FanPost

The idea that Pirates fans are being conned by ownership

Remember the end of July when the MLB trade deadline approached, and the Pirates were supposed front-runners to land pitcher David Price or Jon Lester?

Remember the outrage that followed when neither pitcher came to Pittsburgh and instead went to the Tigers and A's, respectively?

What were people saying? They were saying the front office had its hands tied by an owner in Bob Nutting who was more interested in earning a profit and taking the money from the fans than investing it back into the organization.

If people were saying those same things on the evening of August 19, after the Pirates had just lost seven games in a row to three contenders--Detroit, Washington and Atlanta--it was really hard to argue with them.

General manager Neal Huntington didn't infuse his team that was fighting for a playoff spot with the final piece (or pieces) to put it over the top, and now we were perhaps in the throes of another collapse, with the Pirates sitting at 64-62 and on the outside looking in at both the NL Central and both wild card spots.

But starting on August 20, the Pirates would begin a stretch that would see them win 24 of their final 36 games to finish at 88-74. Included in that .667 winning percentage was an even more remarkable 17 of 21 run from September 6 to September 26 that enabled the Bucs to leap-frog all other NL wild card contenders and clinch a spot, home-field advantage for the WC game and had them within a game of the Central leading Cardinals after trailing in the division by seven games as recently as the 19th of August.

Meanwhile, the Tigers had to win their final game of regular season on Sunday just to out-last a hard-charging and small-market Kansas City team to clinch the AL Central by a single game.

And the Athletics, who, at 73-46, had the best record in baseball as recently as August 13 and a 3.5 game lead in the AL West, finished with the same 88-74 record as Pittsburgh after closing out the season on a 15-28 skid and needed to win on the final day of the regular season just to clinch the American League's second wild card spot.

You would think the struggles of Detroit and Oakland AFTER acquiring those "final pieces" along with the Pirates surge to the postseason after not doing much at either deadline (the Pirates didn't make any significant waiver deadline moves either) would have validated Huntington's decision to stand pat and just play the hand he already had.

But that really hasn't been the case. Instead, the detractors have said making moves was still the right thing to do even if those moves would have not worked out so well. How can you say such a thing with a straight face?

The bottom line is winning. The only thing any front office of any team in any sport owes its fans is to try and put a winning team on the field/court/rink each and every season. Why should it matter how this is done?

People, like the very opinionated radio host Mark Madden who has been very outspoken in his disdain for the Pirates lack of deadline action, often get on fans for worrying about how much their teams spend on players ("it isn't your money."), but isn't the reverse also true? Why worry about a team not spending enough money? Again, it's not your money.

Sure, you could use the argument that the money should be allocated to making the team better, but that would only be valid if, for example, the Pirates had just completed their 22nd straight year of losing, while Nutting netted a huge profit for 2014.

However, the team just made the playoffs for a second straight year. Fine, they didn't win the division, but five years ago, did anyone think two-straight playoff appearances was even logical to say out loud?

The Pirates have a great core group of players starting with Andrew McCutchen as the center piece, with players like Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez, Starling Marte and Russell Martin acting as more than complementary pieces.

And hey, speaking of Alvarez, he had a horrible year, a long year, but who came out of nowhere to save the day? Josh Harrison, a player who was thought of as little more than a farm-hand as recently as two years ago and stepped up in 2014 to not only become an every day starter at just about every position before finally settling in at third base, he nearly won the NL batting title, and he'll garner some votes for the NL MVP award.

The fact that Harrison has developed into such a great player (and may now be a permanent part of that aforementioned core) is a testament to the front office and the system it has implemented and stuck with.

The Pirates didn't offer A.J. Burnett the moon in the offseason. Instead, they "settled" for Edison Volquez, who came to Pittsburgh as a broken-down pitcher and, thanks in large part to working with pitching coach Ray Searage and other Pirates instructors, went on to be the team's most consistent starting pitcher in the regular season and will start the wild card game at PNC Park on Wednesday.

No, the Pirates didn't pick up Price or Lester, but they did pick up Vance Worley, and he went on to provide them with quality start after quality start down the stretch during the team's march to the postseason.

It's no secret the Pirates have to work cheap. It's also no secret they probably always will. But why do I care? Why do you care?

Whatever they're doing is working, and it's Buctober time for a second straight year.

Would you feel better if they would have gone down in flames after making a big move?

If you say yes, I have some beach front property on the North Shore I'd like to sell you.

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.