THIS IS A PROBLEM

[CarolinaBucco]

Then again, as we all knew going in, our starting pitching is beyond atrocious.



Last 7 games:



Down 1-0, bottom 1

Down 5-0, bottom 1

Down 1-0, top 1

Down 1-0, top 1

Down 1-0, top 2

Down 1-0, top 1

Down 2-0, top 1

[Bobster21]

It doesn't take long for opposing batters to expose bad pitching.

[rucker59@gmail.com]

I think most of us would have to say this team is better than we expected. It is NOT a good team. But it’s scrappy and actually fun to watch. How they manage to score runs when about 1/3 of the lineup has yet to even put the ball into play is a mystery, but we’ve scored against some good pitchers. Which leads to the “what if questions” for me. It wouldn’t take many changes, and by far the most important “what if’s” concerns the pitching staff:



What if the Pirates had retained Tallion and Big Joe?

What if Keller’s last start is the beginning of a promising career?



What if Hayes gets back and stays healthy.

What if the front office had added a few solid bench players.



What if the FO tried to give this team a legitimate chance....

Is this team potentially better than we expected?

Or (serious question) is it best to loss as many as possible?

[2drfischer@gmail.c]

6265737B7562252950777D71797C3E737F7D100 wrote: I think most of us would have to say this team is better than we expected.   It is NOT a good team.  But it’s scrappy and actually fun to watch.  How they manage to score runs when about 1/3 of the lineup has yet to even put the ball into play is a mystery, but we’ve scored against some good pitchers.  Which leads to the “what if questions” for me.  It wouldn’t take many changes, and by far the most important “what if’s” concerns the pitching staff:



What if the Pirates had retained Tallion and Big Joe?

What if Keller’s last start is the beginning of a promising career?



What if Hayes gets back and stays healthy.

What if the front office had added a few solid bench players.



What if the FO tried to give this team a legitimate chance....

Is this team potentially better than we expected?

Or (serious question) is it best to loss as many as possible?


I think the last question is your most important one and has already been answered by the Front Office.  Losing in order to get the first pick again next year has been the plan and I don't believe they'll deviate from it no matter what happens.

[maher.timothy20@gm]

2225333B3522656910373D31393C7E333F3D500 wrote: I think most of us would have to say this team is better than we expected.   It is NOT a good team.  But it’s scrappy and actually fun to watch.  How they manage to score runs when about 1/3 of the lineup has yet to even put the ball into play is a mystery, but we’ve scored against some good pitchers.  Which leads to the “what if questions” for me.  It wouldn’t take many changes, and by far the most important “what if’s” concerns the pitching staff:



What if the Pirates had retained Tallion and Big Joe?

What if Keller’s last start is the beginning of a promising career?



What if Hayes gets back and stays healthy.

What if the front office had added a few solid bench players.



What if the FO tried to give this team a legitimate chance....

Is this team potentially better than we expected?

Or (serious question) is it best to loss as many as possible?


I'm usually the rose-colored glasses guy but I think if they'd kept Musgrove and Taillon and added a few pieces and Keller emerged and everybody had a career year they'd finish around .500. They would have had some good players but not enough.



Blowing it up and starting over is the way to go, IMO.

[Bobster21]

Taillon was awful last night for NY.



3.2 IP, 84 pitches

8 hits

5 ERs

1 wild pitch

1 hit batter

1 HR



In his other start he went 4.2 innings but gave up 2 HRs in one inning.

[SteadyFreddy]

Yea I still think blowing it up was the right thing to do and it looks like they aren’t going to deviate from that. I still think this is a little bit better team then people think and it’s not a team that is going to be historically bad and lose 115-120 games like so many keep saying.

[CarolinaBucco]

Maybe it's my pessimistic nature when it comes to this franchise (gee I wonder I developed that), but I still think this team will be historically bad.



Our offense isn't very good and has zero power, and our defense and baserunning appear to be below average. But those aren't the problems.



We have no starting pitching, and that's going to kill this team and wear it down over the long haul.



It's not a good business plan for your starter to go 3-5 innings most every night.



Over the long haul, when this team loses 100 games, a complete lack of starting pitching will be reason No. 1.

[SteadyFreddy]

6240534E4D484F40635442424E210 wrote: Maybe it's my pessimistic nature when it comes to this franchise (gee I wonder I developed that), but I still think this team will be historically bad.



Our offense isn't very good and has zero power, and our defense and baserunning appear to be below average. But those aren't the problems.



We have no starting pitching, and that's going to kill this team and wear it down over the long haul.



It's not a good business plan for your starter to go 3-5 innings most every night.



Over the long haul, when this team loses 100 games, a complete lack of starting pitching will be reason No. 1.
I still think they will lose 100 games but I do think that guys like Keller, Brubaker, and even Tyler Anderson will be okay and win some games for the Pirates enough where they can avoid 115-120 losses. I think when Brault comes back as well he will be okay and get some wins as well. So the bottom line is yes the team is not very good but I don’t think they will push 120 losses at all.

[bucs607179]

Well our pitching did only give up 3 runs in two games with the Cubs. I would imagine our staff will have ups and downs. Problem is when they have their ups I can't see our hitters backing them up. We have so little power in the line up.