OnlyBucs

Some comments:



1) Is there anyone on this Board who is still questioning why Cruz started the year at AAA? Cruz can astound, unfortunately, far too many times it is because of his ineptitude. I also see where he is no longer using his angry glare pose at the plate. Oniel, baseball can be a hard and a cruel game; time to commit yourself to being a good ballplayer first and to have your greatness follow (if it is meant to be).



2) Crowe is an undependable 1 inning pitcher, but he is a very dependable 2 inning pitcher; he will fail. Shelton should recognize this and not use him in a manner that he is almost certain to fail.



3) Too many extra outs for the Giants yesterday. And, too many were associated with stupid decisions by players.



4) Rabelo continues to demonstrate that he should never (Sunday should be his last game, but it won't) be trusted as a third base coach again. At some point, a player is going to get hurt trying to make up for his stupidity. Also, a good manager would have seen the problem long ago and made a change.



5) Yesterday was a really bad loss. There should be consequences. Regardless if Hayes is ready to go Tuesday night, Cruz should be on the bench for the upcoming series and be required to take extra instructions. While they may fail, Holderman and DeJong should be used in the 8th and 9th and Crowe used earlier in games and for only 1 inning.



6) BC --- Can we please end the bullpen start crap.



7) I believe I need counseling; I watched every inning of the road trip that just ended. Frankly, you need to look really hard for any signs of encouragement. I am not a Greg Brown fan, but I appreciate his honesty and exasperation after last night's loss when he simply stated --- What a miserable road trip!

59757D7A7156617767140 wrote: I am not a Greg Brown fan, but I appreciate his honesty and exasperation after last night's loss when he simply stated --- What a miserable road trip!
When even Brown can't take it anymore, you know things are bad.

Shelton makes Lloyd McClendon and John Russell look good

7E535E4F48594E0E0D3C0 wrote: 6-16 now since the All Star Break. I give Shelton maybe until June next year in the interest of being fair if this team is 10-20 games under .500 at that point next year you make a change period. You can deal and accept the losing this season not gonna be the case next season. You can’t keep losing games at this pace and not have any accountability and not make any changes. Somebody has to pay the price for this horrific play.
It shouldn't just be a matter of the W-L record. The Pirates were going to have a losing record this year even with a manager who made great decisions. But Shelton's game management is consistently illogical, counterproductive and downright stupid. He shouldn't get a pass on that just because no one expected the team to win anyway. He shouldn't get to return next year and remain unless they fall a certain number of games under .500.



These young players are being indoctrinated into a hapless culture of losing in which the manager is complicit by either not caring or not being competent if he does care. Anything goes, obviously counterproductive decisions are being made daily and as a result, no one seems to share the players' competitive desire to win. Supposedly, this is part of a rebuilding program but the players are being dragged down by the incompetence of the decision makers instead of developing and improving under strong, competent leadership. Losing is readily accepted and even facilitated by the manager and coaches. That's why the manager and coaches need to go, even though a losing record was expected. 
I find this very interesting, because I believe if he doesn't change, we'll be hearing the same things about Shelton. It won't be such a hit either to go interim the rest of the way, he's on his final year of his contract next year. As we all know from Moneyball (I'm just making some humor here) it's hard to do what he do under the cloud of no new contract.



https://www.mlb.com/video/rangers-dismiss-woodward

I've been away for almost two weeks. Reading through some of the threads, I'm glad to know no one has taken a bridge.

56544E485E3B0 wrote: Can we expect to see a BC quote like this after next season?



https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/08/ ... eason.html
So I guess this article blows at least 3/4 of the post on this board out of the water who say we have to spend lots of money on free agents to be competitive.  The Orioles apparently have the one of the lowest payroll in baseball for the last 4 years but are far ahead of the Pirates sorry record.  It's time to realize our GM is a dud once again.   Doesn't matter how much money you spend if Shelton is managing any team it will be a disaster and who is responsible for hiring and keeping him.  No matter how high a draft pick you have, if you can't develop talent or judge talent it doesn't matter how much money you spend.  I'm tired of being patient with this joke of a GM and manager.  I've seen enough to realize the emperor has no clothes.



I don't waste my time watching games any more, I just check in occasionally but I'm always sure the Pirates will figure out a way to blow game after game after game.  I'm to old to waste my time knowing what the end result is going to be.