Lots of really interesting questions to cover this week, and there's no sense wasting any more time than I've already wasted with this sentence. Let's get into it:
The fast food story was good. I liked it. About a year ago, a few friends of mine did our own fast food "test". The dollar double chee challenge. The contenders where wendy's, MCD's and BK, and MCD won hands down.
Who's the jokester(s) that trusts the pirates' management team more than the steelers' or penguins'? That's gotta be a fake vote, right?
I mean, (this is gonna be unpopular, but) i'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that this truly is the best they can do (trades)with what they were given. I think (read: hope) that the Coon/Hunt team are taking the right steps to eventually make the pirates a contender, but i'm a long effin way from saying these guys are more trustworthy than the rooneys or sheros of the world!
Also, as much as I dislike the Buccos FO, I don't blame them for firing the kid. You can't write those things about the people who cut you a check and expect to last. Of course, I don't mind that the story still ended up making the FO look bad.
I have not trusted Pirates management since the Sid Thryft era. However, I will give "Coon-Hunt" credit for trying to rebuild a farm system that was full of older players who had long ago reached their ceiling.
That said, there is smugness with how the organization handles PR that does not befit a team with 17 straight losing seasons. They could learn a lot from the Penguins in that regard.
Oh and "*uck the Flyers." Sorry, just needed to get that out of my system.
1. No - employees get fired from all kinds of companies all the time for things like that. It's called not biting the hand that feeds you. If it wasn't a sports team, we wouldn't have heard about it.
2. No - weird, yes. Unnecessarily shady, yes. A lie, no.
3. Steelers - they consistently build a winner and Colbert hasn't had a single bad draft. The Penguins have great management, but I don't think they're at the level of consistency of the Steelers yet, and they're going to be feeling the effects of trading prospects for one year rentals in the next few years. The Pirates management generally has the right strategy and they've drafted well, but it's way too early to make any kind of verdict on them, and WAY too early to call them better than the Steelers or Penguins.
4. No way. He's been dominant, but it's three games. Jeff Karstens looked good for his first three games too. (NOTE: Strasburg is obviously way, way better than Karstens. I'm just making a point.) Let the kid show he can do it for a little longer.
Okel - I agree with you here too. Coonelly and Huntington come off to me as if they believe Pittsburgh is a hick town, ignorant of baseball, and simply craving entertainment rather than quality baseball. Its worth noting that the Pirates have staff dedicated to "community relations," "media relations," and "ticket holder relations," but not general public relations.
JR comes off as the kind of baseball guy who puts his trust in probability. Don't worry about a starter only hitting .200 - that's 20% of the time!!!
Nutting comes off as an ignoramus tightwad. The kind of kid who would be an antagonist of the Olsen twins on Full House. He chooses to stay out of the spotlight in his sheltered 'haven' of Wheeling. Coward.
Why would I be on the Pirates payroll to make comments on Mondesi's House? If Nutting is as cheap as you all claim, I doubt he'd pay for something that frivolous. I just realize that the way to build a team isn't by signing the players that made you a bad team in the first place to long-term extensions.
If you really need to know that badly, I write a Pirates blog at www.stealingfirstbase.com. I follow the Pirates more closely than the average yinzer. That's basically the extent of things. I'm not saying we have the bestest GM in the whole wide world, I'm saying he's had three good drafts and the minor leagues look better than they have in years. Who knows how it'll actually play out, but it's a start.
Baseball is my favorite sport, and I'm not a bandwagoner. It would be awesome if they were a good team right now, but it is what it is. Hopefully they can be good soon. You don't get that way by keeping Nate McLouth (.176 average in 2010) or Xavier Nady (bench player from the moment we traded him) as everyday starters. You get that way by giving people like Jose Tabata, Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez a shot.
If you disagree, that's fine. If you can offer rational arguments as to why you disagree, even better. But personal attacks make you look like a petty fool. Burress and okel dokel both disagree with me, but at least they have valid reasons. You just get off on calling me naive.
"Petty" means many things to many different folks.
To me, it's trying to compare the Penguins down years in a previous post that was lacking in fact or actual knowledge of the topic.
Would a "rational argument" be defined as defending Coonelly's statements by quoting him with words he actually didn't state? Strike two Junior.
This isn't your blog. Just because you type something doesn't mean it's true. Look on the bright side...I didn't include you as working for the Pirates.
"Why would I be on the Pirates payroll to make comments on Mondesi's House?"
I have long been under the impression that NPM (Nutting Proganda Machine) has planted staff and interns in blogs and chats to spin things in a positive light and defend their "honor".
Before last night's game, Guy Smiley sat down with the Milledge Idiot before the game and Firstings said that there is nothing wrong with the way he runs the bases and nobody on the staff sees anything wrong with it either. I guess it's a good thing Bob Walk is in the booth and not the dugout, because I know he isn't a fan of his baserunning at all.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: No Accountability (except for Pierogies).
I actually agree with your assessment on how to build a team. However, you don't have to wear loyalty to the Pirates like a badge of honor. Maybe you are too young to remember, but this isn't the first time the Pirates have had a youth movement. This message of hope and youth was sold in the 90's with miserable results and some of us older individuals are not buying anymore. Coupled with the lack of pitching, inability to attract any kind of free agents, and historical reticence to sign high dollar draft picks (seem to be more willing recently), I don't think winning is right around the corner. If you like baseball and want to go to PNC to support the Nutting estate planning vehicle, it is your decision and your discretionary income. When you lose sight that sports is entertainment and blindly give the ownership your money out of loyalty, how can you expect change to ever occur??? Let me ask a question from a different perspective; if you had a favorite restaurant that was sold to a new owner, and the new ownership came in and served cheap terrible food for 18 straight years while telling everybody how great it was, while controlling the media message like Joseph Stalin, would you still keep going back and spending money at the restaurant? My guess is no. I don't see a difference, but some will disagree with the comparison.
Burgh - I didn't write the Penguins post. Pretty much everyone who ever lived thinks that post was stupid.
Quotation marks can be used as illustrations. It's called paraphrasing.
But you still haven't presented any rational reason that you disagree with anything I've stated.
Burress - Milledge is easily the worst base runner I've ever seen play anywhere. That said, I'd still rather see him get thrown out on the bases for a stupid decision every day than see Ryan Church flail away at pitches in the dirt every day.
Mike - We've had previous youth movements that have failed, that much is definitely true. The difference this time, I think, is that we have people besides just the Pirates saying our prospects are good. In the past, nobody except the Pirates front office really believed guys like Brad Eldred and JJ Furmaniak would amount to anything.
As for the restraunt comparison, I get what you're going for and I wouldn't still go there, but I don't think the comparison is apt. It doesn't take long to turn around a restraunt - you just make the food not suck. It can take multiple seasons to turn around a team as bad as the Pirates. If the youth movement fails, well that sucks. It was still the right general strategy, but I'll be much more critical of the talent evaluation side of things.
I agree about Milledge playing over Church. I would just like to see some sort of shred of "don't do that because it's wrong" coming out of somebody other than the head of Mascots and Microwave Oven programming.
Honestly, that's probably why Church is playing so much. All the way down to Little League, when you repeatedly make the same mistakes, you get benched. I'm not opposed to making Milledge sit for his baserunning mistakes, I'm opposed to who he's sitting for and how often it's happening.
"Burgh - I didn't write the Penguins post. Pretty much everyone who ever lived thinks that post was stupid". _______________________________
You made the reference in the blog post entitled "Pirates' PR Nightmare Continues with Pierogi Dismissal". It was several days ago, but if you agree your own post is "stupid", point agreed.
"Quotation marks can be used as illustrations. It's called paraphrasing."
___________________________________
The primary function of quotation marks is to set off and represent exact language (either spoken or written) that has come from somebody else. You did neither.
"But you still haven't presented any rational reason that you disagree with anything I've stated."
________________________________
See the last two examples. I bet you can deliver a mean pizza though.
Oh, you mean about the city not caring about the Pens until they turned it around? No, I stand by that. I thought you meant that horrible article on Pirates Report. The city didn't give a damn about the Penguins until they started winning, then suddenly all these "lifelong faithful" started coming out of the woodwork.
Quotation marks: yes, that's their primary purpose, but they have several secondary purposes. One is for irony, like I used them above. They can also be used in paraphrases. You also should have used them when you blatantly copy and pasted the definition from Purdue's OWL website, so I don't think you're an authority on the proper usage of quotation marks.
Since you can't seem to get through your head what I mean by a logical argument, let's try this: tell me why your philosophically disagree with the direction that the Pirates front office has taken? How would you have gone about rebuilding the Pirates differently?
I love Paris. I really do. I would really enjoy the opportunity to explain to her how she is actually a really real angel and that truth is not determined by vote. Then the world could enjoy a most beauitful Buddha... then, afterwards, when we are scavenging abandoned resorts for treasure, she will probably be really quite funny and cool to hang out with...
24 comments:
What is the last poll referring to?
I voted yes rather blindly, because I'm thinking it will involve fast food reviews. Which will save me money and cholesterol points.
The fast food story was good. I liked it. About a year ago, a few friends of mine did our own fast food "test". The dollar double chee challenge. The contenders where wendy's, MCD's and BK, and MCD won hands down.
Who's the jokester(s) that trusts the pirates' management team more than the steelers' or penguins'? That's gotta be a fake vote, right?
I mean, (this is gonna be unpopular, but) i'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that this truly is the best they can do (trades)with what they were given. I think (read: hope) that the Coon/Hunt team are taking the right steps to eventually make the pirates a contender, but i'm a long effin way from saying these guys are more trustworthy than the rooneys or sheros of the world!
@Home Run:
That's Nate and Penn State Adam.
Also, as much as I dislike the Buccos FO, I don't blame them for firing the kid. You can't write those things about the people who cut you a check and expect to last. Of course, I don't mind that the story still ended up making the FO look bad.
I have not trusted Pirates management since the Sid Thryft era. However, I will give "Coon-Hunt" credit for trying to rebuild a farm system that was full of older players who had long ago reached their ceiling.
That said, there is smugness with how the organization handles PR that does not befit a team with 17 straight losing seasons. They could learn a lot from the Penguins in that regard.
Oh and "*uck the Flyers." Sorry, just needed to get that out of my system.
1. No - employees get fired from all kinds of companies all the time for things like that. It's called not biting the hand that feeds you. If it wasn't a sports team, we wouldn't have heard about it.
2. No - weird, yes. Unnecessarily shady, yes. A lie, no.
3. Steelers - they consistently build a winner and Colbert hasn't had a single bad draft. The Penguins have great management, but I don't think they're at the level of consistency of the Steelers yet, and they're going to be feeling the effects of trading prospects for one year rentals in the next few years. The Pirates management generally has the right strategy and they've drafted well, but it's way too early to make any kind of verdict on them, and WAY too early to call them better than the Steelers or Penguins.
4. No way. He's been dominant, but it's three games. Jeff Karstens looked good for his first three games too. (NOTE: Strasburg is obviously way, way better than Karstens. I'm just making a point.) Let the kid show he can do it for a little longer.
5. Yes. He's a thug, but he's OUR thug.
6. Yes. That post was awesome.
I'm with Burress.
Okel - I agree with you here too. Coonelly and Huntington come off to me as if they believe Pittsburgh is a hick town, ignorant of baseball, and simply craving entertainment rather than quality baseball. Its worth noting that the Pirates have staff dedicated to "community relations," "media relations," and "ticket holder relations," but not general public relations.
JR comes off as the kind of baseball guy who puts his trust in probability. Don't worry about a starter only hitting .200 - that's 20% of the time!!!
Nutting comes off as an ignoramus tightwad. The kind of kid who would be an antagonist of the Olsen twins on Full House. He chooses to stay out of the spotlight in his sheltered 'haven' of Wheeling. Coward.
anybody else think nate is on the pirate payroll?
Anybody else think Nate looks like a 14 year old girl smiling at the premier of Twilight?
Why would I be on the Pirates payroll to make comments on Mondesi's House? If Nutting is as cheap as you all claim, I doubt he'd pay for something that frivolous. I just realize that the way to build a team isn't by signing the players that made you a bad team in the first place to long-term extensions.
If you really need to know that badly, I write a Pirates blog at www.stealingfirstbase.com. I follow the Pirates more closely than the average yinzer. That's basically the extent of things. I'm not saying we have the bestest GM in the whole wide world, I'm saying he's had three good drafts and the minor leagues look better than they have in years. Who knows how it'll actually play out, but it's a start.
"I follow the Pirates more closely than the average yinzer."
Yinzers know better.
Baseball is my favorite sport, and I'm not a bandwagoner. It would be awesome if they were a good team right now, but it is what it is. Hopefully they can be good soon. You don't get that way by keeping Nate McLouth (.176 average in 2010) or Xavier Nady (bench player from the moment we traded him) as everyday starters. You get that way by giving people like Jose Tabata, Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez a shot.
If you disagree, that's fine. If you can offer rational arguments as to why you disagree, even better. But personal attacks make you look like a petty fool. Burress and okel dokel both disagree with me, but at least they have valid reasons. You just get off on calling me naive.
"Petty" means many things to many different folks.
To me, it's trying to compare the Penguins down years in a previous post that was lacking in fact or actual knowledge of the topic.
Would a "rational argument" be defined as defending Coonelly's statements by quoting him with words he actually didn't state? Strike two Junior.
This isn't your blog. Just because you type something doesn't mean it's true. Look on the bright side...I didn't include you as working for the Pirates.
Even they have standards.
"Why would I be on the Pirates payroll to make comments on Mondesi's House?"
I have long been under the impression that NPM (Nutting Proganda Machine) has planted staff and interns in blogs and chats to spin things in a positive light and defend their "honor".
Before last night's game, Guy Smiley sat down with the Milledge Idiot before the game and Firstings said that there is nothing wrong with the way he runs the bases and nobody on the staff sees anything wrong with it either. I guess it's a good thing Bob Walk is in the booth and not the dugout, because I know he isn't a fan of his baserunning at all.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: No Accountability (except for Pierogies).
Burress - I guess the NPM at least explains where all the revenues are going. Refutists and Sympathizers don't come cheap.
Nate,
I actually agree with your assessment on how to build a team. However, you don't have to wear loyalty to the Pirates like a badge of honor. Maybe you are too young to remember, but this isn't the first time the Pirates have had a youth movement. This message of hope and youth was sold in the 90's with miserable results and some of us older individuals are not buying anymore. Coupled with the lack of pitching, inability to attract any kind of free agents, and historical reticence to sign high dollar draft picks (seem to be more willing recently), I don't think winning is right around the corner. If you like baseball and want to go to PNC to support the Nutting estate planning vehicle, it is your decision and your discretionary income. When you lose sight that sports is entertainment and blindly give the ownership your money out of loyalty, how can you expect change to ever occur??? Let me ask a question from a different perspective; if you had a favorite restaurant that was sold to a new owner, and the new ownership came in and served cheap terrible food for 18 straight years while telling everybody how great it was, while controlling the media message like Joseph Stalin, would you still keep going back and spending money at the restaurant? My guess is no. I don't see a difference, but some will disagree with the comparison.
Burgh - I didn't write the Penguins post. Pretty much everyone who ever lived thinks that post was stupid.
Quotation marks can be used as illustrations. It's called paraphrasing.
But you still haven't presented any rational reason that you disagree with anything I've stated.
Burress - Milledge is easily the worst base runner I've ever seen play anywhere. That said, I'd still rather see him get thrown out on the bases for a stupid decision every day than see Ryan Church flail away at pitches in the dirt every day.
Mike - We've had previous youth movements that have failed, that much is definitely true. The difference this time, I think, is that we have people besides just the Pirates saying our prospects are good. In the past, nobody except the Pirates front office really believed guys like Brad Eldred and JJ Furmaniak would amount to anything.
As for the restraunt comparison, I get what you're going for and I wouldn't still go there, but I don't think the comparison is apt. It doesn't take long to turn around a restraunt - you just make the food not suck. It can take multiple seasons to turn around a team as bad as the Pirates. If the youth movement fails, well that sucks. It was still the right general strategy, but I'll be much more critical of the talent evaluation side of things.
Nate,
I agree about Milledge playing over Church. I would just like to see some sort of shred of "don't do that because it's wrong" coming out of somebody other than the head of Mascots and Microwave Oven programming.
Honestly, that's probably why Church is playing so much. All the way down to Little League, when you repeatedly make the same mistakes, you get benched. I'm not opposed to making Milledge sit for his baserunning mistakes, I'm opposed to who he's sitting for and how often it's happening.
"Burgh - I didn't write the Penguins post. Pretty much everyone who ever lived thinks that post was stupid".
_______________________________
You made the reference in the blog post entitled "Pirates' PR Nightmare Continues with Pierogi Dismissal". It was several days ago, but if you agree your own post is "stupid", point agreed.
"Quotation marks can be used as illustrations. It's called paraphrasing."
___________________________________
The primary function of quotation marks is to set off and represent exact language (either spoken or written) that has come from somebody else. You did neither.
"But you still haven't presented any rational reason that you disagree with anything I've stated."
________________________________
See the last two examples. I bet you can deliver a mean pizza though.
Oh, you mean about the city not caring about the Pens until they turned it around? No, I stand by that. I thought you meant that horrible article on Pirates Report. The city didn't give a damn about the Penguins until they started winning, then suddenly all these "lifelong faithful" started coming out of the woodwork.
Quotation marks: yes, that's their primary purpose, but they have several secondary purposes. One is for irony, like I used them above. They can also be used in paraphrases. You also should have used them when you blatantly copy and pasted the definition from Purdue's OWL website, so I don't think you're an authority on the proper usage of quotation marks.
Since you can't seem to get through your head what I mean by a logical argument, let's try this: tell me why your philosophically disagree with the direction that the Pirates front office has taken? How would you have gone about rebuilding the Pirates differently?
Poor Nate, actually can't recall now what point he stood by. Now when called on it, rewrites the point and still fails to make it.
Let's do stick to a "logical argument" more of your speed:
1. What is your favorite type of pizza to make?
2. Do you have a "friend" that helps you make it?
3. How much more money do you need to make at your job to correct your overbite?
4. If you don't have enough money to correct it by fall, do you rent yourself out as a rake?
I look forward to your response.
Cool story, bro.
I love Paris. I really do. I would really enjoy the opportunity to explain to her how she is actually a really real angel and that truth is not determined by vote. Then the world could enjoy a most beauitful Buddha... then, afterwards, when we are scavenging abandoned resorts for treasure, she will probably be really quite funny and cool to hang out with...
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