Hinske, Morgan and Burnett Traded

It has been a busy day for the Pittsburgh Pirates front office. 

Eric Hinske was traded to the New York Yankees  netting two 23 year old A ball prospects right-hander Casey Erickson and outfielder Eric Fryer.  Fryer was a catcher in the Brewers organization that New York moved into the outfield.

Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett were sent to the wastelands of Washington for outfielder Lastings Milledge and reliever Joel Hanrahan.

Milledge, a former top Mets prospect, has far more power than Morgan and is 5 years younger than Morgan.

Outfielders Garrett Jones and Jeff Salazar have been recalled from AAA Indianapolis.

BTW Take:

These trades are more about the future than 2009.  Milledge is coming of the disabled list due to a broken hand, which could affect his power this year dramatically.

Milledge has far more potential than Morgan who is about all he will ever be.  The Pirates are in need of power bats, and Milledge should fill that role in the future.

While I was dead wrong about Morgan this year, I still hate to see him go.  It could have been fun to see what kind of havoc he and McCutchen could have caused at the top of the lineup.

As for the rest of the trades, Hinske and Burnett won’t be missed much if at all.

I’ll write more later on the subject, just wanted to get this out before game time.  I am intrigued to see how the Pirates respond on the field to these trades.