Pittsburgh Pirates Rebuilding Again?

After a decade and a half of utter futility and failure, the Pittsburgh Pirates have gained little to nothing through the draft and have improved their financial situation by trading away their good players. Only in baseball can a team turn a profit every year finishing in the basement. When will the league realize that a salary cap is a must?

The great fans of Pittsburgh love all of their sports teams and have given the Pirates the benefit of the doubt numerous times. Most people felt when the Pirates received their new ballpark (PNC Park) that the ownership would begin to strengthen the roster in the hopes of being a championship contender again. Unfortunately for the fans, ownership only seemed worried about pulling in a profit. This meant signing no meaningful free agents and trading any player that cost the organization a little money. In any other sport this would be dooming to a franchise, but baseball awards teams for being losers.

By awarding losing teams money at the end of each season it allows the Pirates ownership to sit back and allow this team to lose every season. This year alone the Pirates have traded Jack Wilson, Freddy Sanchez, Ian Snell, Nyjer Morgan, Nate McLouth and Adam LaRoche. This has left the Pirates back at square one again.

Some people would argue that teams with a lesser salary cap can still win (ex. Tampa Bay Rays making it to the World Series), while that is true there is still little incentive to win. The Pirates ownership understands this fact and has little care for building up a ball club. You would think at some point Major League Baseball would step in and help this franchise, but it appears that the Pirates have been left out to dry.

Pittsburgh fans rarely give up on their hometown team, but if the Pirates continue these antics they will begin to dig their own grave.