OnlyBucs

This team is an absolute mess. Certainly the myriad of injuries are a factor but Williams wasn't injured when he blew a 5-1 lead. Bell wasn't injured when he made his usual schoolgirl throw. Polanco's shoulder didn't cause him to once again run to a wall to prevent him from playing the rebound and then having to chase after the ball after it bounced back. Hurdle wasn't injured when he decided that Kang's .169 BA made him an excellent candidate to bat 5th. This team is inferior to their opposition on so many levels.

Lots to be disappointed about and lots of blame to go around, but the starting pitching has been a major appointment.



As a group they need to say “screw the dead bats, we’ll just shut the game down.” Other than Musgrove, the entire rotation has disappointed during this losing streak. Williams HAD to make a 4 run lead hold up. Taillon and Archer have failed to be the anchors on this staff.



Expected a lot more out of Fraizer, Kang, Marte and Polanco. Losing Dickerson is really hurting.



But mostly starting pitching. I’m sick of hearing about the pressure they’re under. They need to take pride in determining to win games 1-0. Not give up 4 run leads.

212630383621666A13343E323A3F7D303C3E530 wrote: Lots to be disappointed about and lots of blame to go around, but the starting pitching has been a major appointment.



As a group they need to say “screw the dead bats, we’ll just shut the game down.”  Other than Musgrove, the entire rotation has disappointed during this losing streak.  Williams HAD to make a 4 run lead hold up.  Taillon and Archer have failed to be the anchors on this staff. 



Expected a lot more out of Fraizer, Kang, Marte and Polanco.  Losing Dickerson is really hurting.



But mostly starting pitching. I’m sick of hearing about the pressure they’re under.  They need to take pride in determining to win games 1-0. Not give up 4 run leads.


if starters pitch badly because they are under pressure then they aren't good starters. They need to rise to the occasion and shut the other team down. They did that fairly well the first 20 games of the season. They need to do that again for the team to have a chance at a winning record let alone contending.

I am as frustrated as most of us on this Site. I still like our starting pitchers. I am concerned that Archer throws too many pitches, and the pitch count gets too high about the fifth inning. Maybe he should be given the chance to throw 115 or 118 pitches during his outings. It is beating a dead horse, but Nutting should have given Neal Huntington a larger budget to sign a couple more veterans as bench players this past offseason. Injuries to starting players have caused the Bucs to recall players from Indy who should have had this season to develop in the minor leagues. A couple veterans like Cabrera would have helped during this bad stretch of games. Finally if this season spins out of control, it will be a very interesting month of July.

If NH is allowed to trade players before the deadline, you talk about a disaster. His moron trade for Archer last trade deadline reminded me much like Littlefield did in his desperation trades near the end of his tenure. He needs not to be allowed to do anymore damage and replace him as soon as we can find a real GM. Problem is Nutting has no clue about baseball, so I wish the city would engage and help restore baseball in the Burg. This sorry excuse for baseball we have now has got to be costing the City megabucks so the community needs to also engage with Nutting to address this serious problem.



I'm not like many on this page who thinks just giving NH more money is going to solve anything. Any GM that would extend Hurdle after the last few years record isn't worth anything. It's time for Neal to go before he does more damage.

4C616C7D7A6B7C3C3F0E0 wrote: This team is an absolute mess. Certainly the myriad of injuries are a factor but Williams wasn't injured when he blew a 5-1 lead. Bell wasn't injured when he made his usual schoolgirl throw. Polanco's shoulder didn't cause him to once again run to a wall to prevent him from playing the rebound and then having to chase after the ball after it bounced back. Hurdle wasn't injured when he decided that Kang's .169 BA made him an excellent candidate to bat 5th. This team is inferior to their opposition on so many levels.
Losing those first 2 very winnable games against Arizona started this mess a very fragile team with a weak manager like Hurdle can't afford to give away win-able games, allowing those games to slip away starts the snowball rolling down hill and the collapse comes quickly. You could see the thing turning after the 2nd game against Arizona.

Saw this great Facebook post earlier today (means happy days will be back when Gonzo recovers from his injury):



[highlight]Who looks more lost at the plate?? Kang or Tucker?



Pitcher miss Gonzalez terribly getting to every ball. They are 1-8 with Tucker at SS after being 11-4 with Gonzalez. FACT[/highlight].

2B333136362130372A2B3D580 wrote: If NH is allowed to trade players before the deadline, you talk about a disaster.  His moron trade for Archer last trade deadline reminded me much like Littlefield did in his desperation trades near the end of his tenure.  He needs not to be allowed to do anymore damage and replace him as soon as we can find a real GM.  Problem is Nutting has no clue about baseball, so I wish the city would engage and help restore baseball in the Burg.  This sorry excuse for baseball we have now has got to be costing the City megabucks so the community needs to also engage with Nutting to address this serious problem. 



I'm not like many on this page who thinks just giving NH more money is going to solve anything.  Any GM that would extend Hurdle after the last few years record isn't worth anything.  It's time for Neal to go before he does more damage.


Nah, bad trades can’t be the problem. Take that deadbeat Glasnow. My guess is he’s working the drive through window of McDonalds off some Interstate. We fleeced those guys in that trade!

::)

The Pirates have now lost almost 6 games in the standings in the last week or because of this 8 game losing streak so I don’t want to hear this crap of it being too early and it’s not that big of a deal. The way things are going now I have a hard time wondering if this team is going to see .500 again. If this losing streak extends through the 2 games in Texas and into the A’s series at home this weekend the Pirates are going to be in huge huge trouble. The attendance at the games now at PNC Park is bad enough now if this team falls out of it in early May it’s only going to get worse. So the Pirates better stop this death spiral they are currently on and they better stop it fast before it’s too late. The Pirates desperately need to go at least 3-2 in these 5 games they play this week against the Rangers and A’s. That will at least stop the bleeding here somewhat and put them at 15-16 which isn’t great but a lot better then falling 6 or 7 games under .500 which is what is going to happen if this losing streak continues.

The worst part about this is that Cole Tucker isn't a good shortstop defensively.  Easy to see.  Pretty strange, really, since again I was told his defense was far advanced of his hit tool.   The opposite appears to be true, in my eyes



Hopefully it's just nerves or something.  *Highly doubtful lol*



You cannot trust anything you read without confirming with your own eyes.  Stat sheets sometimes lie, but not often.   Again should have trusted the stat sheets instead of the bloggers.