being around a lot of baseball minded people i can tell you that most “prospects” don’t pan out. we only know about the pirates ones but it goes on in every city. i will say the pirates and MLB as a whole needs to get rid of the good ole boys network. there are too many scouts with one foot in the grave. they keep recycling these same coaches… its time for new blood… no phil garner, no ken macha… A NEW GUY!
to say the pirates do nothing for the city thou is not true unless you speak soley on wins and losses. without the pirates there is no all star game last year… the pirates bring more business to the city than the other two sports teams (81 dates, you can argue that) the pirates put more money into pittsburgh charities than the other two combined. The pirates too have competion that the other sports dont have for the most part… the pirates play in the citys best weather months and they have to compete with kennywood and anything else that is open in the summer. Pittsburgh is also a pretty big college city… for most of the season those students are not around because they are back at home.