Most hopeless pro franchises

Pirates are pretty bad, but does 1908 ring any bells? Cubs have to be on someone's list. At least the Pirates have won two in the last 50 years.
Detroit Lions in the NFL are just embarrassing.
Clippers/Warriors
Hockey ... Just don't know enough

 

So now using an analogy is immature? Or are you just interested in spreading the spin of one of the worst-run organizations in professional sports.

Yes, their spending was up for that one year, but up doesn't mean as much when it has been ridiculously low for so long. When they take the best available players every year rather than avoiding top talent that they don't want to spend on, that will be a much more encouraging sign.

BYH has an interesting point. Alvarez is gifted, but he did not show up for spring training in the shape he should have been in and that is at least part of the problem on the field right now.

 

Look at the top five players in their farm system (Taillon, Allie, Heredia, Sanchez, Owens). Pundits have raved about these guys, something they do not often do with Pirates farmhands. And this draft is said to be one of the most loaded in years, where they will do more stocking up.

I know you want to strum this sad banjo for as long as you possibly can, but they will be a winning team by the middle part of this decade. The future looks pretty bright for the Pirates.

 

If that happens, you will see Pirate hats from coast to coast.

That is a sleeping giant of a fan base.

 

You already see them, but that's just because people like the hat.

LJB, let's see them actually win some games before we start declaring this incredibly-long era of suckitude over.

 

Pirates will the division one day, but will do so with a losing record. There is a legacy to keep up.

 

If you refuse to be patient, then they're going to need to be a team that has its prospects develop together as a group at the same time (a la the Rays, and the Royals are looking this way, too). Then, unlike Tampa Bay, the Pirates are blessed with being in a division stocked with plenty of suck.

Speaking of. You want a team that is truly fucked over a table? Take a look at the Astros' 40-man roster, and what they have in the minors. That's the emptiest organization in baseball, by a country mile.

 

The Pirates' organization has been calling for patience for nearly two decades. Usually, it is a stalling tactic.

Maybe this current front office knows what it is doing. They seem to. Now it is a matter of having enough players develop at the same time that they can win before ownership forces them to sell off too many pieces.

 

Yet another reason for a former colleague of mine, a devout Cardinals fan, to label them the Dis-Astros.

 

Unfortunately for Pirates fans, ownership is still the same. With these perennially hopeless franchises, that's usually the problem.

 

Stuart Sternberg held a tight purse and it didn't stop them from putting the Yankees and Red Sox on their ass two out of three years -- for about a quarter on the dollar.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.