New CBA Puts Pressure on Prospects

The new Collective Bargaining Agreement for Major League Baseball was announced today, and it was not kind to the Pirates. Basically, the Pirates can no longer sign draft picks at over-slot prices (e.g. how they got Josh Bell, Robbie Grossman, Nick Kingham, etc.), which takes away one of the only chances the Pirates had to compete with the big market teams. I'm not going to get into the details, because other bloggers explain it better than I can.

For more information on the new CBA and how it affects the Pirates, read these posts from North Side Notch and Pirates Prospects.

The point that I want to bring up is how this indirectly adds more pressure onto the prospects that the Pirates already have in the system.

The Pirates have spent more money in the draft the last few years than any other team, which has given us some hope for the future. We have a lot of really high-ceiling guys in the lower levels of the minor leagues that are providing a feint light at the end of the tunnel. However, since the Pirates can no longer get top prospects outside of the first round (since they can't convince guys to pass on their other commitments to turn pro with huge bonuses that other teams wouldn't offer), they are going to have to hit on the prospects they already have in the system if they want any chance of competing. Obviously, the Pirates cannot compete in free agency; they can't even afford to keep the players they have developed themselves for a long period of time, they just don't have the money.

So if the current group of guys that is making the future bright fail to ever do anything in the major leagues, there is no way I can see this Pirates team competing for a World Series any time in the future. That group of guys is Jameson Taillon, Gerrit Cole, Stetson Allie, Luis Heredia, Josh Bell, and Robbie Grossman, along with some of the upper-level prospects like Starling Marte and Tony Sanchez. If we don't get major league production out of at least 50-60 percent of those guys, it's going to be extremely tough for the Pirates to ever have a chance of competing.

The Pirates have a lot of young talent, and they are definitely improving. Last year they showed some really good signs which makes the future more exciting, but this CBA really kills us. The Pirates have 3-4 arms in the lower levels that could turn into aces. If none of them do, we're screwed. It is extremely hard to win without a strong pitching staff, and the Pirates haven't had one of those in a long time. They have the chance to have a dominating staff, and at this point it seems like that is our only chance.

We know this for sure, the days of the Pirates using the draft to stock up on really strong prospects by going over slot to sign guys that other teams are scared to lose a draft pick on are over. The new CBA just makes the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It makes absolutely no sense and it just another slap in the face to baseball fans everywhere.

I don't understand how this could get through, and it really shows the greed and sheer idiocy of the people running Major League Baseball.

You can't change the rules though, so the next few years of development in these prospects is absolutely crucial to the future of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Keep a close eye on the lower levels of the system next summer, because that is going to be the telling factor of the Pirates future playoff hopes.