Nate McLouth left the home clubhouse for the last time after Wednesday night's game was postponed due to rain.The Pirates most popular and productive player was traded to Atlanta for three "prospects" and thus landing another body blow to what remains of the loyal fan base.This is just another in a long stretch of front office maneuvers that have left Bucco fans in Pittsburgh scratching their heads.
Rebuilding Since 1992?
There is a popular t-shirt seen in crowds of loyal and self-deprecating Pirates fans. It reads simply “Pirates Baseball: Rebuilding Since 1992.” This is an unfortunate reference to the absence of a winning season since that year – a major league record tying sixteen seasons. The message of the shirt is meant to be tongue in cheek, but year after year it becomes more serious and more frustrating to Pirates fans. It has been a long standing joke around the confluence of the three rivers that the Pirates are simply a farm team for the legitimate major league franchises. If this was not a reality before Wednesday night, it certainly is now. The broken record of the Pirates front office inevitably repeats the phrase “Pirates trade rising star X for prospects Y.” There is a long list of good Pirate players who were dealt for little in return only to become elite players. Two notable examples are Jason Schmidt, who left the Pirate rotation to join the Giants, win a Cy Young award and dominate National League hitters for years. The most recent post-Pirate success have been Jason Bay, much beloved left fielder and de facto face of the franchise for half a decade. Bay left the relative obscurity of the Pittsburgh outfield to defend the Green Monster in Fenway and has become a monster in his own right. The face of the Pirates franchise is now arguably the best all-around outfielder in the American League.
Rebuilding the Franchise or Tearing it Down?
By trading Nate McLouth, who is Jason Bay with a better arm, the Pirates how flown in the face of what they have promised in their rebuilding process. It has never been a secret that the Pirates are a small market team with a small market budget. Fans and season ticket holders have been promised internal development of young talent throughout the system to create a competitive team at the major league level. McLouth is an example of this process at work successfully. He is a Pirates draftee who worked his way through the minor league system, earning a spot on the major league roster as a true Pirate’s product. He was signed to a multi-year deal just this past February, making far less than the going rate for a reigning Gold-Glove winning, All Star center fielder.
It seems as though the rebuilding process is meant for the Pirates front office to rebuild other team’s rosters. The much-hated Atlanta Braves, ala the 1992 National League championship series, needed an outfielder and came to Pittsburgh browsing the menu. The ownership has announced to fans that this was “purely a baseball decision” meaning that no money was saved in the transaction. This is a miserable attempt to lend legitimacy and baseball acumen to a mind boggling move. Pirates fans will never believe that “baseball decisions” are being made when All Stars are being traded for a group of minor leaguers with a combined zero innings of major league experience.
What Pirates fans are left to cling to are the players that they like – Jason Bay, Craig Wilson, Nate McLouth – all likable and all gone. Sooner rather than later, the Pittsburgh Pirates organization is going to need more than a beautiful ballpark, sprinting pierogies and bi-weekly fireworks to draw a crowd.
Mark St.Amant - My name is Mark and I am pleased to be contributing to Suite 101. I am originally from Brockport, NY but I have lived and worked in ...
