Always Dreaming of Second Place: The 2017 Pittsburgh Pirates

http://mlb.mlb.com/assets/images/5/9/0/209534590/cuts/cervelli_ysn49pap_9wq3bsgi.jpg

Only the Cardinals, Dodgers and Nationals have more wins over the last four seasons than the Pirates. This has earned them exactly one five-game playoff series.

In this thread let us chronicle the further decline of Cutch, the arrival of Taillon and Glasnow, the hair of Jaso, the closing of windows, and the cruelness of fate in an uncaring universe.

is it bad that i kind of want someone to break jung ho kang's knee again?

i think the pirates have a good chance at the wild card this year, better than the cardinals. but we might both be looking up at the mets/giants all year.

yeah, the kang thing. it is not so bad that you kind of want that.

pecota actually has the pirates as the first team out of the wild card, but it also has them at 80-82. there are reasons to be excited -- neither the starting pitching nor mccutchen are likely to be as bad as last year and there are interesting rookies in glasnow/bell/full season of taillon. but they're definitely not in the first tier of LAD/SF/CHC/NYM/WAS.

it's just kind of exhausting to feel like okay, this team is competitive, and then see year after year of free agent acquisitions like ivan nova and john jaso while other teams are signing cueto/cespedes/lester/etc

@adamdberry
Phil Gosselin hit a grand slam to the opposite field. 6-1, Pirates. "The Goose is loose!" Steve Blass screamed on television.

http://deadspin.com/report-jung-ho-kang-denied-visa-in-doubt-to-make-2017-1793604907

thread should be called try glasnow more

✓

glasnow has been named the fifth starter, which could be ugly

definitely going to be ugly for the catchers -- he cannot hold runners

andrew mccutchen's season of redemption is not off to a good start

marte partay

at least spell it parte ugh

yikes glasnow

from the 3 august 1889 pittsburg dispatch, regarding the pirates

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C9N9vS6XUAAlABr.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C9N96WWXcAA1CvC.jpg

otm

weren't those the Alleghenys?

yes

Andrew McCutchen's homer today is the first by a Pirate vs. the Red Sox in Boston since Jimmy Sebring took Cy Young deep in the opening game of the 1903 World Series.

http://i.imgur.com/XvMnMJ1.gif

cutch doesn't seem too thrilled to be the right fielder

top two pirates by OPS+ coming into today's game:

david freese 229
francisco cervelli 84

try glasnow less

i thought you were cool, ty glasnow

http://i.imgur.com/4pLs7UL.gif

pirates season thus far:

swept*
sweep
swept
sweep

cards are gonna get healthy

cardinals and pirates are making nova and lynn look like gods tonight

:-/

at least he didn't blame the tester, i guess

cards are gonna get healthy

prophetic

kuhl story bro

@JeffPassan
Love this 10D note: Ivan Nova has four BB in 100.2 IP as a Pirate. 33 times this season a SP has 5+ BB in one game.

i get that glasnow may have nothing to learn in triple-a, but even aside from regularly running out a guy with an 8 ERA it is killing the bullpen

Ngoepe interview on Monday's ep of The Ringer MLB Show

(also the Lithuanian guy)

Mookie, I got to say if the Reds had a couple of the Pirates pitchers or the Pirates had a couple of Reds position guys, you would have a contender.

George Grande and Chris Welsh also really complimented Josh Harrison tonight on the broadcast, which the Reds team often does for Cincy area players on other clubs.

christ

Jameson Taillon was treated at Allegheny General Hospital this morning for suspected testicular cancer.

— Stephen J. Nesbitt (@stephenjnesbitt) May 8, 2017

Damn

@joe_block
Gerrit Cole 5 consecutive winless starts of 6+ IP and 2 or fewer ER.
Last #Pirates starter? "Hickory" Bob Harmon in 1918.

this is getting very ugly very rapidly

yes, yes, come down to the cave of forgotten dreams, with the giants. we have rooms for all types of disapointment. and dirt bike rides.

while i appreciate the sympathy and madly respect Van Horn Street personally, the giants have won three world series in the last eight years

so (no offense!) fuck the giants

http://deadspin.com/josh-harrison-avoided-the-hell-out-of-this-tag-1795281120

pretty slick

highlight of the season

missed this, but mccutchen got double-switched out last night. which is totally reasonable -- he struck out to end the previous inning and is batting .206/.280/.390 anyway -- but it's another measure of his precipitous decline

adam frazier > mike trout

mccutchen did not play today, what is up?

he didn't start yesterday either, and was like the fourth pinch hitter

a) hurdle is trying to give him a period to rest and 'clear his mind'
b) he honestly, suddenly, completely sucks

he is by all accounts a great guy and he's just fallen off a cliff performance-wise and it is all very sad. he's only 30!

Trying to think of other stars who mysteriously nosedived at 28-30... Cesar Cedeno was even younger, but I don't think he'd established a profile comparable to McCutchen's.

it's only been two years since a knowledgeable friend asked me if i thought he'd make the hall! (i said no; he was never going to get the homers and the speed was already tailing off)

but now he can't even seem to hit the ball

they said it would never work, but indeed the pirates *could* utterly destroy tyler glasnow's confidence/future utility

Five weeks after having surgery for testicular cancer, Jameson Taillon made a stirring return Monday (by @jay_jaffe) https://t.co/5nhEHA0fhl pic.twitter.com/DCKlNIhDDA

— SI MLB (@si_mlb) June 14, 2017

cutch .375/.438/.679 in june

soon to be traded for a minor leaguer no one's ever heard of

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/andrew-mccutchen-is-back/

Came to post about McCutchen being McCutchen again. I hope the Pirates won't be sellers.

fangraphs currently gives them a 3.6% chance of making the playoffs, so they *should* be sellers

not too many players who fit the bill that anyone would want, though, now that tony watson has fallen apart. maybe cutch, maybe josh harrison

sad times when you let sam dyson earn a save

viva the Cutch.

three errors through 1 1/3 innings

which the cubs have converted into 5 baserunners and ... 0 runs

nothing like a battle between two struggling mediocre teams

yeah this is a weird and sloppy game

how is josh harrison's nickname "j-hay"? it doesn't make any sense and jason heyward's nickname is already "j-hey" and that actually makes sense

josh harrison is two years older than jason heyward and may conceivably have had his nickname bestowed on him independently

his nickname should be j-harr

or j-son

his nickname should be Chicago Cub Jason Heyward of the Chicago Cubs

can we just agree that none of this is as bad as j.a. happ insisting that his name be pronounced 'jay happ'

.500!

seems like cutch might be back

the second half has not been kind to my man jameson

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIlM3jzUIAA8JxY.jpg:small

cheap-ass bullshit

4 more years for Hurdle.

Excellent bullpen work tonight enabled comeback win vs Cubs.

lotta tootblan tho

good job, pirates

#STLCards send INF Eliezer Alvarez to #Phillies. Nicasio will help Cardinals' bullpen, but he would not be eligible for postseason roster. https://t.co/zQfNqwDAkU

— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) September 6, 2017

nice

they saved $600k by waiving nicasio *and* they won't have to pay that prospect next year, what a win-win

clinched their 22nd losing season in the last 25

four second-place finishes, zero firsts

Neal Huntington basically said the Pirates have yet to determine which direction they'll go this offseason -- add for 2018 or retool for 2019 and beyond. "Depending upon what we’re able to do in this market, that goal (postseason success) may be ’18, that goal may be ’19."

— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) December 14, 2017

the team without a plan

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRadomDesign/videos/1586846448020713/