Aramis
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2020 11:44 pm
301611040D01160008630 wrote: Two things that really amaze me about the trade:
How the Pirates were financially no better than the guy mowing your lawn, living paycheck to paycheck, even though they had a brand new house to live in and didn't pay much in the way of rent. How were they that bad off financially after PNC Park opened to insanely huge crowds for an insanely bad team?
The other is how could MLB allow such a one sided trade when the Pirates were essentially being forced to make a trade? Why wasn't something mandated during the offseason? IIRC, the Pirates were absolutely eviscerated for raising ticket prices that season, after a record attendance at PNC Park? They obviously had financial issues that were almost beyond repair. This led to them being granted the All-Star game so soon.
How they weren't contracted or moved prior to PNC is beyond me. Enter Bob Nutting. Now the Pirates appear to be rock solid financially. We still have the 100 loss teams, but at least now when they make a bad trade to dump salary, the return is simply due to incompetence, not out of sheer financial desperation.
They took on debt from previous owners, and McClatchy was highly leveraged. His mismanagement is why the team was cash poor and why Bob Nutting is now the owner.
Does not excuse the trade.
I am not sure what MLB could do, it was a bad trade, but they cannot step in because of GM incompetence.
No matter how someone views it, something like this was what Bowie Kuhn tried stopping back in his day, especially with Charles Finley in Oakland. The Marlins were the updated version. At least those teams won something first.
Finley was trying to sell players. Big difference. There are restrictions in place that require approval. MLB cannot just stop a trade because teams are trading an established player for prospects.
How the Pirates were financially no better than the guy mowing your lawn, living paycheck to paycheck, even though they had a brand new house to live in and didn't pay much in the way of rent. How were they that bad off financially after PNC Park opened to insanely huge crowds for an insanely bad team?
The other is how could MLB allow such a one sided trade when the Pirates were essentially being forced to make a trade? Why wasn't something mandated during the offseason? IIRC, the Pirates were absolutely eviscerated for raising ticket prices that season, after a record attendance at PNC Park? They obviously had financial issues that were almost beyond repair. This led to them being granted the All-Star game so soon.
How they weren't contracted or moved prior to PNC is beyond me. Enter Bob Nutting. Now the Pirates appear to be rock solid financially. We still have the 100 loss teams, but at least now when they make a bad trade to dump salary, the return is simply due to incompetence, not out of sheer financial desperation.
They took on debt from previous owners, and McClatchy was highly leveraged. His mismanagement is why the team was cash poor and why Bob Nutting is now the owner.
Does not excuse the trade.
I am not sure what MLB could do, it was a bad trade, but they cannot step in because of GM incompetence.
No matter how someone views it, something like this was what Bowie Kuhn tried stopping back in his day, especially with Charles Finley in Oakland. The Marlins were the updated version. At least those teams won something first.
Finley was trying to sell players. Big difference. There are restrictions in place that require approval. MLB cannot just stop a trade because teams are trading an established player for prospects.