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Introduction

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been a train wreck in major league baseball for years. The last time they made the playoffs was 1992. It's been almost twenty years since this organization had a winning season and made the playoffs in the process. There are many reasons why a team can struggle poor ownership, a front office that lacks leadership, terrible managers and, poor scouting which leads to terrible draft picks. In baseball you got your high market teams that can buy out the best players like the Yankees and then you got the low market teams who can't resign their players and have to build through the draft like the Pirates.

The two main problems they've had are drafting early and trading their best players once they develop.  The Pirates have had drafting problems dating back to as early as 1994.  In 1994 they needed a shortstop and passed up on college phenom Nomar Garciaparra to draft high school prospect Mark Farris.  A year later they took another shortstop in the first round because they failed to draft Garciaparra.  In the 1997 MLB Draft the Pirates passed on Lance Berkman who would go on to have a superstar career with the Houston Astros to draft JJ Davis. What about the 1998 draft when they passed on CC Sabathia and Brad Lidge to draft Clint Johnson.  How about 1999 when they passed on pitchers Barry Zito and Ben Sheets for high school prosect Bobby Bradley.  In 2001 the Pirates had the worst record in Major League baseball and had the first overall pick in 2002 MLB Draft.  The Pirates had a brand new stadium opening and the first pick and decided to draft pitcher Bobby Bullington out of Ball State when pitching prospects like Zach Greinke, Scott Kazmir, and Cole Hammels were all available.  The good news is since 2005 every Pirates draft prospect has looked promising giving the fans of Pittsburgh an optimistic future.

Every year in July this always becomes an issue around the trade deadline.  The reason I say this is because certain players have expiring contracts in the offseason and instead of trying to compete knowing you won't be able to resign your player you try to trade that player and get something in return.  What do Jason Kendall, Jason Bay, Derek Lee, Aramis Ramerez, Jason Schmidt, Kris Benson, Xavier Nady, Jack Wilson, Adam LaRoche, Jason Kendall, NyJer Morgan, Sean Burnett, Brian Giles, Craig Wilson, and Nate McLouth all have in common?  The one thing these players have in common is that they all got traded too soon.  Who knows if every player I mentioned stayed on the Pirates the Pittsburgh Pirates would have at least made the playoffs once.  Who knows the team might have even won a pennant or a world series.  When you lose your best players and they go on to be big somewhere else all you can do is speculate on what could of happened.

My concluding statement is you can't blame the managers who run this team there doing there best to make this team function properly.  If you are a low market buisness with an unrealible front office that has poor public relations all you can do is keep trying until you hit the jackpot through the MLB and get the superstar you need to make a playoff run.

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