Good god...I hadn’t paid attention to their record in a while...only the results. 9-24. That’s a 44-win pace. And unlike the Tigers, who lost 120 games with nothing but young players a couple of years ago, the Pirates are on pace for 118 losses while continuing to play Jeromy Burnitz and his .191 average. Joe Randa went on the DL this week (thank god...anybody want to pull a Jeff Giloolly on Burnitz by any chance?), and they called up marginal prospect Jose Bautista to take his place. That’s fine with me...Bautista can play just about any position, proving this by starting in CF in his first game with the club. Problem is, the Pirates currently need replacements at 2B, 3B, RF, and CF, and while Bautista can play all of those positions, a) he’s not that highly-touted a prospect, and b) he can’t play all of those positions at the same time. And by the way,
Other notes from yet another wretched week...
"We need Jeromy Burnitz. We need him to do offensive things, and the only way to get that is to keep sending him out there."
No, you don’t need him. You need offense. Oh, and the Pirates did sit Burnitz on Sunday...in favor of Bautista instead of Craig Wilson. This organization seriously hates Craig Wilson for no good reason other than stubbornness. That, and that Pepsi fixation.
Oh, and here’s what somebody from Baseball Prospectus had to say about the two young catchers, Doumit and Ronny Paulino.
Charlie (San Diego): What do you think about the Pirates thinking about trying Ryan Doumit at first base? Do you think Ronny Paulino will be a good big-league starter behind the plate?
Joe Sheehan: I think we know the Pirates have the ability to take a good-hitting catching prospect and screw him up royally. It might be their signature skill. Well,
that or signing old players to block young ones. Paulino's a catch-and-throw guy, a backup. Doumit's a starter, a six-win guy down the road if he plays. Good luck with that.
Nothing like being a bigger laughingstock than the Royals (who are actually acknowledging that things aren’t going well) this season.
- Jack Wilson hurt a hamstring this week...which figures, since he’s been the most consistent offensive threat on the team. Just what a team averaging roughly 0.1 runs/game needs.
- Really, there’s not much else to rant about. I can complain about Burnitz all I want, but he’s not totally to blame for a 118-loss pace. That’s an organizational failure from top to bottom. But at least the guy at the top got a contract extension. Davey, you’re doing a heckuva job.
I just made myself sick with that analogy, by the way. The Tuesday Pirates Rant is wearing me down. But if you’re wanting to read more ranting (and I can’t imagine you are), click here.
And as a tease, Bucco Blog (who spends WAY too much time analyzing in-depth statistics for this worthless team...though I appreciate every minute of it since it satisfies both my sports nerddom and my statistics nerddom), drops it out there that there’s a “Littlefield to be fired” rumor. That’s almost as big a tease as the omnipresent “Mark Cuban wants to buy the team”.
Positives
- Well, there was one. Zach Duke pitched a complete-game shutout against the Cubs on Tuesday (making the Pirates 3-1 in games following a Tuesday Pirates Rant...and 6-23 in all other games). Good for Zach. Of course, he followed that up with a collapse against the offensive juggernaut that is the Washington Nationals, but I can’t blame him. How do you stay focused playing for a team with an inept GM and a desperate manager who has started to prove somewhat inept himself?
And on the plus side, I’m reading Baseball Prospectus’ latest book,
Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know about the Game is Wrong, and really enjoying it. Yaaaaaaay.
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