Dave Littlefield - the Anti-Doug Melvin

Did anybody notice what the Pirates GM has been up to lately?

First, he traded for Cezar Izturis, who the Cubs couldn't be happier to get rid of. They have Jack Wilson at SS, by the way, making Izturis a utility player at this point.

Then, at the deadline, he traded for Matt Morris. And took on his entire contract (he gets $3.2 million for the rest of this year and $9.5 million next year).

Reports were that the Giants were trying to dump Morris and even would eat some of his contract to get a deal done. But why eat the contract if you can get somebody to take it off your hands?

Morris isn't horrible (he was 7-7 on an awful Giants team), and they only gave up Rajai Davis for him (I'm pretty sure that Davis joker hurt the Brewers once or twice the year) but why would the Pirates take on this contract and this player, right now? This is a team that is currently 20 games under .500. You don't rebuild with 32-year old pitchers with lots of tread on the tires making $10 mill a year. I'm sure Morris will handcuff the Crew when they face him at PNC Park later this year, but who couldn't?

Remember the late 90's when the Brewers and the Pirates were pretty much the same franchise? God bless Doug Melvin.