Much Ado About Nutting

 

There was a lot of smoke this offseason about John Fisher, about how he was the worst owner because he didn't want to build a new stadium, or how Ross Atkins was the worst GM because he kept striking out at all the big free agents by not offering enough. Both men redeemed themselves. Fisher spent a lot of money on the A's this year, and locked up Rooker and Butler going forward. He's got an early rookie of the year candidate in Jacob Wilson as well. Butler just shut up the haters by signing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a mega-deal, and Bo Bichette may be next.

Fisher and Atkins may not be great at what they do, but at least they remember to spend money on the team every so often. They listen. They hear the fans going on about how much they suck, and they listen. Meanwhile, you could literally spit in Bob Nutting's face and he could still look in the mirror that night and go 'I'm doing everything correctly.'

There was literally a clip from the other day, the opener, of Bob Nutting traversing the PNC Park concourse, and constantly having fans come up to him and going 'hi Bob, sell the team'. One by one by one. And he's just standing there, like a republican on MSNBC, just putting his full shit-eating grin on, like this doesn't affect him in any way. And when you make enough money, it doesn't. 

Now...I'm not a business expert. I went into the arts solely to avoid having to be the one to make business decisions. But the whole thing with buying and owning a baseball team is that you need to put money in every so often to keep the quality of product up, or else the product will deplete and you'll be forced to sell at a loss. Maybe it is an intentional thing, to make the team bad on purpose and get even more money for it. And I know this is a period of American history that rewards that sort of blatant skullduggery rather than pointing out how bad it is. But...you're doing this at the expense of Pittsburgh sports fans. I say this as someone who has a lot of friends and colleagues who are Steelers fans...that is a group of people you do not want to mess with. They're already angry that the team hasn't won a playoff game since Big Ben left, and they're getting so desperate that they're actually considering that Aaron Rodgers could be an upgrade from Russell Wilson. But one thing they will not take is a lack of effort.

And that's how the Pirates look right now. Like there was no effort put in. This team has one of the best pitchers in baseball, the great Paul Skenes, and will get another great season out of him. But the rest of the team looks...AWFUL. Nobody's hitting. Even Bryan Reynolds isn't hitting, and he ALWAYS hits well to start the season. The only great contact piece right now is Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and he's already made some errors in the infield. David Bednar spontaneously combusted. Both Jared Triolo and Nick Gonzales are hurt, joining Spencer Horwitz in the pile of injured outfielders. I feel like if you combined those three you'd make a good infielder but apart they're just a great defender, a great contact guy and a decent utility/bench bat. Andrew Heaney's off to a great start but who knows where he'll end the year. You saw some signs of life yesterday in Oneil Cruz, Ke'Bryan Hayes and Joey Bart, but it's gonna take more than that.

I don't think Bob Nutting sees this as an issue. The necessary tools to compete are here and they still don't have the team. This week he even had the Clemente family at his throat for taking down a monument to Roberto on a stadium wall. Needless to say, he's in hot water right now, and if this continues it could turn to a boil. The Orioles giving out an extension will probably be the last straw, cause if THEY can keep players intact, then the Pirates fans might riot.

Coming Tonight: The Phillies traded him for Brandon Marsh. They got their sturdy outfield favorite. The Angels...may still win the trade somehow.