Call-Ups: Pittsburgh Pirates and Brandon Moss

Once again it is collaborative post time here on Call to the Pen. This month’s topic is September call-ups. To get the ball rolling, I posed the following question to each of our Lead Writers, “Which player do you want your team to call-up in September and why?” It is a simple question but I think you will find the responses to be very diverse.

Taking the path less traveled this month, I decided to post each team’s write-up individually instead of grouping them by league or division as we have done in the past.

Representing the Pittsburgh Pirates and Rum Bunter is the site’s Lead Writer, Tom Smith. Check out what he has to say after the jump.

Tom’s Take:

The Pittsburgh Pirates are in a crucial stretch of the season. The Pirates are doing things that Pittsburgh hasn’t seen since the 1950’s. The buzz in the city is ear popping. If only the Pirates can keep up the pace. We see a crucial opportunity after Labor Day when Neal Huntington has said the organization will make the call for the new calvary.

The important thing about being a team like the Pirates is it has to appear to be natural. Losing at a pace like this can draw attention and Major League Baseball wouldn’t take too kindly if they knew a team was tanking in order to take Anthony Rendon with the number one pick in the June Amateur Baseball Draft.

Often times, the past few weeks the Pirates have a lead in the ballgame. There were even those two wins against the Cardinals. Unless, Pirates fans are looking forward to watching Rendon pull a black and orange jersey over his head next june instead of a black and gold, this shit has to stop.

Of course when the Pirates take the lead, it immediately has fans looking at the scoreboad or switching over to Gameday to see how the Baltimore Orioles are doing. Then Twitter blows up. It’s tense.

Well, we are here to tell you all of this stress over winning doesn’t have to happen. Call us the Doctor cause we got the cure.

The most important player pyromaniac the Pirates could call up would be Daniel Moskos. He could throw gas quickly on the opponents bats, like he did upon his promotion to AAA this season. Moskos could quickly walk the bases full with no outs in the sixth or seventh before anyone even woke manager John Russell from his slumber. This would ensure the opposition has a swinging chance to get back in the game.

Think about it, would you want a few meaningless September wins or would you want the first pick and a nice big pile of revenue sharing to go with it.

Hahaha! Raise the Jolly Roger bitches.

Nah, seriously we would like to see Brandon Moss get a shot. He would have to be put on the 40 man. So that’s not happening, right? He would get paid to get a little bit of playing time and well, you know how that goes in Pittsburgh. Moss feels the same.

"“I’m pretty sure the season is going to come to an end and I’m not going to be a call-up guy. Strictly because they have to make a move and I’m not on the roster. The Pirates have guys they envision being there a while. They are trying (Ryan) Doumit in the outfield; they have Lastings (Milledge) and Garrett (Jones) who needs at-bats and I don’t think I’m a call-up guy because there is no room to play me. I’m pretty sure they don’t want to call a guy up to sit and get paid. I really envision September 6th is going to come, we are going to play our last game at Louisville and I’m going to go back home to Georgia. Will I re-sign with the Pirates if I don’t get called up? Who knows, that will be a decision I make with my agent and my family and will be decision based solely on what best for me and my family. Everything will play out over time and I’m happy with the position I have put myself in and will go into Spring Training with the plan of winning a Major League job somewhere…”–Brandon Moss"

It’s a joke that Neil Huntington has said that callups will not happen until after the AAA season. Indianapolis has fallen well off the pace and has been reduced to a spoiler role. But wasn’t it enjoyable watching Ryan Doumit and Lastings Milledge ( Pirates fans call them Dumb and Dumber) patrol right field in the month of August?

What a joke.

Indianapolis simply didn’t have enough to make a serious run at the AAA playoffs, keeping Moss in the minors was a mistake. And obviously a message. How else do you explain keeping a guy with numbers like this in Indy?

Moss didn’t do well after being given the RF last year, but did Milledge? How about the year Doumit had? How about … well, insert half the roster and you get the point. Some guys get a second chance, other players on the Pirates roster didn’t. The call-up will go to John Bowker who really sucked when he had an opportunity at the professional level. But Bowker deserves a look.

Just like Moss does.