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Originally Posted by cojo82
he hasn't pitched long enough for demands. i think the pirates will end up trading him.
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Which would be another example of why small market teams remain that way. If I am a Pirates fan and management did this after the local team spirit that Skenes evidenced, I thereafter find something better to do than attend Pirates home games or buy Pirates sports memorabilia.
It's like the Mets almost letting Pete Alonso walk away. Sure, it's a matter of money and how much teams can afford. But the Mets came up with the cash and, I daresay, still are making a profit.
Small-minded team owners stuck in small markets are a double whammy. Insurmountable and doomed to mediocrity at best. Pittsburgh isn't some out of the way burg:
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As of the 2020 census, the Greater Pittsburgh region had a population of over 2.45 million people. Pittsburgh, the region's core city, has a population of 302,971, the second-largest in the state after Philadelphia. Over half of the region's population resides within Allegheny County, which has a population of 1.24 million and is the state's second-largest county after Philadelphia County.
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It's not New York or L.A. but it's not Podonk, either. It ought to be able to attract enough folks to support paying a few stars.
And don't cry for team owner Bob Nutting, Argentina! According to
this article (wade through the popups), “In its latest Business of Baseball tallies, Forbes ranked the Pirates as the third-most profitable team in the major leagues in 2023, with a net operating income of $68 million.” Does he make as much as Steve Cohen? Probably not. But he does alright.
I have come to the opinion that professional leagues do a good job of locating team franchises. There are none that suffer solely because of the lack of potential fans. It's cheap and incompetent owners that cause teams to wither in places like Oakland and Miami and Pittsburgh.
EDIT: I am aware of how what I said about the Pirates profitability conflicts with what Cod brought up above. Admittedly, his source reads as scholarly. Nevertheless, read the article that I linked to for a perspective on this. You know, accounting really is not an exact science on a certain level. It is subject to P.R. spin, by writers as well as owners.