OnlyBucs

4D6B6A7D6B7B080 wrote: “We let other people decide whether they like our players or not,” Huntington said. “We are fortunate enough to have catching depth and outfield depth.”


HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

092F2E392F3F4C0 wrote: More of what NH said last year (in hindsight the BS is even deeper)



GMNH on that trade when they made it, warning, have a barf bag ready:



“Because of the delay with the Liriano announcement, we weren't able to articulate ‘the why' early in the process,” Huntington said. “Many people jumped to incorrect conclusions. Our primary motivation was to acquire Drew Hutchison. ... Instead, it came out that we moved two prospects to move Liriano's contract. Now I can't tell you that wasn't a part of the motivation, but the primary motivation was to acquire a quality pitcher.”



“We understand even if we'd been the first voice heard, there would still be speculation that we were not being truthful, that we were not being forthright in what our motivation was. But because we were essentially the last voice heard, the perception was already built. ... Opinion becomes fact when it gets repeated enough.”



Huntington said the Pirates were motivated by events months earlier, when the club was surprised by the price for pitching last offseason.



“We recognize there is a scarcity in the affordable starting-pitching market,” Huntington said. “Mediocre pitching is getting paid a lot of money. As we look forward, whether it's the trade market or free agent market, the challenge of acquiring quality, controllable, productive starting pitching ... is hard to do.”



But what did the Pirates see in Hutchison? What did they see in a former prospect who has 4.92 ERA over 406 1⁄3 major league innings?



Huntington said they see another pitcher who has the potential to be “undervalued,” another arm with “indicators” the club likes.



Hutchison should improve simply by moving from the American League East to PNC Park, and he also has shown a two-seam fastball in the past. Perhaps he can improve his ground-ball rate. He has struck out 8.3 per nine innings while walking 2.8 for his career, rates indicative of a mid-

So what will the Pirates do with the $13.66 million they save in 2017 by shedding the last year of Liriano's contract?



“It allows us to invest in our existing group if there is a deal to be made,” Huntington said. “It allows the opportunity to explore the free agent pool, whether it's multiple players for lesser dollars that fit really well on our club that make us deeper, or ... a big splash for one player. Not setting the expectation that that's what we're going to do, but it gives us the potential to explore that market.”



McGuire and Ramirez — ranked No. 6 and No. 10, respectively, in the organization's preseason top 10 prospects by Baseball America — became two of the highest-rated prospects to be dealt by Huntington.



Neither however, made Baseball America's midseason top 100 prospect list. Ramirez, probably destined for a corner outfield spot, hit just two homers in 96 games this season at Double-A Altoona.



“We let other people decide whether they like our players or not,” Huntington said. “We are fortunate enough to have catching depth and outfield depth.”


Man o man.

Oh what a tangled web we weave when at first we do deceive...



Aaron has started the process, and later today I want to parse every word, sentence, paragraph and statement.



But really, the entire statement can be parsed simply as follows: ;D



What a bunch of rats we have at the top of this organization. It's the obvious lies and shifting of blame that so ticks me off. The baseball operations is just a front for fleecing the public.

Seems to me that the team policy of doing whatever it takes to save money requires an attitude of "We're going to do something despicable so we'll have to lie to the public just to buy us some time before the truth comes out."



They bought themselves almost a full season with the Hutchison lies. They only bought themselves about a week with the Nicasio lies. Seems that they fully realize they will bring a [crap]storm down upon themselves but they just want to enjoy whatever time they can have while they toss their money in the air and squeal like pigs before that happens. It's even more glaring that the had to have known everyone's worst suspicions about the Hutchison "trade" would shortly be confirmed while they were dumping Nicasio's $600,000. They have no respect for their fan base. They treat us as though we are too stupid to see what's happening even as they flaunt it in front of us-TWICE in case we missed it the first time! They sure don't seem concerned about any consequences of their actions.

On another money saving front, per the Tib:



Nova will get $250,000 for making either 28 starts or pitching 180 innings, $750,000 for 30 starts or 190 innings, and $1 million for 32 starts or 200 innings.



If management had not opted to skip Nova's start Sept. 5, he would've had an easy path to reaching the final $1 million bonus.



Nova, whose next start will come Saturday against the Cincinnati Reds, has thrown a career-high 173 2⁄3 innings over 28 starts.



He has three starts remaining this season, which will leave him one shy of the $1 million bonus. He essentially needs to toss three straight complete games to crack 200 innings.



When Nova's skipped start was announced, manager Clint Hurdle said the decision was made because “we believe we've seen some fatigue.” Nova insisted he was ready to pitch.



Admittedly, Nova has been terrible lately. But that hasn't prevented them from sending him out there over and over again when they could have put him in the pen and brought Brault up much earlier when he was tearing up AAA (or even to look at Glasnow sooner). But they only decided to skip one of Nova's starts. Which will coincidentally (ha-ha) save then a million dollars. Hey, if they were desperate to save $600,000 on Nicasio, what chance did Nova have of getting his extra million? This oughta give potential FAs something to think about when NH comes calling.

http://triblive.com/sports/pirates/1273 ... rge-payday

507D70616677602023120 wrote: Seems to me that the team policy of doing whatever it takes to save money requires an attitude of "We're going to do something despicable so we'll have to lie to the public just to buy us some time before the truth comes out."



They bought themselves almost a full season with the Hutchison lies. They only bought themselves about a week with the Nicasio lies. Seems that they fully realize they will bring a [crap]storm down upon themselves but they just want to enjoy whatever time they can have while they toss their money in the air and squeal like pigs before that happens. It's even more glaring that the had to have known everyone's worst suspicions about the Hutchison "trade" would shortly be confirmed while they were dumping Nicasio's $600,000. They have no respect for their fan base. They treat us as though we are too stupid to see what's happening even as they flaunt it in front of us-TWICE in case we missed it the first time! They sure don't seem concerned about any consequences of their actions.


The fanbase is at fault.   Fans are too stupid to understand the strategy.   How quickly they forget that 2014 offseason, good moves were made?



What arrogance for fans to think they know more than the people running this org. 3 years ago good decisions were made!

bobster, you nailed it: the rats have NO respect for the fans.  And they have NO concern for the truth. Their disregard for the truth has been there for a couple years for anyone willing to see.  But this total disrespect of the fans is now obvious as well. They are literally giving the entire fan base the one finger salute. 



If even one person in the press decides to dig into a series of articles exposing the lies and attitude toward fans, Nutting's little financial empire would begin to collapse. 

4542545C5245020E77505A565E5B1954585A370 wrote: bobster, you nailed it: the rats have NO respect for the fans.  And they have NO concern for the truth. Their disregard for the truth has been there for a couple years for anyone willing to see.  But this total disrespect of the fans is now obvious as well. They are literally giving the entire fan base the one finger salute. 



If even one person in the press decides to dig into a series of articles exposing the lies and attitude toward fans, Nutting's little financial empire would begin to collapse. 


I wish I could agree with your last sentence, because that would be great.



Unfortunately, that isn't the case. There is one person that has the potential to bring the Nutting BS to an end and his name is Rob Manfred.



If Manfred is OK with how Bob Nutting and his group of lying, thieving, lackeys, operate the business, he'll keep sending them those very lucrative MLB Welfare checks.



Nutting has figured out how to make that continue to happen. As long as he's willing to give contract extensions to a few younger players, he's gold. It doesn't matter if a single one of those players turn out to be productive players. There is no rule that says these dollars have to be spent wisely. It just needs to appear as if Nutting is trying.



So, they can pull as much other crap (like the Liriano and Nicasio  salary dumps) as they want to. Because they can always say, "but look! We invested in Gregory Polanco!! If we pick up all his option years, that's a contract worth over $50 million dollars!!!"



The truth is, Polanco won't get those more expensive option years picked up because he stinks. And if by some miracle he turns out to be a great player (which he won't because Huntington sucks at recognizing and developing talent), then those option years become a bargain.



The A's are the only team to ever lose their MLB Welfare checks and the reason is that they never created the illusion that they were trying to compete. Nutting knew that to keep those big checks rolling in, he just had to tell his idiot GM to sign a few players to contracts.



It doesn't matter what the public thinks. It only matters what Rob Manfred thinks.

This organization is a joke. I haven't watched a game in a month, probably--no, definitely--won't renew my MLB.tv subscription next year, and certainly won't pay to go to any more games. They don't even try to hide it anymore.



Can anyone think of a professional sports organization run as poorly as this one is, or that has been a laughing stock for as long as this one? As far as the media pouncing on these guys, Joe Starkey had a nice article the other day. Dejan has been all over them. I honestly think the only way any of this changes is if fans quit going. Quit watching. Boycott buying apparel. The only thing this organization cares about is $$$, so hit them where it hurts.



I wouldn't even care about the record. Teams have bad years. It happens all the time. But, it's the consistent deception, the squandering money (i.e. $2 million on Hutchison), then running around crying poverty. It's talking about "outfield depth" when trading Ramirez, and then playing over half the year with two friggin' outfielders on your active roster. It's bringing in a utility guy to be a starter at third base, or to back up the other back-up you're starting over there. It's running out two aging vets at catcher when the best catcher on your roster is busting his hump at AAA. It's cutting a good reliever so he "doesn't go to a direct competitor," then watching him get traded to probably that same competitor. The incompetency never ends.



So, who's with me? Boycott? I tried giving up my Pirates fandom. Can't do it. It's like renouncing family. It's in your blood. But, just because someone is family, doesn't mean you have to go to his barbecue. So, just cause the Pirates are family and I can't bring myself to root for the Astros, doesn't mean I have to follow the Pirates. In a weird way, being out of the race has been quite freeing. I'm usually busy in the evenings anyway, but I'm not constantly checking my phone like I was when we were in contention, or hiding it on my knee with the At Bat app on as I'm sitting in a meeting.



I'll probably watch opening day next year cause it's opening day. But, I'm tired of this incompetency. And I can't and won't support it any more.

686063544267404F210 wrote: I'll probably watch opening day next year cause it's opening day. But, I'm tired of this incompetency. And I can't and won't support it any more.




They're only incompetent if they aren't reaching their goals.



They continue to reach the goal, which is profitability and tremendous growth in the value of the franchise.



In the eyes of Bob Nutting, NH is the most competent person he has in his employ. He's a loyal soldier and was rewarded with four more years of being paid millions of dollars to be the idiot that stands at the podium and defends the BS they pull off in the name of profits.

I agree with every sobering word shared on here. Aaron's insight into the competency of Huntington is really eye-opening. How does Neal warrant a new 4 year contract? Because in the Bob Nutting Empire, Neal is indeed MVP. Makes perfect sense now.



And IA, a total boycott sounds really hard right now, but I tell you I'm getting closer and closer. Maybe that really is the only way to save this franchise.