Non-Contention is the Opposite of Desperation

Everybody in the world that calls themselves a Pittsburgh Pirates fan has been saying for weeks that the team needs to go out and add a hitter to push them closer to being a legitimate contender. Nobody would argue that; not even myself. However, I've been saying for all of these weeks that it's just not going to happen because there's no trade market this early in the season. Pirates GM Neal Huntington has been saying the same things. Recently Huntington unveiled another quote that sheds more light on all of this:

"We've been told by some clubs that they're going to hold on as long as they can to sell tickets and try to keep their fans engaged, so that may take an obvious seller off the market""
Two names that have come out have been Chase Headley and Bryan LaHair, who are available because their teams are not contending for anything this year. Those teams have made it public knowledge that they are willing to trade their guys so teams will have them in mind when they need to make a trade, but that doesn't mean the Padres and Cubs want to make deals now.

By trading their good hitters in June, those teams would only be hurting themselves. I'm not sure what people don't get about that. As we get closer to the deadline, those players values automatically go up because of the urgency to get a deal done. When there's a month and a half until the deadline, the Padres and Cubs have no reason to trade now when they can hold out and get a better deal in the future.

Now for that Huntington quote. Why would a team that isn't contending want to start trading their fan favorites right now? The fans aren't coming out to see a competitive baseball team; one of the reasons they're actually coming to the games is to see these guys that they love to watch. Trading them now will make them lose out on ticket sales, which certainly doesn't interest any general manager in any sport. Just another huge reason that teams like the Padres and Cubs would be foolish to make a trade now.

The only trades that happen this early in the year involve all major league players. They involve two competing teams that have different needs. The Pirates aren't interested in trading Burnett/Bedard/McDonald right now, which is what they would have to do to get a major league bat. No team is going to give up a major leaguer for a minor leaguer at this point in the year, it just doesn't happen.

Kevin Youkilis may be a different story. The Red Sox simply don't have a spot for him in their starting lineup and may be better off without him on the roster as they move forward. It would be a salary dump for them that a team could take advantage of. The Red Sox best interest is not to start him, but another team might have that interest. That's the only trade I could possibly seeing before the end of July.

So stop thinking that the Pirates have any chance of trading for Headley/LaHair types anytime before the trade deadline.