Could Thomas Tull answer our prayers . . .

[dogknot17@yahoo.co]

143934252233246467560 wrote: What I heard was that Tull expressed an interest, but it was not in response to any indication that Nutting was willing to sell. So it's a non-story.


I guess when you have money, $1.25 billion (rumored amount) doesn't interest you. At least he knows there are buyers out there if he does want to sell.

[SammyKhalifa]

What I'm trying to fathom are these two ideas:

1).  Nutting just wants money and to milk the fans

2).  He'd rather have a baseball team than have one and a quarter billion dollars. 



I'm not sure that both of those things can be true at the same time.



It's totally fair to say that he runs the organization way too consevatively (financially speaking), but the "he's just in it for the money" line doesn't really ring true to me any more.  To me that's an easy answer when the actual one is more complicated. 

[johnfluharty]

Nutting is not willing to spend the money he needs to but I don't think it's due to wanting to milk the franchise for a few million a year. He's a billionaire; he doesn't need to do that. I really don't know what he is thinking. Ideas:



1) One can hardly think of the Steelers without thinking of the Rooney family. I think Nutting would love the same to be said for the Nutting family and the Pirates.



2) How can he not see the simply idea of investing- at a short term loss- in order to build your product? He HAS to understand this. I'd love to hear his explanation for why this does not apply to the Pirates, especially since our local TV contract is coming up soon.

[SammyKhalifa]

Yeah, "priming the pump" and getting a few guys would benefit him even if he was just in it for the money.

[OrlandoMerced]

I have generally been very defensive of their personnel decisions the last few years and the reluctance to take financial risks on players. But it's indefensible to not address the offense this offseason. I do believe that their payroll decisions have been more about risk aversion than cheapness. They have proven to be ineffective at graduating hitters from the system at the same rate that they have with pitchers. There is the potential for substantial marginal value by investing in a proven offensive commodity. The revenue they produce supports a higher payroll and the team needs an improvement, there's no defense for standing pat.

[mouse]

Good offense also brings in people to watch games. Milwaukee has followed that approach and it works.



-- Gary