The Sports Monitor

Pirates general manager Neal Huntington was busy Tuesday, making two trades. In the first, the Bucs sent outfielder Eric Hinske to the evil Yankees for a pair of minor leaguers, pitcher Casey Erickson and outfielder Eric Fryer. Hinske didn't have a role or a future for the Bucs. In fact, Hinske goes from the lower class to the elite. He should be happy. The Bucs should be happy that they get some help for their farm system. Erickson was 3-3 with a 2.25 ERA at Class A. Fryer hit .250 in Class A Tampa. The Bucs will be lucky if either contributes in the bigs, let alone has an impact. The bigger trade happened hours later when Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett went to a team that appears worse off right now than the Pirates, and that's the Washington Nationals. In return, the Bucs got toolsy but troubled outfield prospect Lastings Milledge and former closer Joel Hanrahan, who actually lost the job twice this season. This trade works for the Bucs because it's the classic sell-high,...

Just when you thought there was a bright spot to the Pirates' season, they go and do it again. First they lost to the Nats, the worst team in baseball. I can give them that one, I guess. After all, they had taken the first three games in their series against them. But they go out and get shut out by a team that gave up 20 runs the night before. It's a good thing I have the Penguins to provide a nice little distraction.