There are some good editorials in the papers today, as the All-Star circus makes its way into town:
-P- Joe Starkey's piece in the Trib blames the ownership and the Pirates' payroll for the Bucs' problems. Baseball's economic system is certainly unfair, but if there's one thing I wish Pittsburgh sportswriters would get on the same page about, it's that the mess that is the Pirates is the fault of the team's management. Last offseason, the ownership tossed Dave Littlefield a bunch of money, and he got Jeromy Burnitz, Joe Randa and Sean Casey. Littlefield and Kevin McClatchy probably couldn't win with a $100 million payroll. Until the Pirates are being run well, we're just getting ahead of ourselves by complaining about the payroll.
-P- John Mehno wonders how the Pirates are going to sell tickets in 2007. Me too.
-P- The editorial staff of the Post-Gazette all but tells the owners to leave town.
Really, this is excellent. Nice work, MSM. I hope the All-Star weekend continues to present PR problems for the Pirates. Irate Fans is planning some things; I hope they get some more press coverage.
-P- Elsewhere, Oliver Perez got knocked around in his second start at Class AAA.
-P- 2006 first round pick Brad Lincoln mowed down the Gulf Coast League Reds yesterday. This isn't news, per se - if Lincoln couldn't mow down GCL hitters, that would be a huge problem.
-P- Josh Sharpless pitched well in the Futures Game.