Woo hoo!
Eat it, doubters!
(I will now stop following the baseball season, content on where my team finished. Unless they win again today, of course, in which case I’ll be in this thread gloating again.)
The Pirates have begun their annual decent to the basement of their division.
They came back from a relatively successful road trip (won first two series of the season) and opened their home schedule at 4-2. After a week of home games, they are 1-5 at home and are sitting in 5th place at 5-7.
That didn’t take long. 
woo hoo!
The Pirates are sitting at 30-30, the latest they’ve been at 500 in a season since 2005.
Let’s hope this year’s team fairs better than that one. (The Bucs only won 30+ games after that.)
For now, I rejoice!
It’s really a shame, as PNC really is a great ballpark. I thought I kept hearing that the Pirates have a good farm system and it’ll just be a few years; what keeps happening with that?
They need a little more work. Some of those top-level prospects are in the majors now, so they’re looking to see what they have outside of Andrew McCutchen.
They are unwilling or unable to pay those prospects when they finally pan out, so they are largely traded for their potential value. Pittsburgh is largely a major-league farm team for teams like the Red Sox and the Yankees.
The alternative is that they hold on to the players for as long as possible, maybe compete for a division once a decade, and then collapse completely. In the Pirates’ case maybe that doesn’t matter after 19 consecutive losing seasons, but that’s as much a fluke as anything else. The few times they did open the checkbook they did it for players that didn’t pan out, and when that happened it killed their payroll for years to come.
Nope. You don’t have to pay prospects for several years after they hit the majors. The Pirates’ problem has been that they kept trading off MLB-ready prospects for more prospects, and kept that cycle going for too long. They also had some terrible luck guessing which prospects to keep and which to trade. For instance, Zach Duke seemed like a no-brainer - he had a tremendous first year, then collapsed after that. They made a really good move getting rid of McLouth to Atlanta right before he became terrible, though.
How many Pirates prospects have turned out to be good after they were traded away from Pittsburgh?
Not many, I reckon.
I would have thought it would be a lot better than this list of active players drafted by the Pirates. (Warning - this list is not accurate. The search parameters clearly state “Pirates”, but guys like Stephen Drew and Scott Baker are on it. Weird. Any ideas how that happened?)
Jose Bautista stands out, obviously. Rajai Davis could still turn out to be a really good player. Sean Burnett could be a solid closer. Stephen Drew is…a player drafted by the Diamondbacks - how’d he get on that list?
And all that doesn’t count any prospects gained by trading prospects. I have no idea how to easily search that list.
Stephen Drew was originally drafted by the Pirates in 2001, but didn’t sign. That’s why he comes up on the query.
I assure you that he is as good as he’s ever going to get. He’s a useful player but he’s 30 and watching him every day I see not a hint that he has the potential to be more than he is.
HOLY COW! I don’t watch baseball, but Dad was a Pirate’s fan and so I sometimes keep an ear out for how they’re doing.
I can’t recall the last time they were in first place. Somewhere Dad must be feeling happy!
Sorry to break it to you, but the OP was written on 4/2/11. They’re currently playing .500 ball, which is great. But they’re 4th in the Central.
ETA: Rajai Davis is thirty?! Damn I feel old.
Okay, Jose Bautista is a rather large fish that got away. Other than him, I’m not really seeing anyone who was good and left, or left and then became good.
Did anyone watch that edge-of-your-seat game last night? I taught a Chinese friend of mine how to play baseball, and this was her first game. I found it humorous when she kept exclaiming “OH NO! A BALL!” when there’s no one on base, one out, and the count’s 1-0. 
By the 11th inning, she’s going “I get so excited when they get to third base, because they can just tag up on a fly-out and win!”- I’m so proud ::tear::.
She went nuts after McCutchen’s walk-off solo shot. She jumped up, threw two fists in the air, and shouted “It’s a long ball! We win, we win!”
Oh well. I’m sure Dad was happy for a while.
As was the opening poster.
Think this isn’t a big deal? You spoiled fans of every major league city should read this:
At 34-33, this is the first time the Pirates have been over the break-even point so late in a season since Aug. 15, 1999, when they were 59-58.
Since 1999. That’s 12 years, folks. Of a ML Record 18 years of futility.
There is reason to rejoice in Pittsburgh! Of course, the trading deadline looms, which means that if history is any indication, the real teams will raid the Pirates before the deadline to improve their own team, while the Pirates gather more prospects for the future.
It’s been 18 years. The future is NOW~
Let’s GO Bucs!
Bautista was on four different teams his rookie year before settling in Pittsburgh as his fifth, so the Pirates weren’t the only ones who let him get away. I’ve heard it said he was told for years to make the adjustments that led to his power surge, starting in Pittsburgh, but he wouldn’t have any of it. It wasn’t until he thought he was going to be non-tendered by Toronto that he finally listened to the advice, and now look at him.
I wish we had him now, but while he showed flashes of what he might be with the Bucs, he wouldn’t listen to the coaches. It took years, being traded, and then nearly released before he’d listen to advice, so I can’t blame the Pirates for trading him. If someone doesn’t want to listen, you can’t make him. All you can do is trade him or release him when he doesn’t.
The Pirates drafted Bautista.