Skenes will have 200+ strikeouts and a sub 2.00 ERA and finish w/ 7 wins

birddog23 wrote:

Skenes will have 200+ strikeouts and a sub 2.00 ERA and finish w/ 7 wins

That'd be shades of 1987 Nolan Ryan with the Astros. Led the league with a 2.76 ERA and 270Ks...only to have an 8-16 record.

One game in: Fuck this shit.

Man, relief pitching is such a volatile position where a guy can completely lose it seemingly overnight and go from elite to a near-worthless liability. A couple years ago, Bednar was one of the best (with an argument that he was THE best for at least parts of a couple years) closers in the game. Now, after a shitty 2024, he's still looking like an old dog who needs the Ol' Yeller treatment. Or at least management needs to get it through their heads that it might not be the best idea to have him in high-leverage situations. Shit defense has played a role in his struggles, but two losses and a 27.00 ERA (and a 6.00 WHIP) after four games against a team that at least some considered to be among the worst in the league isn't an encouraging start.

1-3 right now and I'm considering bringing back the NCF "classic" zinger of "BLOWPEN" to describe the relief pitching, with him and Holderman both really struggling.

Gotta love how MLB doesn't even bother trying to hide their contempt for the Pirates. Home opener today. Against the Yankees, where probably half the players have bigger contracts than Pittsburgh's entire payroll.

Start out 2-5 on the road and then play a blue blood with World Series aspirations to open up at home just to kill off any tiny shred of optimism still remaining in whatever small percentage of the fanbase that still feels remotely good about this team. Sadly, it's what they deserve.

Good Luck tonight

Haven't the Pirates willing dealt away some amazing pitchers/prospects? Cole, Baz, Glasnow, Musgrave, and some more recent ones too that are escaping my memory at the moment.

birddog23 wrote:

Haven't the Pirates willing dealt away some amazing pitchers/prospects? Cole, Baz, Glasnow, Musgrave, and some more recent ones too that are escaping my memory at the moment.

A lot has come down to them being really shitty at developing top-level pitchers, or at least that they were for a time.

In short:

Cole - was good, but not great with Pittsburgh. A good #2 to A.J. Burnett who seemed to stagnate at "good". Traded for Musgrove (and a couple other guys) when it came "pay big $$$ or lose" time. And then became great.

Musgrove - also was good, but not great and also got traded when it was time to do something or just lose him. And then got a lot better when he left.

Glasnow/Baz - the former was an elite prospect who SUCKED with the Pirates and would have been FUBAR if he stayed there, as they were bouncing him from starter to reliever to salvage something since he was about out of options, the latter was a top draft pick who had just started A-ball in the minors. Both, along with outfielder Austin Meadows, were traded to Tampa Bay for Chris Archer, who sucked with the Pirates. Glasnow's one weakness since then has been health, while Baz seems to be a promising young starter for the Rays.

But it was a weird period for the team and development. The pitching coach at the time, Searage, had a "pitcher-whisperer" reputation as among the best in the game and had gotten great results with Burnett, JA Happ and others, which played a huge role in them being in the playoffs three straight years in the mid 10s. And all of a sudden, they stopped being able to develop any of their good, young starters. Over a few years, the best result they had was probably Mitch Keller and he just went from the same "shitty" that Glasnow was to "good...when he's on, but inconsistent enough you won't know when that will happen". You know, where he's a serviceable arm who can eat innings and get an occasional All-Star game, but won't be good all year long.

I guess that wasn't really "in short". Whoops!

The attendance for the 3 game series with Cleveland was pretty good.  Skenes was the big draw for Saturday’s game (37,713). 

BRF wrote:

The attendance for the 3 game series with Cleveland was pretty good.  Skenes was the big draw for Saturday’s game (37,713). 

Those lines were 6 deep all the way across the Clemente Bridge and a pirates vow to get Skenes bobble heads to each of them

Nutting's going to put more energy into making sure all the fans get a Skenes bobblehead than he ever would dream of putting into actually having a good team around Skenes while he's a Pirate. Anything to get a PR win,  no matter how minor it actually is!

Then again, this year has been so lacking in PR wins, he probably figures even a tiny one would be a godsend. This fucking franchise had to restore its Clemente sign to the right field wall because, for some dumb reason, some dumbass removed it to put an advertisement in its place. And then has had to issue all sorts of apologies and replica bricks due to removing the old Bucco Bricks (were outside the arena with fan commemorative messages, but had wear-and-tear, so the team...just sort of removed them and dumped them at a recycling facility with no fans who purchased them actually told what was going on).

In short, the people running this franchise are fucking morons who deserve torture on the level (or beyond) that of the worst war criminals. House needs cleaned, starting with the stupid fucking twat owner.

Heretic wrote:

Nutting's going to put more energy into making sure all the fans get a Skenes bobblehead than he ever would dream of putting into actually having a good team around Skenes while he's a Pirate. Anything to get a PR win,  no matter how minor it actually is!

Then again, this year has been so lacking in PR wins, he probably figures even a tiny one would be a godsend. This fucking franchise had to restore its Clemente sign to the right field wall because, for some dumb reason, some dumbass removed it to put an advertisement in its place. And then has had to issue all sorts of apologies and replica bricks due to removing the old Bucco Bricks (were outside the arena with fan commemorative messages, but had wear-and-tear, so the team...just sort of removed them and dumped them at a recycling facility with no fans who purchased them actually told what was going on).

In short, the people running this franchise are fucking morons who deserve torture on the level (or beyond) that of the worst war criminals. House needs cleaned, starting with the stupid fucking twat owner.

The moving of the Clemente sign was a fireable offense for whoever ordered that done.

Ironman92 wrote:

The moving of the Clemente sign was a fireable offense for whoever ordered that done.

That was a terrible terrible thing. 😡

And this brick business…….geez. 

BTW…….I am thankful that I got to see Clemente  play during my teen years. 

This team is utter shit. 12-24 now and it's feeling like they could end up around 50-112. Or worse. No consistency at any phase of the game and usually just bad enough to lose. Last night, they led St. Louis 2-1. I look at my phone 30 minutes later and it's 2-6. 

This franchise is just depressing. Sheldon and Cherington have been the manager and GM for 5-6 years now and have never gotten a winning record. The team's offseason plans ALWAYS are "get a couple cheap vets" so we can watch Tommy Pham suck ass and still start 2/3 of the games. And nothing changes. Fuck, with all the dipshit executive orders Trump passes around on what seems to be a daily basis, can't he do one that'll force Nutting to either make changes or sell the team to someone who actually cares about winning, as opposed to cares about seeming to care without actually caring?

In short, I hate my fanhood. It gives me nothing but sadness.

That fan falling/jumping over the rail was crazy.

It'd be nice if this team could go 15 fucking minutes without sucking!

Heretic wrote:

It'd be nice if this team could go 15 fucking minutes without sucking!

Not today, not today. Or most days. 12-26.

Wasn't expecting greatness after their "Compete? Why bother!" approach to the off-season, but this is just unbelievably horrible.

Great news! David Shelton is fired!

Not great news. Ben Cherington still is employed.

But I'll take anything that even remotely resembles progress.

Found this on my newsfeed today

BRF wrote:

Found this on my newsfeed today

Heh, that's an old Onion article. I think from before their 2013-15 bit of success. Sadly, it's probably more appropriate now than it was back then. At least back then, the organization wasn't trying to totally waste the handful of years they'll have a potentially generational talent because they refuse to put money into surrounding him with actual talent.

Huh, get rid of the dead weight manager who at times seemed to be actively detrimental to the team's chances of winning and they take 2 of 3 against Atlanta. Who'd have thunk it?!?!?