Pittsburgh Pirates: McCutchen & Offseason Bashing

I know Smizik is hated on Bucs Dugout. The should have known it was another ghost writer by Smizik..

rather that just make a blanket statement, I will explain my point

It (Littlefield’s team) was not much worse- if any- than the team Huntington has spent the past 4 years "building."

This is false. This is horribly false. The biggest reason is that anything of value that the 2007 team might have had was nearing free agency and thereby on it’s way out of town. So, while you could make a great case that J-Bay was a better LF than Presley (for example) he was going to be gone well before the Pirates would be able to add any young talent around him.

Secondly, please examine Huntington’s last line about McCutchen (We’ve got Andrew McCutchen under contract for the Pirates for four more seasons, and we expect to do some damage here during that time frame). As he’s already done multiple times, Huntington insinuates that the team will NOT extend their only legitimate top-tier player on the MLB roster. And apparently, the spendthrift Pirates have ALREADY determined this. Four YEARS in advance.

This is also absurd. NH isn’t insinuating anything. He’s stating a fact. As of today, the Pirates have Cutch for four more years. Would it somehow be better to say ‘We have Andrew McCutchen and we’re keeping him forever?" Remember that negotiations are a two way street. I’m sure the Pirates love Cutch and would love to keep him around. However, they only KNOW that they have him for four years. After that, if Cutch desperately wants to be a Yankee or desperately wants to make $30M/year, then the Pirates won’t keep him. NH isn’t insinuating anything, he’s just stating the facts as they stand today.

But if the club is incapable of even retaining what little marquee talent they DO develop internally, then folks, we might as well pack up and wait until the Nutting family sells the team.

This is just the reality of baseball to a certain extent. It isn’t a problem that is limited to the Pirates or their “cheap” ownership (and by cheap I mean run a business with the intention of not losing millions of dollars). The Cards were unable to keep internally developed Albert Pujols. The Brewers were unable to keep internally developed Prince Fielder. If you aren’t in a market that allows for truly unlimited spending, then you can’t spend without limits. When that happens, you are going to lose some marquee players.

If those are the groundrules with which the Pirates are playing, then they won’t win until new ownership is willing to invest in the team.

Billy Beane just wanted to let you know that having a rich owner in no way guarantees wild spending.

The FA acquisitions have been beaten to death on other threads so I’m not going to review that again. I will say, however, that (1) the Pirates aren’t necessarily done for the offseason and (2) if the are going to improve next year it’s not going to be because they brought in some stud FA. That was just never going to happen. What the team did instead was try to eliminate any “black holes” from the lineup and rotation (to varying degrees of success depending on who you ask) and rely on their young, “core” players to really drive the team. Truth be told, if Tabata plays like a legit leadoff hitter, Presley is a decent 3rd OF, Cutch plays like he did in the first half, Pedro plays like we all hope and the GFJ/McGehee platoon is passable at first then this will be a pretty decent lineup. If these guys fail to live up to these modest expectations then adding Ramon Hernandez or Marco Scutaro wasn’t going to make a difference.

NICE

that can’t afford the salaries commanded by top ML free agents, it’s the Pirates organization. The Pirates had the third lowest revenue (including revenue sharing money) out of any team in baseball. Because of lousy (by comparison to the rest of the league) ticket sales, the lowest ticket prices in baseball (yet people complained about a nominal increase this year) and a modest TV deal (how can the Pirates leverage a better deal when people won’t bother going to the games either apparently) the team just doesn’t generate much money. A rich(er) owner wouldn’t spend on FA’s out of his own pocket. That’s a horrible business plan. It’s silly to suggest that Nutting spend money that he makes in a successful business to fund one that (if he suddenly signed off on a $75M payroll) would be hemmoraging money. Just as a hypothetical, let’s say the tables were turned for a second and Nutting were making gobs of money from the Pirates but 7 Springs was floundering. Would you advocate that he take money generated by the Pirates and invest it in a new ski run? People would flip out about that. That’s essentially what you’re suggesting a richer owner should or would do. Take money from a business that is doing well and making them money to invest in one that is struggling to turn a profit.

Thats quite the discount for a guy who hasnt played pro ball

Last year, Ryan Doumit made $5.2M and was worth 1.2 WAR. Barajas was worth 1.4 WAR which Doumit eclipsed exactly once in his entire career. Barajas’ contract is only 1 guaranteed year for $4M. Maybe Barajas will drop off this year because of his age and PNC’s massive LF hindering his power but his production to date makes 4 mil justifiable. You can argue that Ramon Hernandez is better and cheaper but he was a Type A free agent at the time which likely scared the Pirates away. Barmes is also a little bit of a risk but his contract is not big enough to really hurt the club. Moreover, he’s been worth 8.5 WAR over the last 4 years. $5M for a 2 WAR SS isn’t what I would describe as absurd.