Pirates Manager job like Raiders Head Coaching job: Nobody wants either one!

Dont give me the we cant win cause we have no money, its been done before... Ask the Marlins, Twins, A's, and Royals who all contended at some point in the last decade with miniscule payrolls. Money helps but it isnt everything

Every one of these teams had a payroll about 20 mil more than the Pirates current payroll. Do you really want to compare the 2003 Marlins to the Pirates? Josh Beckett, A.J. Burnette, Brad Penny and Dontrelle Willis are you kidding me? Ivan Rodriguez, Mike Lowell, Derek Lee, Miguel Cabrera, Juan Pierre come on that team was loaded! Minnesota, Oakland both of those teams have had star power the Pirates can only dream about. Oakland has had one of the best starting rotations in baseball the last decade. The Royals I will give you, and they are just as pitiful as the Pirates. When was the last time the Royals contended 85? I do not hate the Pirates! I am unhappy with the mismanagement of the team and its owners very shallow pockets! I am not expecting them to compete with the Yankess or Red Sox. I think you will find plenty of contenders in the middle of the pack payroll range and very few if any at all near the bottom! The Pirates are always in the bottom 5!

The Royals in 2003 were in contention untill very late in the season leading their division heading into September... In 2003 when the Marlins won the WS The Pirates payroll was 54.8 mil, the Marlins was only 48.7 mil. That same year both Minnesota and Oakland made the playoffs with payrolls of 55.5 and 50.2 respectively. Money doesn't guarantee you the playoffs. Those teams make habbits of buying high and selling low. Look at this past years Marlins who with a payroll of 14 million almost made the playoffs because they got multiple good young guys for older vets.

Every year at the trade deadline the Pirates are one of the biggest contributors to other teams. Just like I have said before the teams come swooping in like vultures to pick clean the talent like fresh roadkill. Will you deny that the Royals and Pirates get picked through by the contenders each year? To deny this would tell me you have your head in the sand and are in great denial! Baseball season is coming fast so be careful of making any BS statements because I will be here to remind you of your words. Come July I will make it a point to post every article of trade rumors swirling around the Pirates right here. We will post right here the teams who are in the dump salary mode! I know the Bucco's won't let me down, they are always one of the most active teams at the trade deadline! So you can keep shoveling but you are only burying yourself!

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Hey I'm not saying we dont make bad trades, small market teams must buy low and sell high... When we traded Giles he was a top player and as soon as he left he had a major drop off, we just traded a young closer that had a good year but had some arm issues and was sporadic in the previous year, We traded Perez who after his foot issues lost his ability to push off the mound and throw with any velocity and was given a full year to fix it. In return we got Nady who was originally supposed to be apart of the Giles trade instead of Bay but the Padres wouldnt give him up. I give you the Ramirez trade and Wilson trades were bad deals... But this year we did something that was drastically different from previous years, we didnt throw our remaining 11 mil in the budget at a rent a player like Randa or Stairs. If you read some Pirates news you would know that the money is likely to be used to acquire at the deadline. The small market teams that are successful also make a habit of bringing up their own talent and drafting well, all 4 of our top young starters are homegrown. Our ridiculous bullpen depth that made Gonzo so expendable is all homegrown as is McLouth, Castillo, Duffy, and Paulino who was the first catcher since Piazza to hit +.300 as a rookie.

I also concede that smaller market teams need to be more thrifty with their money. When I see the Pirates jump on signing washed up players like Jeremy Burnitz who nobody else wanted, it is discouraging! I respect Jim Tracy as a manager. The owners in my opinion have not shown the team or the city the same level of commitment that the city and fans have given them. We have one of the nicest new ballparks and a cellar dweller team that plays on it. Eventually you have to resign some of your own homegrown stars to build around. You can't win by continually replacing the new stars with new prospects. The turnover of players on the Pirates has been higher than on lots of other teams. I live out in CA and watch a lot of Angels baseball. The Angels used to be a cheap team too until a couple years ago Arty Moreno bought the team. He has lowered concession prices and brought in talent to make the team competitive and attendance has steadily risen. If you put a team on the field who is still in the race come August and September the fans in Pittsburgh might actually start to fill up that beautiful new park!

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Originally Posted by BlackGold4vr

I also concede that smaller market teams need to be more thrifty with their money. When I see the Pirates jump on signing washed up players like Jeremy Burnitz who nobody else wanted, it is discouraging! I respect Jim Tracy as a manager. The owners in my opinion have not shown the team or the city the same level of commitment that the city and fans have given them. We have one of the nicest new ballparks and a cellar dweller team that plays on it. Eventually you have to resign some of your own homegrown stars to build around. You can't win by continually replacing the new stars with new prospects. The turnover of players on the Pirates has been higher than on lots of other teams. I live out in CA and watch a lot of Angels baseball. The Angels used to be a cheap team too until a couple years ago Arty Moreno bought the team. He has lowered concession prices and brought in talent to make the team competitive and attendance has steadily risen. If you put a team on the field who is still in the race come August and September the fans in Pittsburgh might actually start to fill up that beautiful new park!

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They didnt sign any rent-a-players this year, they still have 11 million dollars in the budget that is unused because of the outrageous prices of FA's this year. The Oakland A's sure havent had a problem when they let Tejada and Giambi go in FA without getting a damn thing for them. The only true star players we have traded away with out getting a better return were Ramirez, and Schmidt who was getting older and wasnt great with us but actually raised his level of play after he left. The Craig Wilson trade wasnt a good one but he wasnt exactly a star player, his nickname was KKKraig for a reason... Benson, Lofton, Sanders, and Stairs were not going to resign with us anyway. So saying we trade away anyone good and get nothing in return isnt quite accurate