Are Exploding TV Contracts Good or Bad for the Future of the Pirates?

by vandelay industries | Feb 17, 2012 - 6:46 PM
We like to sit here and, rightfully so, talk about how the Pirates are doing the right thing right now as it comes to rebuilding a team from scratch. They're sunk the majority of their revenues into the draft and scouting, attempting to get higher ceiling players at much more cost-effective prices. Then this group of players matures and gets better at the same time and the Pirates have a window of 3-4 years where everything is peachy before these guys hit the FA market.

Is that the best we can hope for?

Do we have a chance to lock up players long-term and extend a championship caliber window?

As the team gets better, revenues should increase as attendance and overall exposure goes up with it, but sadly it still probably won't be enough and I tend to think that player salaries, while already patently ridiculous, are only going to go up more and the Pirates will be priced out even more in the crappy system that is baseball.

The reason for this is tv contracts. The chasm between the have's and have not's is only going to broaden. More have's will be created and the "already have's" will get richer.

Check out these snippets:

http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?o...ials&Itemid=39

Both the Angels and Rangers media rights deals are reportedly worth $3 billion each over their 20-year lifetimes.
If you do your math at home, that's $150 million/year!!

A good example is the media rights deal that the Astros have reached in the creation of a new regional sports network. They, along with the NBA Houston Rockets and Comcast SportsNet Houston are partners. The Astros and Rockets will share approx. 77.5 percent of the RSN with Comcast controlling the balance. According to The New York Times, the Astros will enjoy approx. $80 million a year in revenues from the deal beginning in
... [Read More]
    15 Replies | 238 Views


Rantings n' Ravings V: 2-16-12: RIGHTING A WRONG: REVISITING THE '06 STEMMY AWARDS EDITION

by bdeff | Feb 16, 2012 - 9:21 PM
The Rantings and Ravings of a Malcontented Loudmouth: Volume V: 2-16-12
RIGHTING A WRONG: REVISITING THE 2006 STEMMY AWARDS EDITION

(Ed note: Please understand that this commentary is very much tongue and cheek)

BEGINNING RANT in 3......2....1....

SO once again…Its AWARD SEASON, it’s that time of year that a person can’t pass by a television, listen to a radio broadcast or read a webpage, magazine or newspaper without being made painfully aware of this fact. Personally, I equate award season as being nothing more than being Hollywood’s yearly, most pointless, self-aggrandizing endeavor.
(ED NOTE: IF there is anything I hate its self-aggrandizing and pointless endeavors) ****IRONY ALERT****

You got The Grammy’s, The Emmy’s, The Daytime Emmy’s, The Tony’s, The Oscar’s, The Golden Globes, The Viewer’s Choice Awards, The CMA’s, The VMA, The STD’s, etc, etc . Just about every week, for the next two months, there is another award show that I don’t care about.

I do watch ONE award show each year, that award show is the WWE Slammy Awards. I watch this award show because it’s self admittedly cheesy and contrived. It contains WWE style staged pomp and circumstances and has no false pretenses. LOOK, I am a simple man, if you want to give me a turd, don’t wrap it in a shiny package, I prefer that you just hand me the ****ed turd.

BUT why the cynicism towards all of these award shows?

It all started about 6 years ago….. It was early 2006….. Brittany Spears had not quite regressed into amorphous blob she would yet to become. America still loved K-FED (Kevin Federlein). The housing market was surging and the bankers assured us, it would always be that way. The Steelers had just captured their 5th super bowl title, and not unlike every person with a shread of human decency, I was still recovering from the death of Gilligan (Bob Denver), only 4 months prior (Sept. 2, 2005).

But I digress…See by January 2006, I had become a regular contributor on the old Steelers Trib Live message board. By January 2006, I had been a member for nearly a entire year. I had naively believed that I had established myself as a valuable supplier of virtual comments to said board. My anger comes from this, back in the good old days, the Trib Live featured its own set of year-end awards, THE STEMMY AWARDS. On that site, just the... [Read More]
    19 Replies | 392 Views


The Steelers To Wear New Throwback Uniforms in 2012. Let's Take A Guess On Which Throwbacks Are Used

by Kipper | Feb 16, 2012 - 2:47 PM
By now some of us know about the Pittsburgh Steelers wearing a new Throwback uniform in 2012. Art Rooney II made a public statement about it as he wrapped up the 2011 season and it's been mentioned throughout the Internet.

I personally like throwback uniforms. I like to see something different from time to time. I'm not one that gets stuck in hating to see change. So I welcome a new Throwback Uniform for the Steelers.

In 2011 the Steelers wore their 1960/62 Throwbacks against the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns. The current Throwbacks are the Steelers uniform minus the helmet from the 1960-65 seasons. The yellow helmet had the Steelers logo on it for one season in 1962 but the word "Steelers" in the logo was "Steel". After the 1962 season the Steelers changed their helmet to black. The word "Steelers" appeared on the logo after the 1963 season.

So let's take a stab at what the new Steelers "throwbacks" could be.

The Steelers really haven't had too many big uniform changes during their history, so the Steelers changing their Throwback uniforms would have to be to a major redesign.

Here's the Major Pittsburgh Steelers Redesigns.

1966-1967 : This uniform was the one worn prior to the current uniform (minus the rounded lettering). These were dubbed "The Batman Uniforms". In 2007 the Steelers released a Statement saying that these uniforms would never be worn in a game again despite re-selling them in 2008 on the Official Steelers Website.

6012684816_ab7250ee6c_z.jpg

1963 : This one updated from the 1960/62 Uniform that the Steelers had been currently using as a Throwback. This was worn with the current Black Pittsburgh Steelers Helmet. Around this time, the NFL was encouraging teams to start wearing white jerseys so that there was contrast between the 2 teams on the field. The Steelers wore this white jersey at home and wore the black jerseys that the Steelers had been currently using as a Throwback on the road.

... [Read More]
    26 Replies | 461 Views


The @RumbunterPodcst - With Bench Coach Banister and LHP @Joshua_Poytress

by cocktailsfor2 | Feb 13, 2012 - 9:11 PM
http://rumbunter.com/2012/02/13/pitt...unter-podcast/

It's back!

Sorry for the delay, gang - MVP Adam was down with the flu bug, Smitty had / has double pneumonia, and my wife got in an accident and smashed up the car.

Jeebus.

Anyway, here's the latest edition - we talk with the Pirates' own Jeff Banister, and farmhand Joshua Poytress. (#SaveTheStache)

Also, FYI we won't be taping again for another week, so it'll be another 2 weeks before the next one's up.
    0 Replies | 240 Views


Taking A Look At A.J. Burnett, Can Pittsburgh Make Him Better Statistically?

by Kipper | Feb 10, 2012 - 2:44 PM
All of the reports rolling in this morning have The Pirates and Yankees negotiating on a deal to send Pitcher A.J. Burnett to the Pirates. At this point it looks like it is a matter of the Pirates agreeing to the player to send in a trade and some haggling over the amount the New York Yankees take up in Burnett's contract. Basically it's a matter of when rather than If from the sound of things.

So, let's take a look into A.J. Burnett's numbers. In his recent 2 seasons with the Yankees (you could include all of his 3 seasons with the Yankees) Burnett's ERA has soared. He's posted a 5.15 ERA in 2011 and a 5.26 ERA in 2010. Usually you want to get rid of pitchers that provide those results in back to back seasons. However ERA is a number that can be affected by plenty of others, so it's important to take a look at other numbers Burnett has posted to figure out what has driven up his ERA.

* H/9 below 10. He produced a 9.0 in Hits per 9 in 2011 and 9.8 in Hits per 9 in 2010. Anything under 10 is relatively decent. Burnett for his career has been more in the 8's and 7 range but he's also 35 years old, production will slide a little bit which it has here but nothing that screams a high ERA.

* K/9 that still registers in the 8+ range. Burnett registered an 8.2 Strike Outs per 9 Innings which is his averaged out career number. He's still getting people to swing and miss at a high rate, so his stuff still has plenty of movement and life.

* BB/9 is pretty much on par with his numbers for his career. Burnett has always been a high walk rate pitcher. He usually sits in the 3-4 Walks per 9 Inning range. He's had good years with a BB/9 in the 2's and in the mid to high 3's. So there's nothing really out of wack here.

* GB% was at 49% in 2011 which is good for him and the Pirates defense. His career average is around 48%, so this is inline with that.

* BABIP is in a normal range. He produce a .294 Batting Average on Balls in Play. It's not in that fluke range..

What stuck out was his HR/9. Since joining the New York Yankees, ... [Read More]
    94 Replies | 1,482 Views


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