Prospecting as a Pittsburgh Pirates fan : An Excersie in Futility?

 

The Pirates are trading Bryan Reynolds.

            Their best player.

            Maybe before the season.

            Probably before the trade deadline.

            Maybe even by the time you’re readings this.

            But the Pittsburgh Pirates are trading Bryan Reynolds. A guy they still have a few years of team control over. Because he wants out. Because the Pittsburgh Pirates aren’t serious about putting a winning team on the field. They’re not serious about Bryan Reynolds. The Pittsburgh Pirates are serious about anything.

            Except losing.

            The Pirates offered Bryan Reynolds 6 years at $75 million dollars. Guaranteed. Not laughable money…unless you play Major League Baseball. Then it is. There are guys out there who aren’t half the player Reynolds is, getting more of the money. The deal also kicks Reynolds out into free agency when he’d be thirty-three or thirty-four. If you’ve paid attention to the Carlos Correa saga, you know that these players and agents usually want a contract that’ll bind them to a team until they’re almost ready to retire. Not when they’re thirty-three or thirty-four years old.

            Did I mention that Reynolds contract is supposed to be the biggest in Pittsburgh Pirates history.

            Pretty cool, huh?

            Until you realize it’s the Pittsburgh Pirates and they don’t spend money on anything.

            They make it a challenge to a fan.

            They even make it a challenge to be a collector.

            I don’t do much in the way of baseball card prospecting. I’m not the kind of collector who gets excited by the mere mention of the word Bowman. I collect because, despite what I just wrote above, I like to root for my hometown team. I like to root for said team’s star players and those hard-nosed guys. When I collect away from the Pirates, it’s usually players who’ve already established themselves in the game, and I happen to like the way they play.

            I site three examples from a recent Stadium Club purchase:

*a brief aside.....thank you Topps for giving Yordan Alvarez some of the most boring looking cards of the year*

Prospecting feels like gambling to me.

It also just doesn’t seem fun.

Okay…it’s a little fun.

But I do prospect pretty deeply where the Pittsburgh Pirates are concerned.

And that, at times, seems doubly unfun.

Or futile.

            Especially when the Pitates aren’t going to sign them long-term anyway.

            And, yes, I know there are exceptions to the rule.

            I also know that Bryan Reynolds wasn’t a prospect brought up in the Pirates system.

            But we traded one of our own to get him.

            And now he wants out.

            And I don't really blame him.

            Being a fan means having hope. The Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t given me much in the way of hope since the early 1990s (2013-2015 aside). They don't sign anyone long term. Your top prospects have a time limit before they're traded at the deadline, the season or so before they are a free agent. They go garbage dump diving for free agents. But yet...the hope, it’s still there. A small, tiny, almost burnt-out ember of hope. I couldn’t begin to explain why I still have that hope.

            Maybe it’s watching this kid knock baseballs out of actual stadiums.

           Or the way this kid pitches.

            How this guy seemed to finally fulfill a lot of promises this year.

            Watching this kid come up from AA and smack 19 homeruns.

            And also have his 1^st Bowman card and his rookie card in the same year.

            It’s these guys coming down the pipeline.

            It’s hope. And a bit of self-delusion. It’s wrong-headed thinking that the current Pittsburgh Pirates ownership and management are going to do anything to sure up the guys currently on the roster, so that fans like me think the above prospects will be with them in black and gold for long time. I collect Pirates prospects because I still have some sliver of stupid hope for the state of Major League Baseball in the fine city of Pittsburgh.

            But…

            Bryan Reynolds asked to be traded.

            Our best player.

            My current favorite player.

            And when he goes, a lot of kids in Pittsburgh are going to feel like I felt when these guys left.

            How in the hell do you maintain or build a fan base running a team like this?

            Something stinks over at PNC Park.

            Look, I’m not completely delusional. I know that, unless a guy plays in New York or L.A. or is Joey Votto, most likely a player won’t finish his career with one team. That’s the economics of the game. I’m a believer in the cap/floor system, not because I want to stop a player from making money, but because I want to stop a cheapskate owner like Bob Nutting, from not paying a player what he’s worth. Six-years at Seventy-Five Million. Get bent, Bob!

            Give us fans some longevity.

            I can’t change the economics of baseball in Pittsburgh.

            Or a skinflint owner.

            Or the fact that Bryan Reynolds could be in a Yankees, Ranger, Mariners, Dodgers etc. uniform by 2023 Series 2 or Update.

            But maybe I should stop prospecting on Pittsburgh Pirates cards.

            Save myself some money.

            That’s easier said than done.

            Deep down I’m a baseball optimist.

            I've been a massive Pirates fan for decades.

            And now I have this card coming for me in the mail.

Thanks for reading! Happy collecting!

 NEXT FRIDAY: Friend of the Blog, Russell Streur is back with a little bit of Edwin Jackson for your baseball journeyman fans.