Article on Pirates' developmental issues.

[Bobster]

Interesting article in The Athletic about organizational problems, from Nutting's unwillingness to spend to conflicting instruction given in the minors.

https://theathletic.com/5286289/2024/02 ... _1OvydDIPs

[fjk090852-7]

That is some article. Possibly some of the local media will take some of what is reported, and expand on some of what was written. The delay of trading a player to save $30,000 is crazy. I still hope the money hungry Nutting doesn’t attempt to move the team when the PNC Park lease is up in 2030. It is so sad that the Pirates a fixture of the NL have such a terrible owner.

[jkenn13]

Very interesting article... Make one wonder if this causes free agents not to want to come to the Pirates......

[Bobster]

Very interesting article... Make one wonder if this causes free agents not to want to come to the Pirates......

This comment in the article was very telling: The Pirates have not signed a multi-year free-agent contract since Daniel Hudson in 2017.

Free agency provides productive players the opportunity to get a big contract. They don't have that opportunity with the Pirates. And players in demand almost always want to go to a contender. They don't have that opportunity with the Pirates either.

But the big contracts are not offered to older, declining free agents or those trying to bounce back from injuries or lack of production. Those FAs look for teams willing to give them an opportunity to play. Contending teams won't take that risk. But a team not expecting to contend and looking for low-cost FAs to fill roster voids has nothing to lose by offering a 1-year deal. If it doesn't work out, the team isn't saddled with the contract for more than a year. And if it does work out, the player becomes a more valuable FA the following year with the opportunity to get, more money from a better team. No FA has come to the Pirates on more than a 1-year deal since 2017. That says a lot about the status of the organization.

[jkenn13]

Bobster agree with everything you stated.

In addition one of the things I took out it was that the Pirates leadership doesn't appear to do everything to assist their players to be successful.

The hitting instructor, (movement coach), thing and and the Nunnally thing really jumped out to me. You bring in a lead instructor that has little to no baseball knowledge and you don't use an asset that Joe Nunnally appeared to be.

It always kind of made me shake my head when Joe Nunnally would get passed over for the MLB hitting instructor. Had read that the players really liked him. I always just assumed he had a reason to stay where he was.

The article really give a lot of insight to why the Pirates current situation is what it is.

[Doc]

Much of what was written seemed to confirm what so many posters here have been saying about the organization. But more importantly in this article, people who had worked or played within the organization were the ones relating it.

[Surgnbuck]

Much of what was written seemed to confirm what so many posters here have been saying about the organization. But more importantly in this article, people who had worked or played within the organization were the ones relating it.

To me, it's a water is wet kind of article. I don't find anything surprising. Hardly the first time an article has thrown shade on the organization from every aspect, with insider comments. I find it confusing people are acting all surprised.

But, with the Keller extension, sure lends a "conspiracy theory" taste to it!

[Bobster]

Much of what was written seemed to confirm what so many posters here have been saying about the organization. But more importantly in this article, people who had worked or played within the organization were the ones relating it.

To me, it's a water is wet kind of article. I don't find anything surprising. Hardly the first time an article has thrown shade on the organization from every aspect, with insider comments. I find it confusing people are acting all surprised.

But, with the Keller extension, sure lends a "conspiracy theory" taste to it!

I don't think anyone is surprised by the article. It's more a matter of frustration. It's no secret that they don't seem to do a very good job developing players. When fans make that general statement, we hope it will change. But when we read specifics about why that happens, it's hard to be optimistic about it changing.

I don't get the Keller/conspiracy reference. I think they did the right thing with the extension. Not sure how that suggests a conspiracy regarding developmental issues.

[SammyKhalifa]

The conspiracy is that the only reason they did the keller deal is to draw attention away from the article. Which is ridicious on so many levels, obviously.

[Bobster]

The conspiracy is that the only reason they did the keller deal is to draw attention away from the article. Which is ridicious on so many levels, obviously.

OK, I didn't get that. That is funny. I'm sure the contract negotiations have been going on a while.