Pirates fans planning walkout on Saturday

I'm with sports scrub. All teams should care, or at least the high payroll teams. The luxury tax is lining the pockets of owners throughout America. MLB needs to implement a rule saying all money earned from the luxury tax has to be reinvested in your team.

 

The NFL has an economic system that's close to communism. Everybody gets a chance to win. The system makes worst-to-first scenarios possible.

Yet the Detroit Lions consistently blow.

Why is that? Because they're incompetent, just like the Pirates' management is. MLB ain't kicking the Pirates, the Pirates are doing it to themselves.

 

As a Yankees fan, I do care about the other teams in baseball. Because I think a better product will lead to increased interest and greater profits for everyone. But the owners wanted revenue sharing and this is the system they have. I think MLB should say if an owner can't spend $40-50 mil on payroll to at least be competitive, then you sell the team to someone who can--or move.

 

Actually more like 12,000, but the William Clay Ford sacklickers writing the game stories and manning the game cameras made super extra double sure to say not a damn thing about it.

 

The luxury tax, as has been mentioned, is a joke without a minimum salary requirement. It's hard to see change happening, though, given that there have been seven different World Series winners in the past seven years. That's enough parity for some people to think the system isn't in need of fixing. I don't necessarily agree with that, but it's hard to make the argument that the Pirates don't have a chance when the Brewers and Tigers are enjoying some success.

 

What really ticks me off about the situation is that there is a very willing buyer named Mark Cuban (Pittsburgh native) waiting in the wings.

The current Pittsburgh ownership has said no to him because the Pirates are turning a profit.

If Cuban bought the Pirates they would immediately be one of the five most interesting and exciting organizations in baseball.

Pittsburgh, like Kansas City, was once a proud franchise. Sure, there is no excuse for the Pirates to be bad and the Padres, Twins, A's, Marlins and so on to be strong. But these franchises do not have the most electric owner in all of sports knocking on your door to buy.

 

so why can't MLB implement a salary floor? Leave the top open to let the Yanks, Sox, Cubs, et al. spend to their hearts content, but have a ceiling to at least keep the small markets competetive? again, if the Nuttings are unwilling to spend money, then Bud should say you gotta sell the team.

 

That's the thing -- there's nowhere for ill-managed franchises to hide anymore, no one to blame.

 

Cran, that's not entirely true. The Nuttings are to blame.

 

If Cleveland could contend for a seven-year stretch, blow it up, rebuild and be a contender again, Pittsburgh certainly can, especially since it also has a jewel of a ballpark.

Wonder what would happen if Cuban was able to purchase that franchise?

 

To say the financial inequities in Major League Baseball have nothing to do with the Pirates' problems over the years is inaccurate. But incompetent ownership and management is definitely the larger factor. The Pirates don't just fail to pay for talent, they give it away foolishly.

They have made horrific trades like the one that sent Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton to the Cubs for, essentially, nothing...in very large part because the jackass owner went public and told everybody the team was desperate to dump salaries immediately, thus cutting his GM off at the knees.

They also lost a bunch of prospects to the Rule V draft one year because and tried to tell everyone that they were keeping spots on the 40-man roster in case they added free agents. Never mind that you can just remove somebody at that point if you have to. They had to trade to get Jose Bautista back. It looked like a disaster until another guy they lost in that deal, Chris Shelton, turned out to be fool's gold.

Not to mention giving away Chris Young, now one of the best pitchers in the National League, very early in his minor league career...and working desperately to unload Oliver Perez for nothing and finally pulling it off...the list of mistakes is long and disgracefully undistinguished.

And most of it comes from ownership that doesn't seem to give a shit. I'm not as sure as others that Cuban really wants the team. If he did buy, he could at least get them back to respectability. I do know the current ownership won't sell as long as they are making money, which is a tremendous argument for a spending minimum.

This team deserves to be protested. Fans already tried not showing up. That just gets the franchise to threaten to leave.

Maybe pick a day and nobody buys tickets and nobody shows. But if I bought a ticket? I'm enjoying a ballgame. This walkout shit is just dumb.

 

But then Mrs. Phelps will move the team to Miami.