Why are the Pirates so afraid of youth?

It's ironic that a team that has relied so heavily on the youth movement and home-grown talent would suddenly become allergic to rookies. After surprising rookie reliever Jared Hughes and his 48 appearances, the next highest total of any Pirates rookie this season is 30. That mark belongs to the long-forgotten Matt Hague. Sure the rookie position players haven't exactly inspired much confidence. The Bucs just haven't gotten much production out of the likes of Hague, Yamaico Navarro and Gorkys Hernandez. Still, Starling Marte showed real potential before landing on the DL. Plus, AAA is stocked with a bevy of arms ready to contribute at the Big League level.

Pitchers Jeff Locke, Justin Wilson and Kyle McPherson all had impressive, albeit brief, debuts, but they've been relegated mostly to fill-in duty for a game or two at a time. Indianapolis reliever Bryan Morris was called up for a day and didn't even get a sniff of game action. Instead, those major league bullpen spots have been filled by veteran journeymen like Juan Cruz and Chad Qualls. Likewise, the starting rotation has been clogged by Kevin Correia, Wandy Rodriguez and the recently-released Erik Bedard.

But Bedard's release presents a new opportunity to let the youth movement continue. As the veterans fade down the stretch, the opportunity is there for the Pirates to fill Bedard's spot with one of the more exciting AAA options. Wouldn't the rotation look better with a young lefty with hit-and-miss stuff like Jeff Locke than with another stretch of mediocrity by Correia. At the very least, call up Bryan Morris and let him fill a Brad Lincoln-type role if you're dead-set on putting Correia back in the rotation. It's time for this front office to stop thinking veterans are necessarily the solution when there are young, talented arms ready to contribute at Indy. Nothing against Hisanori Takahashi, but couldn't that bullpen role be filled just as easily with Justin Wilson? Their current strategy has them on the outside of the playoff race looking in. There's not much more to lose and a great deal to gain by seeing what kind of spark some of these young arms could provide.