College football season has begun, so I really haven't paid extremely close attention to the Buccos over the last week or so, but I'll suck it up and perform...like you six loyal readers expect me to...
Good
* Freddy Sanchez still leads the NL in hitting, going 2-for-5 against the Cubs yesterday to move to .346, nine points ahead of Miguel Cabrera's .337. Good!
* No young pitcher got hurt this week. Good!
* After another 3-3 week, the Pirates are 25-23 since the All-Star Break. Mediocre! But they're one of only two teams in the NL Central with a +.500 record in that time. Sad! But Good!
In that time, the Pirates have gone 11-2 in 1-run games, proving that everything regresses to the mean. They're still 20-27 in 1-run games for the season, but hey...regression to the mean = ...Good!
* The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Sports Geek says the Pirates are a couple good moves away from competing in the NL Central. Good! Sort of!
* The Pirates are a half-game out away from crawling out of the cellar. Sad again! But good again!
Bad
* The fact that the Pirates having a chance to climb out of last place is the highlight of the season is beyond sad.
* The aforementioned Sports Geek says the Pirates are a couple good moves away from competing in the NL Central. Unfortunately, they have a GM incapable of making such the necessary moves. As the Geek said...
Alas, the Pirates have given fans no confidence they know how to invest. So even as general manager Dave Littlefield correctly assesses the pressing needs, a veteran starting pitcher and a left-handed power hitter, there's fear this only heralds the second coming of Mark Redman and Jeromy Burnitz.Or the third coming of Randall Simon. While it is technically feasible that the Pirates could catch lightning in a bottle and compete next summer, another season of fighting it out for last place in baseball's worst division is still a much more likely scenario.
Blog
Strangely enough, this was a good week for baseball blogging...you people should be focusing on football!
Here's Bucs Dugout...latching onto a quote and not letting go until the idiocy is completely shaken out...
This is classic Kevin McClatchy, here refuting the rumors that Dave Littlefield will be fired:"I think we've done some good things in improving the minor-league system and getting it to feed the major-league club. I think you're seeing that now, when you look around the diamond and see Ronny Paulino and Jose Bautista and a lot of folks who came up from our system this year. I think Dave and his staff have done a good job in that regard."McClatchy added that he is not satisfied with the outcome to date, though."Obviously, there's one piece that we have not accomplished, and that's to win."Yeah, I mean everything's going great except for that one little problem! This reminds me of a classic quote from former Rays GM Chuck Lamar:"The only thing that keeps this organization from being recognized as one of the finest in baseball is wins and losses at the major league level."That was an incredibly silly thing to say and Lamar was justly ridiculed for it, but McClatchy's quote is, if anything, even more absurd - at least the Rays had a farm system that was stuffed to the gills with players with star potential. The Pirates don't.
Here's Where is Van Slyke on, well, the same thing.
McClatchy has given Dave Littlefield his vote of confidence for next season. It seems that 98% of the time in the sports world, this means that the executive being talked about will be canned by the end of the week. That's probably because only bad GMs need votes of confidence. Still, I really doubt that's the case here. K-Mac is not fazed by the obvious:
Obviously, there's one piece that we have not accomplished, and that's to win. And Dave would tell you the same thing. His job is not done successfully until we win. But I think we're starting to see what I think is the framework we need to do that. We're pretty well set at most every position. I think it's a job that's been successful in some areas, and there's still a ways to go in others.
If there is logic behind that statement, I can't really find it.
Here's Romo Phone Home on, yeah, you guessed it.
Whenever I hear the word "framework," my bullshit detector starts to beep. Dejan's seems to be beeping too, as he immediately examines the framework and finds it a bit rickety.
In addition to being the National League's worst team this season, the Pirates have a minor-league system nearly depleted of prospects at the top two levels, Class AAA Indianapolis and Class AA Altoona.
But of course, you know where this is going:
Littlefield's explanation has been that, because the Pirates have moved so many young players to the majors the past two years, a temporary void at those levels was inevitable. It is a view shared, apparently, by McClatchy.
That view simultaneously overvalues the young talent on the major league team, which does not appear to be strong enough to form the core of a winning team, and excuses Littlefield's staff for its desultory record in assessing talent, drafting, and developing players. But McClatchy shares that view not on its merits, but for a much simpler reason: 14 losing seasons are an insufficient motivator for change as long as the partnership is profitable. And it is.
The spinning and obfuscating will continue for another year, at least.
Finally, here's Honest Wagner on a team that has managed to rebuild itself three times since the last time the Pirates were good:
From this ESPN recap:
The resilient Florida Marlins became the first club in major-league history to climb above .500 after being 20 games under.
Whoa. This while the Pirates are talking about climbing above the Cubs.
Puts things in perspective, no? Seriously, in the 14 years since Sid Bream was outrunning Barry Bonds' throw in the NLCS, the Marlins have become a franchise, won the World Series, torn the team apart for prospects, won another World Series, torn the team apart again, and now they sit 2 games out of a playoff spot. And the Pirates are 55-83, refusing to fire their making-moves-that-scream-fire-me GM.
Until next week, when I'll be (hopefully) basking in the Missouri Tigers' second win over an SEC team in three games...
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