Dollars & Sense - The Man Behind The Winning Pirates

How bad is your favorite team? Maybe they are really bad or, if you are lucky, maybe they are really good. They could also fall somewhere in the middle – like toiling between the eighth and ninth spot of the NBA playoffs every year middle – but fans are too emotional to ever admit being in the middle.

For years the Pittsburgh Pirates were one of those teams that were really bad. Really, really bad. Just ask Bryan Fyalkowski who used to write the Route 30 Detour for us. A tortured Pirates fans for all of his years on earth, the years of losing certainly got to him.

espn.com

But now, as of this very week, the Pirates are winners. After 20 straight losing seasons, the beloved Buccos have reached 81 wins meaning that no matter what they do the rest of the way they will finish .500. Just talk to a Pirates fan and you will see what it feels like to get a monkey the size of an entire city off your back.

The greatest news of all is that the Pirates have the framework in place to keep winning. Last year looking like the year that they were finally going to do it until a wretched final month and a half of the season derailed their chances. This season they finally did it, and they can do it again going forward.

At the core of the Pirate’s recent success is All-Star outfielder Andrew McCutchen. McCutchen is only 26-years-old and is working off of one the most team-friendly contract in all of baseball after signing a6-year $51.5 million extension prior to last season. “Cutch” has also been able to keep his name in the National League Most Valuable Player discussion for the last two years, going for 31 home runs, 96 RBI, and a .327 average last year followed by 18 home runs, 75 RBI, and a .320 average through 135 games this season.

Even though he plays in Pittsburgh, McCutchen is marketable as well. He has a notable endorsement with EvoShield, a company that makes protective athletic gear such as McCutchen’s shin guard. He is most known, though, for his appearance on the cover of the popular video game MLB 2013 The Show.

Most importantly, in this day and age when the actions of athletes are often overblown, McCutchen has managed to stay away from it all. Keeping a clean image in the current social media ultra-microscopic climate is essential and something that McCutchen recognizes which helps to boost his approval amongst fans and endorsers alike.

It is difficult for an MVP caliber player on-the-field to be just as effective off-the-field, but McCutchen is doing just that. Now that the Pirates have broken the 20-pluc year curse, McCutchen’s marketability will continue to climb and he will continue to put Pittsburgh on the baseball map.

Follow Kevin Rossi on Twitter @kevin_rossi.

We Are Pittsburgh Pirates, We Are Ready

We are in uncharted territory. A team that has never won is winning. A roster that has never been good enough is proving its worth. The Pittsburgh Pirates are 48-37 and lead the National League Central at the All-Star break, and it is everything we were waiting for.

After nineteen consecutive losing seasons, it is hard to argue against the fact that we deserve this. It is hard to argue that there is a fan base that deserves a positive season more than we do. But that is not what we are about. That is not what this team is about. That is not what this city is about.

"Every time I go out there, I have a chip on my shoulder," James McDonald said yesterday after finishing at least seven innings for the eighth time in seventeen starts this season. "All of us have chips on our shoulder... Every day is a statement day."

"It's about time" should not be in our vocabulary. "I've been a fan since..." should not matter. "The Nuttings" should not be our scapegoats anymore. We are grateful but we are humble. We do not take this success for granted. We know where we have been, but there is a reason why we are still here.

There is a reason why we sat through seasons of John Russell as the skipper. There is a reason why we gave Jeromy Burnitz a chance. There is a reason why we dealt with Ronny Cedeño. We saw the light at the end of the tunnel. That light is here now, but we are not relieved.

We are hungry.

".500" should not be the barometer. "Nineteen losing seasons" should not hang over us. "PNC Park" should not be the only thing we brag about. From last year we know where this season could go, but it will not. We have never been there before, but we know where we have to go. We know what we have to do. We are not looking to improve. We are looking to win.

No one else understands. "The Pirates are a great story" they say. "The Pirates are a sentimental favorite" they claim. "The Pirates need..." they analyze. We hear it and we smile. We are not the underdogs, even though they want us to be. This is not the team they think it is.

"We pitch, we play defense, we're hitting," Brad Lincoln said after striking out Jim Thome in a crucial situation to secure a Pirates' win in Philadelphia two weeks ago. "We're here man. We're not going away."

It is not just the team on the field. It is not just the fans in the seats. It is not just the front-office executives who built this roster. We are in this, and we are in this together. There is a reason why Drew Sutton mentioned "family" before "team" in his post-walk-off interview.

But this is not the "We Are Family" Pirates of 1979. These Pirates are incomparable. They are unique. They are perfect. It does not mean they will win, and it does not mean they will not lose. It means they are just what we wanted.

This team is special. There is no other way to say it. Other teams have better records, but they are not us. They cannot fathom what we are embracing. They are not doing what we are experiencing. They are not supposed to lose and we were not supposed to win. After nineteen years, we no longer fear losing. They do.

It is not too soon to wish for the moon because it can be done. Nobody can tell us it cannot. Teams like the Phillies and the Yankees feel like they are entitled to winning. We just remembered we are not entitled to losing.

Players like Freddy Sanchez and Jason Bay were always proud to put on the black and gold, but never had the wins to show for it. That is one thing we can claim of the past nineteen years. We kept our pride through thick and thin, and now it is time to embrace our past. The bad is just as important as the good because it has shaped us.

It has shaped us into a 48-37 record. It has shaped us into the division leader. It has shaped us into the 2012 Pittsburgh Pirates.

"I'm proud to take the mound for the Pittsburgh Pirates," AJ Burnett said today after leading the Pirates to their twelfth consecutive victory with him on the mound. "I'm proud to pitch for these players, these fans, this city. They're bringing it out of me. This just makes me proud to be a Pittsburgh Pirate."

Revenue Sharing is Caring

Welcome to the Route 30 Detour! US Route 30 intersects at I-95 in Philadelphia and goes from coast to coast, including passing through Pittsburgh and the home of Drexel University SMT student and blog contributor, Bryan Fyalkowski (@fyalkowski)...

Happy 4th of July, yinz! What else would I talk about today other than America's pastime?

 Like you even write about anything else. Joke.

Bud Selig has done some questionable things during his time as MLB commissioner, such as making the All-Star Game determine home-field advantage in the World Series and turning his back on the HGH epidemic of the late 90s/early 00s. But all and all, he has done some great things — well, at least  enough to not get booed at his own league's draft.

"And the Houston Astros take... some guy!"

In addition to interleague play and the introduction of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays, Selig helped institute revenue sharing in the MLB. New to the five-year CBA formed in 2006, all 30 teams would put 1/3 of their total revenue to a common pool, which was then split evenly between the teams. According to documents leaked to the AP in 2010, each team received $30-35 million per year from 2006-07 in this revenue sharing system, with more than $300 million being transferred from high-revenue to low-revenue teams per year.

Also AJ Burnett :).

Over the past few years, low-revenue teams like the Rays, Cincinnati Reds and, quite recently, Pittsburgh Pirates have been able to compete very well with the rest of baseball. There seemed to be no specific reason for this, until now. In a quote taken earlier this week from Selig, he basically takes credit for this phenomenon. The commissioner claims that "this couldn't happen" in the late 90s and the Pirates' success this year is "a manifestation of all the economic changes" in recent years.

While it may be true that revenue sharing has allowed teams a better opportunity to compete, compared to the 90s when the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees dominated the entire MLB, I find it inappropriate for Selig to make such comments at this time. This is not the time to toot your own horn, just let this parody happen and brag about your accomplishments when you are up for a contract renewal.

Because $22 million per year might not be good enough.

The current CBA, that was signed in November 2011 and went into effect this season, calls for one specific term that hurts low-revenue teams: capping the spending amount on draft picks. Now, each team has a predetermined amount which they can spend on bonuses given to all of their picks; the most for the No. 1 slot and the least for No. 30. If a team goes over the amount, they are penalized in money and in future draft picks.

This helps low-revenue teams because they will save money on first round players, but it hurts them because they will not be able to throw bonuses at high-risk, high-reward players in later rounds. Teams like the Pirates and Rays would do this in order to entice players to skip college and go directly into the pros in order to build depth in their minor league system. But now they will need to find other ways to do this.

Saber-WHAT?!

Also, these comments are unfair to the general manager of the Pirates, Neal Huntington, manager Clint Hurdle and his coaching staff and the players who have played their hearts out this season to exceed expectations and put themselves in the thick of things in the National League, now halfway through the season. No matter what the reason is, Pirates fans have very much to be thankful for right now, Bud Selig or otherwise.

#DREWSUTTON

Enjoy your trip back to I-95 and I'll see you next week!