After watching his club trade away three more players on Tuesday, Jack Wilson questioned when the continued practice of trading proven players for "good prospects" was finally going to pay off.
"The biggest question is, when do things start turning around? It's hard for guys who have seen these exact kinds of trades happen before and seen it do absolutely nothing," Wilson told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "For nine years, I've seen these trades two or three times a year, every year, and we still haven't had a winning season."
This comment came shortly after the Pirates traded OF Nyjer Morgan and RP Sean Burnett to Washington for OF Lastings Milledge and P Joel Hanrahan, and sent OF Eric Hinske and cash to the Yankees for two minor league players.
Not surprisingly, Wilson apologized on Wednesday for the comments he made.
"Some of my comments were pretty harsh," Wilson told the Tribune-Review. "When you are in the moment, and everyone's bummed out, you tend to lose your head a little bit and vent. I definitely don't want to be that guy that's butting heads with the organization. I apologize for that. That's not the person or the player I want to be."
Wilson continued by saying that after seeing his comments in print that he felt they were worse than what he intended.
"It's just something, when you see what you said (in print), you think, 'Wow, that guy is kind of a jerk,'" Wilson said. "That's not me. I'm definitely passionate about winning and being a Pirate. I think sometimes it comes out in a negative way."
Knowing the kind of person Wilson is, his decision to apologize is not all that shocking; however, many Pirates fans are in total agreement with the comments that Wilson made Tuesday.
These kinds of trades have been made for the last decade in an attempt to "build a winner" yet none of them have worked. Longtime Bucco fans are getting fed up with watching All-Star caliber players get traded for players who will not be ready for the big leagues for two or three more years.
The Pirates have virtually traded away an All-Star team over the last nine years and still have nothing to show for it. Players like Jason Bay, Jason Kendall, Brian Giles, Aramis Ramirez, Nate McClouth, Xavier Nady, and Jason Scmidt have all been traded for prospects in an effort to "build from the ground up" as Neal Huntington has said about the franchise's attempts to get a stronger farm system.
At some point, some of those prospects should have should have built a system good enough to start feeding the big league club with some good young talent. To date, that has not happened, though there are some players in Indianapolis (Pittsburgh's AAA team) that may make an impact by the end of the season (see Pedro Alvarez, Neil Walker, Brad Lincoln).
By the time those players make it to Pittsburgh it may be too little, too late. As the Pirate fan base continues to lose patience with a club that has been promising an approaching turnaround for nearly 20 years.
Maybe more players need to start voicing their concerns about the direction of the team as Wilson did on Tuesday. But in the future, don't apologize Jack, the fans are with you.
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