Pirates' weird Navy SEALS training doesn't go over well with top prospects
 

No wonder this team keeps collapsing.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/pirates...lb-joke--.html

Re: Pirates' weird Navy SEALS training doesn't go over well with top prospects
 

WTF?

Why would you risk BASEBALL players to this? I'm all for discipline and such (being a Marine myself) but seriously, this is just dumb.

Guess we shouldn't be surprised w/ the Pirates, but wow.

Re: Pirates' weird Navy SEALS training doesn't go over well with top prospects
 

Sounds like someone watches too much FX network, home of 'Sons of Anarchy' and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Seriously though, this sounds like some corporate team-building psycho-babble gone horribly awry. Like they picked imagery that they imagined young men would find empowering (the renegade individualist biker, the Osama Bin Laden killing Seal Team Six, etc.) and tried to create some stupid 'us against the world' environment in their minor leagues. What they got instead was those same minor leaguers looking at their organization and saying 'these guys are fricking lunatics'.

Re: Pirates' weird Navy SEALS training doesn't go over well with top prospects
 

Yeah, you would think that by the time James Taillon engaging another player in combat got written into the plans this whole thing would get shot down, but they're the Pittsburgh Pirates for a reason I guess.

Re: Pirates' weird Navy SEALS training doesn't go over well with top prospects
 

And the Pirates wonder why they're a laughing stock?

Re: Pirates' weird Navy SEALS training doesn't go over well with top prospects
 

Wow. And we thought DanO's "take a strike" development strategy was whack.

Sounds like something the Landry Cowboys regime would have tried right after the ballet lessons.

Re: Pirates' weird Navy SEALS training doesn't go over well with top prospects
 

This is just hilarious. I can't even imagine going through with it as a big ticket draft pick like Taillon. I would literally just laugh and go home and take a nap.

Re: Pirates' weird Navy SEALS training doesn't go over well with top prospects
 

30 years ago they would have sucked it up and taken something away from it...

Re: Pirates' weird Navy SEALS training doesn't go over well with top prospects
 

Or they would have done it and then done a bunch of lines of coke and partied all night.

Re: Pirates' weird Navy SEALS training doesn't go over well with top prospects
 

I wonder if Mark Appel got wind of this and whether it played into his decision not to sign. He was such a baby about the Pirates drafting him, but maybe he (and Boras) knew something about the current management of the Pirates that we didn't, i.e. they're [bleeping] crazy.

Re: Pirates' weird Navy SEALS training doesn't go over well with top prospects
 

Just wow. And I agree with Superdude, I'm pretty sure if I was Taillon I would have said "umm, no." and dared them to suspend or release me. The players really should stand up to this nonsense.

Re: Pirates' weird Navy SEALS training doesn't go over well with top prospects
 

The eighties were simpler times.

This news makes me a lot less concerned about the Pirates going forward. They're run by lunatics.

Re: Pirates' weird Navy SEALS training doesn't go over well with top prospects
 

Huntington, their GM, was a lieutenant in Cleveland before being hired in Pittsburgh. Many felt this made him eminently qualified because Cleveland was all about "advanced metrics" and used proprietary software.

Many here at RZ had envy for both those franchises too