Can it get any worse?
By Jake • May 4th, 2008 • Category: Feature Story
I’m sitting on the couch watching the game rooting for a base hit from our power third baseman who began May with a .556 OPS and I’m thinking, can it get any worse than this? Then I realize our other power corner infielder just struck out with two men on who began May with a .472 OPS.
And I quickly realize it can.
Just as my mind floated back to the game, I see our power corner left fielder strike out for the second time with men in scoring position an inning later and the television network was kind enough to flash the fact he’s hitting a-buck-oh-five this year in such situations.
Great.
Our team took the field and immediately began putting out self-created fires - a dropped grounder at short called a hit, an errand throw that missed the relay man by twenty feet from the outfield, and two missed double plays later, the bases were loaded with two outs and the game on the line.
The network flashed a graphic showing me the Pirates lead Major League Baseball in team errors and then, as if to stick salt in my wounds, ran another graphic showing Pirates starters have the worst ERA in baseball.
Combine the two and you can just guess what happened next - a .240 hitter mashed a line drive over our centerfielder’s head clearing the bases.
But I was determined to keep my hope machine alive - I just knew we would mount a comeback. And, we did. After a couple of solo shot home runs, we pulled within a run. In the 9th our leadoff hitter crushed a line drive single into right field and I guess he wanted an inside the park home run as he kept running and running and running.
And was promptly thrown out at second. Five pitches later the game was over and the Pirates lost yet again.
The next game an ex-MLB manager announced on air a coach in the game told him the Pirates had the worst defense he’d seen in thirteen years in professional baseball. The game after that I’m listening to a Hall of Fame pitcher broadcast that the worst possible scenario for developing young pitchers is to rotate catchers over the years or to use an offensive oriented catcher, and we’re doing both.
The last straw for me was watching the Pirates manager systematically remove nearly all probability - however slight - from our chances of winning several games over the last week with inexcusable matchups, a complete disregard of the basic fundamentals of National League small-ball, low runs allowed, baseball, and ignorance of general sabermetric principles like base runs states.
If there is a fundamental mistake that can be made in the game of baseball, we’ve made it.
And we repeat them daily - like clock work.
As the Pirates head home nearly being swept in a four-game series against the Nationals who were projected by Baseball Prospectus to be the fourth weakest team in the National League this year, Pirates fans are rejoicing the San Francisco Giants are coming to town thinking they might finally see a few wins.
The Giants will start Jonathan Sanchez (2-1, 3.48 ERA, 40 K and 16 BB; 2-0 with 1.45 ERA last three), Patrick Misch (0-0, 5.40 ERA, 8 K and 3 BB; 0-0 with 5.40 ERA last three), and Matt Cain (1-2, 4.08 ERA, 37 K, 24 BB; 1-0 with 1.40 ERA last three) against Duke, Dumatrait, and Maholm - three southpaws - who have an combined average 7.32 ERA in their last outings.
And I quickly realize that the team that Baseball Prospectus projected to be the worst in MLB can field no less than four position players who are 24-66 ( .364 BA) against left-hand pitching and a team as a whole that is hitting southpaws at a .350/.490/.414 clip over their last five games.
Can it get any worse?
I’m not going to pull my hair out any more this year. It’s crystal clear that from Frank Coonelly down the goal of this new regime is to shock the Nutting’s into reality. I assume Robert Nutting has taken a Vince Naimoli type of hands-on approach in the front office (don’t deal Snell, get Morris, hold Bay, make a .500 run, etc..) that is strangling the regime and the only way they can make any moves it to prove to him Bay et al won’t get him that magical .500 season this year. Maybe then he’ll release his grip.
What finally brought Naimoli to his knees was a take over, but that won’t happen in Pittsburgh. Instead, it looks like shame is going to be the culprit. The question becomes, just how low will Nutting drag this franchise in the ground before the shame overtakes the mega-millions he’s pocketing?
And, of course, that doesn’t mean I have to sit around and watch this debauchery. So on that note, I’m taking a week or two off starting Monday and heading to Aruba to relax. I’ll be back the 16th.
L8tr.
Jake is a contributing writer at Bucco Blog, a fan blog covering the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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Jake:
Enjoy your vacation. I will enjoy not reading your continued negativity, even if I, like you, know our Pirates stink and it\’s all due to the Nuttings (no doubt about it whatsoever) and their greed and disrespect for us, the fans.
Your knowledge of baseball and the Pirates is outstanding. However, your \
Jake:
Enjoy your vacation. I will enjoy not reading your continued negativity, even if I, like you, know our Pirates stink and it’s all due to the Nuttings (no doubt about it whatsoever) and their greed and disrespect for us, the fans.
Your knowledge of baseball and the Pirates is outstanding. However, your “tunnel vision” is also making you not giving credit to some players that deserve it. The two players I am referring to are Nate and Ryan. Where would the team be without those two, and you still don’t show any respect for either.
I believe the owners of the blog could be paying your good money to imitate ESPN and be as controversial as you can to receive more hits, good for you. As a Pirates fan, I would appreciate if you would every once in a while give the team, or a player other than Paulino, when they win or do something good. You know, every once in a while they play a good game, the other teams don’t always give those games away.
Don’t get sunburned…
Sorry, the previous one did not go through.
Pachuco, I\’ll say 100% is about the poor defense and handling of pitchers by Doumit and so poor play on fly balls by Mclouth that\’s what Jake is questioning of McLouth and Doumit their defense which needs to questioned to a point 50% of their defense the other 50% goes on John Russell for one not positioning McLouth right in CF and for not teaching Doumit proper technqiue behind the play and basically having Doumit talking with umpires before he gets behind the plate getting to know the umps and maybe telling Doumit to ask before the first pitch their strike zones or scouting certain umps in which the Pirates should have tape on every team and umpires so Doumit can learn certain strike zones. These Pirate players are poor fundamentally i have to question if they even use scouting reports on other teams or even work in spring training on fielding grounders or laying down bunts.
Jake,
I say this every time - interesting analysis of the games and performances, but your conclusions about the front office are reckless. We all know Coonelly, Huntington and the rest of the team are not trying to SHOCK Nutting. They didn\’t trade Snell because he\’s one of the few good young pitchers they have at any level. The team didn\’t trade Bay because no other team made a good enough offer. Bay underachieving is delaying a trade, not a systematic attempt to shock the owner. If your goal is to keep people reading by writting such nutty things it works.
Having read quite a few conspiracy theories here that didn\’t hold an ounce of reason, having been season ticket holders for 19 years, I\’m wondering if Jake hasn\’t hit the nail on the head with the Nuttings. Touche, there were rumors for years that David Littlefield was micro-managing Lloyd McClendon and gossip was that at least part of it was directed by ownership. Who, what, where, or how never surfaced although many of us believed it to be one of the Nuttings. Maybe Robert Nutting is a GM-want-to-be? It would explain a lot of the bizarre developments over the last four years.
Thanks for your reply, BuccoMike.
I agree with you in your assessments of Nate and Ryan. They are not perfect players, as both are still learning. However, they both have done, or are doing some outstanding things for the Pirates this year, and Jake does not seem to give them much credit at all. I believe Nate\’s outfield positioning is mostly a John Russel issue. He will play where they position him. Of course, he is not Paul Blair, who I think was the best ever at going back to catch fly balls.
Now, we know how bad of a player Paulino is. But see how Jake keeps saying mostly positive things about him. Jake is great a numbers and graphs, that\’s a fact. However, I look at effort, heart, and other intangibles to make my analysis of players. In my opinion, Paulino has nothing on Ryan other than calling a good game, and framing pitches better.
Anyway, I agree with Jake in his total disrespect for the Nuttings, as baseball owners. I strongly believe they are owners to make a profit and don\’t seem to care about us, the fans. Like politicians, they will tell us some words, but their actions don\’t match those words.
What do you think?
Pachuco….way to stand up for Nate and Doumit. I, while having a novice, untrained eye for the game (does coaching my softball team to a 2-1 record count), have noticed a large improvement of Doumit behind the plate. I\’m just shocked Jake didn\’t also get in a paragraph of how Duffy should be called up immediately upon he beginning to throw 90 feet after sugery.
Pach, The Nuttings are waste just like probably right now this current roster is. Bay, Sanchez, Doumit, Nady are all getting older i think they need dealt at their high point which might be right now or within a few weeks. Cutch is ready to get his shot at CF, then Mclouth can be moved to LF and whoever we acquire in a deal to play RF. We need some 19-22 year old core guys(i hate to use core cause it = rebuilding) but it needs done for the Pirates to build a respectable organization. Only thing with making trades we don\’t have enough scouts cause of the Nuttings cheap ways to evaluate talent in other teams minors correctly.
isn’t it sad that Nate and Ryan actually have to be defended in the first place? Oh, but Morris should have been given more time. What a joke.