Is There a Storm Brewing?
By Jake • May 29th, 2008 • Category: Feature Story
Long range weather models suggest a possible hurricane entering the Gulf of Mexico June 5th, first day of the 2008 MLB draft. Short-term fan temperment models suggest a possible collapse of the remaining Pirates fan base two days later.
While June hurricanes are very hard to accurately predict, fan temperment isn’t as tough.
What is unusual about this year’s “Irate Fan” type movement is that they aren’t even waiting for the draft to take place to organize - they are already gathering their forces expecting the Pirates to fail the fans once again.
And if the latest reports coming out are any indication of the Pirates true first round pick, they might just be right.
Baseball America’s latest Draft Tracker is linking the Pirates to high school catcher Kyle Skipworth. Bucco Blog profiled Skipworth the other day suggesting that if the Pirates were going to finally pronounce the “R” word (rebuilding) during this draft, he wouldn’t be a bad pick to start a rebuilding process with.
But Skipworth would represent a serious overdraft ultimately resulting in yet another round of multi-million dollar savings to Pirates ownership while the more expensive superior talent falls to our competitors.
Shades of the past you say? That’s exactly what the “irate fans” are suggesting, and why they have been organizing.
Bucco Blog participated in the first annual blogger’s Mock Draft today which is currently ongoing as I write this. Keith Law of ESPN picked Buster Posey for the Rays and I selected Pedro Alvarez for the Pirates. The intent of this mock was to pick who you feel your respective club would pick, not who you personally want.
I took who I felt was the best available and not ten minutes later the first comment from an AL club’s fan hit the board: “I don’t think the Pirates will pony up for Alvarez.” He might be right - we’ve already heard the excuses start with the fact Alvarez did poorly in the SEC tourney.
And that’s just it - as Pirates fans we’ve been there, done that. No matter the event that requires this ownership to spend money, excuses start flowing from numerous media sources trying to minimize the impact when they don’t spend it.
How convienient is it that the Pirates are owned by board members of media giants and local newspaper media have either been shareholders, are paying to be the newspaper of choice of the team, or the beat writers have worked for one of the Pirates owners in the past? And now the Pirates have even hired a blogger - Dan Fox of Baseball Prospectus fame - from a publication that has routinely hammered the Pirates ownership the last few years.
Can Pirates fans honestly believe anything, anywhere, any more? Tough question, as big as baseball is getting.
But one thing you can go to the bank with - if you see the Pirates taking the cheap route next Thursday, don’t be too surprised if you start hearing renewed calls for a boycott.
Loud calls.
Very loud calls.
Oh, and if you are heading to Orlando, be sure to take your waders if you plan to golf. It looks like there might be a different kind of storm brewing too.
Jake is no longer contributing at Bucco Blog, a fan blog covering the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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What if their plan is to draft Alvarez and play hardball with the negotiations? They don\’t sign him and say we tried our best but he wouldn\’t meet us part way. I know you mentioned something similar to this earlier with the strategy of better prospects being available next year. This draft is very important, but the FO has far too many other problems. If they do hit a homerun with this pick, I will not get too excited. This draft and the trade deadline will determine our future for the next several years.
Been a season tix holder for 11 years and I get more disgusted each one. I don\’t have any idea who the best player to take in the draft is but I better see some results in the win column pretty soon.
I really don’t think the fanbase can get any worse. Most of the people who attend games go because of the fireworks or free handouts or are business related.
I’ve been to a few games and the fan’s emotion is not there. Most act the same if an error was made or if there was a HR hit. The diehard Pirates fans are rare, nothing like a Steeler game who share the emotions with the players.
Honestly, I think the 10,000 fans that do go to games don’t really give a darn about a boycott. What’s left are people who go to games if they win 100 or lose 100. Those interested in boycotts are already boycotting.
Tampa has Kyle Skipworth in their top 5. Without an elite prospect in the draft, maybe this Kyle Skipworth wouldn’t be a bad pick.
According to some publications, he is one of the few prospects that is actually improving his draft status. He has a sweet power swing from the left side of the plate, he has the tools to be a good defensive catcher.
Here\’s an example of his sweet lefty swing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbfQvcSxvoY.
If they draft Skipworth it\’s gonna be 4-5 years before he sniffs the Primanti Brothers sandwich and a taste of Iron City. In other words, he will be the heir apparent to Ryan Doumit when he becomes too expensive to keep. If the Bucs were in the 5 - 15 range then I wouldn\’t complain. He\’s certainly a better prospect than Buster Posey. He\’s signable compared to Alvarez. I still like to see the Bucs take a chance on Justin Smoak but that\’s doubtful too. We\’ll see on Thursday
Here\’s a super slo-mo of his swing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTO30fnld7s
Not bad…..better than Beckham\’s Hiwawatch Hack
There is no such thing as a “first annual.” It can’t be considered annually until the second time it is held. Therefore, it was the “inaugural” mock draft.
Andy -
The slow-motion also showed how poor of a pitch that was that he hit.
here we go alvarez here we go!!! lets hope tampa Bay picks beckam, or Posey. It looks like Beckam could be a great major leaguer someday, and also is a 5 tool player. But if the pirates draft Beckam he wont be major league ready for 4-5 years. If we draft Alverez then he will be major league ready by next season and could be are 2009 opening day starter. That beging said lets hope we land Alvarez!!! he would be great for the pirates a good building block with mccuchen,pearce,walker,mclouth, and doumit. Also if we land alvarez i see walker moving from 3rd to 1st or alvarez from 3rd to 1st
please Neal draft alvarez!!!!!!! he will give this team a bright future with the other prospects.
I think we really do need to rebuild. We will not win this year or the next or the year after that. There is no point in throwing a ton of money at someone to play for 5 years on a losing ball club and leave as soon as his contract is up. I would love to see us take Beckham or Skipworth and just rebuild.
Also, Jake can you tell me anything about Daniel Webb. Like the round he\’ll be drafted in and what kind of pitcher he is. I have tried many times to find out about him but there just isn\’t anything I can find. Also, could you name any other high school pichers you think are good and we could get after the first round.
I hope we have a chance to pick Alvarez whether we do or not, just so we can learn a little more about the new management’s intentions and Nutting’s commitment.
Alvarez or Posey are the obvious choices,
posey isnt in the same class as alvarez, or even beckham who isnt in alvarez’s class…alvarez is the best option and beckham the only other pick that will be acceptable
the Rays will take Alvarez (the rest is a smoke screen). The bucs will be then draft Beckham. And any outrage will be averted.
Well, any outrage over this exact draft pick, anyway.
All other outrage will still be in effect.
Alvarez won’t be picked by the Rays…they are taking either Posey or Beckham and my sources tell me that they want Posey.
The Pirates WILL NOT take Kyle Shipworth and as usual Baseball America, whom screws fans more than any website out there, is making up crap.
I can tell you about Daniel Webb
He has a chance to go in the Supplemental round but msot likely he is a Round 2 pick. He doesn’t really strike out a ton of guys for a high schooler but he will most likely be there when we pick in Round 2