Pirates Lose to Cubs, May Never Win a Game Again

by Charlie on Sep 9, 2009 3:57 PM EDT Comment 13 comments

Kevin Hart struggled with his control in an 8-5 loss to the Cubs today that dropped the Pirates to 54-84. Six weeks or so ago I dismissed the idea that the Pirates might lose 100 games, but now it's looking increasingly possible. The Bucs would have to win nine of their remaining 24 games to avoid it. Luckily, four of those remaining games are against the Padres, and six are against the Reds. If there's any other silver lining here, it's that the Pirates aren't getting blown out; they rarely have a game where they don't either score a reasonable number or allow a reasonable number. They could be winning. But they aren't.

Cubs vs Pirates boxscore

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Impossible

for the Pirates to lose 100 games. Smizik’s been predicting it for a while and he’s never right about anything.

If Bob hadn’t predicted it, though, I’d be pretty concerned!

by maguro on Sep 9, 2009 3:59 PM EDT reply actions

If they do lose 100

It will be a tough sell to anyone next year that the club is improving. You can’t just run out any live stiff in your organization. It seems the players need to be reminded that none are guranteed a position next year.

Anyone get po’d at JR’s comments after the Reds swept them last week that he wasn’t concerned and that they’ll go home were they play better???

Really, your not concerned that the team is a disaster on the road? Wow, at least say it makes you mad that they stink outside of Pittsburgh and your trying to make it better.

by eyeofhorus777 on Sep 9, 2009 4:13 PM EDT reply actions

No guaranteed positions...

What good would it do to threaten these kids with losing their jobs? If they are untalented, they are untalented. Perhaps they will get better with experience; perhaps not. I doubt effort is the problem here. The problem is that the Pirates want to try and win with a record low payroll. An admirable goal, but odds are they will continue to fail. Many of the prospects we have got are just young versions of the guys we traded away. There are very few impact players in the system, which will make it hard to ever excel to the point of contention on a regular basis. They will not get them in Free Agency, which makes it critical for them to Draft and Sign International talent of that type. This year they went safe with Sanchez and haven’t signed an impact International talent. Good luck with that approach.

by wietersforpresident on Sep 9, 2009 5:04 PM EDT up reply actions

Being a disaster on the road...

…actually isn’t that bad, attendance-wise. The paying customers are only going to games at home, so they’re going to walk away with a disproportinately positive impression from this season, relative to the team’s actual quality of play.

by Vlad on Sep 9, 2009 5:54 PM EDT up reply actions

I mean, sure...

…you’d rather win road games than lose them. But attendance-wise, home wins > road wins.

by Vlad on Sep 9, 2009 5:54 PM EDT up reply actions

but

I still think you have to at least pretend to care that you suck on the road. Just to say oh well at least we are going home just doesn’t cut it. Your team is on the way to 100 losses geeze at least act like it bothers you.

by eyeofhorus777 on Sep 9, 2009 8:30 PM EDT up reply actions

Dunno.

You can care about what you want, of course, but I don’t particularly care whether we get outward displays of visible emotion or not.

by Vlad on Sep 10, 2009 10:32 AM EDT up reply actions

It could reach 100 losses considering that they’re watching innings pitched by Ohlie, and they may shut him down based on that. so he’s been our best pitcher as of late.

So Far Ohlie, Maholm, and Duke have pitched decently.

Hart and Morton…not so much.

Daniel McCutchen has pitched decently so far….

If anyone else gets shut down, ugh V.V. will prob start….then i have no clue after that.

by lfhlaw on Sep 9, 2009 4:53 PM EDT reply actions

Hard to believe

a team with three decent to good pitchers would play ‘62 Mets baseball for a quarter of a season, but there ya go: 11-31 since July 24. So 9-24 the rest of the way isn’t a stretch. I thought our offense wasn’t too bad but I looked up the NL rankings on bbref and it is, near the bottom of most useful categories. Problem is, so is our pitching.

by bucdaddy on Sep 9, 2009 5:12 PM EDT up reply actions

Even uglier...

when you consider there is a 7-2 streak in that 11-31.

by Thunder on Sep 9, 2009 6:25 PM EDT up reply actions

I think

the losing is rubbing off on the pitchers like Duke. How much longer can they go out and pitch well and get beat and not get discouraged.

I hate to say it but its starting to look like some guys are mailing it in (Laroche I am looking at you).

by eyeofhorus777 on Sep 9, 2009 8:32 PM EDT up reply actions

100 losses

if losing 100 means going 8 wins, 16 losses the rest of the way it could be close.
That is a .333 win percentage, which is 60 points less than their season average, but the same they have been on since the all-star game
i think the motivation not to lose 100 will be enough to get them to 10 or 11 more wins

by vherub on Sep 9, 2009 11:14 PM EDT reply actions

It's not the opponents, it's the venues

They have only 11 home games left, including 4 against the Dodgers (who might be resting people, we can hope). If you’re optimistic, you can imagine 5-6 more home wins. But that would leave us needing 3-4 road wins in 13 games, which is a stretch against LA and Chicago.

I like the headline, Charlie.

by JRoth95 on Sep 9, 2009 11:40 PM EDT reply actions