A Sinking Pirate Ship

The week began with the Pirates seven games behind the first place Cubs in the standings, but looking at a schedule that would have them playing the Cubs seven times over the next ten days.  It was a long shot, but win five, six, or, miracle of miracles, all seven of those games, then there was hope that maybe, just maybe, they could get back in the race for the NL Central title.  The Bucs then proceeded to lose the first two games, scoring only one run in each game, and in the series finale, the Cubs managed to eek out a 17-3 win over a team that is now clearly done, finished, and, like Jacob Marley, dead as a doornail.

The sad tale that is the 2017 Pirates could have been foreseen in the 2016-17 off-season when the following took place.

1. The team spent most of it's time talking about and trying to trade its most popular, and perhaps its best, player Andrew McCutchen.
2. Third baseman Jung Ho Kang got into a league jackpot (do I need to spell out the details?) in South Korea, and the team either naively or stupidly, depending on your point of view, thought that things would work themselves out, and did nothing to address what would turn out to be the loss of their leading power producer for the season.
3. Trumpeted the free agent signings of pitchers Daniel Hudson (2-5, 4.70 out of the bullpen) and Ivan Nova (11-12, 4.11 as a starter; 2-6, 6.38 since the All-star break).

Then, two weeks into the season, Starling Marte gets hit with an 80 game PED suspension.  And it became clear that Kang would not be returning to the United States, much less the Pirates, for 2017, and maybe forever.

What did the team do to address these two gaps?  It made 34 year old David Freese, who would have been a great utility guy, the everyday third baseman.  Freese started out well, but inevitably he has worn down.  However, it was the  in loss of Marte that the team showed themselves either unwilling or unable to do what was needed to fill such an enormous gap in the lineup created by Marte's loss.

Vaunted prospect Austin Meadows (see my post from three days ago) was not ready.  No effort that we know of was made to try and trade for another outfielder, and the team clearly had no "fourth outfielder" who could come in and do the job for them.  Instead we have seen infielder Adam Frazier, who has probably been the best of a weak lot, John Jaso, another guy who would have been a great utility guy/pinch hitter off the bench, but who proved time and again, that he is no outfielder, rookie Jose Osuna, and even Jordon Luplow, a Pirates prospect whom I admit that I had never heard of, up from Indy to give it a go.  Jordan managed to get zero hits in 11 at bats in the six games he was here before being sent back to Indy.

We have also seen guys like Max Moroff (.157 BA; still on the team), Gift Ngoepe (.222; back in Indy), Alen Hanson (.193; out of the organization), and Phil Gosselin (.150; out of the organization) playing.  And what seems to have been endless shuttling back-and-forth from the disabled list by Francisco Cervelli and Gregory Polanco.  Good Lord!

And I haven't even mentioned the pitching.  I'm going to pass on that topic for today with one exception.  One of the Pirates big "moves" at the July 31 trade deadline was obtaining fat, 40 year old relief pitcher Joaquin Benoit from the Phillies.  Benoit pitched in seven games for the Pirates, going 0-2 with an 8.59 ERA before he was put on the "He Stinks" disabled list, where he will hopefully never be heard from again.  That this worthless non-entity was brought here when, theoretically at least, the team still had a chance for the post season was an absolute insult to my intelligence as a baseball fan.

Then yesterday the team places Juan Nicasio in irrevocable waivers.  Nicasio was no all-star, but he had a 2.85 ERA and K:BB ratio of 60:18.  He was a serviceable pitcher as a set-up guy, but irrevocable waivers means he's gone, and the team gets nothing for him, other than dumping his salary, which seems to be the most important thing to them.

As I see it, there have been two bright spots for this team in 2017:

• Reliever Felipe Rivero. 4-2, 1.52 ERA, 16 saves, 77:17 K-to-BB ration in 63 innings pitched.
• Rookie first baseman Josh Bell. 23 HR, 77 RBI, .262 BA.

That's it.  That's the list.

I can't even imagine what this upcoming off-season is going to be like.  I am already compiling notes in my head for the Grandstander posts that will follow when McCutchen gets traded and when Clint Hurdle either Gets Fired or Resigns In Disgust.  I feel bad for the folks in the team's PR department who will have to come up with an ad campaign that will generate excitement for the 2018 season.  Good will generated by the "glory years" of 2013-15 has been thoroughly and completely trashed by Bob Nutting and Neal Huntington over these last ten months.  Good luck getting it back any time soon.

Bring On The Brewers

In case anyone missed it, sandwiched around the All-Star Break last week, the Pirates managed to take two of three games from the Cubs and two of three games from the Cardinals.  Forging a .667 winning percentage against NL Central foes has not been something that the Pirates have been successful in doing, even in the "glory years" of 2013-15, and so far in 2017, the Bucs are only 16-19 against the Central. So it is probably not a good idea to get too excited over these last two series, but that small degree of success makes the upcoming four game set with the first place Brewers interesting, does it not?

The Pirates are currently four games under .500, in fourth place in the division, and seven games behind the Brewers.  Should the Pirates pull a rabbit out of their hats and sweep the Brewers, or even win three of four, that will certainly cause what has been a moribund season to percolate.  Should the unthinkable happen, and the Brewers sweep the Pirates, that will all but end any hopes the Pirates will have of capturing the Central division, which is the only path to the playoffs for the representative of what has been a mediocre division in 2017.  Chances are the teams will split the series, and the mediocrity will continue.

Either way, this shapes up as meaningful series for the Pirates, and it so happens that I will be in attendance at games three and four of the series, and I am looking forward to it.

#letsgobucs

Pirates at the Halfway Mark, plus One Game

So we know what the Pirates' specifically and the NL Central Division's 2017 season in general has been like.  A mediocre team stuck in what is turning out to be a mediocre division.  The Pirates played below .500 in both April and May, but, hey, in June they "surged" to a 13-13 record.  You took a look at the division, and thought, well, maybe, just maybe, the team could hit a hot streak and somehow win the Central Division. After all, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, right?

All conditions looked good.  The Pirates had won four of six games and marching into PNC Park for the holiday weekend, were the San Francisco Giants, the team that was, by record, the second worst team in the National League.  Time to turn on the jets, get serious, win some ball games against a bad opponent, and begin a second half charge.

Instead, the Pirates rolled over and played dead and were swept by the Giants. They now stand at 37-45, six games behind the first place Brewers.  Worse, they managed to get two pretty good starts from back-enders Chad Kuhl and Trevor Williams yesterday and today got bupkis for the effort.  I was at the game yesterday afternoon when the Giants did all that they could to help the Pirates win that game.  Giants pitchers issued ten walks - TEN!! - and the Buccos managed 1 run while stranding fifteen - FIFTEEN!! - base runners.  The game went into extra innings and the Giants scored the winning run on a Daniel Hudson wild pitch.  I didn't see today's game, but the box score tells me that the bullpen, which stinks (with the exception of Felipe Rivera), blew another one.

As I have watched the Pirates this season, there has been nothing there that gets me excited about them.  The personal irresponsibility of Jung Ho Kang and Starling Marte put the team behind an eight ball so large that there is no getting out from it.  You see guys like Phil Gosselin, Gift Ngoepe, Jacob Stalliings on the team.  You see bench guys playing out of position and too often.  And then there is that parade of stiffs and no names in that bullpen.  And you see Max Moroff.

Hey, God bless the kid.  He is only 24 years old, and he has fulfilled the dream of just about every American little boy - he is a professional baseball player who has made the major leagues.  He may one day blossom and become an All-Star, and for his sake, I truly hope that he does, but.....He started today for the second game in a row and went 1-for-3 and this raised his batting average to .103.  You read right...ONE-ZERO-THREE.  Yes, he is a utility guy who is at best the twenty-fifth guy on the roster right now, but a guy toting a .103 BA should not be on a Major League roster.  I mean....

One word describes this weekend against the Giants and it also describes this entire season: Disheartening.  It began in the off-season when all talk seemed to center on the Pirates efforts to trade Andrew McCutchen.  That talked continued throughout spring training and into the season, and will only ramp up as the July 31 trade deadline approaches.

The Pirates are on a tightrope.  Do they stand pat and/or trade for (cheap and inexpensive) guys who might help them win a lousy division and hope that the dice roll right for them in the post-season, or do they begin the process of tearing it all down and start a rebuild that might payoff with some success in a 2020-2023 window?

My guess is that Neal Huntington will start the rebuilding process (although he will never use that word), and between July 31 and Opening Day, 2018, guys like McCutchen, Gerrit Cole, Josh Harrison, Tony Watson and others will no longer be Pirates, having been traded for various "prospects" with "high upside".  Any trade that Pirates make will no doubt be able to be defended in a pure baseball sense, but when these guys go, especially Andrew McCutchen, "disheartening" won't even begin to describe how that is going to feel.

Spring Training Has Begun

Yes, Spring Training has been underway for one week now, and you are probably wondering, "Why hasn't The Grandstander  written about the Pirates yet?", or maybe you aren't wondering that, but the fact is, I am having a tough time getting my usual jolt of springtime optimism when it comes to our favorite baseball team.  The reason for that can be laid at the feet, I believe, of the Pirates themselves.

Consider that following a season when the team took a 20 game step backwards and which featured a trade deadline deal where the team gave up two highly touted prospects, not to obtain a key player to help them win games, win championships, or even get better, but to dump a salary (I am speaking of the Francisco Liriano to Toronto salary dump trade, in case you forgot), this is what transpired over the Winter Hot Stove Season:

• The team spent most off their time trying desperately trying to trade Andrew McCutchen, probably their most popular player, and easily their best player over the last ten seasons or so.
• Re-signed pitcher Ivan Nova, who despite two good months (5-2, 3.06) with the team, is still a pitcher with a career ERA north of 4.00.
• Signed free agent pitcher Daniel Hudson.  Hudson, who has had two Tommy John surgeries in his career, may well be a good pitcher, but at this point he is destined to be a seventh or eighth inning set-up guy.
• Obtained a bunch of no name pitchers in hope that Ray Searage can turn water into wine with them.
• Had to deal with a DUI incident involving Jung Ho Kang.  That's not the team's fault, but it sure has cast a pall over the off-season nonetheless.

That's it.  That's the list. If I left out any big blockbuster that inspires visions of overtaking the Cubs and Cardinals in the NL Central, I will be happy to be corrected.

Now, Spring Training has begun, and the main story seems to be gearing up all Pirates fans for what will probably be  final season, or maybe even the final half-season, of McCutchen's tenure with the Pirates.

Yep.  That ought to have people storming the PNC Park tickets windows.

And today, we have been treated to stories detailing Bob Nutting's annual address to the team, and his various tete a tetes with the media.

Of course, McCutchen's status is still Topic A, and Bob assures us that he "loves" Andrew, and hopes that he will "always be a Pirate", but well, you know, business is business, and sometimes things just don't always work out the way you want them.

Don't get me wrong.  Yes, Cutch underperformed last season, but at the age of only 31, I'd say he deserves the benefit of the doubt before he's written off as being done.  Also, no player should be untouchable, and if the team can be made better, anyone could and should be subject to being traded.  However, how confident are you that value on a par with what McCutchen has given the Pirates will ever be received in a trade for him?  And no matter what, he deserved better treatment than being dragged through the public prints and airwaves all winter as so much excess baggage that the team needs to jettison.

And one other nugget from Bob Nutting's interviews.  Since he has taken over as Chief Bigdome at 115 Federal Street, he has never, not once, taken a salary from the team. What a prince!

Oh, I am sure that the fires will still burn within me.  I think that the first televised game from Florida will be sometime next week, and I am sure that I will be planted in front of the TV set when it comes on, at least for a couple of innings, but it's going to take the players that they have - Marte, Polanco, Bell, Harrison, Cole, Taillon, and, yes, Andrew McCutchen - generating excitement for me on the filed of play to stoke those fires, because all the Front Office has done since last October is throw buckets of water on them.