Well, we can all (and I include myself here) stop griping. Pedro Alvarez arrives in Pittsburgh today. Now the future is here. McCutcheon, Walker, Pearce, Lincoln, Tabata, and now Alvarez. All the minor league superstars are here.
Of course, the Pirates will now not become a team that will win at a .600 pace. In fact, I don't expect that the team, in terms of wins and losses will improve all that much, but at least now we are seeing guys who are expected to be the core of a winning enterprise down the road. No more has beens filling out the line-up.
The 2010 version of the Pirates may still lose 100 games, but at least now there is hope.
We hope.
Two questions: 1. What did Alvarez learn this past week to all-of-a-sudden be ready? (I know, the Pirates rushed Barry Bonds to the majors and look how it ruined his career.)
ReplyDelete2. What grade do you give the scouting/assessment guys (and you, NH) that determined last winter that Aki was well worth $5 million more than Neil Walker (or Delwyn Young). I think NH owes Mr Nutting $5 million. Seems everyone used to rip Dave Littlefield for these "small" errors of judgement.
Two good questions raised by Bill here. The Iwamura deal seems even worse now that it is being reported that the Rays were on the verge of releasing Aki. If that had happened, the Pirates,or anyone else for that matter, could have signed Iwamura for the minimum salary. That has "Dave Littlefield/Matt Morris" written all over it.
ReplyDeleteLoved the Barry Bonds reference!
I can explain why the Pirates took so long to bring up Alvarez. You see when you've managed to set the all-time record in professional sports for consecutuve losing seasons it mught just be because they're plain stupid (along with cheap). The Pirates are the stupidist organization in all of professional sports right now and have been for some time. There you go. That's the answer.
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