Pirates Lose, Brewers Clinch Home-Field Advantage On Last Day Of Season

What a roller coaster it was. Great first half and leading the division for a while (not just after the first series as we have in the past) is what I will take away the most. Seeing Presley continue to show he belongs is another biggie. Locking up Tabata is comforting. Another big-time draft class.

Going to be a long winter.

And a huge thank you to Charlie for providing this fantastic forum for us to discuss (mostly civil banter) all things Pirates. This was my first season with the site and I have enjoyed the hell out of it. Thanks again to you and all of the fantastic people that make this my number 1 stop for the Bucs.

Like every season, it’s sad to see the guys leave for the winter. Even when they’re eliminated, it’s nice to see those guys just about every day.

But really tonight the big stories are in Tampa and St. Louis. What an absolutely amazing night of baseball.

we prevented Ryan Braun from winning the batting title. Of course he wouldn’t have been in the running in the first place without our pitching but anyways..

Hopefully what doesn’t get lost in all of this is that the Pirates made a 15 game improvement over 2010. I know it doesn’t feel like it because of the way that things ended.

Here’s hoping that the weight of the collapse had a little more to do with youth than with a lack of talent (perhaps it’s a misguided hope, but it’s my hope, nonetheless).

We can’t forget that: Walker, AMcCutchen, Presley, Morton, Veras, Resop, McKenry, BWood, Paul, Harrison, d’Arnaud, Ciriaco, Brown, Fryer, Rodriguez, Lincoln, DMcCutchen, Locke, Watson, Thompson, Crotta, Hughes, Moskos all set career highs for appearances in major league games.

And McDonald and Karstens set career highs for starts.

Obviously, some of that is because some of these guys are getting their first taste of the big leagues, but for some of these guys, they’re still learning how to deal with the grind of a long Major League season. For others, they were pressed into more duty than they should because of injuries to other players.

So out of 52 guys who appeared in a Pirates uniform this year, 25 of them were playing/starting more Major League games than they ever have before.

I hate to sound like I’m making excuses, but sometimes we forget that guys like Neil Walker have never played this many games (minors or majors) before in one season. The grind of a season is something that while youth may have more energy, I imagine vets learn how to prepare themselves better to last longer.

I know there’s going to be a lot of doom and gloom going into the off-season for a lot of fans. Personally, I’m going to remain optimistic. Many of the young guys will continue to improve and find ways to remain more consistent throughout the season.

Perhaps another 15-game improvement is not possible for 2012, but it would put the Buccos at 87 wins. That certainly would be nice to see.

hustled into the gap, spun around and threw a laser beamed one hopper to Walker to prevent Hairston from getting a double. Even Hairston was like “what the fudge?!!”

this is the kind of play that good 4th/5th outfielders can make.

I appreciate you providing me with a place to vent my love/hate admiration/disgust satisfaction/frustration happiness/sadness and read a lot of good and bad comments by our Buccos faithful. I for one do not see a 15 game swing toward the positive as “good progress.” There’s just no excuse for the bad ball being played by the Pirates after the All-Star break. Especially when this team proved abundantly that they WERE a contender for the 1st half of the season. You can blame “this umps” call or “this guys” injury, but something caused this team to fall apart, and it’s really discouraging. I’m tired of the “wait ’til next year” culture around the Pirates organization and in the fan base. Results are all that counts. This team started great, then fell apart. Lousy results.

You can blame "this umps" call or "this guys" injury, but something caused this team to fall apart, and it’s really discouraging.

Blaming the entire collapse on one abstract “something” is pretty silly thinking, in my opinion. I think it’s much more likely that a number of smaller factors all contributed more or less equally:

A ) Several of our pitchers began the year excellently, then later regressed to numbers more in line with their career norms.

B ) We suffered not just one but several major injuries — both starting catchers, 2/3 of our outfield, our starting 3B, not to mention Lee nearly as soon as we acquired him. That’s an awful lot of injuries for a team to absorb.

C ) As Impliedi notes, many of this year’s players were playing more games than they ever had before. That’s going to lead to physical as well as mental fatigue. That’s what it means when they talk about young teams going through “growing pains.” But by going through that this year, hopefully our young guys will be better prepared for the rigors of a full season in the years to come.

I for one do not see a 15 game swing toward the positive as "good progress."

You’re entitled to see it however you like, but not many teams improve more than that from year-to-year. If you really anticipated us winning the division this year, your expectations may be a bit out of whack.

Who’s going to dig up the final record predictions we made during spring training? I think I took the easy route with a five game range — which included 72, IIRC — but had I known Pedro would contribute so little, Tabata in & out of the lineup, and Karstens would be the best pitcher for a good chunk of the season… I probably would’ve said 62.