Pirates Sign Dan Meyer

wishes he was Woody Paige. What a sad, horrible existence

Like you, I have a limited understanding of baseball’s finances. But I’m going to throw some of my own thoughts in here.

I can’t stress this first point enough: don’t read Smizik unless you want high blood pressure. I’ve since learned that his best works are those that he finds and posts to his not-blog. Since this time, I’ve also realized that I’m just as able to google the Pirates.

If he’s going to cite the non-tendering of Milledge (who Smizik himself had excoriated time and time again) as a financially driven transaction, he surely missed the even lower hanging fruit of the non-tendering of Matt Capps. Capps had certainly performed better during his tenure as a Pirate, yet was let go with no return at all.

He cites the public punishment endured by the Rooneys prior to the Steelers run of Super Bowls. Then by the end of the “article” on the not-blog, he has indicated that hiring Coonelly was the wrong decision. He reached this conclusion after 3 years. So right after saying “don’t rush to judgment,” he rushes to judgment.

He thinks BN, FC, and NH shouldn’t be commended for the money invested in the draft. After all, that’s the easy thing to do. If it’s so easy to do, why doesn’t he mention any of the drafts from the early 00’s? You know, when the Pirates drafted by signability, not potential. Oh wait, that would involve hating on McClatchy, not the Evil Empire (who also employs an even crummier line of newspapers).

Finally, he cites that the Pirates value at $303 million (per Forbes, I’m guessing) but they do not spend near that amount. I take his statement to mean that he thinks they should spend ~$300 million (maybe not, but probably more than $40-$50 million) on player salary. First, there are not enough players in MLB that would help the Pirates reach that salary. Second, that total value has to be used for other expenses aside from player salary. Plain and simple.

I thank you for helping me procrastinate in my higher education, but please (next time) help me spend it another way other than reading this man.

Actually, Milledge was eligible for arbitration last winter, and would have made around $1M. That’s not a lot of money. But if you hit a tree, 2 minimum salary backup corner OFs will fall. So why pay double the price for the same result ?

Lopez was also eligible for arbitration last winter and signed for $2.4M. For a lefty specialist, that’s a lot of money (even if the market for relievers is going crazy lately). NH has shown twice that he can build a decent bullpen on the cheap.
Is our bullpen short on lefties ? For now yes, but Biemel is expected back soon, so that should help. And again, he will not be paid $2.4M.

In both cases, NH tried to get the same quality for the same or lower price. We should love this.

 
IMHO, in general, people (GMs, writers, fans) like to rely on recognizable names.
In the Pirates’ case, that’s why local guys still refer to Nady, Jack Wilson, Freddy and McLouth as exemples and wouldn’t have traded them unless it was for Pujols and a PTBNL. They were all average MLB players*, but they were our players.
And, I think, that’s why GMs tend to keep on signing guys like Melky Cabrera, Francoeur, Church or Atkins. They may not be better than a marginal AAA prospect, but they’re recognizable names.

• The comparison was not made to argue the actual WAR of these players

He seems to think that highly paid veteran relief pitchers are “the new market inefficiency”.

Can he possibly be any more stupid or is this a blatant attempt to lie/fabricate that will shortly be thrown back in his face by his ‘readers’?

This will not explode in Bobbo’s face.

His “readers” / followers are way too busy patting him on the back and tonguing his arse.

The ne plus ultra, as it were?

are the voice of reason.