I’ll be honest: The Pittsburgh Pirates should be further along that they are in their rebuild. I’ve been running this site independently for 15 MLB seasons, and there have been very few offseasons in that time where the Pirates have made a “splash”. The Pirates aren’t going to be a big factor in baseball’s offseason market in any year, but there’s a huge difference between the level of effort we’ve seen from them during this rebuild, and the level of effort needed to build a contending team. I get paid to be here, and following this team’s slow growth every offseason is even tediously painful for me.
A few years ago, I decided to give the Pirates a few more years of my life. I decided to keep running this site to see the direction of their new rebuild. I haven’t been evaluating them publicly to this point, as I’ve wanted to give them the proper amount of time to implement a plan. My expectation was higher than the results we’ve seen. When you hire a General Manager who has not only done the job before, but has also won a World Series, you expect a quicker turnaround. There has been a pandemic, and injuries, and now issues with the TV deal. This is an organization that is quick to give excuses, to an alarming degree. I don’t think there are excuses for entering the fifth season under Ben Cherington and Derek Shelton with a fringe hope of winning, and no urgency shown from the team to contend. The Pirates are an extremely risk-averse organization, and that starts with their owner, who was born into a winning position. As a result, Bob Nutting fundamentally doesn’t know what it looks like to go from losing to winning.
This is an organization that openly prioritizes charity and creating an entertaining night out for a family, first above all. They want their fans to say “I’m gonna go back, because that was one hell of a time even if the team lost.” What they don’t understand is that no one wants charity from a losing organization, and no one wants to spend their money these days unless there’s a good chance that they can escape their problems. Those things that the organization prioritizes are their rewards for running a successful organization. I don’t go to bad movies to enjoy the over-priced concessions, and people don’t want to watch a losing baseball team with the payoff that at least they could buy an expensive pretzel without standing in line for a long time. If the Pirates are focused on creating moments for the children, they fail to realize that children aren’t inspired to grow from witnessing losing. Bottom line: It’s a privilege to own and run any aspect of a Major League organization. The privilege is that you get to build an organization that people want to follow and spend their money on — not just because it’s supposed to be a mindless night out, but because the onus is on the Pirates to provide the winning environment that allows for the mindless escape for their fans. The Pirates act in a way that almost assumes paying fans are a guaranteed right of team ownership. There’s a difference between a privilege and acting privileged. This is that difference.
THIS WEEK ON PIRATES PROSPECTS
I’m no longer going to try to write 1,000-2,000 words per day in this article. Instead, I’ve got a new concept: Three paragraphs on whatever I’m thinking that day, then I’m done writing.
The result? You’re going to get something each day that is real and concise, like above. No intro, just dive right into the topic. The above is edited and produced, and these are thoughts I’ve had developing for years. So this isn’t a professional wrestling shoot, but it’s a style aimed to express more authenticity. I’ll be writing about the organization in detail this week in features, focusing on Bob Nutting’s ownership, the current rebuild, and the historical problem of player development at the top level in Pittsburgh, from my years of perspective.
This site will get a bit of a makeover before the end of the year. The comment section will return as part of that, to provide a discussion place for all fans of the Pirates, followers of this site, and any industry plants who seamlessly mix in amongst the crowd. Until then, you can reach me at tim at piratesprospects.com.
THOUGHT PROCESS OF THE DAY
When the comment section returns, this section will be a prompt for a daily discussion. Today’s thought process: How many hitters on this Pirates team would you label as “reliable”?
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“But that’s always the way; it don’t make no difference whether you do right or wrong, a person’s conscience ain’t got no sense, and just goes for him anyway. If I had a yaller dog that didn’t know no more than a person’s conscience does, I would pison him. It takes up more room than all the rest of a person’s insides, and yet ain’t no good, nohow. Tom Sawyer he says the same.”
-Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
SONG OF THE DAY
Whoa! Shut up Beavis. I just figured something out: He is not misunderstood. It is us who has misunderstood. This does suck, but this sucks so hard that it sucked a hole through the dimensional wall into awesomeness. When you compress this much crap under the force of this much pretension, you create a beautiful diamond. And this is the greatest band that have ever walked the Earth. But they do not walk the Earth. They float above it, for they are as Gods. They are better than the Beatles. Better than the Rolling Stones. Better than Silverchair. Almost as good as Pantera. They are our rightful lords and masters. Ladies and gentlemen, bow down to the greatest band in the world: Portugal. The Man.
