OnlyBucs

This is a long but fascinating article about the Bucs and Nutting.

https://piratesprospects.com/2024/08/th ... ademy.html

Possum wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 11:27 am This is a long but fascinating article about the Bucs and Nutting.

https://piratesprospects.com/2024/08/th ... ademy.html

The author reads like a compilation of people who post here. His description of the current situation was interesting: "Unfortunately, this failure is like a cancer that has invaded the entire body of the organization — from the head to the heart to the bones to the bowels. The options are to either watch them slowly die, or take extreme measures to remove every ounce of the cancer, and hope there’s life on the other side".

The article didn't really cover anything new or groundbreaking. This could've been written and posted pretty much over the last 25 years, with the names, dates and events changed, and still be as true then as it is today. It will likely be just as true and any point over the next 25 years as well.

The Pirates have a GM who we'll never know is any good as long as he is bound be a tight budget. The manager isn't really good, but he tries. The FO squanders what little money they get. They can't develop minor leaguers, can't get prospects from the Caribbean, have drafted X when Y was there, have a low rated farm system. We're lucky to have the few good players we have. The team can't hit, can't field, get a drink of water without assistance. Et cetera, etcetera.

Why can't the Pirates be more like the A's? The sad part is that if they want to be a small market team who sees some success, they might have to do just what the A's are doing. And there is the rub. As long as Nutting owns the Pirates, and keeps his family and his investors in the black..err, happy the Pirates won't be going anywhere. He won't ruin his moneymaker.

Three things will never change about why the Pirates fail...reasons, excuses and Bob Nutting.

The organization is so flawed from top to bottom. We know the limitations under Nutting. It's going to take an extraordinary GM to put all the right pieces in place for scouting, development, leadership and then performance at the MLB level. And that's just to achieve a remote chance for success under the severe financial constraints under which they operate. That's a tall order but the only way any amount of success can be achieved without spending for established, productive MLB players.

Cherington is obviously not that guy. He must have dazzled Nutting in the job interview, assuring him that he was a brainiac student of analytics and could create a winning organization by using brains instead of money. But the job was too big for him. He has failed miserably and made the organization worse than when he took over. Just drafting a stud like Skenes and throwing him into the dysfunctional cesspool that is this organization will not have the desired result. I don't know who the right GM would be. Or what capable person would even want the job. But Cherington is a trainwreck and he's derailed this entire organization from the highest to the lowest levels. (Other than that, I think he's done a fine job.)