The Pirates After 120 Games

The Pirates played their 120th game of the season last night.  It was a loss to the Dodgers, and it dropped their season record to 42-78 (.350).  a terrible record, but not, amazingly enough, the worst in MLB.  Two other teams, Arizona and Baltimore have worse records, and Texas is only 1/2 game ahead of the Buccos.

Anyway, a nice round number like 120 represents a milestone of sorts (Def: Milestone - any excuse to write a Grandstander post.), so let's have some fun with numbers.

First, the good news:

• The 2021 Pirates will not exceed the 1962 Mets record total of 120 losses in a season.  To even tie for that ignominious record, the Pirates will have to go 0-42, and not even this bunch can be that bad. Right? Oops, I mean, RIGHT.  So take THAT, Dan Bonk!
• The 1952 Pirates are conceded to be the worst Pirate team of the modern era (post-1900).  That team went 42-112 (.273).  For the '21 squad to reach the depths of that team, percentage-wise, they will have to go 2-40 the rest of the way.  Again, I think that even this team is capable of scrapping together at least three more W's along the way.

Now, the not-so-good news:

• To avoid a 100 loss season, the Pirates will need to go 21-21 the rest of the season.  Maybe they can do that,  and maybe I can win the power ball lottery this week.  In other words, it ain't gonna happen.
• The Pirate will  have to go 9-33 between now and the end of the season to finish at 51-111 and avoid equaling that 112 loss record of the 1952 Rickeydinks.   I believe that they can do better than 9-33, but I also think that this one may not be decided until deep into September.

The most interesting "race" for the Pirates, though will involve their raw wins total.  At the beginning of the season, depending on what casino/gambling app you used, the OVER/UNDER number for the Pirates was either 57.5, 58, or 58.5 wins on the season.  For the sake of this post, let's use 58 as the number.  To equal that number, and produce a "push", the Pirates will have to go 16-26 over the course of the last 42 games.  This is a winning percentage of .381, ever so slightly better than they have played to date.  This is a "race" that I do believe will not be decided until the final week of the season, and if you have a few bucks riding on the outcome, it will keep you interested in the Pirates right down to the wire.