And unlike the Cylons from the reboot of Battlestar Galatcia, we may know what the plan the Pirates have actually is before long.
This winter there was much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth when the Florida Marlins were singled out by Major League Baseball and the Players Association and told that they have to spend more money going forward. “The Pirates are next” we heard from various columnists the likes of Bill Madden, the NY Daily News writer who hates teams that aren’t the Yankees, Red Sox or Mets (and maybe the Phillies). If Madden had done a modicum of research he would have known that the Pirates were never going to be next.
That was confirmed yesterday when Rob Biertempfel from the Tribune Review wrote an article about how the Players Association is OK with what the Pirates are doing right now.
“We’ve been in touch with the commissioner’s office and with people in the Pirates’ (front office) over the years about how things are going,” Weiner said. “To date, at least, we have been satisfied that the new administration there understands the conditions of the basic agreement. I can’t get into the specifics, but it appears to us that they have a plan.”
This plan includes spending a lot on a baseball academy in Latin America, being one of the top 3 big spenders in the draft the past two seasons (something that is likely to continue this year) and developing players which they will spend on when the time comes.
Don’t get me wrong, there are things that I’m not happy about with the Pirates. I wish that they could have signed Sano, and the returns that they have gotten in some of the trades has been less than impressive. I would rather them spend the money on players that have the potential to do well with the Pirates rather than just pay for past performance and didn’t do anything with the Pirates.
Right now the Pirates are a game above .500 and although I don’t think that this will continue, things are looking up.
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