OnlyBucs

Apologies if this has been posted before.



https://blogs.fangraphs.com/neither-the ... untington/





When the Pirates made their great run in 2013 to revive the franchise, the team ranked 25th in payroll. In the six seasons since that run, they’ve ranked 27th, 24th, 24th, 24th, 27th, and 29th.

The Pirates either mistakenly believed they could keep pulling magic out of a hat by churning through reclamation projects as generational talent and MVP Andrew McCutchen declined, or they just didn’t care. Fans have seemingly taken the latter view based on attendance the last few seasons.

250302150313600 wrote: Apologies if this has been posted before.



https://blogs.fangraphs.com/neither-the ... untington/





When the Pirates made their great run in 2013 to revive the franchise, the team ranked 25th in payroll. In the six seasons since that run, they’ve ranked 27th, 24th, 24th, 24th, 27th, and 29th.

The Pirates either mistakenly believed they could keep pulling magic out of a hat by churning through reclamation projects as generational talent and MVP Andrew McCutchen declined, or they just didn’t care. Fans have seemingly taken the latter view based on attendance the last few seasons.
It's not just where they rank in payroll among the 30 teams. It's how far from the norm they are. I've previously posted that their highwater mark was 2015 when their payroll was 77% of the MLB average. Even though there was a very slight increase in payroll the following year, they actually got further away from the average, which increased at a greater rate. And each year since the difference has widened until they were only at 52% of the MLB average in 2019. When questioned on payroll they immediately go to the default excuse of being unable to compete financially with the high rollers of MLB. But the real problem is that they refuse to even approach an average payroll.

527F72636475622221100 wrote: Apologies if this has been posted before.



https://blogs.fangraphs.com/neither-the ... untington/





When the Pirates made their great run in 2013 to revive the franchise, the team ranked 25th in payroll. In the six seasons since that run, they’ve ranked 27th, 24th, 24th, 24th, 27th, and 29th.

The Pirates either mistakenly believed they could keep pulling magic out of a hat by churning through reclamation projects as generational talent and MVP Andrew McCutchen declined, or they just didn’t care. Fans have seemingly taken the latter view based on attendance the last few seasons.
It's not just where they rank in payroll among the 30 teams. It's how far from the norm they are. I've previously posted that their highwater mark was 2015 when their payroll was 77% of the MLB average. Even though there was a very slight increase in payroll the following year, they actually got further away from the average, which increased at a greater rate. And each year since the difference has widened until they were only at 52% of the MLB average in 2019. When questioned on payroll they immediately go to the default excuse of being unable to compete financially with the high rollers of MLB. But the real problem is that they refuse to even approach an average payroll.




yes, the fangraphs article shows when the Pirates increased payroll by 3 million the mlb average increased by 10 million. Over a couple of more seasons the Pirates increased by 14 million and the league by 20 million. So the Bucs kept getting further behind.



The bad part about that is it seems like the Pirates act like they are maximizing their payroll every year. Nuttings interview the other day where he said the team needs to communicate better to fans was not encouraging.

1B3D3C2B3D2D5E0 wrote:

The bad part about that is it seems like the Pirates act like they are maximizing their payroll every year.  Nuttings interview the other day where he said the team needs to communicate better to fans was not encouraging.


Agreed. It was kind of depressing when Williams admitted that part of his role would be to better explain to the fans why the team can't spend more money.



That new TV contract money is going straight into Nutting's pocket.