Pittsburgh, the Place to Be For Baseball?

There's a saying in sports that goes, "Don't let the inmates run the asylum." Basically, it means you can't let the will of the players come before the practical decisions needed by the coaches or managers and the front office. Of course the players always feel that they know best, but there is a reason why teams have general managers, team presidents, position coaches, scouts, and advisers. It's because these are the people who remove personal feelings, the will of the fans, and friendship from the equation when it comes to making harsh decisions that need to be made in order to benefit the franchise.

If it wasn't for these higher-ups willing to do this, Brett Favre would be the quarterback in Green Bay for the next 30 years when he'd be putting up interceptions with one hand while gripping a walker in the other.

In a recent Post-Gazette article by Dejan Kovacevic, many players on the Pirates expressed their desire for the higher-ups in Pittsburgh to keep the current lineup together, and forgo trading players to add depth in the minor league system. Among those quoted were Ryan Doumit, Tyler Yates, and Xavier Nady. Nady even went so far as to lobby for himself to remain with the Pirates. Now these players are not blind, and do realize that there needs to be drastic measures taken to improve the starting pitching. They feel, however, that the Pirates management should trade their own prospects in order to bring in depth at starting pitching.

This is why we have a general manager running the team and not the players.

Of course the current Pirates would think this is a feasible solution. These guys are buddies. They have a nice, friendly clubhouse atmosphere going. And most importantly, most of them know they are not going to be here 3 years from now when making impractical moves like that would cripple this franchise even more than it already is! Do you honestly think any of these players knows or even cares who the Pirates have in their minor league system? Why would Xavier Nady give a damn about bringing in single and double A prospects that are two, three, or even four years away from being major league ready. The only way to truly fix this withered franchise is to build through the draft, and make trades for minor league prospects in bulk, and believe me, that is low on the list of importance to the current Pirates since most of them won't be here when things start taking a turn for the better.

Trading what few prospects we have now in order to try to rebuild this embarrassment of a starting rotation would be a disaster. Even if you thought you could get enough starting pitching to make this current squad competitive, how realistic would a run to the post-season be when your six games under .500 coming out of the All-star break? And even if you kept the team intact for two years (which is optimistic), you've given yourself the smallest of windows to work with. After that, your back to fifteen more years of losing because your a small market franchise that can't draft, scout, or develop players.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly understand the bond that comes from being teammates. For some of the Bucko's they've been together for several years now. It's always hard to part with teammates you've worked with for that long. But that's professional sports, and they are professionals (despite what their statistics say). Hopefully management turns a deaf ear to these sentiments, and does the right thing. Hopefully they will do what benefits the team in the long run.