Hope sprang eternal this morning, as Bucco camp officially opened. Some interesting press came out of the team over last few days,
as the front office continues to make strides forward by locking up core players long term. As Neil Huntington continues to employ the strategy he learned in Cleveland, by locking young guys up long term in their pre-free agency years, he continually avoids the big problem: the team is still lacking that big free agent slugger that the line up can be built around.
With a projected payroll around $50 million, the Bucs can surely afford an increase of $15-20 million to get that one blue chipper. Of course, I run a free blog, not a professional ball club. All in all, it appears that the front office is targeting 2010 to be "the season"...HURRAY another 68 wins this year!
Quick Hitters:
- At what point is a high profile athlete no longer allowed to use the "I was young" excuse for a bone headed screw up (ala Michael Phelps, A Rod). If a 25 year old working class stiff attempts to argue out of a DUI by saying he's young, he'll get an extra bitch slap on his way to the slammer.
- Who will be the next Steeler to wind up in the post Superbowl police line up?
- Isn't Jamie Dixon a friggin' God sent?
- How many of you power back on the brain swammis are secretly wishing the Steelers would sign Fred Taylor. Actually, if it could work (it probably can't), he'd be a great asset off the bench.
7 comments:
The Pirates are dead to me!
Yes - the Pirates are dead to me...but I need to comment on one thing our beloved blogger wrote. In reference to the "lacking that big free agent slugger". Let's remember that it's been lacking since PNC Park opened. And the park is designed to compliment a left-handed power hitter. The team even said so much when plans for the stadium were unvieled. WTF!!! You can't find one in like 10 years.
This is just one of the many reason that the Succos are dead to me!
At the expense of being argumentative, the Bucs did have a lefty slugger named Brian Giles (via trade)from '99 to '03. Although Giles is certainly not Cooperstown bound, he did have 35+ dingers for four straight years, and was possibly the second best overall slugger in the NL from '99 to '02 (next to Bonds). With that being said, other than Giles, the Bucs really failed to capitalize on the short right field porch with a big lefty bat. In their almost defenseless defense, it seemed like league scouts thought that the LaRoche deal would bring them a 40+ HR guy...not quite.
Touche teacher touche
OK - Giles was in PNC for 2 of its 8 seasons and he hit about 75 HRs in that span.
But by the time he rolled into PNC the team cancer (aka Jason Kendal) got to him and his desire to play in Pittsburgh disappeared.
With that short porch, the Succos first priority EVERY year should be to find a lefty that can bang lasers off the wall and hit bombs over it.
BTW - the Pirates are dead to me!
and another thing....don't even bring LaRoche into this conversation. I love looking at the stats on June 1 and see him hitting .147.
Thankfully, I won't put myself through that torture this year becasue as previously stated, the Pirates are dead to me.
Sorry - can't let this go.
I went to 4 games last year. 3 games vs the Yankees and then 1 towards the end of the season when Lynard Skynard played after the game.
This is where baseball stands in the hearts of Pittsburghers....the Pirates were losing the Skynrd game and were mounting a comeback - but the 35,000+ were relieved when the comback fell short and we weren't tortured with extra innings......let the concert begin.
BTW - this was the same night Gonch got banged up for the Pens. I shed a tear in my beer that night. How did I know - cause I was listening to the Pens as I was waiting for the Pirate game to be over.
I'm looking forward to them clinching the record for futility in the 4 major sports this year. They should have it locked up by June 10th.
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