Barring a late-season win streak, the Pirates will surely clinch their 20th consecutive losing season. Just like last year, the season will end with an epic collapse to erase what was a competitive four months of baseball. And yet, there is one major difference between last year's collapse and this year. Andrew McCutchen is still playing at an All-star level. He hasn't put up the same numbers we saw in May and June but asking a player to hit 7-8 home runs while batting .370 is asking for ... Read More
Pirates lose fifth straight, lose series to Astros
The Pirates lost once again tonight and now stand three games under .500. They lost the series against the Astros and will try to not be swept tomorrow afternoon. With the exception of one pitch, Kevin Correia pitched a solid game. He tied his career high in strikeouts (nine) and pitched six innings. He did allow four runs but three of them coming on a Jason Castro three-run homer, the pitch that lost the game for the Pirates. Tony Watson and Joel Hanrahan each had scoreless relief ... Read More
The Pirates second collapse could be worst season in 19 years
It's happened. It's officially happened. I've remained mum on the situation for the past month or so, but tonight was the nail in the coffin. The Pirates officially are a losing ball club with their loss to the Brewers tonight. .500 was the dream for fans for the better part of two decades and this had to be the year. There were nothing but talks of making the playoffs because .500 was a given. Seriously, 16 games over .500 in late July, how could it not happen? The simple question is who ... Read More
Why Neal Huntington’s Job should be Safe
When a team goes into a free-fall as the Pirates have done for the second straight season, it is wise to blame close to everyone in the organization from the ownership, to the water boy. In many cases, a total collapse usually leads to wholesale changes throughout the organization (hello, last year's Red Sox). But, these are the Pirates and many of the Pittsburgh faithful are excited that, despite going just 4-11 in September, the team still has a chance to finish with a winning record. ... Read More
Pittsburgh: The former graveyard is now a hit and miss
For years now, Pittsburgh has been known as the graveyard for baseball players. To simplify it, players would come to Pittsburgh for one last stop before they turned in their baseball cleats. Just look at it over the years. Raul Mondesi Jose Mesa Jeromy Burnitz Matt Morris Derek Bell This list is just the players off the top of my head that made their last stop, or close to their last stop before throwing in the towel. To put it nicely, each of the players didn't enjoy their best ... Read More
Pirates snap seven game losing streak, beat Cubs 7-6
After an extremely rough week of baseball, the Pirates were able to snap their seven game losing streak with a win this afternoon. Solid pitching by Wandy Rodriguez and a couple home runs being hit helped the Pirates end their longest losing streak of the season. Rodriguez had another very good start for the Pirates. He allowed three runs (one earned) and struck out four en route to his eleventh victory of the season. Tony Watson and Jared Hughes combined for a scoreless seventh and Jason ... Read More
Pirates falls to Cubs once again
It's been a tough past couple weeks for the Pirates and their fans, and that continued today with their seventh straight loss. James McDonald once again had a bad start pitching only 3.2 innings. He allowed four earned runs in his outing, and other than two starts against the St. Louis Cardinals this second half, has been awful. The team used seven other pitchers throughout the course of the game. Justin Wilson, Chris Leroux, Kyle McPherson, and Chad Qualls all had scoreless outings. Tony Watson ... Read More
The “Dude” Who Cried Wolf
A few days ago Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips took to his Twitter account (@DatDudeBP) after a 14 inning victory to accuse one of the Pittsburgh Pirates of shouting something racial at him. He used the hashtags #RealTalk and #Racism to emphasize his point. There’s only one problem with that, none of the Pirates said any such thing to him. So much for “Real Talk.” Naturally the Pirates player in question, pitcher Jared Hughes, quickly and rightfully defended himself but ... Read More
A More Painful Route to a Losing Season
Remember the old days, when the Pirates would be 20 games under .500 before the All-Star break and half the city of Pittsburgh cared more about who would be the backup left tackle for the Steelers? Those seemed like dark times but, compared to now, they may have been easier on the heart. For the second straight season, the Pirates are in the midst of an epic collapse in September, and with 20 games remaining, it seems unlikely they will finish the season with their first winning record in ... Read More
Does Anyone Want the Second NL Wild Card?
Prior to the start of this year’s major league baseball season, Bud Selig and Co. implemented a second wild card (per league) to allow more teams to be competitive longer through a season . Well, in the NL, the second WC has done the direct opposite. In the middle of August the Pirates, Cardinals, Braves and Dodgers looked to be the only four teams battling for the final two spots as they were pulling away from the pack. Then the great collapse happened. Nobody wanted to win to put themselves ... Read More