Go Away Nate McLouth

I'll admit I was wrong.  I got excited to see the Pirates sign Nate McLouth to a minor league free agent deal.  I thought that this would give the Pirates an extra left handed bat off the bench and provide more depth in the outfield.  Nate could also be used as a defensive replacement late in games or as a pinch runner.  On top of that he's incredibly fan friendly and WAS a fan favorite. 

Nate McLouth in 2012 isn't even close to being what he was in 2008. 

Nate currently has a worse batting average in the month of May than 2 of the Pirates pitchers.  Yup 2!!!!! 
For the year he has 18 strikeouts in only 57 at bats (32% of the time).  He's been bad defensively too despite having a 1.000 fielding percentage he has taken lots of bad routes which have lead to base hits. 
To put into perspective how bad he has been, he is 13th on the team in OPS (on base plug slugging).  Very closely behind him are three Pirates pitchers. 

Quite honestly, whether he's ready or not, I'm ready for Starling Marte to make his MLB debut.  I'm sure it will happen in June so the Pirates get an extra year out of him before he goes to arbitration by being a Super Two.  When I did my interview with Phungo I stated that Marte wouldn't be called upon based on how he's doing, but more than likely how poorly Presley or McLouth might be.  Presley has already been sent down to AAA.  I suspect McLouth won't be with the team come July.

Earlier in the year, I did pick up a few Nate McLouth cards that I didn't have in my collection previously.  They were bought very cheap which in hindsight I'm still happy about.

picked up for $2.99 shipped (.99 with $2 shipping)
Not a bad card featuring a steroid user MVP

picked this up for $0.75 shipped
miraculously it was shipped in only a penny sleeve between 2 pieces of cardboard and arrived safely

This was the most expensive of the bunch costing me $4.25

Overall I am happy with picking these up for under $10, but wow is Nate McLouth terrible now.

Gone are these type of memories seen in the highlight film below

One thing is for sure though, the dude picks awesome entrance music to walk up to the plate to.