December 16, 2007
Pirate Problems
Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke notes one problem with trying to rebuild the Pirates. The trade value of their major league players isn't very high:
I'm not saying Huntington shouldn't be trying to remake the team. He should be and by all indications, that's exactly what he's trying to do. I'm just saying that not only is rebuilding a team difficult, the Pirates are in an especially dire place and it's probably worse than we think. We know all of the good sides of these players because we have see them as Pirate fans to have any shred of hope for the team. But if they were really as good as we imagine, wouldn't the Pirates be a whole lot better?
On top of that, their minor leagues are not very good either. The Pirates don't have prospects to trade to bring in major league talent to help them win now. They don't have major league talent to bring in prospects to help them win in the future. The team is really starting from scratch.
Is part of the Pirates' problem wrt the minor leagues their inability to sign top flight draft choices? Could be another argument for slotting signing bonuses, and making them stick.
It's not their inability to sign top picks, it's their choice.
Additionally, the players they draft haven't been good. Picking relief pitchers so early is a waste.
If it was just starting from scratch I could live with it.
Even though its only been a short time I'm afraid there's a good chance it will be worse than that because the things I've seen of Huntington and company havent' shown a direction of any type.
Given the haul that the A's received for Haren, I wonder what the Pirates could get for the cheaper and nearly as capable Ian Snell? If the team is in fact rebuilding, what do they need a player who is going to head to the AL by the time they are good anyways?
That's the problem though. Who knows if they're rebuilding (or more accurately building since they have nothing to recover from)? It's more of the status quo.
All of their actions so far have been to cut payroll from its already miniscule amount.
There's no need to overpay for less-than mediocre players but they haven't even gone after some of the non-tendered guys who might be able to be able to help the team for a few years since there's nothing in the farm.
Right now there's no need to go to a Bucs game except for the nice stadium experience.
They need to pick a season in the future (I'd take 2011) and go from there. Every decision needs to be based on contention in '11. They've played to win 70 games for a decade now.
Al's idea is fine because at least they'd be setting a specific target. It's better to go down in flames than to be comfortable lounging in mediocrity for another decade or two.
If they can't develop starting pitching then they don't have much to trade - for whatever reason their prospects either get hurt or don't pan out
