FanNation

T-Fo's Las Vegas-style Show said 06/10, 03:31 PM
I have watched the Pirates suffer through rebuilding after rebuilding ever since they broke up their winning team from the early 1990's. Call them snakebitten, call them poorly managed, call them owned by an owner not interested in winning. It's all true.

Year in and year out they bring up "can't miss" prospects who wind up missing badly (Kris Benson). Or they give up on a guy who goes on to produce elsewhere (Jason Schmidt).

Here's the thing. They have been bad - insufferably, bottom of the barrel, fighting for last place every single year, bad. For a decade and a half they have had the chance to rebuild and put together a winning team. The draft is designed to help a franchise become a winner. They have bungled it.

If they couldn't do it with a whole string of #1 overall (or close to it) picks, they won't do it now.

T-Fo's Las Vegas-style Show said 06/10, 04:10 PM
You want a record of failure, how about this:
6 of the 7 first round draft picks the Pirates have used on pitchers in the past decade have required major arm surgery before ever making a splash in the bigs. Brad Lincoln, Clint Johnson, Bobby Bradley, Sean Burnett, John Van Benschoten, and Bryan Bullington. SIX OUT OF SEVEN! Give them an "A" for persistence, but perhaps they tshould have thought, "hmmm, maybe we should use that high pick on a position player for a change".

So the finally go out this year and take a position player, likely the best one available. Good for them. Unfortunately he's also represented by Scott Boras who is a bulldog of an agent and has said Alvarez wants a signing bonus of 11-12 million. The Pirates now say they will not pay that. Their choice is to pay it by the end of summer, or guess what? He goes back into the pool for next year. But not to worry, the Bucs will still be at the bottom to take another try in 2009.

It's time to ditch the loser mentality and put together a winner. This ownership group is far more concerned with turning a profit and doing nothing.