The Post Gazette reports that the Pirates have the "most" "homegrown talent" in baseball:
I used quotes so liberally in my opening paragraph above because of the way the article defines the word "talent" as "number of players." Don´t mistake it for "ability" - in that area, the Pirates are clearly lacking, no many how many players they promote from the minors.
Anyway, Dave Littlefield almost sounds like a rational, non-lying human being in some of the quotes in this article, but I do want to call out one stupid thing he says:
"No doubt about it," Littlefield said. "When you're the second-youngest team and moving up as many guys as we have, it's going to take a toll on your upper minors."
Let´s see - of the 13 homegrown players on the Pirates´ 25-man roster, nine were acquired before Littlefield was hired (including Jose Bautista and Mike Gonzalez - Littlefield gets no credit for correcting his own mistakes). Littlefield has been on the job for a little over five years. Exactly how long should it take for his prospects to get to the high minors?