In many ways, it's certainly in the interests of the players' union for the economic system of baseball to be maintained. But it's still funny that players on other teams seem to understand so well what the Pirates' problems are:
"I don't know the ins and outs of what's going on here with the ownership group, but you have to take a look at that and see if that's a source of the problem," he said. "You have teams over the past few years that weren't doing well before, but they're doing well now. You have to ask that question: Have the economics of those other teams changed so dramatically? Or have the people who run those organizations done a better job of putting a team together?"
Well put. Elsewhere, the Post-Gazette quotes A.J. Pierzynski describing conversations he's had with Rob Mackowiak in which Mackowiak talks about how hard it is to be a Pirate. It seems like it's gotten even worse since Mackowiak left.