Kyle Stark’s awesome player development strategies are in the news again. Apparently round one of public ridicule was not enough to change this Hell’s Angel’s ways. When I read his leaked email, I imagined that Stark was one of the nerds who pledged the rival frat in any college-based comedy (Animal House, Van Wilder, Accepted, they’re all the same [the rival frats, not the movies, I would never compare a classic like Animal House to those other two {**Two hour break to watch Animal House**}]).
Luckily for me (unluckily for me the Pirate fan, but luckily for me the guy who writes about things that suck), he continued the overzealous frat boy impression by announcing a “Hell Week” (the Fraternity man [not frat boy, that has a negative connotation] in me is pretty sure he meant “Honor Week”) at Pirate City (seriously, the bad guys in revenge of the nerds were a jock frat, Kyle Stark had to have been one of them [scratch that, neither Stark nor farm director Larry Broadway have any significant baseball experience {presumably because nobody with real experience would want to work for Doug Neidermeyer <this analogy works out quite well, Huntington can be Chip Diller>}]).
While this is all amusing, I don’t think it should be the focus of our anguish with Mr. Neidermeyer. Obviously, the Bucs are never going to be able to compete with the big markets financially, so they need to do something a little off the beaten path. With so much negative press, players and staff pretty publicly saying they don’t like it, and potential for injury, this clearly doesn’t seem to be that something, as it seems like it’s going to deter more talent than it is going to develop.
Having said that, I would say that this is a huge distraction from what should be a conversation about Starks ability to develop talent (or scouting’s ability to identify it). Obviously we are having some success in Latin America, but the return on all the money spent in the draft doesn’t seem to be there outside of some great talents taken in the top 2 picks. Who is to blame for that? Who is to blame for missing on the talent that has been given up on, only to be key pieces on other major league clubs (Bautista, Lopez, McClouth, Moss, Vogelsong, etc.). These are the real problems I have with this management team, Hoka Hey is just a ridiculous distraction.
Bottom line, as a Pirate fan, I don’t want hippies, Boy Scouts, or Hell’s Angels to be developed, I’ll settle for a competent catcher or shortstop, or really anyone we draft outside of the top 2 picks. Anybody would look good after the Littlefield era, but I have to say this management team sucks.
This stuff sucks too:
Dejan Kovacevic’s assumption that Mark Appel retweeting him = he didn’t sign with the Pirates because of their player development style. This is the stretchiest of stretches ever stretched. Especially after 7 other teams passed on him because of signability questions, isn’t it possible that, as was universally assumed prior to his oh-so-revealing retweet, Appel hopes to get more money with a higher draft allotment next year? Is drawing conclusions based on what people retweet considered reporting now? Would it not be more effective to follow up with Appel and report some actual facts? Great job with the initial report, but this follow up tweet (and tweet again, and again [seriously Dejan, stop tweeting the same thing 3 times]) really annoyed me.
No F&*%ING negotiations! Seriously NHL and NHLPA (from what I can tell, the league is mostly to blame [they gained a lot from the last lockout, and planned on using the same tactics again from the start]), the only options left are that you already have a deal in place and are just trolling us, you are intentionally sabotaging the season, or you hate me personally. A deal isn’t going to be made by trading proposals, sit down and actually negotiate, and don’t walk out of the room like a bunch of little bitches because the other side didn’t fold to your BS strong arm tactics.
The NHL’s public relations. The Fehr’s have been destroying the league on the public relations front since day one. The league finally does something right and publicly releases an offer that can make them look like a good guy to the average fan, when the players don’t accept they should look like the greedy side. How do they follow that up? Putting a deadline of this Thursday on it, walking out of a meeting after less than an hour and refusing to meet since. Oh yeah, and they secretly permitted owners to contact players in what can easily be construed as an attempt to go behind the unions back. Who is making these terrible decisions?
The Islanders moving to a building that can only hold 14,500. That number is fine in Winnipeg (they’re actually closer to 15,000), but really, you’re in New York and playing in that small of a barn? Having capacity of 14,500 in a city of over 8 million is basically admitting that you are the Rangers little brother. Then again I guess the Islanders will fit in with the hipsters in Brooklyn, I assume people who call themselves Islander fans are being ironic. PBRs all around.
Potentially career ending injuries to legends. I should have mentioned this last week, but I’m not at all a Yankee fan so it kind of slipped my mind. Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera have had unbelievably great careers and if this is how those careers end, while Chipper Jones got to be treated like some sort of hero in every away city he 
played in this year, that would really suck (baseball is so weird, in no other sport would this happen, you think the Jets are going to give Brady a retirement gift? Along those lines, who has champagne celebrations when they clinch the playoffs and then after every round).
College students who plagiarize off of 11 year olds. While the university is already in the middle of an NCAA investigation for questionable academics surrounding the football and basketball programs, North Carolina receiver Erik Highsmith turned in an assignment copied almost word for word from a report done by 4th graders. Way to set the bar high, kid.
Some combination of Marvin Lewis, Jay Gruden and Andy Dalton. As a Steeler fan, I thank whichever one(s) of you decided not to look for AJ Green deep all night. Not utilizing your biggest strength and possibly the opponent’s biggest weakness was a genius strategy.
The Lions backdoor cover. Things like this are why I hate gambling, but damn does it make watching games more fun. The Bears dominated all night, and built a lead comfortable enough for the win, but not to cover the spread once they gave up that garbage time touchdown. But after winning last week thanks to Jim Harbaugh declining a safety, I guess I had this one coming.
My indoor bocce team lost 16-2 last night to A Team of Fat Chicks (both their team name and an apt description). We really need to work on our player development, alright boys Hell Week starts tomorrow, see you at 5 am. Until then, get off my lawn.
Dejan Kovacevic is a pompous piece-of-shit. You must be in my head because I’ve been seriously considering a new weekly column devoted to ripping apart everything that he writes. Even if I agree with him, I want to disagree with him because he is such an arrogant asshole. I don’t know if he’s just depressed that he now he writes for the 2nd class Pittsburgh newspaper (The Trib) but his work has gone to pure hell. Please include him every week in GOML.
“I assume people who call themselves Islander fans are being ironic. PBRs all around.”
Magnificient.