Fathom this into your minds.... What has this new Pirate ownership done other than Alvarez that has shown up big on draft day to once and for all prove that they are going to turn this franchise around? 2003 Paul Maholm ? Littlefield ..... 2004 Neil Walker ? Littlefield...... 2005 Andrew McCutchen ? Littlefield...... 2006 Brad Lincoln ? one more guess.... yes once again Dave Littlefield. Sure its all fine and dandy that we drafted Alvarez, but other than Alvarez what has this organization done through the draft? They have gone out and with the 4th pick in 2009 they draft a catcher Tony Sanchez that many scouts believe could have very well fallen down to the likes of teams drafting in the 20s. Who did they pass up you might ask ? Well a pitcher named Mike Leake out of Arizona State University has done nothing but make the now National Central League leading Cincinnati Reds pitching staff without even taking a whiff of the minor leagues. As for 2010? Well all they do is pass up on Manny Machado a shortstop out of Brito High School (FL), who had several comparisons of having the power and the tools out at shortstop to bring upon comparisons of an All Star such as Alex Rodriguez. What??? Ok I know what your thinking when I say we passed up on him for a pitcher. Your probably thinking this kid must be the next Steven Strasburg if we passed up on potentially the next A-Rod. But don't get ahead of yourself my friend because all we did was go out and draft Jameson Taillon a pitcher out of Woodlands High School (TX). Definitely not the next Strasburg especially since high school pitchers are THE most riskiest position to pick coming out of high school. By the time they have made it to the minors they may be injury plagued and their velocity may have diminished drastically. Nothing at all against Taillon but I would take a chance on the next A-Rod any day especially since this organization has no apparent future prospect to play shortstop.

Now I’m not saying that we need to give all sorts of credit to Littlefield, but maybe if we would have had a little more patience for all these prospects to pan out then he may have still been here. This Pittsburgh Pirates have no sense of just waiting anymore. Another example? We decide not to bring back Jim Tracy? Ok once again all fine and dandy but now we are stuck with a manager who dares not to ever even show any emotion…. John Russell. Well once again another mistake, Tracy is now managing one of this years top National League powerhouses, The Colorado Rockies. Sure we may have to once again wait on Russell to hopefully pan out, even when not everyone is sold on the idea of him being the set manager for this team. But again think about this, why risk having a manager that maybe isn’t even the right one for the future? All this is doing is wasting more years that all of our so called “prospects” have to develop into the hopeful future of this team. Now we are forced to wait while we dwindle through yet another “patch the problem” manager, and it won’t be long before our “prospects‘” contracts are up and they all once again leave via free agency or trade. Sound familiar? Almost like the Circle of Life, but even that has bright spots. This “Circle of Prospects” has been nothing but yet another attempt to conceal the bigger problem of the organization itself and mainly Bob Nutting. And with 18 straight losing seasons in sight, don’t get your hopes up of seeing a winning team anytime soon. Be like any other Pirates fan nowadays and go to the ballpark for the amazing view and bombardments of fireworks, concerts, and nonstop promotions.

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