Monday, August 1, 2011

Pirates acquire Ludwick at the trade-deadline

Well, the Pirates appeased a large section of their fan base by acquiring two veteran bats for the last two months of the season as they try to stay in the race for the NL Central.

Saturday evening, Pittsburgh traded a low-A prospect for veteran first baseman Derrek Lee. And yesterday, right before the 4pm trade deadline, the team picked-up veteran outfielder Ryan Ludwick from the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later.

Like Lee, Ludwick is in the last months of his contract and probably just a two-month rental. And like a lot of his new teammates (Lee included), Ludwick comes to the Pirates sporting a very unimpressive batting average (.238). However, the thing I like about Ludwick is his number of RBI. With 64, he's already tied for the team lead in that category, and he probably doesn't even have his own uniform number yet.

Lee and Ludwick may not be the players they used to be, but they'll add some much-needed meat to a struggling lineup.

These trades may not be as sexy as most Buccos fans would like, but considering the position the team is in as a surprise contender, it was probably about as good as they could have done without severely derailing their immediate future.

After going 2-5 in their seven-game road-swing against two of the best teams in the National League, the Pirates have an important seven-game home stand against the Cubs and Padres.

Meanwhile, the Brewers and Cardinals play each other this week, so if the Pirates can take care of business against the struggling Cubs, they will gain some ground on at least one of the teams above them in the standings.

The Pirates just came out of a brutal thirteen-game stretch battered and bruised and sitting further back in the standings than they were two-weeks ago. Now, with some additions to their lineup and only 4 1/2 games back, the Pirates still have a fighting-chance with two-full months of baseball remaining.

Starting this week, we'll find-out if the 2011 Pirates still have some fight left in them.

No comments:

Post a Comment