Dec 2, 2017 5 min read

How would you like to have Giancarlo Stanton in the Pirates’ division next year? The St. Louis Cardinals are one of a few teams interested in getting him in a trade from the Marlins.

This is just one more example of the stupidity that is Major League Baseball.

Stanton was just named National League MVP. He hit 59 home runs last year with 132 RBI and a .631 slugging percentage.

You would think that the Marlins, playing in what has proven to be a really bad baseball town, would be happy to have a guy like Stanton, who might put some people in the seats, not to mention help them win some games.

But this is Major League Baseball and bad markets like Miami can’t afford to keep superstars like Stanton around.

Not after he signs a guaranteed contract for $295 million.

Stanton has a no-trade clause and he likes southern California a lot. He’s made it clear that playing for the Dodgers would be his first choice.

The Giants and Red Sox have also shown interest and have met with Stanton’s agent.

Notice I didn’t mention the Pirates being involved in any discussions with him. That’s because the Pirates are not in the same league as the Cardinals, Dodgers, Giants and Red Sox.

They’re a part of Major League Baseball, but they’re not in the same league with those teams when it comes to throwing money at free agents.

While fans of those teams can have some realistic expectation of seeing Stanton playing for their teams, Pirates fans have to decide whether to believe Pirates’ General Manger Neil Huntington when he says there are no plans to trade their biggest stars, Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole.

The Pirates are back to being a below .500 team again, and the longer they stay under .500 the more trading them makes sense.

In what other sport does new ownership take over a franchise and make trading the league MVP a major, if not its first priority? The Marlins, who took hundreds of millions of dollars from local tax payers in one of the shadiest stadium deals in history, want to have a $90 million payroll next season.

In other words, they’re rebuilding again.

That means lots of empty seats at their fancy new ballpark.

And, when there’s a small market team looking to dump really good players, there is always a team with a TV contract worth billions ready to snatch them up.

What’s astounding is that there is anybody left in the small markets that are willing to support stupidity like this by buying a ticket.

Here’s hoping Stanton gets his wish and is traded to Los Angeles. It would be nice to see the Dodgers’ payroll crack the $300 million mark. And here’s hoping the Dodgers clinch the National League West title during the month of August.

• There’s just as much stupidity in college football. There will be lot of discussion about which four teams make it into the playoff final four. A lot of bloggers, commentators and columnists will make lots of really good arguments for their favorite final four and none will be wrong.

Why did anybody think that going from two finalists to four would make the championship any less mythical?

It’s only a matter of time until they go to eight and have the same debates about who should be eighth or ninth. It’s moronic beyond belief.

• Speaking of stupidity, a little while ago Texas A&M paid $10 million to buyout a coach who went 7-5. Yesterday it guaranteed a coach, who finished 5-6, $70 million for 10 years.
• Not enough has been said about the huge effect that the ridiculously sticky gloves wide receivers are allowed to wear have on the inflation of all passing stats.
• Remember Kimo von Oelhoffen?

I think of him every time the Steelers are getting ready to play the Cincinnati Bengals. He was a nose tackle who signed with the Steelers as a free agent in 2000 after spending six years with the Bengals.

I remember what he said about how the Bengals approached games with the Pittsburgh. He said it was always known as “Steelers Week,” and it was a big, big deal.

It probably hasn’t changed.

The Bengals are probably not going to the postseason but they’ve been playing better lately. “Steelers Week” is about all they have left for this season.

Andy Dalton is the best quarterback Pittsburgh has played since Detroit’s Matthew Stanford had more than 400 yards on Oct. 29. Dalton has nine touchdown passes and no interceptions in his last five games.

Don’t expect an easy one for the Steelers.

John Steigerwald writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.