a thread for the ongoing disaster that is the pittsburgh pirates' navy seal training (and other various shenanigans)

mookie posted about this in the 2012 pirates thread but honestly i think it needs to be brought out of the shadows. maybe one of the most insane ongoing sport stories i've read in my life.

http://triblive.com/sports/dejankovacevic/2819385-74/pirates-polanco-baseball-players-team-hell-month-prospects-week-ankle#axzz29xfwc3PE

At 5 a.m., after a wink or two of sleep, they were bused over to Bradenton Beach for a two-mile run, followed by relay races in which they ran back and forth filling garbage cans with sand.
(Don’t ask. No idea.)
At 1 p.m., after more non-baseball drills back at Pirate City, they played an actual game against Toronto’s prospects.

even taken on its own terms it is absurd -- the military does shit like this to create unit cohesion. for all they'll tell you about just trying to help the team, these are kids who barely know baseball and are competing against each other to move up.

kovacevic sometimes over sells his disdain, but he is otm and then some here. shit is amazing

yeah this is seriously wtf, when this story first broke i was amazed since it seemed like the pirates were finally doing everything right on the drafting/development side of the org and then NOPE

It happened during a drill in which Polanco sprinted across the outfield, through an above-ground pool of ice water, then leaped into a sand pit.

holy shit, that is amazing. wtf

i'll read the story later but i remember being blown away back when the allegations were confirmed.

i want to see a first or second round pick refuse to sign on because of developmental concerns or risk of injury.

well their first round pick from this year's draft DID refuse to sign, but that was more about money than anything. i'm sure though that all this shit was of no help, though.

This seems like such a bizarre story. Why would they risk injuries by having them go through some goofy course?

bcuz they're the pirates & they haven't done anything right in over two decades

hey they hung onto McCutchen

maybe they are just pitching to be the subject of "The Franchise" next season.

mark appel (the first-rounder who refused to sign) retweeted the article shortly after it was published, leading its author to wonder:

I missed this retweet of my Wednesday column when it happened, but as the pic up there illustrates, it came from Mark Appel. He was the Pirates' first-round pick who flatly refused to sign. I've NEVER heard he had any issue with the Pirates' development, including from Scott Boras, but I can't think of another reason Appel would RT that particular column.

dude doesn't think much of his own writing, does he?!

Among Law's points is that Jameson Taillon injured his knee in a 2010 military-style drill and that, because of that, Taillon asked not to be included in this year's session.

http://sulia.com/channel/pittsburgh-pirates/f/830f0805-6d19-4f78-9299-d25332c1258e

can you even imagine if this were the yankees and gary sanchez had been hurt? what a fucking joke

Received this note today from a prominent baseball agency that represents several of the Pirates, including one of their top five prospects (not Gregory Polanco): “Every single one of the Pirate guys we represent said the Navy Seals workout was abusive and uncalled for.”

The specifics offered in a later conversation were almost entirely about episodes I’ve already described, so this was intended more as a characterization of how the players felt than actual new information.

Independent of that, I also heard from yet another person — no connection whatsoever to the Pirates — who communicates almost daily with Polanco and visited him at Pirate City during Instructs. He re-re-reaffirmed that Polanco’s second injury was “worse” than his first and that it came during those already described ice-water-sand drills.

Polanco could begin playing for his Dominican team today, by the way.

http://blog.triblive.com/dejan-kovacevic/2012/10/25/agency-seals-workout-was-abusive/

i'm surprised this hasn't become a bigger deal -- i don't see anything about it on espn or on the pittsburgh post-gazette site (a bigger paper than the tribune-review)

Yeah, it's really interesting that ESPN has sat on this all day today. I don't know if they're working on a big story or hoping it will all go away.

It really does stink that espn.com hasn't had a peep about this yet. Have they done anything on-air about it?

i think i know the answer but is the MLB Network so declawed it can't do any significant journalism, just minor, insignificant editorializing?

My assumption has always been yes. I'm always a little surprised when they report/repost PED suspensions.

keith law mentioned it during his chat the other day, think that's about it

waitaminute... what's the relationship between MLB and ESPN??

nothing apart from the fact that espn pays mlb a lot of money to broadcast its games

Yeah, I figure this'll suddenly be a reportable story the morning after the WS ends.