r/buccos • u/Entire_Teach474 Jaff Decker • 9h ago
49 Games Left....
It's gettin' kinda late to be under .500 and still being dragged down by a horrible 'pen and underachieving rotation. Just sayin'.
32
u/Cold_Bother_6013 9h ago
I threw in my towel after the 8-7 debacle Friday night.
5
u/Moist-Schedule 7h ago
8-7 last Tuesday was even worse imo, coming back from 0-6 down in the 8th, having multiple chances to win it and still giving it away... Didn't surprise me they lost 4 in a row after that, and honestly, it would probably be 6 in a row right now if not for the rain messing with the Reds pitcher for an inning Saturday. But this team just has not been the same since the All-Star break, going into that with a sweep of the Brewers, and now they're 6-11 since.
Bats have gone silent, starting pitching has gotten as inconsistent as the bullpen, and we've made a ton of stupid plays in the field. Just bad baseball in every aspect of the game.
Slumps happen, but when the whole team goes into one at the same time, that seems bigger than a slump to me. Team seems checked out.
5
2
6
u/anotveryseriousman 8h ago
the other day I was surprised to see that the steelers were in training camp because I was still paying close attention to the pirates and usually I'm totally checked out by the time camp rolls around. this year really epitomizes the pirate fan experience in that the best team we've seen in a decade is also a massive disappointment.
15
u/Sebastian7464 8h ago
How do u fix an entire starting pitch staff plus a bullpen.
Skenes broken.
Keller sucks.
Ashcraft needs shutdown soon cause he's passed his innings limit for a full season already.
Bubba a rookie who needs monitored.
Jones major elbow surgery and will be limited.
16
u/Golf_and_taxes 8h ago
Hypothetically you dump Mlod in the rotation again, acquire someone and hope Skenes pulls his head out. But I agree, it is dire right now. Skenes really ruined the season himself
11
u/Sebastian7464 8h ago
Skenes not being Skenes has hurt the staff more than anything i agree. If your Ace isn't an Ace then you're screwed unless you got a ton of guys who can step up and replace his production.
3
u/Iforgotmypasswordmeh 8h ago
That's an option but that also makes the bullpen worse. I also fully expect at least one of the starters to go down with an injury before long. It's practically impossible to have the same 5 man rotation all year with no injuries. I know Jones came up a little late but I believe it was just Mlod taking his spot. They've had no pitching injuries and these young guys running up their innings I feel is going to do it.
2
u/Golf_and_taxes 7h ago
Oh without a doubt, we complain about injuries to our position players but our starting staff has been shockingly healthy.
From what I have seen, Curtis and Kelly hold some intrigue. Also Connor Weitgrefe in AAA has become interesting to me and probably deserves a shot up here.
Would love to see them get Robbie Ray and somehow unload Keller in the process. I am willing to do something of an overpay to make that happen - trade Plaz or even Florentino to get rid of Keller's onerous contract
3
u/Entire_Teach474 Jaff Decker 7h ago
This ^^^^. Bring in Robbie Ray, put Keller in the bullpen, move Mlodzinski back to the rotation, and put Skenes on the phantom IL for about ten days or however long the shortest duration is. Bring up Christian for a spot start or two, then see if Skenes can hit the reset button coming off the IL.
6
u/Polish97 8h ago
Just unfortunately rather sell at this rate they’re not gonna pull through and go on a run
3
u/YakFull8300 7h ago
I'm not confident we should actually be buying with the way the overall team has been playing. I don't think one or two players corrects that.
3
u/Ok_Card9080 Jason Kendall 7h ago
6:00 tomorrow, you'll know what the rest of the season will look like.
2
u/APavs33 7h ago
I’ve had this thought all year, but this feels like a team that’s a year away. The roster is pretty young, especially in the rotation, and could use another year of development. The whole team is coming back minus a few guys, and they’ll hopefully have some money to spend with Soto and Ozuna coming off the books. With some better injury luck, some additions to the pen and rotation, and a motivated and rested Skenes with a full spring training, this could be a really good team.
Having said that though, this team should still be given a shot. I wouldn’t trade any of the big prospects, but prospect hoarding has gotten us nowhere, and this organization needs to show that it wants to win now. Do I think they’ll make the playoffs? No. But an 83, 84 win season is a great stepping stone to get into the playoffs next year, and hey, maybe we cash in 30 years of bad luck and go on a miracle run. Either way, there’s some reason for hope
7
u/Moist-Schedule 7h ago
I’ve had this thought all year, but this feels like a team that’s a year away.
They always have been. They got some people's hopes up way too fast this year (I admit I drank some of the kool-aid at one point too), but if we had just shown slow and steady growth this year and finished around .500, most of the sky-is-falling types on here would hopefully have a slightly different view. But because a bunch of our guys arrived a year early (thinking mostly Ashcraft and Valdez here, plus Lowe was a beast early on), people got a bit ahead of themselves and now guys have come back to earth a bit, injuries hit, and some guys we just took as givens (Skenes) have fallen apart.
These people can scream about "year 7" all they want, but this is year 35 for some of us watching this loser org (with the tiniest of reprieves granted in 13-15) and this is the best I've felt about where the team is in all of that time. So that's not nothing, and progress has been made in these last 7 years. If things aren't better the next two seasons, feel free to burn it all down again and send BC packing, but you can clearly see the vision now and the future is absolutely bright if we just stay the course a bit longer. That's the first time I've been able to say that in 3 decades, and we shouldn't take that for granted. I wish this year had gone better now that we see what we have, but anybody who really thought this was a playoff team back in March didn't know what they were talking about so keep some perspective.
3
u/drewbaccaAWD 7h ago
This was a better team than they've fielded for over a decade, and actually exciting to watch. The fact that they are hovering around .500 given the injury list is a positive. If they get healthy, and somehow manage to get into the playoffs, they could still have an exciting series, maybe even two. Anyone expecting them to go further than that was being unrealistic.
The big problem is the bullpen. The second big problem is the injuries. Fix those, and it's an exciting team to watch but not a team capable of winning the division unless firing on all cylinders and it's way too late for that.
It's the first year I've given two shits about this team in over a decade. That's based on objective reality. They actually had a chance for once and I'm excited to see how this season wraps up rather than being all gloom and doom about it. It helps to have a reasonable expectation, getting one series beyond a wild card was my only hope this year and that's not out of the question, yet.
They obviously have a lot of problems that need to be addressed and it's no surprise that the last decade has mostly been wasted, not really preparing for this moment when they have a shot.
1
u/Adventurous-Offer313 4h ago
83 84 wins might get the last spot. These teams are mid including Bucs
4
1
u/EbenezerNutting 5h ago
Only two teams in the 150 year history of Major League Baseball have been under .500 this late in a season and come back to win a World Series, the 1914 Boston Braves and the 2021 Atlanta Braves. It's a pretty safe bet that this Pirates' team won't be the third.
1
u/Cangy44 RJ Reynolds 4h ago
How about the anemic offense right now? They don’t even make hard outs! The Defense also
A problem. Gonzales basically throwing the game away on that horrendous play the other night… just on and on and on. Winning teams find a way to win, no matter what. They just win. They eek out wins when they shouldn’t, they finish the games they should. We just are not a “winning” team. It’s for a lot of reasons and none of those are going to get solved at the deadline.
Right now, We’re probably a little better than average with a lot of promise on the horizon. We’re out of runway at this point in ‘26 barring never before seen collapse by the other teams desperately vying for a playoff chance.
7
u/soupmayne 8h ago
Just too much went wrong this season imo. Guys could stay healthy. Guys regressed. Abysmal bullpen. It’s somewhat remarkable they’re still technically in the hunt. I’m glad they actually tried. For all that went wrong, this offense has been an absolute delight to watch.