Three More Years of Opie

The Buccos have officially announced what many of us already deemed to be a foregone conclusion: Opie, aka Bad Deal Neal, has been extended. Those Commissioner's Trophies behind Neal are a Mirage.

Huntington's tenure has been at best average and at worst  extremely disappointing. He brought in Jose Tabata and Jeff Karstens ( along with The Guy Who Cried and Ross Awfuldorhf) in exchange for oft injured Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte, who played the most unimportant position in baseball. BTW, Prince Fielder was 2 for 9 career against Marte with 2 singles and 3 Ks; Ryan Howard 0 for 3 with 3 Ks. Lefty specialists are overrated my @$$,.

In that same summer, Opie also dealt Jason Bay to the Red Sox in a deal that saw the Sox get Bay, the Dodgers get Manny Ramirez, and the Bucs get Andy LaRoche and Brandon Moss. I don't need to rehash how that one worked out, but let's just agree the Bucs were not the winners in that deal. These are 2 of his more notable deals and they certainly show both sides of the spectrum.

 As far as free agency goes, there isn't a whole lot write home about. Overbay and Diaz were the most recent disasters, with neither doing anything to really help the young ball club along. Correia started out looking like a real find but shrunk back down to his career levels of mediocrity. GI Jones is similar, sometimes looking like a diamond in the rough and others looking like the guy we got off the Twins scrap heap. There is also the Dana Eveland years of control signing. And Hayden Penn. Letting Matt Capps walk and getting ZERO in return. And so on and so forth.

In terms of the draft, Neal has gotten high marks all across the boards for his picks and signings. However, the tangible results range from mixed to TBD. Alvarez was the Bucs #1 pick in 2008, Opie's first draft, and was widely expected to be the savior of the franchise. While he had a strong September last year, it took a while to get acclimated and any progress he made appears to have been lost since the end of the last season. 2011 has been nothing short of awful for Kdro, not even accounting for injuries.

In the 2009 Draft, the Bucs went back to their old ways and took  singable BC catcher Tony Sanchez 4th overall despite the fact that most believed Sanchez to be the 29th best player available. Sanchez has been a disappointment in the minors and has also faced a myriad of injuries. The Bucs were able to use some of their savings from Sanchez to draft and sign Zack Von Rosenberg, who is 5-9 with a 5.73 ERA for the WV Power Single A club. However, he is still young, though, about 2 weeks shy of 21 and could prove to be a solid pitcher down the road.

In 2010, the Bucs had a well received draft by DOING WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO DO and picking Jameson Taillon and Stetson Allie, 2 guys with 4 last names. Taillon is a few months shy of 20 and 2-3 with a 3.98 ERA at Single A, showing a good bit of upside. Allie, who turned 20 in March, is struggling at Low A State College with a 6.98 ERA and an 0-2 record.

In the most recent draft, the Bucs drafted Gerrrrrritttttt Cole from UCLA and Josh Bell, a HS 3rd Baseman haled by many as the best offensive player in the draft. Despite speculation that Bell was 100% set on signing with the Texas Longhorns, the Bucs hammered out a deal to bring him on board. If these guys do anything close to  living up to their hype, the Bucs will have 2 legitimate studs in positions of great need.

So there you have the very brief Cliff's Note version of Huntington's career in Pittsburgh so far, glossing over FAR more moves than I covered. My overall grade for Opie thus far would be a  very generous INCOMPLETE. He was named GM in September 2007 and that team finished 68-94, a .420 winning percentage. Since the takeover, the Bucs Record is 252-379, a .399 winning percentage. An old adage states "it's going to get worse before it gets better"; but how much worse can it get?