Hope is a powerful feeling. Even in the darkest times, as long as there is hope, there is a reason to care. That's why those guys on the street with the shell game let you win every so often. Without the hope of winning, you'd give up.
During the Pirates 20 straight years of losing, there was always hope. Each Spring Training felt like this could be the year the Pirates finally turned it around. In 1997, even with a payroll less than Albert Belle's, less than $10 million dollars, the Pirates competed until the last week of the season. That Freak Show team gave us hope.
In 2001, when the team was mired in a 100-loss season, we still had hope. We still had Brian Giles and we still had Jason Kendall. Cam Bonifay was fired and Dave Littlefield brought us hope. Hope of doing things a different way. Hope that he'd build the team the right way and restore the glory years.
Even the mid-2000s brought us hope. Jason Bay was a Rookie-of-the-Year and perennial All-Star. Xavier Nady seemed to revive his career in Pittsburgh. Freddy Sanchez won the batting crown in 2006. Maybe a piece or two more and they could have made the playoffs. Hope. It was there.
Once it became apparent that that team could not compete, Littlefield (thankfully) was fired and Neal Huntington was hired. While he was not the Indians' top GM candidate, he came from a small market team and he immediately started to clean things up. He built a Dominican facility, he cleaned up the front office, and built an analytics system. Maybe, finally, the Pirates had learned and were doing things the right way.
Even Huntington's first draft choice (ridiculous drama around his signing) brought hope - Pedro Alvarez. Former Pirates compared his swing to the great Willie Stargell. Hope of a return to those great 70s teams was there.
Then came the great years - 2013-2015. That 2013 Wild Card game is one of the greatest sporting events I have ever watched. Even from my home in Austin, TX, the magic in the air was amazing. There it was, everything we had hoped for coming to fruition.
Then a funny thing happened, those teams never advanced past the NLDS (in 2013) and the Wild Card game in 2014 and 2015. Everything that the owners and front office had been telling us for the entire losing streak - that they'd spend when a winner was in place - didn't happen. AJ Burnett retired and J.A. Happ left and the front office didn't sign anyone to replace them. The next summer when there was a chance to add to the team, they traded Francisco Liriano and a former first round draft pick (!!!) and another player to Toronto in what amounted as cost savings (Technically it was Drew Hutchison who was never good enough to start in the Majors). It was the same old Pirates. Being cheap.
But here's the thing, when you dangle a carrot in front of someone for long enough, and the finally catch the carrot but it turns out the carrot is just rubber and you can't eat it, you'll stop chasing the carrot. The window was obviously closing - McCutchen only had a few more years on his contract - Marte and Polanco were about to enter their prime. They had a young catcher in Cervelli who seemed to replace Martin well and they won 98 games. If there was ever the time to spend money and bring in someone to get you over the hump, it was that time. We had been TOLD that was the time they'd spend money. But they didn't.
Huntington has said for years that he didn't want to sacrifice the future. That he wanted to build a sustainable system that when players left because they were to expensive, the next stars were ready to step up. That's an admirable goal, one I'd love. But if you ask any Pirates fan that if they could be like the Royals and win one World Series and have to blow it up and wait a while for another good team, we would have all taken it. We would have sacrificed the minor league system for one World Series. I don't think any of us would have to think about it. We'd take the deal.
It'd also help if his promise of a minor league system had panned out. As much as those who rate the minor league systems praised the Pirates, none of those players have really panned out. No one has become a star. Neal Huntington has been with the Pirates since the fall of 2007. Only two of his draft picks have made an All-Star game - Gerrit Cole and Pedro Alvarez. Every other representative has come via trade or free agency. What does that say about the state of your player development?
So if you can't or won't spend and in its absence, you can't build a sustainable winner through the draft, where is the hope?
So now we've stopped playing the shell game. We'll care about something else - something that gives us hope.
During the Pirates 20 straight years of losing, there was always hope. Each Spring Training felt like this could be the year the Pirates finally turned it around. In 1997, even with a payroll less than Albert Belle's, less than $10 million dollars, the Pirates competed until the last week of the season. That Freak Show team gave us hope.
In 2001, when the team was mired in a 100-loss season, we still had hope. We still had Brian Giles and we still had Jason Kendall. Cam Bonifay was fired and Dave Littlefield brought us hope. Hope of doing things a different way. Hope that he'd build the team the right way and restore the glory years.
Even the mid-2000s brought us hope. Jason Bay was a Rookie-of-the-Year and perennial All-Star. Xavier Nady seemed to revive his career in Pittsburgh. Freddy Sanchez won the batting crown in 2006. Maybe a piece or two more and they could have made the playoffs. Hope. It was there.
Once it became apparent that that team could not compete, Littlefield (thankfully) was fired and Neal Huntington was hired. While he was not the Indians' top GM candidate, he came from a small market team and he immediately started to clean things up. He built a Dominican facility, he cleaned up the front office, and built an analytics system. Maybe, finally, the Pirates had learned and were doing things the right way.
Even Huntington's first draft choice (ridiculous drama around his signing) brought hope - Pedro Alvarez. Former Pirates compared his swing to the great Willie Stargell. Hope of a return to those great 70s teams was there.
Then came the great years - 2013-2015. That 2013 Wild Card game is one of the greatest sporting events I have ever watched. Even from my home in Austin, TX, the magic in the air was amazing. There it was, everything we had hoped for coming to fruition.
Then a funny thing happened, those teams never advanced past the NLDS (in 2013) and the Wild Card game in 2014 and 2015. Everything that the owners and front office had been telling us for the entire losing streak - that they'd spend when a winner was in place - didn't happen. AJ Burnett retired and J.A. Happ left and the front office didn't sign anyone to replace them. The next summer when there was a chance to add to the team, they traded Francisco Liriano and a former first round draft pick (!!!) and another player to Toronto in what amounted as cost savings (Technically it was Drew Hutchison who was never good enough to start in the Majors). It was the same old Pirates. Being cheap.
But here's the thing, when you dangle a carrot in front of someone for long enough, and the finally catch the carrot but it turns out the carrot is just rubber and you can't eat it, you'll stop chasing the carrot. The window was obviously closing - McCutchen only had a few more years on his contract - Marte and Polanco were about to enter their prime. They had a young catcher in Cervelli who seemed to replace Martin well and they won 98 games. If there was ever the time to spend money and bring in someone to get you over the hump, it was that time. We had been TOLD that was the time they'd spend money. But they didn't.
Huntington has said for years that he didn't want to sacrifice the future. That he wanted to build a sustainable system that when players left because they were to expensive, the next stars were ready to step up. That's an admirable goal, one I'd love. But if you ask any Pirates fan that if they could be like the Royals and win one World Series and have to blow it up and wait a while for another good team, we would have all taken it. We would have sacrificed the minor league system for one World Series. I don't think any of us would have to think about it. We'd take the deal.
It'd also help if his promise of a minor league system had panned out. As much as those who rate the minor league systems praised the Pirates, none of those players have really panned out. No one has become a star. Neal Huntington has been with the Pirates since the fall of 2007. Only two of his draft picks have made an All-Star game - Gerrit Cole and Pedro Alvarez. Every other representative has come via trade or free agency. What does that say about the state of your player development?
So if you can't or won't spend and in its absence, you can't build a sustainable winner through the draft, where is the hope?
So now we've stopped playing the shell game. We'll care about something else - something that gives us hope.
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