Can the Pirates ever be successful?

Actually Baseball Prospectus picked the Rays to finish 3rd in the AL East with an 89-73 record last season. This year, they've picked the Pirates to finish last, in all of baseball, with a 63-99 record. With any lucky, they've under estimated the Pirates and they'll get 70 wins this year and get past the lousy Astros....

I personally think that when the Pirates are successful again, it'll be more like the Brewers gradual improvement over several seasons instead of a sudden shot up the standings. I live in the mid-west and made several trips from 04-06 to Milwaukee to see the Pirates. Even when the Brewers were still losing 90+ games, they seemed to be doing all the little things right. I couldn't say the same about the Pirates during that time.

"...the Pirates can succeed--someday."  Yeah right, and Someday Bob Nutting's Prince Will Come too.  I know, Snow White's prince did come, but she only had to deal with seven dwarves.  Year after year, Nutting enables a whole roster of mere dwarves compared to much of the rest of MLB.  Until Pirate ownership changes for the better, "succeed" is off the table.

"It’s going to take time, hard work and tons of luck for the Pirates to succeed."

"I’m more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and the time to succeed"

Give our Buccos enough time and a tornado might come along, blow thru PNC dropping off 3 top starters and a coupla power hitters ...

Yes, as we've seen teams can and do have "chairos" moments, when serendipity brings it together, that brigadoon moment.

Sadly, in the absence of the resources to play or as you rightly note, the invaluable gift to evaluate and project talent, our Bucs might be exactly like Brigadoon, with their moment in the sun being every 100 years.  Let's see, if we're talking playoffs, we've only 80 years, give or take a few, until we can retrieve our green wienies from the attic and rev up a revised version of "We Are Family."  Let's see ...I'll only be 147 ...

Bob ...you sound like the Charles Darwin of sports writers.

Evolutionists claim ...all we need is time to discover that "missing link" fossil or for teh

They need to hit a home run in the upcoming draft although two of the premier hitters , Ackley and Green are Boras clients. Then they need even better luck in finding players after the first round . If they make wiser selections than their predecessors then I believe they can turn the franchise around.

with the best management team in all of sports, I have no doubt that the Pirates will be successful!

While it may not show in wins this year, This young team should play some exciting baseball and gather more interest from the fans. It bothers me that more spring traing games are not on TV. I would like to know more about the team, by watching them, than just hope they are good and listening to other people's opinions.

When our pigs do find a truffle we get rid of him like talent might taint the clubhouse. In the last 16 years the only quality player the Pirates have retained from his rookie season through his free agency is Jack Wilson. You can do a better job listing the good ones we pushed away, but the one that showed me what this team is all about was Aramis Ramirez.  

Bob, Dejan and Chuck, we need to be able to respond to the blog easier. At least half the time, I have to sign in on a new window, even though I ask the blog to remember me. Shouldn't a cookie work in this case?

Bob, I'm glad to see you involved, but would rather that you ran a forum instead of a blog.

Bob,  good words this morning, I guess you got the freeze dried koolaid I sent your way.

If one could believe that one of the pitchers other than give Paul the Ball can correct some ill winds, then two or three of them can also do it.

You will like the Bay trade.

JJ, you're more confident than I am about the Bay trade. But I'm not going to dwell on it now. Moss, Lil LaRoche, Hansen & Co. are our boys now. They're all big question marks. But I mean that in a positive way, today. Throw Steve Pearce into that category as well. For that matter, say so for the bulk of our team. Will Jack and Freddy rebound?  Ditto our starting pitchers from last year (save Maholm)? What will Karstens and Ohlendorf have to contribute? Evan Meek? And just beyond the horizon, McCutcheon, Tabata, and finally Pedro?

Surely not all of these players will make great strides. But what if half of them do? That actually would be pretty nice progress. We were so bad last year. For starters, take our STARTERS -they were awful. Then, our offense turned so anemic that improvements can come from virtually anywhere, indeed. The many a la carte improvements will make us better than last year. If the cohesiveness the boys are feeling during these feel-good Spring Training, anything-is-possible, early days can some how take root, who knows how many wins they can real off. True, big boppers that can carry a team, or a staff full of shutdown aces that are still pitcing their teams forward when the leaves start turning brown, are on a higher plane then ours, for now. But who really knows just what it is we've got right now? Maybe more budding talent than we have the right to expect. Such an outcome is also possible when your clubhouse is so bustling full with so many question marks.

A lot has been mentioned in this column about small pockets and luck.

First the issue of small pockets: I don't totally buy into that theory. I realize that under the current economic conditions of MLB (i.e. no salary cap), the Pirates will never be able to compete with the Yankees and a few other clubs dollar for dollar. However, if a team like Milwaukee in a market two-thirds the size of Pittsburgh can have a $90 million payroll, there's no reason to believe the Pirates can't do this as well. Does anyone call the Steelers small market?

To be fair, the Pirates have never been in the situation that Milwaukee was in as far as a truly competitive team in the McClatchy/Nutting era. If, and hopefully sooner than later, when the Pirates are in this situation, we will find out for sure if Bob Nutting is committed to not only building but maintaining a winning ball club.

The Pirates have been stuck in this perpetual cycle of having a few quality players along with a bunch of AAAA players. Until this cycle can be broken, history is doomed to be repeated.

As far as luck: Yes some of this will be needed to put the Pirates over the top. Most teams who make a run at a championship usually have a few breaks in their favor along the way. I totally agree that the drafting of talent can't get any worse than it has the last few years, save for last year. I also believe that the pitching can't be any worse than it was last season and at least a couple young talents will shine this year.

This year's improvement will reflect much more on the progression of young talent and turn around seasons of some poor preformances last season than it will of wins and losses in the standings. That's the ball that we need to keep our eyes on.

I don't want to be put in a position to defend Bob Smizik,but when he comes up with something almost positive to say about the Pirates then I must stand behind him.  I understand the frustration about this team but most of the people who criticize the Pirates seem to forget that different people are making the decisions these days.  I know, we have been through that before, but anyone who cannot see a difference in the way Coonelly and Huntington are doing things and the way they were done in the past just isn't paying attention.  I admit though that the key to all that eventually is in the pockets of Bob Nutting and his desire to  allow enough money for Frank and Neal to do their job successfully.  That doesn't mean they should just throw a ton of money at the problem and say there it is fixed, although some people would like to see that.  They are trying to build this team from the bottom up and that is the best way to do it, but there are no guarantees.  Its a baseball game...deal with it!!