Yeah, but you have a more handsome avatar.

Well, he actually said acquiring Lee and Ludwick was ill-advised, so I don’t know if he’s lamenting the loss of Ludwick, but I don’t know why it was ill-advised.

The “cheap” part, given that there are free agents left who are affordable and who’d be upgrades for the Pirates, is starting to become a legitimate argument, especially in light of NH implying a while ago that they’re not willing to pay McCutchen Upton money.

any “journalist” who can’t be bothered to take a step back and try to make sense of the big picture (three-plus years into a complete rebuild, with record amounts spent on the draft since Huntington took over) isn’t worth my time

when the facts came out, he decided find something else to ridicule… Pedro’s ass!

"Owners of bad teams have two choices: spend money in hopes of improving and drawing fans or skimp on payroll and pray management can fix things on the cheap." Bullshit.

It’s a loaded way of saying it, but it’s basically true. That’s the choice the Rays faced when they partially disassembled their ballclub a year ago. In their case, mgmt. did a brilliant job and fixed things on the cheap.

"the Pirates gave Barmes $10.5 million (!) to play shortstop the next two years" BS to act like that was a lot of money. It was one of the better deals for a starting SS.

That’s a lot of money to commit to a guy with a career OPS+ of 78. Let’s not forget, the reason he signed with the Pirates was that no other team would guarantee that he’d be their regular SS. Everybody else was looking at him as a UT guy or a 2B.

"last season’s ill-advised go-for-it push in July. The Pirates sensed the NL Central was winnable when they were 53-47 and tied for first place July 25. " How can it be ill-advised if you are in first place at the time? More BS.

I already said in response to Cocktails that I didn’t agree with that.

"If Nutting throws a Justin Upton-level deal at McCutchen – six years and $60 million, buying out three years of free agency –" Yeah that would be nice, but it is factually incorrect, it would only be two years of free agency. More lazy journalism, who woulda guessed.

Whether it’s two or three will depend on when the extension begins. If he signs partway into this year’s contract, the extension might not pick up until 2013, in which case it’ll be three.

"Relying on Morton in particular is risky on account of his high walk rate and almost-unsustainable home run rate." It’s almost as if he has no idea what he’s talking about, but how could that be, he’s a professional?

I don’t see anything inaccurate about this statement. Morton’s peripherals, except for the near-zero HR rate, were poor, and the HR rate will be hard to sustain. He’s a very risky pitcher.

He says we are dreadful on D, instead of the average to possibly above average defense that we are. We closed leaks at SS and C while the corners are still question marks. Random, unsupported bias though? Yay.

The Pirates ranked 24th in the majors in UZR in 2011. They were about the same in defensive efficiency and the Fielding Bible’s +/-. Barmes may be a modest upgrade. Barajas is not. He doesn’t control the running game well any more—he’s about the same as Doumit—and according to BP, he’s poor at framing pitches. He’s better than Doumit, but Doumit only did a third of the catching. Snyder was rated very good and McKenry slightly above avg.

He says we are dreadful on D, instead of the average to possibly above average defense that we are. We closed leaks at SS and C while the corners are still question marks. Random, unsupported bias though? Yay.

With most teams this would be a distinct possibility. Probably not the Pirates, but it’s not exactly a crucial point.

I don’t find it hard to understand. Pro athletes by their nature are extremely competitive people. I think it’s like a living death for them to be stuck on a team like the 2010 Pirates. Lee wasn’t around for the first four months of 2011. The team he was on played like the 2010 team. There are still a bunch of teams looking for a 1B. He still has a good chance of landing a job on a team that doesn’t have the image of being a joke the way the Pirates do.

The Yahoo article is a good example. We all think it’s unfair (me less so than others here), but I guarantee you the attitude it reflects about the Pirates is much closer to that of the average player than the attitudes of people here.

but lets be honest, not exactly a mecca of culture there. theres different levels of whiteness.

really easy to say it NOW, isnt it?