The Pirates dont not win only because they make a profit and don't sign free agents. They dont win because they have been terrible talent evaluators as well as being cheap. The draft choices that they made over the last 15 years have generally been poor at best, laughably bad at worst.
In 1985 they took Barry Bonds with the 6th pick in the 1st round
Check out the following years 1st rd picks up till 2007.
Jeff King, Mark Merchant, Austin Manahan, Willie Greene, Mike Zimmerman, Kurt Miller, Jon Farrell, Shon Walker, Jason Kendall, Andy Rice, Jermaine Allensworth, Charles Peterson, Mark Ferris, Chad Hermanson, Kris Benson, JJ Davis, Clint Johnston, Bobby Bradley, Sean Burnett, John Van Benschoten, Brian Bullington, Paul Maholm, Neil Walker, Andrew McCutchen, Brad Lincoln
It is laughingly bad. It is like PG1985 drafted for them. Outside of McCutchen (who is good) there isn't a player in the bunch that would be considered better than ML average and only Maholm, Kendall and a few seasons of Benson could be considered even that good. 10 never made the majors.
The funny part of the ESPN article is the list of FA's that left is supposed to be an indication of them not trying to win yet there was hardly a guy on the list that was worth keeping or really any good outside of Jason Bay. Not keeping those guys is not a negative at all. The sad truth is that they wouldnt have won with those guys and overpaying them to saty would have put them in a worse position, if that is possible.
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