I don’t really even want to talk about this, but I guess I can’t ignore, Sean Burnett’s comments about the Pirates’ rebuilding process:
“It’s funny, but Nyjer and I knew this was going to happen,” Burnett said last night from Milwaukee, shortly after hearing that the Pirates continued their trading binge by sending away John Grabow and Tom Gorzelanny. “They’re the laughingstock of baseball right now. They’ve gotten rid of everybody
[…]
They’re dying to cheer the Pirates on. And now, they don’t have anybody they even know. Guys like Jack and Freddy, the faces of the franchise, players they’re supposed to be locking up, they’re all gone. What’s going to bring people to the ballpark now?”
Personally, I’m with with John Grabow:
In all the years I’ve been there, they’ve tried to build things piece by piece, and it’s never worked. So, I think they’ve come to the conclusion that, well, let’s completely overhaul it, get a young group of players and have them all flourish at the same time. That’s my take on it.
I don’t like to fault players for statements like that because they’re generally too close to the situation to see the forest for the trees, but yeah, it certainly irks me because I know it’s fuel for certain fires that I think are already burning bright enough.
Look; Neal Huntington inherited a teetering, collapsing two-story house and was told to build a mansion. After some analysis, he decided that the building he inherited was poorly designed and that the foundation was fatally flawed. Despite cries from the majority of the fan base and some of the players to attempt to renovated the shoddy house he was given, Huntington decided that the only course of action was to demolish the old house and sell the remaining parts to help re-pour the foundation, then build the house he wants on the same site.
He was right. Given what he was given, this is the best way to do it. Whether the house Huntington builds is significantly better than Littlefield’s hovel remains to be seen. The demolition of the old house is complete. The new foundation is being poured. Build us our house, Neal.
