OT: Pirates Talk: That Skenes guy is okay at teh baseball

[Empoleon8771]

Absolute garbage fire of an organization.

I like Horwitz but what is this team doing? They're already hamstrung by Nutting and you can't take unnecessary gambles like this.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

There are almost no words for how stupid and bad this makes them look. I don't want to just bash Horowitz, but this is a guy who was already kind of fringy given his age, position, and what else be brings to the table given both of those things. The best case scenario with him was that he'd give you an above average wRC+ for dirt cheap over 3 seasons or so at the top of the order with the power needing to be found elsewhere in the lineup.

This injury throws that into question and makes the already farcical offseason somehow look even worse. I am genuinely and honestly at a loss for words.... things were already awful, beyond bad, laughable, even by the Pirates' own already bad standards, and now this?

The only way I can really see to save some face in this situation is simply to fire Cherington into the sun right now, in an unprecedented way in February or March right before the season (it would never happen), which would at least given the replacement cover for the bad season that is about to take place. The scenario is just so absurd on the face of it that I genuinely feel like I am crazy to type it out for the umpteenth time this winter (along with everybody else): we got handed a literal cheat code, playoff series winner at the impossible position for any team regardless of budget size, and we just didn't do absolutely nothing.

It's more likely than not that the driving reason is that Bob Nutting didn't want to spend any more money on the team. But if that's not true in even a half-assed way -- i.e., Nutting would have been ok taking the "risk" to up the payroll by a lousy 15-20M -- then the only conceivable "good" outcome here is to scapegoat this pathetic loser of a GM. He is worse than Dave Littlefield.

 

[Empoleon8771]

There are almost no words for how stupid and bad this makes them look. I don't want to just bash Horowitz, but this is a guy who was already kind of fringy given his age, position, and what else be brings to the table given both of those things. The best case scenario with him was that he'd give you an above average wRC+ for dirt cheap over 3 seasons or so at the top of the order with the power needing to be found elsewhere in the lineup.

This injury throws that into question and makes the already farcical offseason somehow look even worse. I am genuinely and honestly at a loss for words.... things were already awful, beyond bad, laughable, even by the Pirates' own already bad standards, and now this?

The only way I can really see to save some face in this situation is simply to fire Cherington into the sun right now, in an unprecedented way in February or March right before the season (it would never happen), which would at least given the replacement cover for the bad season that is about to take place. The scenario is just so absurd on the face of it that I genuinely feel like I am crazy to type it out for the umpteenth time this winter (along with everybody else): we got handed a literal cheat code, playoff series winner at the impossible position for any team regardless of budget size, and we just didn't do absolutely nothing.

It's more likely than not that the driving reason is that Bob Nutting didn't want to spend any more money on the team. But if that's not true in even a half-assed way -- i.e., Nutting would have been ok taking the "risk" to up the payroll by a lousy 15-20M -- then the only conceivable "good" outcome here is to scapegoat this pathetic loser of a GM. He is worse than Dave Littlefield.

Yeah I've been adamant about liking Horwitz and have been vocal that he's a guy I like that they acquired. That said, even I'm in a position where I find this indefensible. With the constraints Nutting puts on the budget, they simply need to be smart with their assets and not take unnecessary risks. Knowing that Horwitz had a bum wrist at the time of the trade makes trading for him (or at least not bringing in another guy) inexcusable.

You could already argue that they overpaid for him in the first place, but paying what they did while they also knew he was having wrist issues? Inexcusable, and there's nothing else you can say but Cherington looks like an absolute moron for it.

 

[Empoleon8771]

 

[Fogel]

If the Pirates were fine with some injury risk, there were other players they could have targeted with injury risk and equal or higher upside, particularly on some 1 or 2 year deals that they ended up with.

 

[ImporterExporter]

And yet people will still go to games, still spend $2-300 or more on a trip to PNC with the kids, because it's "fun".

The only way this stops is to stop spending a dime on the Bucs. There is no other way. You can cry about how impossible it is, but that's the reality. Empty PNC, significantly less income on merch and other Bucs related material for Nutting is the only prayer we have as a fanbase.

Until people stop being internet crybabies and actually invest in not giving this franchise one moment of you time and more importantly, money, the charade will continue.

Manfred spoke recently about the fans anger, so it's on the radar of MLB. The next step and the biggest hurdle is to damage the cash flow of a penny pinching team like Nutting's Bucs. Yeah, revenue sharing gives them a nice cushion, but you cannot ignore an empty ballpark. Visuals matter.

Until people actually put up an effort, instead of just bitching, we'll be going in circles.