Pirates Set Futility Record But Brighter Days Are Ahead

The Pirates lost to the Cubs today and set a record with 17 consecutive losing seasons, breaking the tie they reached last year with the 1933-1948 Philadelphia Phillies (back in the days when Philadelphia was a two-team city and couldn’t support either).  It’s an ugly record and one which makes it hard for the Pirates to get out from under.  Even though PNC Park is by most, if not all, reports a great ballpark, it’s hard to bring in the fans when you are a guaranteed loser even before the season starts.

The Pirates will likely extend their record of futility in 2010 and 2011, but things are, in fact, looking up for the Bucs.  They have gone into full rebuilding mode the last couple of seasons, and while some of the trades didn’t bring in as much talent as hoped for, some did.

Here’s an article by Rob Neyer singing the praises of just-turned 21 year old Jose Tabata, one of the players, along with Ross Ohlendorf, the Pirates received from the Yankees for Damaso Marte and Xavier Nady.  Tabata has a career minor league batting average of .296 and career minor league OBP of .364, and he’s spent the last two seasons playing regularly in the high minors.  No power to speak of yet, but he’s got time to learn, and he sure can hit.

Meanwhile, at age 22 Andrew McCutchen appears to be the real deal, and Lastings Milledge appears to be back on track.  Milledge is still only 24 years old.

The Pirates still have a long way to go, of course, but they are actively rebuilding their minor league system and should be able to produce some real talent over the next five years.  Aside from all the trades, the Bucs were very aggressive this year in the amateur draft and in signing Latin amateurs.  They drafted below slot with the No. 4 pick in the draft (they selected Boston College catcher Tony Sanchez, who many projected as a late second or early third round pick, and signed him for $2.5 million, probably saving $2 to $ 3 million over what they would have had to pay for the consensus fourth best player in the Draft.

The Bucs used that savings, however, to draft high-bonus-demand high schoolers in the later rounds, most of whom they successfully signed, and also to go after Latin amateurs.  It was kind of a quantity-over-quality approach, but the Pirates should have at least some of their accumulated young talent eventually reach the major league level.

Even if the Bucs do finally assemble some young talent at the major league level, there’s no guarantee they can mold it into winning teams.  However, some small market teams like the Twins, A’s, Indians and Marlins have been able to produce at least a few successful seasons in recent years and even make the post-season.  It can be done, and the place to start is by developing your own young and relatively inexpensive talent.