Official Game Thread - 8/30 - Bucs @ Royals

[Surgnbuck]

I just realized why Suwinski is always in the lineup, regardless of how he's hitting. He starts off every sentence with "Yeah", just like Shelton. I read once that a guy was kept on the Orioles simply because he smoked the same cigarettes as Earl Weaver.

I also heard he cut some other guy. Weaver said, "But he can't be a man cause he doesn't smoke, the same cigarettes as me." Now that's satisfaction

[Surgnbuck]

Bucs go 14-15 for August.

[Carolina Bucco]

This doesn't really make any sense, but the Pirates are 20-19 going back to July 18.

They came out of the All-Star break 0-5, but since then they've somehow played winning baseball ... despite having only 2 starting pitchers, not hitting and not play sound fundamental baseball.

I can't explain it.

[Bobster]

Jack, why did this team play good baseball collectively, these last three games?

How the heck do you answer a question like that

"Yeah, just coming in, I think, just good energy really. Everyone really not trying to do too much, just trying to come out here and have good at bats, play good defense, just good team ball I think."

Once again, intrepid reporter Robbie has cut straight through to the heart of the matter and elicited from a player the magic formula for success.

I'm sure every player who joins the Pirates is briefed on the Robbie interviews. I'd love to hear that. "He's going to ask you why you did well or why the team won. Just give him some cliché BS. He doesn't know the difference anyway so he eats that stuff up and you can leave in a few seconds."

Jordy Mercer gained my undying admiration a few years ago when he rolled his eyes and walked away from Robbie after an idiotic question.

[Bobster]

Jack, why did this team play good baseball collectively, these last three games?

How the heck do you answer a question like that

Last Friday Rob King--fortunately--filled in for Robbie. He did a lot of interviews during the game about the Pirate HOF inductees so maybe they didn't trust Robbie with that. But there was a huge difference in the post game Q & A with Keller.

Rob King: "You wound up sticking with the hard stuff, getting a lot of soft contact, was it a different approach tonight than we saw the last time out?"

Keller: "Yeah, I mean Delay and I, our game plan goIng in, just stick with hard sinker, cutter, four seam and see where they're at and they didn't seem to adjust very well so we stuck with it."

What a difference! A specific question for which an informative answer was provided. Much better than "What led to you pitching well tonight?" and "How does it feel?" But I don't think Robbie knows enough about baseball to even know what to ask. I can't ever recall him asking a question or making a comment that indicated a knowledge of the game. I'm sure he's very good about camera angles and the logistics of getting an interview. But he always seems to be in way over his head when asking a player about a game that he seems to know little or nothing about.

[Surgnbuck]

This doesn't really make any sense, but the Pirates are 20-19 going back to July 18.

They came out of the All-Star break 0-5, but since then they've somehow played winning baseball ... despite having only 2 starting pitchers, not hitting and not play sound fundamental baseball.

I can't explain it.

They are 4-4-3 in their series since the 5 game losing streak coming out of the ASG break. They were never swept in the series they lost, and were 1-3 in a 4 game series they lost. But they swept one series they won. So that balanced everything out. You added the last game of the Cleveland series, which was the win that ended the 5 game losing streak, which gave the 20-19 total. They are 20-24 since the ASG break, and their series record would then reflect a 4-6-3 tally, with being swept once in a three game series.

I think people still can't get April out of their heads, and that 5 game losing streak coming out of the gate also is subconsciously affecting peoples thought process with them. That happens with Steelers training camp right around the corner. Bad timing.

We've had guys get blown up on the mound, but other guys have been pitching well. We also have a staff of pitchers where many of them hit uncharted inning territories, and we saw some regression with that. They caught their second winds, and are pitching well.

They also have bad optics trading Stephenson, when we have Bolton who can't seem to get anyone out. Our return was Alika Williams, who makes the whole thing look even worse, but he was never supposed to be up right now. And he wouldn't be if Triolo had any ability to play second base, but having him there and Peguero at shortstop was a disaster up the middle.

So that's my take on it. Once people form a position, they don't let it go, despite the evidence to the contrary staring them right in the face. It's like how so many fans so badly wanted the young guys up, and were convinced it had nothing to do with them not being ready for MLB yet, but instead the tired old "avoiding super 2" rant. Now those guys come up, who weren't ready and showed it, some being sent back down, it's shifted to "they didn't draft well and they don't develop well" thing again.

Yet, as you pointed out, 20-19 (I like the 20-24, which I think is pretty good considering what you mentioned about the starters) seems to be totally lost on people.

They're Pirates fans. They'd rather find a reason to bitch about the front office and coaching staff. Results on the field be damned. I mean, WWD has a countdown thread for not losing 100 games. They won their 61st game last night. It wasn't till game 160 last season when that occurred. yet somehow, people don't think this team hasn't improved dramatically?

28 games to go. If they play at the pace they have since the ASG break, they will end up 73-89.

[Surgnbuck]

Jack, why did this team play good baseball collectively, these last three games?

How the heck do you answer a question like that

Last Friday Rob King--fortunately--filled in for Robbie. He did a lot of interviews during the game about the Pirate HOF inductees so maybe they didn't trust Robbie with that. But there was a huge difference in the post game Q & A with Keller.

Rob King: "You wound up sticking with the hard stuff, getting a lot of soft contact, was it a different approach tonight than we saw the last time out?"

Keller: "Yeah, I mean Delay and I, our game plan goIng in, just stick with hard sinker, cutter, four seam and see where they're at and they didn't seem to adjust very well so we stuck with it."

What a difference! A specific question for which an informative answer was provided. Much better than "What led to you pitching well tonight?" and "How does it feel?" But I don't think Robbie knows enough about baseball to even know what to ask. I can't ever recall him asking a question or making a comment that indicated a knowledge of the game. I'm sure he's very good about camera angles and the logistics of getting an interview. But he always seems to be in way over his head when asking a player about a game that he seems to know little or nothing about.

I think there's a school these roving reporters go to, because watching a lot of other teams broadcasts, there's an awful lot of Robbies out there asking the same exact questions. Maybe it's a thing where it's a team effort- We'll give you canned questions that make no sense, and you give cliche answers that have no substance.

[Bobster]

This doesn't really make any sense, but the Pirates are 20-19 going back to July 18.

They came out of the All-Star break 0-5, but since then they've somehow played winning baseball ... despite having only 2 starting pitchers, not hitting and not play sound fundamental baseball.

I can't explain it.

I went back and looked at the schedule in that 20-19 stretch. It involved 13 opponents. If we start with the first of that 20-19 stretch, it's a win over Cleveland, which made Guardians 47-49. Other series wins with the opponents record after that series were against SD (49-54), Phillies (56-49), St.L. (56-72) and KC (41-94). So only 1 of those series wins was against a team with a winning record.

They lost series to the Angles (51-49), Reds (62-58), Mets (55-66), Twins (65-60) and Cubs (69-61). So only 1 of those series losses was against a team with a losing record.

They split 3 series: Tigers (48-60), Brewers (60-53) and Braves (72-41). So splitting with the Brewers and Braves was an achievement. Not so much with Tigers.

So maybe it's fair to say they've been beating the teams they should beat and losing to the teams they shouldn't. And even split a couple series vs quality opponents. It's probably better than we have a right to expect, given the starting pitching situation. There are 9 series remaining and they include Milw, Atl, Cubs, Cin and Phillies all with winning record. And Yankees and Mia are just below .500. So it could get tough after the upcoming Cards series.