Interesting. I wonder what kind of offer they could have made. Seems like if you’re just throwing an unsolicited offer at a team that isn’t for sale you would have to be willing to go above market value to even be considered.

I’m still willing to give Nutting a shot to follow through on his recent words. If he doesn’t, Mario would be a fine alternative. He might not know baseball, but he knows how to hire people who do, and he would be a great baseball owner.

This is still kind of stunning. I don’t suspect we’ve heard the absolute end of it.

Damn, wouldn’t that just be the bee’s knees.

For various reasons I doubt this will ever happen though.

So I don’t know too much of the intricacies of the game. But I do know that the Pens were consistently toward the bottom of the league in payroll before the lockout, prior to the salary cap. I’m sure people will still think Mario would come in and spend $100M per year, though.

When they read about that. I wouldn’t really want it at this point just because I don’t want the management team in place to change yet until they have more time to follow through on their development plan.

Plus baseball and hockey are more than a little different, so who knows how everything would come together. Plus, I want to know who is Mario’s “baseball guy” who is helping him to make all the decisions.

And Mario would not spend $100 million on the team, which I’m sure will be one of the big arguments.

1. ,unabashedly, that this would be fabulous.

2. that Charlie is missing the point when he wonders if Mario would be just as financially constrained as Nutting. While I think that is true, Mario would not be the big money man; that would be Ron Burkle (all $3.5-billion of him).

3. that Nutting is a prideful man, which I suspect would keep him from selling the team until things are turned around. If he were to sell the team today his reputation among the populace would be forever awful based strictly upon the team’s onfield performance during his time. Nutting knows this and is not okay with it.

4. I acknowledge that there might be a disruption to the current plan, but that could be good or bad. I’m thinking that the focus needs to be on the greater good of having a deep-pocketed owner. Also, I would expect that their would be nominal negative change to the bottom up building plan that is presently in place (for reasons discussed below).

5. I hope that the inevitable cautions about how having money does not guarantee success will be kept to a minimum and do not go beyond “cautions” to silly statements suggesting that more money is a bad thing.

6. Although there are no guarantees, if Burkle/Lemieux would buy the Bucs, I would anticipate that they would be much more Rooney and much less Dan Snyder. I think that they would spend more on major league payroll in fairly short order (though if they stick to the current plan, that might have a lot to do with happenstance, admittedly). But considering the history of Mario’s ownership of the Pens I think it is safe to say that Mario/Burkle would be responsible owners.

7. It is worth noting how Mario came to own the Pens, if you do not already know.
He only put together a group to buy the team after Howard Baldwin spent irresponsibly in the early 1990s, creating massive debt resulting in bankruptcy. Mario was one of if not the entity owed the most money by the team and therefore had the most to lose if the team went belly up. He essentially saved the team in order to protect his assets. He has subsequently run the team in a financially responsible way. Times were tough at first, but then the lock out lead to massive improvements in the NHL, inlcuding both rules changes for the game itself and salary cap & floor. They definitely got lucky with the lottery and timing (the opportunity to draft Malkin, for example) but they have also made some very good, critical decisions.

8. I would love to see this happen – and soon – but I know better and don’t dare to dream.

9. It is a good thing that such a reputable, local group has strong interest in buying the Bucs. I doubt it is coincidence that their interest is being expressed now instead of 2 years ago.

Good day.

Now that there’s what sounds like is another party willing to buy the Bucs and keep them here there is no longer a debt to Nutting for buying the team and keeping them in the Burgh. I would think it makes him spend more of his payroll to grow as other businessmen likely have adopted the view that spending more can make the Pirates successful. The whole idea of conserving so that players like Steve Pearce can have a full shot in the bigs isn’t always right. It may not necessarily be cheap, but it’s at least too conservative. They are too worried about having one of their minor league projects go somewhere else and be successful. If Huntington is as good at evaluating talent as he thinks, the “projects” don’t need so long to suck the wind out of the big league lineup.

While I would much rather have Lemieux as owner than Nutting, it’s not because he would be able to do some hugely amazing job or something, and make us a World Series contender overnight. It’s because Lemieux is a city hero, probably the most well-known Pittsburgh athlete besides Roberto Clemente, and therefore would command the respect of fans.
The reason I’d rather have him than Nutting is because the “fans” who constantly question NH’s plan to turn us into contenders generally point to Nutting and his cheapness as the reason we’re making all these trades. But with Lemieux as owner…no one would dare to question him, and while people may silently still harbor the same doubts as they do now under Nutting, they wouldn’t air them out loud, meaning those of us who support NH’s plan would finally get a second of peace from those who don’t, and constantly complain about it.

So in a couple years we can expect a long series of posts from LemiuexHostage on how the team is cheap and needs to sign some big-time free agents?

that people still believe Nutting is committed to winning and spending. Its pretty obvious Neal’s hands are tied from above.

Lemieux’s ownership group would provide a very welcome change from the sideshow act that runs the Pirates right now.

If Lemieux/Burkle bought the Pirates, they could:

a) stick with NH’s plan, which would not involve raising payroll significantly until a couple/few years from now,

b) “stick” with NH’s plan, but encourage him to sign the Hollidays and Wolfs of the next free agent class to supplement the young core, or

c) fire NH and get Gillick or somebody to build a champion with a bigger payroll.

As I see it, b) and c) just can’t work in Pittsburgh, unless Burkle’s content to hemorrhage money. You just can’t build a good franchise through free agency unless you’re in a big market. Even then, it’s really hard (e.g., the Mets). So the option we’re left with, if we want any hope at building a consistently competitive team, is option A, which you can do with either Nutting or Lemieux.

So I don’t really think there’s any reason to be upset with Nutting’s ownership at this point, and my concern is that Lemieux/Burkle would get too hands-on and either replace NH or pressure him into inefficient FA signings.

As owner of the Pirates, Mario Lemieux would be able to convince MLB to institute a salary cap.

is that the Nuttings plan on running this team (or running it into the ground) for a long time. We know Cuban had an interest…Greenburg was interested in a piece (I believe) and now the Burkle/Lemieux group. That’s at least 3 individuals or groups that had the wherewithal to purchase the team and were flatly rebuffed.

So…for better…or worse…ownership is not going anywhere…barring a plane crash…for a long time.