FanPost

Why the Bob Nutting Obsession?



Reading through the comments on DG Lewis's excellent FanPost I was struck by something that "Tom Hill" said while defending his position that he would like to see Mario get a shot at owning the Pirates. I don't care to see this, but it's beside the point of this post.

Tom wrote somewhere deep in the bowels of that post: "I don’t like the attention bob is getting for this organization." And I couldn't agree more.

We often here find ourselves "defending" Bob Nutting, because much of the trumpeting against the Pirates is, as we all well know: "Nutting is cheap."

As I and many others have tried to convey, to largely no avail, we don't particularly LOVE Bob Nutting. We don't even necessarily like the guy. And yet the topic keeps coming up. Why?

It's because many in the Pittsburgh media have decided to heap the problems of the last 18 years onto his shoulders...as do several posters and commenters. If it were up to me, we'd never talk about Nutting, and really, so far, there is no need.

The positives about Nutting are these: He hired Neal Huntington (and some other smart baseball people) who actually set a plan in place and is moving forward with that plan. That's already more than can be said for previous ownership. Nutting, from all appearances has also given NH the money he needs to accomplish his goals within the plan, even as they evolve. We can see that with draft and international spending, as well as spending lavishly on development centers in the Dominican and Florida.

When the time comes to sign free agents or trade for a piece or two, I hope that Nutting will pony up the cash....but here's the thing, based on Nutting's track record so far with the Pirates spending, there is NO REASON to believe that he won't. He has provided the requisite funds every step of the way so far.

That Nutting is being held up as the scapegoat for the last 18 seasons is unfair and dishonest, and if you're a journalist, it's probably borderline unethical, too. That being said, I would love to never talk about Nutting, but it is the media and the trolls who bring him up. I'm not a Nutting "fanboy" and most of us aren't.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the managing editors or SB Nation. FanPosts are written by Bucs Dugout readers.