sisyphus wrote:
PirateParrot wrote:
The Pirates will have arrived not when Alvarez gets to Pittsburgh, not when he and McCutchen are perennial all stars, not when management spends a bit of cash, not when Morton figures out how to use his great stuff.....but when they QUIT PICKING UP SCRAP HEAP PLAYERS!!! And not just giving them a shot, but adding them to the roster thinking they will suddenly find themselves! Every year for what seems like forever the team adds its madatory Rule 5 guy and AT LEAST one scrap heap guy.
Yes, I know that one of them sometimes works out(Veal, hopefully). And yes, I know other teams do the same thing. It just seems like not in the volume the Pirates do it, and I for one am sick of seeing them do it.
Scrap heap players like Veal. And Garret Jones. And Evan Meek. And Delwyn Young (not a waiver claim, but acquired for $1 and organizational filler). Don't forget Carrasco, an NRI. And we all know that no other team in baseball ever claims guys off of waivers. Just the Pirates.
The Pirates don't stink because they're using every possible means to acquire players. They're using every possible means to acquire players because they stink.
First, I don't know if you can't read or chose to overlook but I acknowledged every team does it. And if you think I'm going to take the time to go back through the years and list all the duds you're crazy. I like Meek, but he is a set up guy. Valuable, yes, but not a closer or starter. I also acknowledged Veal(you chose not to read that too) however he hasn't done a thing YET. Garret Jones hasn't played a full season yet. If he pans out it will be the first time in a LONG time the Pirates finally catch a break with a guy like him. And Delwyn Young wasn't scrap heap. And he also doesn't have a position he can play every day. After playing every day last year he, in the end, proved he wasn't a great every day player.
My point was the Pirates do this in such high volume. And maybe if they would spend some money(NO, not just to spend money) to add legitimate major leaguers to the roster then they wouldn't constantly have to go out and pick this kind of crap up. This is just an example...I repeat just an example, but the Brewers added Randy Wolf for 3 years at less than 10 mill a year. No, a guy like that wouldn't push us over the top to a pennant, but there is nothing saying you can't add guys to make the current team more respectable and still not be considered "wasting" money.
