Epitaph for the dearly departed
First, go right over to Bucs Dugout and read Charlie's finely detailed summary of the Pirates career of Craig Wilson. Charlie's tribute chronicles the Pirates' systematic mishandling and failure to appreciate and utilize Wilson's skills from the day he came to the Pirates organization from Toronto in 1996.
It seems that nearly every truly awful decision that the Pirates have made during the past 5+ years has somehow intersected with the mishandling of Wilson:
It seems that nearly every truly awful decision that the Pirates have made during the past 5+ years has somehow intersected with the mishandling of Wilson:
- playing Kevin Young at first base long after his skills had obviously atrophied;
- the first acquisition of Randall Simon (bad enough);
- the second acquisition of Randall Simon, which was as baffling as, say, trading Craig Wilson for Shawn Chacon (the day that Simon was reacquired was the day that I lost all faith in Dave Littlefield);
- Mondesi; and
- the winter just past, in which the only purpose to acquiring Casey and Burnitz seemed to be to ensure that Wilson would have no place to play
- overvaluation of speed and defense
- undervaluation of offense (specifically power)
- belief in the influence of defense behind the plate on pitching success (which is statistically unverifiable)
- preference for "aggressive hitters" who "go up there hacking" instead of hitters who show patience and selectivity at the plate
- underappreciation of the contribution that the ability to get on base makes to scoring runs and winning ballgames
- preference for "productive outs" over strikeouts
- belief that a hitter who frequently strikes out, especially by taking called third strikes, is somehow morally inferior to a hitter who swings at a pitch outside the strike zone and bounces to the second baseman
posted by Billy at 6:34 PM
5 Comments:
It seems doubley erroneous that a team so concerned with marketing and appeasing fans would try so hard to destroy someone so popular and try to paint nasty pictures of him.
I'll miss Craig too.
I'd agree with you, Rory, if I were sure that Craig was as popular with the average fan as he is with the kind of dedicated fan who reads blogs and contributes to sites like onlybucs.
I don't have the sense that Craig was all that popular with the average fan, but in an alternate Pirates universe, he could have been--nice guy, good sense of humor, hard worker, team player, home run hitter--what was there not to like?
Something, evidently.
He's on a better TEAM now, certainly, but the Bronx a better place than Pittsburgh? I think not.
You mean the average fan that shows up to games and only knows that homeruns are good, and laughs at the batter introductions, and drink tons of Pepsi while sitting underneath gigantic Pepsi lights in right field, and trys to get autographs while most peoples ego just plumps them back in the clubhouse away from the fans...
I don't know for a fact, since I don't know a lot of people who don't know a lot about the Pirates, but the only reason anyone would have to not like this guy would be because Pirates management is saying, "Hey don't like this guy." And if after nearly fourteen years we still have people listening and believing Pirates management, then we've got plenty of problems.
And all the talk like Craig Wilson is now dead is insanely depressing.
Fredo, you're nothing to me now. You're not a brother, you're not a friend. I don't want to know you or what you do. I don't want to see you at the hotels, I don't want you near my house. When you see our mother, I want to know a day in advance, so I won't be there. You understand?
I know lots of people who don't work for the Pirates who think Craig Wilson is a mediocre or bad ballplayer, and I think that the reason they don't think much of him is the manner in which he makes outs. Fans who aren't like us--98% of the people who walk through the turnstiles at PNC Park--don't spend time poring over statistics like OBP an OPS. When a guy strikes out in a key situation by taking a called third strike or by swinging at an outside sinker in the dirt, something in the mind says, "That guy stinks," and that something persists.
When you analyze it, though, you realize that the way someone makes outs doesn't matter so much, and Craig makes fewer of them, gets on base more frequently, and consistently hits with more power than all of the bums that have been brought in to replace him during the past five years.
Also working against Craig's reputation are the calm and almost passive manner in which he goes about his business, and the fact that he doesn't look like a good fielder even though he has worked hard to make himself at least adequate at both first base and right field.
The casual fan can be forgiven for not appreciating Wilson's subtle virtues. But when the team's management shows no more sophistication or understanding of what it takes to win baseball games than the casual fan, you get the kind of resullts on the field that we have had for the past 14 years.
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