PirateFest started yesterday in Pittsburgh for a three day fan party that features usually little news except for the constant complaining from Pirate fans.
I have few complaints about the lack of Hot Stove action from the team.
They aren't going to compete anyway,so why spend needlessly.
The casual fan that looks at things short term isn't happy with only an addition of Ramon "Cleveland kept me instead of Brandon Phillips?" Vasquez to the less than imposing roster,but I have no problems-as long as the team puts money into the draft in the same fashion as last year.
I bring this up only because the fans that attended yesterdays Q and A with Frank Coonelly,Neal Huntington and John Russell tend to ask the same pissed off questions that are easy to answer (if you are writing a blog) and yet don't tell the entire truth.
The first question dealt with "Why is it that, anytime you get somebody decent like Jason Bay, you have to get rid of him?
Well,the obvious answer is money and state of the system.
The Pirates were not contenders with Bay and moving him (whether you like the return or not) allowed them to attempt to address the latter.
I understand the fans frustration,but it isn't hard to figure the answer out,especially when you know what the generic answer will be.
Another guy told the truth about the poor 2009 projection,but pretty much stated the obvious -"I just don't understand how anyone can say this team will be better than it was last year. The bench is going to be worse. The outfield will be worse. The pitching ... if there's any breakdown at all on this team, it will lose 110 games."
The responses are what tends to get the Coonelly gang in trouble.
"Our plan is to win. We want to win right now" said Coonelly.
Well,I can figure out that you want to win and it isn't hard to decipher that the plan is win eventually,but to pretend that you expect to win can do nothing but disappoint the casual and less knowledgeable fan,who will discover after 95 losses that (in their limited vision ) that nothing has changed.
I think putting money into Latin America and the draft is the way to go,but the average Pirate fan sees contending teams in town and cannot help but look at the Pirates as having little chance with additions such as Vasquez and they are right.
Baseball is different from other sports as unless you are New York or Boston types,you simply don't compete overnight and please don't say that Tampa did that,they were the sports version of the old music adage "It took us seven years to be an overnight success".
Keep in mind that the Pirates are in step two of a very long journey,expect lots of losses and an occasional bright spot,but things are looking up.
If the average fan can realize it.......
The Pirates changed the uniforms for next season and I generally like them.
They look like the old Leyland era jerseys with sleeves with the exception of the Sunday home game jersey-that will remain the pinstripe sleeveless version.
The alternate is a basic black and gold that replaces the V-8 juice jerseys.
Nothing special,but not horrendous like the juicers.
The plan is to be back later with another feature,if time permits.
Photo Credit
Jerseys:Steve Mellon-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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