DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: The LaRoche Effect

12 comments

1. Adam Laroche was an amazing player , and person here in Pittsburgh.
   Still is , watch his show he is in Buck Commanders
   Helps veterans and kids

2. They’ll sign Verdugo and I’ll check out the 2nd series into the season.

3. Wow, they don't care about the heat that is coming. I'd be nervous. As far as them being smarter than us, I don't think so. Many of us have been fans longer than they've been alive. And our Parents and Grandparents were fans before that.

4. WOW! You're dumber than me on their issues DK? I Should look for a job at the front office! 🫤😎🥸

5. I've been thinking a lot about PiratesFest this month. If I could travel to the event, I'd probably be bold enough to ask direct questions about the recurring strikeouts, the lack of competitive lineups against division rivals, why advancing on the bases continues to be an enormous problem, etc. I'd ask why Nutting and Pirates management clearly don't care about winning, while also pointing out that five consecutive losing seasons are strongly incriminating. Finally,  I'd ask Derek Shelton why, after late-season losses in 2024, he'd deflect any blame for a loss by calling out an individual player (usually a reliever), with his fallback phrase, "He didn't execute." That behavior alone told me everything I need to know about Shelton– he consistently refuses to take responsibility for his own performance.

   In addition to all of the devil-may-care losing, a huge issue for me regarding ownership/management is their collective attitude toward Pirate fans. They think they're smart, and that we don't know what we're talking about. If we're frustrated, that's our problem because we just don't understand their "process" or the complexities of baseball. Cherington stated during a news conference at the end of last season that "we're winning more games" (an obvious lie), which overtly communicated that he thinks the fans are dumb enough to believe anything. The fans aren't respected for their immense knowledge of the team and its history, for their considerable knowledge of baseball, or for their strong desire to see a good product on the field. The gulf between ownership/management and the fans is huge because they really don't care– and WE do. I also believe that a few public comments made by Cherington and Shelton last year contained a certain amount of vindictiveness. It's as if they want to be worshipped for their intelligent decision-making, not complained about regarding their utter lack of competitiveness and competence.

   Which brings me back to PiratesFest. Although I don't expect it, I also wouldn't be at all surprised if Cherington made a move — not in order to save his job — but as a grandiose attempt to demonstrate just how smart he is. I can almost envision Cherington announcing at PiratesFest that they've signed a right fielder, one that hasn't been connected to the Pirates up to this point.

   I hope the protesting fans at PiratesFest will make themselves heard loud and clear above the roar of ownership and management pretentiousness.

6. Cherington Shelton and Nutting should be booed off the stage at any event at pirate feast. Cherington is gonna wait till the last minute to get a right fielder so he can get that guy as cheap as possible…aka Michael Taylor

7. Such a comically inept blown investment opportunity. You've got the entire city hungry for something to get excited about, you've got the most exciting pitcher in the league and more pitching behind that – any money you put in RIGHT NOW is coming back with huge ROI, but you're too dumb, entitled, and self-satisfied to do it.

8. Cult

9. Speaking of the protest, I would love to see Jeff goldblum be a part of it. Obviously ownership doesn't care what the normal person has to say, I wonder if some famous person could bring enough attention to selling the team.

10. Regarding the Left handed hitter @ PNC Park thing … why DID that stop being a thing?! I want to say the short right field was incorporated into the design partly because of Giles, but after him the only Pirate lefty hitters who've done much of anything (that I can think of) are Pedro Alvarez (#1 pick) and Garret Jones (spring training invite). Why is no effort made, a quarter century into it's existence, to take advantage of PNC Park with that short right field?

11. I know Littlefield was a bit of a doofus and yes I remember several of his fiascos but I'll never understand what motivated Nutting to fire DL almost immediately after took over the ownership, while he hangs onto Neal Benjamin CherHuntington forever. If it was because of their lack or results from Latin America like it was reported at the time… yeah nothing's still ever come out of Latin America, other than Marte – who was signed by Littlefield. Those playoff teams we briefly got to enjoy (TEN YEARS AGO ALREADY!) were built on McCutchen, Walker and Marte, who were all Littlefield's players. So again if Latin America got Littlefield fired, why does that not still matter today?

12. So DK.. I’m curious. Is it possible that we haven’t found a RF yet because of how dirty we did Telez?? That was a great reason to fire this front office and when it happened I was worried that the pirates might suffer the repercussions of being an undesirable team and on top of that a team that would rob you of a bonus when it’s four ABs away. To me this was reprehensible and it was definitely noticed. Do we stand any chance with this front office of drawing attention from a decent candidate? Personally I feel that with this front office very few quality players will look at Pittsburgh with any seriousness, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s why we’ve watched most of the quality available players sign elsewhere. You can’t see PNCs amazing view from right field so what’s the draw? Early offseason every year? Guaranteed great hitting stats in spring training? There’s nothing that’s making me optimistic for 2025 for any of Pittsburghs teams.