- Consistently amongst the league's bottom 5 or 6 in payroll every season
- Consistently lose their best players to free agency because of the inability or unwillingness to sign them to costly, deserving contracts
- Consistently post losing seasons making one of the worst runs in professional sports history
There are several ways to turn this team around and I believe the the current management structure is building the team properly. Within the last few months, the Pirates have locked up arguably their 3 best players. Nate McLouth, Ryan Doumit, and Paul Maholm all signed long term deals accounting for 41-75 million dollars (depending on performance). The intriguing point of interest is that all 3 of these players are in the prime of their careers. Over the last 16 years, this is about the time the Pirates let these kind of players go elsewhere for more money and they signed an overpaid, washed up, stop gap player.
Additionally, for the first time in a long time, the Pirates have serious prospects in the minor leagues. Pedro Alvarez, Andrew McCutchen, Jose Tabata, and Neil Walker could all be all star caliber major leaguers.
The Pirates have a plethora of young talent and if they can find a way to gel together at the right time, I could see the Pirates make a Florida Marlins-esque or a Tampa Rays-esque run.
I've been predicting it for a few months now...I sincerely believe our young talent is going to stop the losing skid this season.
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