Pirates Will Have to Solve Their Offensive Problems from Within

This is something I've been tweeting about a lot recently and wrote about a few months ago, but some late night Pirates talk on 93.7 The Fan made me want to write another post about all of it.

Your Buccos just won five games of a nine game home stand after taking two of three from the Houston Astros. Through all of, the offense remained extremely unimpressive. Alex Presley has become a bench player, Nate McLouth has looked worse at the plate than anybody in recent memory, Pedro Alvarez is struggling for consistency, the list goes on and on. Jose Tabata, Neil Walker, and Andrew McCutchen were the only three bats that did much of anything over this stretch of nine games. Tabata had eight hits including a home run and two triples, Walker had nine hits including a homer and three doubles, and McCutchen went 12/24 with three homers and a double. That's good production from the top of the lineup, but you need more than three guys hitting if you want to be a legitimate competitor.

All of that has lead a lot of people in Pittsburgh to start considering what the Pirates could do to improve the offense. The obvious answer to that is to trade for a bat. It's interesting to talk about, and I completely understand why they do it on The Fan and other sports talk stations. However, that's not a feasible solution.

The fact is, it's really hard to make a trade that's relevant to the Major League team at this point in the year. You aren't going to find a team with an extra good hitter lying around that they are willing to part with. Any guy the Pirates would get would require giving up a ton in exchange; you would have to make a team an offer they couldn't say no to - the Pirates aren't in position to do something like that. The reason trades are made in July is because there is pressure for teams to unload guys they are either going to lose in the offseason or just don't have a real need for. They are rushed into deals by the deadline and that enables some teams to get what they want without giving up too much. You don't have a deadline or any kind of pressing factors in May, which is why you rarely if ever see relevant trades at this point of the season.

There have been some moves around the majors so far this year, but they have all involved bench players or bullpen guys - which wouldn't really help the Pirates right now.

Another reason you aren't going to see the Pirates trade for a hitter is because frankly it's probably not in their best interest. As I said, they would have to give up a lot - nobody is dumping a hitter just for salary relief at this point. The Pirates seem to have the pitching staff to make some semblance of a run right now, but their offense needs a lot of help. The rotation could take serious steps backwards and if that happens you can kiss any playoff chances goodbye. The core is better than it has been, but it's still not quite there. The Pirates don't have a bunch of trade chips lying around - they need to save them for when it's in their absolute best interest to make some trades. That time will come next year or in 2014 when Jameson Taillon and Gerrit Cole are big league ready and they know what they have in some of these AAA guys like Starling Marte and Chase d'Arnaud. Making a trade right now and losing valuable pieces would be a huge waste if the additions they make don't end up pushing them into a playoff race - which is a big risk to take for a small market club like the Pirates.

All of that means the Pirates are going to have to try and fix their issues from within. That could mean promoting Jake Fox and/or Matt Hague, or just holding off and hoping McCutchen, Alvarez, Walker, and Tabata all heat up together while Clint Barmes and Rod Barajas play more to their career averages. It's very unlikely that the offense is going to be anywhere but well below average this year dealing with what we have in the system right now, but it doesn't seem like we have much of a choice.

It's tough to continue to be patient - but making a trade and getting instant gratification just isn't really possible right now. Not only that, but it's probably not a smart thing to do either.