Today's completely partisan moment

Which is to say, it's time to talk about my Pittsburgh Pirates again, and why they are perfect dopes.

All indications are they're shopping the face of their franchise, Andrew McCutchen, the way used car salesmen shop that 2010 Toyota Corolla that's (really, folks) in MINT CONDITION. Word is the Nationals are hot after Cutch, now that they've missed out on Chris Sale.

(About that: The Red Sox are officially the Yankees now. They get everybody. They get so many everybodies, they even get everybodies they don't even need. I mean, what's a team that's already absurdly pitching rich need with Chris Sale?)

Anyway ... back to Cutch.

I honestly don't know what the Pirates are thinking here -- but then, I hardly ever do. Yes, they need pitching, and, yes, the Nats have pitchers just sort of lying around, like Legos in your kid's playroom. Some of them are good. Some of them are OK. None of them are good enough, in my estimation, to give up McCutchen for.

For one thing, he's only 30. And he's still one of the best position players in baseball, even though he had a strangely down season last year. Are the Pirates betting that because of that one season he's done? And if he's not, why are they trading him after an awful (for him) year instead of after a great year, when he'd command far more value?

As a Pirates fan, I can see him going to the Nationals, regaining his form and helping lead the Nats to the World Series. In fact, as a Pirates fan, I think this is precisely what would happen. And meanwhile, whatever pitcher(s) the Pirates got in return would turn out to be rag-armed flops. Because, you know, the Pirates.

Anyway, I don't get it. Two years ago, the Bucs won 98 games and seemed poised for greatness. Now, after one season when nothing went right, they seem ready to bail again and go back into rebuild mode. The last time they did this, it was Barry Bonds they traded. And rebuild mode lasted 20 years.

Please. Not again.