Originally Posted by
love_that_reefer
According the only real person I trust, John Sickels, has the Pirates rated as 18th with top 10 arms. Yes, as a team that gets a lot of top picks that is low but it is going in the right direction and has been trending upward over the paste couple of seasons. The Pirates got Charlie Morton, Jeff Locke, and Gorkys Hernandez for Nate McLouth, that AS/GG, which was and still is a steal. The Pirates got Tim Alderson for the batting champ Freddy Sanchez and Alderson is doing very well now after switching to reliever.
Unless the Pirates totally revamped the scouting department when changing GM's, I might see your point but I seriously doubt they did. The GM is not the entire scouting department. The Pirates have poured more money into scouting which is another example of moving in the right direction.
Tallion looks promising as does Tony Sanchez, Starling Marte and Stetson Allie. None of them have made an impact yet as they are prospects.
I seriously doubt Neil Walker will be questioning his future after he's locked up and gets paid after this season. Same goes for McCutchen.
Jose Bautista of the Pirates is not the same player he is with the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays reworked his swing and now its paying off two years after he was traded.
I like the way this team looks going forward but if you want to be a negative nancy, go right ahead. I will not be joining you and neither will a lot of Pirates fans I have talked to on other sites.