Home » Cory Humes, Featured, Pirates

Mario Lemieux, Ron Burkle won’t save the Pittsburgh Pirates; winning will

30 January 2010 View Comments

Mario Lemieux won’t save the Pittsburgh Pirates.

To be honest, Mario the businessman didn’t save the Penguins, either. Sidney Crosby did that. The Pens won the lottery, they inherited the best player on the planet, and, in combination with other homegrown talent — Malkin, Fleury, Staal — Crosby captured a city’s attention and won the Stanley Cup.

Stanley Cup Finals - Pittsburgh Penguins v Detroit Red Wings - Game One

Mario built Consol Energy Center to ensure his team would remain in Pittsburgh. But the Pirates’ awful ownership group already secured their own world-class facility. Baseball’s future here is not in doubt.

Will the Pirates ever win again? That, of course, is in doubt. But as Charlie succinctly noted, there’s only so much ownership is able to do to bring about change. Major League Baseball isn’t like the NHL or NFL; there’s no worst-to-first parity, no salary cap. Throwing money at a roster isn’t an intelligent solution; the Pirates rewarded Jason Kendall and Brian Giles with stupid contracts, and that only perpetuated their downward spiral.

No, in baseball, ownership and management needs to rebuild methodically. Just as the Pens survived their own miserable attendance and franchise-threatening losing era, the Pirates’ standing in Pittsburgh will only improve with winning.

To win, you need talent.

Mario didn’t go out and buy Crosby, or Malkin, or Fleury, or Staal. He spent money on his roster when his roster necessitated that expenditure.

Bob Nutting didn’t buy Andrew McCutchen, Pedro Alvarez, Brad Lincoln. But when his core matures, of course they’ll be rewarded. It makes sense.

The Pirates haven’t had the opportunity yet to spend. They haven’t been legitimate contenders. They haven’t produced 25 players capable of making a run at the playoffs — or even at a .500 record.

Bob Nutting and the staff he has put together have made logical decisions. They deserve the benefit of the doubt. If I were in Nutting’s shoes, I wouldn’t sell. My team will be worth more in three years than it is today. It would be foolish to cash out now.

As for Mario and Ron Burkle? It would be fun to see them sitting behind home plate at PNC Park. But fame and money alone won’t turn the Pirates from losers to winners. Talent will.

It’s on the shoulders of McCutchen, Alvarez and the farm system to right the Pirates’ ship.

  • tirp,

    So long as we're making generalizations, I'm going to assume that you can't name more than four players the Pirates took in the last two drafts. No one would deny that Pedro Alvarez was the best player available to draft in 2008. Some may argue that Tony Sanchez wasn't the best available player to draft in 2009, but that's a tough stance to defend. There was no consensus pick when the Pirates were drafting, and so they invested big money in later rounds. Sanchez had a strong debut, and here's hoping he follows up on that.

    But in all likelihood, you're talking about Dan Moskos. Dave Littlefield made that pick. Kevin McClatchy signed off on that pick. They're not Pirates any longer, and so I don't see how they're relevant here.

    Ray Shero is a great GM. So is Neal Huntington. Pittsburghers are lucky.

    Yes, the Pirates are recipients of revenue sharing. Yes, their major-league payroll was a higher figure last year (and will be this year, and next year, and every other year) than what they received in payouts from the Yankees. Yes, the Pirates do invest in their product. They've spent more on the draft in the last two years than any other team in baseball (the Yankees included), and they've built a flashy new Dominican operation. Just because you don't recognize the expense doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

    Should they have spent $5 million more on a free agent to go from awful to sort of bad in 2009? No, they shouldn't have. That's $5 million less to put towards keeping Andrew McCutchen long-term.

    It's funny you cite three small market teams that don't spend much (the Brewers fall into "which of these teams is not like the others") in the same post that you advocate the Pirates spending more. The Twins, A's and Marlins are competitive more often than they're not solely because they develop their own talent (and then trade it off when it gets too expensive to retain).
  • tirp
    Cory,
    A few things.
    The penguins actually TOOK, the best players when they were available.
    Did, do the Pirates?
    The Penguins ownership actually have a legitimate GM. He is allowed to make REAL deals.
    To the best of my knowledge the Pirates get SHARED REVENUE. Are you one of these folks who think they actually re-invest it?
    Yes, the Pens owners are fortunate they can survive, even win, playing with the current set of rules. If the Pirates actually tried to the same in their world maybe they too can win (see Brewers, Twins, Athletics, Marlins, etc, etc, etc).
    Come on, any leadership group would be an upgrade.
blog comments powered by Disqus