When your team ERA is under 1 over a four game stretch, you are going to win some games and that’s what the Pirates have done – win games.
Despite poor fielding and ridiculous risky chances taken, many of which happened to have worked the last few days.
Despite poor fundamentals on the base paths.
Despite hitting 0.018 points above the Mendoza line during the run.
Despite averaging 2.05 runs per game.
And most importantly, despite the pitching staff throwing cases of watermelons over the plate during the period.
Thank the statistical mean for our last few wins. As they say, everything cycles.
Oh, I suppose you can also throw in some cold batters in Chicago, a stiff wind blowing in at Wrigley, a Phillies team that seems jinxed at PNC, and two days of Phillies batters chasing an obscene number of offspeed pitches out of the zone they have rarely done this year.
Honestly, we are a pathetic looking group of baseball players on the diamond. Our third baseman has very little lateral range and now can’t even throw the ball consistently, our shortstops have a bit more range and have a bit more glove, but aren’t even league average defenders over the last month of play, our second basemen are targets on pivot plays waiting to be punched out cold and their footwork reminds me of Craig Wilson’s two left-feet approach, and who knows what has happened to Jones lately.. can’t keep his eye on the ball, he refuses to extend to grab poor throws, and he hasn’t picked many out of the dirt in quite a while. Throw in Milledge leaving his feet every other play while throwing every ball over relay men, McCutchen flat-out dropping balls, and throwing to wrong bases, Doumit with pop times exceeding 2.2…
Even if all these problems get 50% better, over a 162 game schedule we’re going to lose 10 – 20 games just from poor defense.
We can’t afford that margin of error with the roster we have. And least us not forget that we had one of the league’s top defenses behind average to better than league average pitching while also cranking out 725 runs scored before we starting blowing up the roster, and we still lost 90+ games.
So why does our short-term plan include fringe to average defenders, a doubles oriented offense, and below average starting pitching? And, how many people out there believe that is the combination that will eventually lead to more wins than losses down the road?
I certainly don’t.
Even if we assume we regain some of the arms that are being surgically repaired, or guys like Morris perform as advertised, and the entire group performs at least at league average rates, they are still all pitch-to-contact guys who will rely on their defense to make plays behind them. I hope you aren’t in the camp that believes Andy LaRoche can be turning 125 double plays per year in 2012. Are you?
Houston, we have a significantly larger problem than anybody is even considering. And don’t like to the minor leagues for any short-term help because there isn’t any there worth talking about.
What we truly have is a mixed bag of nuts and some of those are already cracked and exposed. Without adding some professionals to this roster who can hit, catch, and throw the ball, this rebuild will end up just like all the others – one big screwed up mess.
Now, who out there believes Bob Nutting will cough up $30MM in additional player salary in an attempt to at least field a somewhat more competitive team? Hmm.. I don’t see one single hand — and I shouldn’t because not one fan believes in the man. Yet some of you believe in his management team as if they are separate from Nutting.
I don’t get it.
Our short-term plan is totally screwed up and has been ever since we started dealing. Neal Huntington took his office and clearly stated his intention – his risk taking would come in the accumulation of lower level talent he amassed during his rebuilding trades. That is exactly what he should have done..
But he didn’t.
Instead, he brought in major league ready talent to fill a roster so Bob Nutting didn’t have to spend money on the free agent market during the rebuild. Instead of taking back a Lastings Milledge, we should have taken back two or three “A” prospects in A-ball.. instead of Andy LaRoche we should have demanded two more “A” prospects in the lower levels, instead of taking on Ohlendorf et al from the Yankees, we should have demanded Grade A lower level talent.
And taken our risks in developing that talent.. not LaRoche, not Ohlendorf, not Milledge, and not Tabata.. no matter what their contributions are or ever will be. Simply put, the sum of the performance the 0-3 MLB talent we received back can never exceed the sum of the equivalent lower level youth we should have received because, all things being equal in scouting and development, our haul would have been significantly more talented.
At least it should have been given the nature of value.
This is where Neal Huntington and the new regime failed in this rebuild. It can’t possibly succeed because they turned over the talent they had for the wrong return. I don’t care how much any of you like or dislike the trades because that’s not the point.. the point is, if Nutting had spent free agent money to fill his roster during the rebuild, and had Huntington proceeded with his long-term plan as he initially stated of seeking higher quality lower level talent instead of the 0-3’s he took back, our system should be stocked with impact talent right now instead of a lot of average guys who may or may not make it (Morris being the exception to the rule). Throw in the last three drafts on top of that talent and our system would be one of the most stocked in the game.
But it’s not.
If you can’t rebuild with additional compensatory draft picks, you have to rebuild risking with lower valued impact probable prospects. By taking back as many 0-3’s as we did, we saved Nutting a crap load of cash in the short-term but also dramatically lowered our chances of a successful rebuild. Sure, Nutting has spent $8MM per year in his draft allocation budget to help the rebuild, but that’s peanuts compared to the $30MM+ he should have been spending on player salaries to field a roster after dealing all his veterans for youth. Had he spent both the $30MM plus the $8MM, we would be well into a decent rebuild. On top of that, Alvarez and Lincoln wouldn’t have had to be rushed up and we could have saved at least one year of McCutchen’s clock.
Instead, we have no impact talent in our minor league system now that Alvarez is in Pittsburgh, albeit Morris is the next best thing.
Now here’s the thing – any owner in their right mind would probably have fired Frank Coonelly, John Russell and Neal Huntington by now. By all accounts they have failed significantly worse than many of those losing their jobs around the game have. But it’s more than that – the fans lost their faith in them too. Instead of saying ‘I believe’ the fans now say ‘I’m willing to give them more time’ but many of those fans are now even abandoning that position.
But the owner hasn’t pulled the plug because he has a stable of ‘yes men’ willing to work paycheck-to-paycheck to save Nutting every dollar they can. Nutting doesn’t want to let these guys go – my gosh, that would require him having to hire new people who will want Nutting to spend money because that is what it will take to turn this whole thing around.
And Nutting has NEVER shown a propensity to spend any money outside of major league acquisitions where he was taken to the cleaners, like with Matt Morris or Iwamura.
Nothing has changed folks – we need ownership who will spend to field a competitive product. All this rebuilding crap over the last three years has gotten us nowhere because it should have been going on year-after-year anyway since we are a smaller market club.
We’re going nowhere.. spinning our wheels.. all for the sake of Nutting’s bank account. It’s 2003/2006 all over again folks. Get back out your yellow t-shirts.
After you wake up, that is.
Original Story:
http://newbucs.com/2010/07/02/pirates...
