For many years of my life, I was a walking database of knowledge about the Pittsburgh Pirates and their minor league system.
I covered Spring Training in Bradenton for years. I also covered games in each minor league city, while assembling a network of content creators to provide regular local reports from each city.
When I say that I “covered” those events, I mean that I was on location, with the same credentialed media access as every other reporter from every other outlet. I may have been the smallest outlet, but I was also the best content creator.
My way of covering baseball has been replicated by every present day reporter, whether they realize it or not. My way wasn’t exclusive across baseball, but was revolutionary in Pittsburgh’s market.
When I started this project in 2009, there was hardly any coverage of minor league players, or the development process. These days, every Pirates reporter is releasing regular features on minor league players — beyond the top prospects.
As a result, these reporters have had to expand their working knowledge base. Pirates beat writers today are expected to wield considerably more information than they were in 2009. In 2009, the average beat writer needed to know maybe 40-50 Major League players during a season. Today’s reporters nearly double that number when factoring in top 30 prospects and the latest draft class they have to cover.
Today’s job is much more difficult for any content creator. I’m part of that reason.
I have covered 13 Spring Trainings on this site — 7 full-time, 6 part-time. I have not been on location for Spring Training full-time since 2018. I’ve covered Spring Training partially in 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
I don’t intend to cover the event this year, but that is simply because I’d rather find a space in this landscape that doesn’t require a massive personal database of baseball knowledge.
SO MUCH INFORMATION
My database mind was always in demand during Spring Training. During the pre-2019 days, when I covered things full-time, I was a walking resource.
The Pirates’ media relations people would often ask me to identify the face of the minor league player they were searching down. They knew that I was the only reporter who could put a name to a face, as I worked to interview nearly everyone in the system.
When Pittsburgh reporters wanted to confirm that their on-the-spot knowledge about a top prospect was correct, they came to me. Before walking up to the player in the clubhouse, reporters would often walk over to me, ask a quick question that they knew I would be able to confirm, before launching into their interview.
I provided a lot of silent assists behind the scenes. Meanwhile, I was always trying to find a way to create a story that no one else could produce — which pushed the database requirements of the job higher for everyone.
Maintaining that much active knowledge about baseball was destroying my brain. I altered my approach to life and this site in September 2019, after getting to the worst health of my life that summer — with migraines almost daily.
These days, I have been trying to experience what it is like to be an average Pirates fan, who doesn’t have a database of knowledge in his brain.
I’ve also been avoiding potentially raising the bar again for every other content creator.
It’s easy for me to not maintain a database of knowledge when I’m working on other projects. The last two offseasons, I’ve been working on a few projects away from baseball. Some writing projects. Some research projects. Very little baseball focus.
I rely on a specific few content creators to keep me updated on what is happening with the Pirates these days. As a result, when the Pirates make a move, I have the reaction of the average fan reading a Twitter update, rather than an expert in a content creating field.
THE EVOLUTION OF A CONTENT CREATOR
Every content creator goes through the same stages of their career — and when I use the term “content creator” I am including the beat writers and columnists in Pittsburgh’s media scene.
We all have a need for validation. From bloggers to distinguished journalists, there’s an internal child who never got to be the person presenting the popular news to the crowd.
Mainstream media members get their validation from their employers, and build a real sense of self-validation from the job process. They hate bloggers, because they lack the same confidence to express themselves without being under contract to a billionaire newspaper owner.
Most of this job is a slam dunk on the basic level.
If you’re reading this, you likely have a job that doesn’t involve you dedicating so much brainpower to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
If you’re not a hardcore Pirates fan who remembers every detail of every player, then you might remember only 3-5 players when you aren’t watching the games. In the game of baseball, you might also have 3-5 more names that are on your radar as potential future players to watch.
You likely turn to content creators to keep you informed on who you are watching outside of your group of players.
This is why so many entry-level content creators focus on beat writer duties. They might write a unique feature during the season, but the large focus is telling the public what happened beyond their favorite 3-5 players.
As I said above, this job requires a lot of brainpower — especially in the modern era when baseball is promoting the MLB Draft as a televised event and every top prospect is highlighted nationally. It’s not just the amount of knowledge that a beat writer needs to wield, but the constant grind of maintaining that knowledge in an ever-evolving landscape.
Being a sports beat writer is like standing on the edge of the ocean, keeping track of how many grains of sand are washed away and how many sea shells are pushed ashore by the never ending waves.
From the outside, a baseball beat looks like a lot of unconfident white dudes having a party on a beach. On the inside of the job, there are a lot of grains of sand to count, and new shells to inspect every day.
This process creates validation.
The beat writers aren’t presenting anything novel to the public, but merely giving their researched accounts of what happened. The end result is that a beat writer is trying to wield knowledge of 50-100 players, to answer questions for the average fan that only knows 3-5 players.
The beat writer learns how to become an expert in a field.
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Eventually, a content creator reaches a point of confidence in their own words.
They know that the public is going to trust them for their accounting of the events that took place on their watch. They also have gained so much confidence in their knowledge that they have formed ready-to-share opinions about what is happening surrounding their subject of coverage.
It is at this point that a content creator enters the realm of being a “columnist” and quickly discovers that no matter what you say, someone is going to be angry.
Columnists are not born.
They’re molded.
Molded by the fires that make lava run away screaming.
The act of a columnist is an evolving romance of the egotistical variety — a validation of the self with a public self-flagellation of pompously phrased words.
No longer shall the content creator toil in the lower levels of validation; that their words are merely heard as an accounting of events of which they had no control.
No, the columnist advances to a higher dimension.
Where words are revered.
Where commas are an optional weapon.
Where paragraph structures dissipate completely — and rebelliously.
Those who offer their opinion, regardless of who gives them the authority to speak, subject themselves to the judgement of the crowd. Nothing that anyone says in this world can be met with unified approval. The columnist tier of media forces the individual content creator to validate their own internal beliefs by putting them into the public for critique.
Sometimes, that comes with single sentence paragraphs acting as fancy armour.
If you create content long enough, you’ll realize that you will never know which opinion of yours will incite a war. And you’ll always write a little bit from your heels, as a result.
But, if you spend enough time at the columnist level, you learn under which circumstances you are comfortable standing ten toes down in front of an entire mob.
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Aside from levels of validation, there is another benefit a content creator receives over the years: Perspective.
You develop a deeper sense of empathy when you spend so much time telling the story of athletic strangers to a group of strangers who are interested in the athletic abilities of the story subject.
You also get a better feel of society, at-large, when you write for the public.
In the time I’ve run this site, I’ve been witness to what amounts to mass population tendencies. There were years where this site would average more people per month than the population of the city of Pittsburgh.
From that total, I know how many real people only read a few sentences or paragraphs. There’s a reason that major outlets limit their reporters to 350-500 word articles. Most people are looking for instant updates these days, and our social media structure has people tuning out after a few seconds.
I know how few people are likely still reading and trying to comprehend this very sentence right here, this deep into a three-thousand word article that is currently showing around 1400 words.
There’s a small percentage of readers who engage in the comments. There’s a larger group of readers who read the comments. I don’t have comments activated on this site at this time, as I’ve been trying to avoid the workload of moderating a public comment section.
Most content creators lack the knowledge and understanding of the societal trends that I mentioned above. They work for people who have my level of knowledge and understanding.
Most content creators are just creating content online, and interacting with those who interact with their own work.
MY OWN CREATION
Years ago, I anticipated a rise in content creators of all varieties. The present day layout of the Pittsburgh media is about what I expected when I projected out my “competition” back in 2019-2020.
I say “competition” only because the competitive energy exists only in one direction. I don’t see any other writer or outlet as personal competition. I provide competition to the Pittsburgh media simply by my existence, and my choice to continue creating content as a graduate from the columnist level.
I’m that one who can stand in front of the angry mob with my database knowledge backing me up.
My focus has always been to create content that fans want to see. Today, there are at least a dozen creators who bring Pirates fans the content I wanted to provide to the hardcore fans in 2009.
The last two offseasons, I’ve been reducing my personal focus on the Pirates, trying to capture the feeling of the average fan.
Not the feeling of the average commenter, who knows the full 40-man roster. I’ve been getting down to 3-5 player territory.
If I did a Sporcle quiz today on the current 40-man roster, I might get 75-80% correct with enough time.
Without naming names, there are three MLB pitchers, three MLB position players, three post-prospect situations, and about five prospects who I follow on the Pirates. My knowledge still exceeds the average fan, but I’d be horrible as an expert on a radio interview these days.
The benefit of having a database brain with an ability to absorb a lot of information in a short amount of time is that I could be an expert on the Pittsburgh Pirates again by this time next week if I wanted to commit the mindspace and energy.
I’ve already decided to return to writing this year, but I’m not interested in entering the fray of experts. If you’ve been following this site over the years, you know that these aren’t just words I’m casually strewing about. I could be the go-to Pirates writer in 2025 if I wanted, but that’s not how I want to direct my energy this year.
Instead, I want to explore this feeling of the average fan a bit closer.
When I watch the content creators, I notice that many of them are reacting to the commenters. This is something I have been guilty of throughout my career. Yet, I know from my deep societal knowledge of running this site that those voices represent the loudest and most knowledgeable 10% of the fan base.
These are the same fans who lead the bandwagon of opinions when the Pirates do well and casual fans take notice. Their opinions matter. Yet, this creates a circular system. That small group of fans complain, and the content creators center their writing around the complaints from the small group, projecting a minority opinion as one potentially held by the masses.
Most of the masses are split in three ways. They either don’t care about the opinion of the small group, they agree with the opinion they hadn’t seen expressed in that way, or they disagree and don’t understand why anyone is giving credit to the loudest voices.
Those who silently agree with the loudest voices are the monsters who fuel the nightmares of every business owner.
The Pirates have pushed out a view over the last few years that the average fan just wants to have a good time at a game.
I can understand that theory.
BECOMING A CASUAL FAN
The last two offseasons, I’ve been experiencing the NBA as a fan. Having little knowledge of the league heading into the 2023-24 season, I was able to experience the feeling of a casual fan.
I started following a few teams, ultimately settling on the Philadelphia 76ers as my team to follow. Eventually, I developed above-average knowledge of the league, but not before the natural progression that a fan experiences.
When I saw the Sixers play live last season, I don’t recall if they won. I remember Tyrese Maxey driving through the lane, splitting multiple defenders to make an incredible floating layup. These days, I watch one Sixers game per week, and follow the results of 2-3 players on the roster. Maxey is one of those players, due to the memorable game he had when I was in the arena.
Memories.
That’s what this is all about.
We all watch the same games. We all see the same outcomes. We all are afforded the opportunity to express ourselves based on what we collectively witnessed.
At the core, professional sports provide memories. They allow us to keep track of the years, holding onto the positives, and providing the distractions from life that we all need from time-to-time.
I’ve been in a position where I can’t help but see the 10% group of online commenters as akin to drug abusers, who need the latest fix and the highest dopamine inducing updates to their database to feel a distraction from proceeding through the world.
Yet, the masses who just want to go and see an occasional game are also hoping to be distracted with a positive outcome. Positive results make the memories. A home run. Seven strong innings from a starter. Web gems.
The problem the Pirates have faced for years is that they haven’t provided a roster that gives assurances that the average fan will experience these memory-creating outcomes when they purchase tickets.
Paul Skenes is an example of how having an elite player can bring in fans. If you’re going to pay for one Pirates game per week or month, your best chance of gaining positive memories is going to be when Skenes is on the mound.
That’s a lot of pressure for any young player, even with all of the lore surrounding the 2024 Rookie of the Year. One big issue that leads to perpetual losing from the Pirates is that they place too much pressure on inexperienced players.
Aside from Skenes, the Pirates have Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Mitch Keller, Jared Jones, and others among names who have a great chance of providing a memory on any given night. They have the clinging hope of the next big thing in post-prospects like Henry Davis, Endy Rodriguez, and Nick Gonzales. Then, the next hopeful prospects in Bubba Chandler, Termarr Johnson, Thomas Harrington, Nick Yorke, Konnor Griffin. There’s even the chance to still see a still productive Andrew McCutchen at the end of his career.
Your list of names might be different. Every list includes the desire to see a Pirates player perform at a level they’ve never performed in their life, or maintain a level of past reliability.
If I’m an average fan following the Pirates this season, there is legitimately a lot to like.
The Pirates have done little to add to the list of names that could draw interest from the average fan.
They have made moves that make baseball sense.
In my average fan mode, I have to confirm that I’m spelling Andrew Heaney’s name correctly. Heaney is a veteran left-handed starting pitcher who was recently signed by the Pirates for $5 million. In my average fan mode, I would have to turn to specialist content creators to determine if that is $5 million even, or $5 million and change with performance bonuses.
While I recognize the name as a productive veteran MLB starter, and the financial amount as the normal range the Pirates spend on value agents, I need to look at FanGraphs to see the details of Heaney’s career. From that research, I know he can be productive.
The signing of Heaney won’t impact the top 3-5 spots in an average fan’s mind. Yet, his signing can be argued as great baseball move by the hardcore fans who focus on the full roster and the needs of a veteran lefty starter over a full season.
The average fan might be moved by the Pirates signing a big name from baseball’s past, like Anthony Rizzo.
The addition of Spencer Horwitz is not going to move the needle as much, as Horwitz will likely never achieve the high levels of success Rizzo saw in his career. There’s a good argument that Horwitz will be better than Rizzo in 2025. This is one case where appeasing the average fan with big names is worse than making baseball moves that barely move the needle for the hardcore fan.
The challenge the Pirates have is that MLB’s economics prevent them from making the moves that will bring in true interest and move the needle for the average fan. Their owner, Bob Nutting, also has an aversion to financial risk which limits the quality of names they can acquire.
As a result of this economic combination, the Pirates will always be making moves that the hardcore fan can defend as a marginal upgrade, without ever making a move that increases the interest of the average fan.
Only winning will bring mass interest to the Pirates. And their best path to winning is to avoid appeasing the average fan with names in their focus on the strategy of building a complete roster.
From the average fan perspective, the Pirates have done nothing this offseason to change how I would follow the team in 2025, compared to 2024.
They didn’t bump anyone from my top 3-5 names, and they didn’t add anyone who is among the top 3-5 prospects to follow. The Pirates are offering the same product they had at the end of last season, and the main issue is that last year was an exciting product to build upon.
From the hardcore fan perspective, the Pirates have upgraded their team in strategic ways. They could make the jump to a winning team in 2025.
If that happens, the average fan will naturally update their 3-5 names and 3-5 prospects. They’ll show up more often to games that aren’t started by Skenes, Keller, or Jones. They might be willing to spend their money on an Andrew Heaney start. The hardcore fan will get their fix of a better overall organization to follow.
PIRATES CONTENT IN 2025
Aside from my Business of Baseball feature, I’m going to be writing about baseball this season.
My focus on writing about the Pirates this year is going to be providing a bridge between the casual and hardcore fans, while explaining what is happening with the Pirates.
By the end of Spring Training, I’m going to inevitably have my database of information restored for the regular season. Yet, I want to create something this year which extends beyond the beat writer and columnist realms. My writing this year will be a supplement to the coverage throughout the Pittsburgh market, rather than an attempt to compete over the same updates.
To be direct with what I’m bringing this year:
- Behind the scenes updates to the site, creating a centralized hub of information for any player in the system.
- Running features that expand upon my knowledge of player development and the Business of Baseball.
- A look at the 2025 Pittsburgh Pirates from more of an average fan standpoint.
- At least one feature that will satiate the hardcore fans looking to expand their own database of information.
- A positive escape.
That last part is essential.
The focus of my career has been objectivity, and you can’t be objective if you’re trying to only be positive.
Yet, I’ve been running this site for years because I recognize that so many turn to the Pirates and to professional sports for a positive escape.
It’s well documented, including in this article, how and why the Pirates don’t or can’t provide a more positive escape for their fans. I’ll be inevitably documenting those reasons in the Business of Baseball feature.
What I don’t want to do all season is focus on writing about the negatives of small market baseball with a risk-averse owner. I genuinely think, from an average fan standpoint, that this will be an exciting year to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates. My hope is to capture that potential for excitement with my articles about the 2025 team.
With the disclaimer that my knowledge base of the 2025 team is currently akin to an average fan, I’m going to be resuming writing about the Pirates on a regular basis this week.
I’ve thought a lot the last few months about how I could create a different type of content this year, and after a few delays, I’m excited to finally begin that process.
SONG OF THE DAY
Hey ya’ll prepare yourself for the rubberband man
You’ve never heard a sound
Like the rubberband man
You’re bound to lose control
When the rubberband starts to jam
