Monday, June 12, 2006
Expensive Journeymen and the Secret to the Pirates' Success (Failure)
There’s no game today, so I will take some time to discuss the reason why the Pirates have been so horrific over the years that Kevin McClatchy has owned the franchise. The people over at Irate Fans have their own opinions on the matter, and they bring up some interesting points. They refer to the record that produces exactly a .500 win percentage, 81 wins and 81 losses, as “The McClatchy Line.” It is called as such because the Pirates have not had a winning season the entire time that McClatchy has owned the team.
I know that it isn’t as easy for the Pirates, a small-market baseball team, to field a roster the way that the Yankees and the Red Sox can; they can’t just buy stars. However, the blame can’t be placed firmly on the meager payroll. The “moneyball” philosophy that has propelled the Oakland Athletics and the Florida Marlins to successful seasons proves that expensive players aren’t the only key to winning.
I agree with Irate Fans in their opinion that it is the Pirates organization’s penchant for signing veteran journeymen to the team in lieu of cheaper, younger players. Kenny Lofton and Reggie Sanders are some recent examples of this. Current examples include Joe Randa, Jeromy Burnitz and Sean Casey. These are players who have never been really big stars but are solid players with several years of major league experience. Sean Casey is slightly different; the Pirates are paying him a sizable amount of money, but he’s younger than the others I mentioned. He also has been producing more dependably than those other players.
The place where my opinion differs from Irate Fans is that signing these players themselves is not necessarily the problem. The problem lies in the fact that these players fail to produce once they are on the Pirates roster. They simply can’t carry the weight of an entire team’s expectations on their veteran shoulders. These are players who have spent their lives as traveling utility men, filling holes in lineups while their teams wait for prospects to develop. The Pirates, however, expect these players to be leaders, a role for which they are not prepared, on a team of young players. It is no surprise that they collapse under the pressure, the way Jeromy Burnitz has done (see the incident against the San Francisco Giants in which he took a gigantic chop at a pitch, only to miss and accidentally throw his bat into the stands). If McClatchy and the other Pirates decision-makers would put more confidence in their solid younger players, like Jason Bay, they could save some money and most likely also field a stronger all-around lineup.
I know that it isn’t as easy for the Pirates, a small-market baseball team, to field a roster the way that the Yankees and the Red Sox can; they can’t just buy stars. However, the blame can’t be placed firmly on the meager payroll. The “moneyball” philosophy that has propelled the Oakland Athletics and the Florida Marlins to successful seasons proves that expensive players aren’t the only key to winning.
I agree with Irate Fans in their opinion that it is the Pirates organization’s penchant for signing veteran journeymen to the team in lieu of cheaper, younger players. Kenny Lofton and Reggie Sanders are some recent examples of this. Current examples include Joe Randa, Jeromy Burnitz and Sean Casey. These are players who have never been really big stars but are solid players with several years of major league experience. Sean Casey is slightly different; the Pirates are paying him a sizable amount of money, but he’s younger than the others I mentioned. He also has been producing more dependably than those other players.
The place where my opinion differs from Irate Fans is that signing these players themselves is not necessarily the problem. The problem lies in the fact that these players fail to produce once they are on the Pirates roster. They simply can’t carry the weight of an entire team’s expectations on their veteran shoulders. These are players who have spent their lives as traveling utility men, filling holes in lineups while their teams wait for prospects to develop. The Pirates, however, expect these players to be leaders, a role for which they are not prepared, on a team of young players. It is no surprise that they collapse under the pressure, the way Jeromy Burnitz has done (see the incident against the San Francisco Giants in which he took a gigantic chop at a pitch, only to miss and accidentally throw his bat into the stands). If McClatchy and the other Pirates decision-makers would put more confidence in their solid younger players, like Jason Bay, they could save some money and most likely also field a stronger all-around lineup.
# posted by Andrew Steadman @ 6:59 PM 
