So is taking a walk and extending the inning. Morneau just isn't that good of an offensive player, random home run blip on the statistical variation chart notwithstanding. There's a reason guys like Branyan and Cust stopped getting jobs. That particular skillset just doesn't come in handy enough to use a roster spot in the NL on it.
I honestly feel like this is the first time that I have heard anyone suggest that Huntington is playing chess and Jocketty is playing checkers. It's one not characteristic of their particular resumes. Coming into the season if you told me that at the deadline the Pirates would have acquired Marlon Byrd, John Buck, and Justin Morneau, I probably would have suggested Huntington was playing darts. These guys collectively have been available for a long time, and took minimal talent to acquire. Are the Pirates a better team by adding these guys? I would say so, but I would also say that's because they had more bottom of the roster issues than the Reds do. I think the Reds problems lie more in having too many average players in the line-up and not enough above average ones. That's a real difficult thing to improve at the deadline without paying outrageous prices.