The State of the Pirates as of 8/17/19

Okay.  We all know the numbers.

At the All-Star Break, the Pirates just might have been the hottest team in the National League.  They had just gone 8-5 in a thirteen game stretch against some of the better teams in MLB (Astros, Brewers, Cubs). They were 44-45, two and a half games out of first place and two and a half games out of the final wild card spot.  People were actually feeling positive about the Buccos.

What was to follow after the All-Star Game was a stretch of such impossibly lousy and rotten baseball, that I honestly had a hard time remembering anything like it in all the sixty-plus years that I have followed baseball in general and the Pirates in particular.   Since that time, they have gone 7-25.  To put that in perspective, that is a "winning" percentage that would produce a record of 35-127 over 162 games.  And not only have they been losing, but they have been losing in ways that are particularly astounding in that they have been showing a complete lack of discipline and displaying lousy fundamentals in executing the game.  (When I was away on vacation last week, the team posted a 1-7 record.  All I saw were the final scores online every night. I'm thankful that I was out of town and not exposed to that particular stretch.)

A particularly sour cherry was put on top of this rotten sundae with the reporting yesterday about the rifts and a complete lack of discipline in the Pirates clubhouse that has at time led to near physical altercations between players and coaches and even Clint Hurdle.  Much of this has revolved around relief pitchers Keone Kela and Kyle Crick.  Honestly, were I member of this particular Pirates bullpen, I would be doing everything in my power to stay OUT of the limelight rather than have it shine upon me and emphasize just how god-awful it has been all year.

GMNH had to take to the MLB Network airwaves yesterday to address this mess, which he did by spewing out a two minute bullshit sound bite wherein he essentially said nothing.  On the telecast last night, Propaganda Ministers Joe Block and Bob Walk failed completely to address this particular stinky elephant in the room.  Not a single mention was made of the breaking story that had dominated the sports airwaves in Pittsburgh all afternoon.  I'm sure that Greg and Steve followed the same path on the radio.

Kevin Newman walks it off for the 

Pirates' 3-2 win over the Cubs last night

And as often happens in the game of baseball, the Pirates went out last night and played one of their better and most satisfying games of the season.  Joe Musgrove pitched an outstanding game, and rookies Brian Reynolds, Cole Tucker, and Kevin Newman played key roles in producing a ninth inning walk-off 3-2 win over the smug and insufferable Joe Maddon and his Cubs and their smug and insufferable fans who populated PNC Park last night.  The only aggravating thing about the game was that the winning pitcher ended up being Jackass-in-Chief Keone Kela.  Oh, well, that's baseball.

And the narrative on the post game show immediately became "the Bucs have now won three of their last four games."  I'm sure that that will be Greg Brown's lead on the opening of the telecast tonight.

The sheer awfulness of the post-ASG Pirates, combined with the stories of an out-of-control clubhouse simply screams out this question.  Who will be held accountable for this mess?  On most teams, either the manager or general manager or both of them would be fired at season's end, if not sooner.  However, both Hurdle and Huntington have two years remaining on contracts that reportedly pay them $3 million and $2 million per year, respectively.  Can't imagine that Bob Nutting is going to pay out Ten Large over the next two years to guys to NOT work for him, so what happens?  

My guess is that the fall guy for this will be pitching coach Ray Searage.  That will be the cheapest way out.  A couple of other coaches might get sacrificed as well.  And maybe Clint Hurdle will decide to "retire" after negotiating a compromised buy-out of his contract with Nutting.  I'm guessing that GMNH will be back in all his glory.

I can tell you this.  If nothing happens, if they build on the fact that "we've got  a lot of great hungry young players who are ready to bust loose", if the Best Management Team In Baseball returns intact, there probably will not be an "insurrection" among the Pirates fan base, because, after all, what can the fans do about this?  There will, however, be a complete and total blanket of apathy and ennui that will fall over the baseball fans of Pittsburgh.  For the Pirates bean counters, Apathy and Ennui will end up being far worse than an Angry Insurrection.