The Pirates are sitting at 17-20 after two straight losses in which their pitching gave up more than five runs and their offense wasn't up to the challenge. We're all curious as to where the Pirates could go this year if they could add another bat to the lineup to help the offense.

The fact is that the Pirates aren't going to be able to find a bat at this point in the year without severely overpaying. So should the Pirates overpay for a bat? Neil Huntington doesn't think so, and that's really all that matters.

My question now is, would doing that even be enough to get this team to where they want to go? I'm convinced that the goal for this franchise isn't .500 this year, they are looking to make a playoff push in the next few years. Unless some crazy things happen, that's not happening this year. Adding another bat could boost them to being close to that .500 mark and breaking the horrible streak we're on, but would it be worth it to lose what they would have to lose to make that happen? I say absolutely not. The offense is simply too bad right now to be helped that much by one guy, unless we're talking about a stud hitter which the Pirates simply aren't going to get. The best they get is a league average hitter and that's simply not going to do all that much to help.

The Pirates should only be making these types of moves if it's going to give them a shot at the playoffs. The goal isn't .500 right now – although that would be a huge stepping stone for this franchise (and it would increase ticket sales quite a bit). The goal isn't stepping stones, the goal is the island you get to when you cross all the stepping stones. One bat isn't getting the Pirates to that island this year, so it would be foolish to throw away players they could use in the future to get to that island.

If the offense starts to come around and the pitching keeps doing what they're doing and the Pirates find themselves around or above .500 come July, then this is a different story – but for now we just have to continue to be patient.