him align so perfectly with Littlefield? I want to know, because I’m just not seeing it, and you seem to be so confident in your assertions.

Nady for Tabata is unremarkable, but acceptable. Tabata’s a longer risk than most guys in his situation, and I can’t find much reason to believe he’s anything other than a 16 year old with an unusually developed batting eye that some scouts can look at, since he’s not yet 20, and see him growing bigger muscles and becoming a slugger. I see a guy that was able to murder low-level pitching because of the batting eye, and won’t hit AA or above pitching because those pitchers will just throw him strikes. This was my opinion of him before this trade. Even with all that, I fully agree that Xavier Nady wasn’t worth much, that they had to move him now, and that Tabata is an acceptable if unspectacular return for him. Tabata does have some star potential, and that’s what the Pirates need.

But Damaso Marte for the other three guys — that is exactly the kind of acquisition the Littlefield era was all about. The Pirates got back three pitchers. Two of them will be 26 soon, are in AAA, and are never going to be anything more than decent middle relievers. Yes, decent middle relievers have value to a major league team. But they do not have any value to a horribly bad team with a horribly bad farm system that’s trying to get good. That is, they don’t have value to the Pirates, who are equally irrelevant whether they lose 88 games or 108. In fact, if you’re serious about improving long term, you might as well lose 108 and get the #1 pick. That’s frankly a better result for a single season than losing 88, especially once you’re already at rock bottom.

The three guys they got for Marte–that’s how I think about it, anyway, Nady for Tabata and Marte for the pitchers–have no star upside. Damaso Marte is valuable commodity. Not VERY valuable, but he’s a good relief pitcher, and the trade market wanted good relief pitchers. Had they chosen, I think the Pirates could have gotten back one A-ball guy with super tools and star potential. Hell, look at what the Indians got for Casey Blake. And the Pirates should be looking to acquire one A-ball lottery ticket that might become a star, not three old AAA pitchers that are good bets to be mediocre bullpen arms.

But that’s what the Pirates have always been doing: Acquiring guys that they know are going to top out as mediocre major league players. It lends the illusion of competence while ensuring the team will continue to lose, because you can’t win without stars, period. And that’s why I don’t like what they did with Marte.

The entire discussion, with posts from other smart people, is here, if you want to peruse it.