THE 2020 Pittsburgh Pirates Thread of Infinite Sadness

7-19 -- Damn, Williams got blasted! And about 2/3 of the team is batting under .200.

posted by Heretic

7-19 -- Damn, Williams got blasted! And about 2/3 of the team is batting under .200.

Reds and Pirates  

8-19. They won the first game of today's doubleheader. They scored three in the top of the eighth and then gave up two in the bottom to make it closer than necessary, but they actually won.

I'm just going to pop in here to say that I do read this thread about everyday.  It's like a diary written by a fan about their struggling team.

They won BOTH games of the double header. Ten wins are within reach Heretic!!

9-19. I'm not sure what a Cody Ponce is, but he pretty much shut down the Cards. Good; fuck those guys.

I am pleased to announce that at least for now, the Pirates are no longer the worst team in major league baseball. A slightly better win percentage than the Angels and within .02 of the Red Sox.

9-20. I'd be really down with ending this whole Derek Holland experiment at about any time. He's had a couple strong 5-inning showings (with things backsliding a bit when he's brought out for a 6th) and he's been shelled the rest of the time. Like tonight's 8-runs, 5-innings performance.

For a veteran journeyman on a team with no present and a lot of young guys who need experience to see if they can be part of providing a future, that just isn't remotely good enough to warrant keeping around. He'd fit in better with the Angels, since they're basically Mike Trout and a bunch of guys who must be utterly pathetic because a team with Mike Fucking Trout and the money they've thrown around in past years should not be neck-and-neck with us for worst in the league.

Sadly, I agree with the Derek Holland analysis. Still cool to have a major league pitcher from your home town.

posted by cat_lover

Sadly, I agree with the Derek Holland analysis. Still cool to have a major league pitcher from your home town.

Yeah, I agree. He was pretty decent as a mid-rotation guy, but I think now, he'd be best as a long/middle reliever and doesn't have what it takes to be a full-time starter. Maybe a spot/emergency guy for the second game of a doubleheader or in case of injury (which, to be fair, is why he's been a starter as much as he has -- Pirates have been snakebitten by injuries).

As for the countdown:

SATURDAY: They lost, 9-21.

TODAY: They won, 10-21. Wish I could get a handle on Brault. Dude fluctuates between good, bad and meh on a day-by-day basis. Today was meh. Three innings where he wasn't efficient, but did pitch three shutout innings.

The trade deadline was nothing, other than handing Jarrod Dyson to the White Sox for a bit more international bonus money. But I didn't expect much simply because the team has been injury-ridden, so a lot of guys with potential value haven't gotten much of a chance to show it AND a lot of the potential value guys who have been healthy have utterly sucked for most of the year. Cases like that, you'll be getting pennies on the dollar, so why bother collecting spare change and AA-level non-prospects for guys?

10-22. When they lose a game late, it's always fun to guess which no-name relief pitcher I'd never heard of before this year started was the one who blew it. So many options that it's about a 1-in-10 chance I'll be right! This time, it was...checks notes...something called Nik Turley.

10-23. Same vibe as the previous day, except it was Kyle Crick this time and had less to do with him blowing it and more to do with that stupid new rule where teams start with a runner on second in extra innings.

10-24. Getting close to being mathematically eliminated from being .500!

11-24. Any day that features a win over the Cubs is ALWAYS a good day. And six runs is really good, too, considering they had like 2 guys in the line-up batting .250 or better and 4 or 5 under .200.

Doubleheader day!

11-25 -- They lost game 1.

12-25 -- They won game 2. And their record is all Christmas-y and shit. Which is really depressing when you think about it.

Gonzales is flat out on fuckin fire . Too bad he’s in a Field of  ice cubes.

posted by Devils Advocate

Gonzales is flat out on fuckin fire . Too bad he’s in a Field of  ice cubes.

Yeah. He's playing well. Him and about two other guys (Moran, Stallings). The rest? Not at all. Well, Newman's been okay. At least batting above .210.

12-26 -- It was on FS1 last night. I watched it with a Cincy friend. WHY?!?!? At least I got drunj.

13-26. Fortunately, David Bell is still Cincinnati's manager and he thought it'd be a great idea to let Iglasias try for a 5-out save even though I don't think he's been all that effective over the course of this season.

One of those games where it was really easy to imagine Ironman turning off the TV in disgust the instant the score got tied at 2 and I might have heard S&L screaming "FUCK BELL" from two states away. Nice win in a shit season for me; had to be excruciating for Reds fans because when you have a short season, are on the outside periphery looking in at the playoffs and have a team that should be a good number of wins better, you CAN'T lose a game you've led all the way to a team this bad. Hell, I'd think this series would have been a "3 wins = MUST DO; 4 = should do" situation for them. Going 2-2 should be considered unacceptable.

14-26. Second straight walk-off win in a row. Still the worst team in the NL,but better percentage-wise than about 3 teams in the AL. Or at least they were when their game ended; something farther west could have changed that.