Elizabeth here.
So, I know it's not baseball season. It's actually the start of college basketball season! Indiana won last night, Carolina plays its first game tomorrow night (against non-cupcake Davidson), and as I write this, UW is about to win its first game (against non-powerhouse NJ Tech). Yet, this post is still about the Pittsburgh Pirates, the worst baseball team in MLB over the last 15 seasons (can't argue with 15 straight losing seasons).
The Pirates have completely overhauled---new president, new GM, new manager. Hopefully, they'll keep Oliver Onion in the Great Pierogi Race!!
The hiring of the new manager was incredibly underwhelming---some guy this same organization fired 2 years ago who has never coached in the majors? Yikes! And former manager Lloyd (base-stealing) McClendon, his former boss, has no comment?!?
And now there is talk of trading Jack Wilson and Jason Bay. I understand that they want to start from scratch, and they can get something in return, especially for Bay. But it seems like Pittsburgh fans have had to start over almost every year. It's really hard to support a team if you can't name any of the starters. For me, Jack Wilson and Jason Bay are my two favorite players and are really the only players I have a real attachment to on the team. With the team set to break the MLB record for most consecutive losing seasons next year, it's going to be harder to support a team filled with no names (and it's not like Wilson or Bay are exactly A-Rod or Ichiro).
I think even Andy ($Cubs$ fan) can agree that the baseball system is messed up. The Yankees payroll is about about 8 times the team with the lowest payroll (the sad, sad Devil Rays). Teams like the Pirates (4th from the bottom last year) are at a huge disadvantage. Yet, 3 of the 4 teams in the NLCS/ALCS this year were in the bottom 10 in payroll and came from small markets. Small market teams are capable of competing, so the Pirates can't blame their lack of success completely on lack of dough. The management of this team over the last 15 years has been awful. Maybe this shake up will turn it around, but I can't say I am hopeful. We need to bring Stargell back!
But like I said, it's college basketball season! Let's go Heels! And Hoosiers! And Huskies!
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4 comments:
I feel for your team, E. The Pirates and their fans deserve some love, especially considering the sad last couple of decades. From all accounts their new GM (Neil Huntington) should be a huge step up from their most recent front office team. Anything will be better than 2-GM's-ago Cam Bonifay, who I think might have been the worst GM of the decade.
Also, unless they can get multiple everyday players for him, I think they'd be crazy to trade Bay, as he's young, cheap, and a hitting machine. And at this point J Wilson isn't going to bring anything useful back in a trade, so I don't know why they'd bother. We'll see if Huntington can pull out some magic (like similar small-market KC has done recently with GM Dayton Moore). It certainly can't get any worse at this point.
Poly sez, Go Twins!
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are dealing with their budget problem by saving letters. They announced they will now just be the Rays. Embroidery is apparently expensive in Florida....
I blame the Pirates decline on Barry Bonds, they were doing fine until he left. But then again, I blame everything that is wrong with baseball on either Barry Bonds and/or the Yankees.
Jackie
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