Playing in the recently christened Enmarket Arena, the wait and buildup for pro hockey in The Hostess City of the South ended on Saturday night, where the Ghost Pirates were rude hosts to Greenville, taking over a scoreless game to win 5-1 on the strength of three second-period goals. – There’s only one chance to make a good first impression, and the Savannah Ghost Pirates made a great one on Saturday night in the first home game in franchise history. We got to talking, and the man told me, “We love coming to Pirates games, but we never expect them to win.” (The Cubs, incidentally, swept that three-game series in September 2009.)Ģ009 was the Pirates’ 17th consecutive losing season it would take three more before the Bucs finally got to those three straight postseasons noted above.SAVANNAH, Ga. I went to see the Cubs play in Pittsburgh in 2009, and found myself sitting next to a man with his son, the younger appearing to be around nine or 10 years old. We could be looking at a labor stoppage that could cost us most, if not all, of the 2022 season. or maybe they’re seeing 2021 as a “loss leader” awaiting a return to baseball normalcy in 2022.īut then there’s that expiring labor agreement looming at the end of 2021, and given the contentious negotiations between players and owners to even get a 2020 season played, the talks for a new MLB/MLBPA collective-bargaining agreement aren’t likely to be pretty. Perhaps they are waiting for the price to come down on free agents. But the vast majority of MLB squads are sitting around this offseason doing nothing. Sure, some teams are spending big money this offseason (Padres) and others (Mets, Nationals, Yankees) have made significant signings or trades. This isn’t a way to run a team, or a sport. Or, if this interregnum of a team doesn’t contend, those players (and others) could be traded at the deadline. Then, presuming fans return to Wrigley Field later this year, bringing that revenue back, the team could re-tool for 2022, even if potential free agents Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo depart. It would appear that Cubs strategy is to attempt to compete for a division title in a poor division, which would likely get fans interested, even if it meant another early postseason exit. The Cubs seem to be in a limbo of sorts - they traded away their best (and highest-paid) pitcher, reducing the payroll, but have retained other high-paid players, at least for now. The Pirates and Indians are teams that have apparently gone full tear-down. We still don’t know whether the season will start on time, though the Commissioner’s office continues to say that it will - even though, as I wrote Sunday, at least one team has not given its players an official Spring Training report date. Everyone else on the Indians roster on that page is listed as “pre-arb.”īaseball finds itself at a crossroads in the uncertain times of 2021. The Cleveland Indians are listed by Spotrac even lower, at $23.555 million, though that number will go up before the season begins, because on that Spotrac page for Cleveland, only six player salaries are officially listed. Spotrac has the Pirates’ 2021 payroll at under $38 million. Why are they doing this? Money, of course. this is a team that had the worst record in MLB’s 60-game season in 2020 (19-41, and they had to win four of their last six, including three straight over the Cubs, to be even that “good”), and it’s entirely possible that if MLB does make it through a 162-game season in 2021, they could threaten the modern loss record (120) set by the Mets in 1962. ![]() There are a couple of decent young pitchers, including Mitch Keller and JT Brubaker, but. ![]() Looking at the Pirates’ 40-man roster, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Adam Frazier, Gregory Polanco and Kevin Newman are the only regular position players remaining who are likely to produce any sort of decent season in Pittsburgh in 2021. There's now just one 2+ WAR player left in Pittsburgh, Ke'Bryan Hayes. FanGraphs was already projecting the #Pirates to have the fewest WAR in 2021 (14.2) *before* this trade.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |