Media Savvy
Irrelevant But Not Meaningless
By Stan Savran

The Pirates' 2008 season is irrelevant.

I know many of you probably already feel that way. What's another losing season amongst friends…even if this one will represent a major league record?

But that's not why the season on our doorstep is meaningless, although a good case could be made on its own merit. And this is not an attempt to limit interest or diminish what level of interest may exist. It's merely an attempt to look beyond the immediate.

That, of course, presumes there is a future for the Pittsburgh Pirates, at least one that is distinguishable from the past. But operating on that premise, here's why what happens at the major league level this season is largely, and lamentably, meaningless in the bigger picture.

This organization is bereft of talent….at all levels!

I would much rather one of the Pirates Class A teams win a pennant than I would the Pirates challenge .500. As welcome as that might be, it still doesn't put them closer to what they say they want to be: a legitimate playoff contender.

This franchise has rotted from the top to the bottom, and it must be rebuilt in reverse. The ONLY way a small market team can compete, albeit for a limited window of opportunity, is to develop its own. Maybe the Pirates can scrimp and save to buy one big name free agent to fill a position, but only if the rest of the pieces of the puzzle are already in place. And they can only be put in place by drafting, signing, and astute trading, especially at the minor league level.

No one around here will ever want to use Cleveland as an example for anything, unless its how NOT to preserve waterways, but they do know how to build baseball teams. They drafted people like Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, C.C Sabathia, Victor Martinez and Fausto Carmona. They acquired young unknowns such as Kenny Lofton, Sandy Alomar Jr. and Travis Hafner from other organizations. That's how you build a winner… and a team that can win for a reasonable period of time. But first, it has to start with talent from your own organization. What position players have the Pirates developed currently at the major league level? Ronny Paulino? Nate McClouth?

I rest my case.

So infusing this entire organization with talent, from bottom to top is priority one. What happens at the major league level, this season or next, is irrelevant. That's not to say that a better than expected season wouldn't be welcome or valuable. It would help to change, or at least modify, two decades of this culture of losing. The major league team is the window dressing for the entire organization…it's what most of the world sees. It also sells tickets - no small consideration. But still, it is not the most important thing.

The Pirates are attempting to do the right things. They may have attempted it before, but were completely unsuccessful. So it's fortunate that Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington are trying to do things the right way, but unfortunate that they are being held accountable for the failures of others, either in design or execution. The state of the Pirates was not created by the new management team, and yet their efforts are being met with derision - or worse: indifference. The 15 years of losing did not come by their hands. So dismissing their efforts isn't fair. But they inherit the legacy. They had to know that when they took their respective jobs.

As difficult as it will be, they must remember this: The 2008 Pirates season means little.

What they do behind and below that means everything.