OnlyBucs

Went up to Pittsburgh this weekend and saw all 3 games of the Reds series, and my primary takeaway was this: Cutch just looks lethargic. No energy. Trudges on and off the field like he doesn't really want to be there.



I know that's not the case, but that's what it LOOKS LIKE.



And I'm not even talking about his performance, which as we all know this season has not been good. He's not good at the plate, and he might be even worse defensively.



But I can at least understand an off year, a bad year. A year when things just aren't going well. I get that.



What I don't get is his body language ... He just looks slow, lazy, even disinterested. Like he doesn't care any more or doesn't want to be there. I'm hoping that's not the reality, but that sure is what it looks like.



And if he's just ticked off at the Pirates' front office for screwing up this year, well I get that. But still, he has to look squarely in the mirror and realize he himself is a HUGE part of the problem this season.



I simply can't believe how the performance of a perennial MVP candidate can drop off that dramatically at age 29. And that's a major concern, of course.



But, even so, you would think he could still come out to the ballpark every day and play the game with joy and energy and spirit and enthusiasm and hustle. And that is most definitely NOT what I saw this weekend.



Really concerned about him ... this season and beyond.

And I should add ... although I thought Cutch was the biggest culprit, the entire team seemed to lack energy. I mean the everyone. The only exception was J-Hay, who played each game with the enthusiasm and hustle of a 10-year-old. Looked like he loved being out there.

If a lot of these guys are lacking focus and not hustling that is a reflection on Clint Hurdle as the manager. He even came out after the game yesterday and said he took responsibility for the way the team played yesterday and it was on him. So who knows maybe Hurdle is not doing as good of a job as we all think he is when it comes to having this team consistently ready to play everyday.

0B293A27242126290A3D2B2B27480 wrote:

And if he's just ticked off at the Pirates' front office for screwing up this year, well I get that. But still, he has to look squarely in the mirror and realize he himself is a HUGE part of the problem this season.




This is pretty much it. Every one on this board has been railing for weeks/months about the FO messing up the offseason. You know what, if McCutchen would have put up a year like the last few, this team would be the number one wildcard. Secondly, if Liriano would have pitched like he did the last couple years, they may be contending with the Cubs. Seriously, if those two guys would have performed as expected, I don't think it's a stretch to say they'd be 6-7 games better. None of that is the FO fault. If they were 6-7 games better, no one would be complaining about many of these other issues.

1C012527294C0 wrote:

And if he's just ticked off at the Pirates' front office for screwing up this year, well I get that. But still, he has to look squarely in the mirror and realize he himself is a HUGE part of the problem this season.




This is pretty much it.  Every one on this board has been railing for weeks/months about the FO messing up the offseason.  You know what, if McCutchen would have put up a year like the last few, this team would be the number one wildcard.  Secondly, if Liriano would have pitched like he did the last couple years, they may be contending with the Cubs.  Seriously, if those two guys would have performed as expected, I don't think it's a stretch to say they'd be 6-7 games better.  None of that is the FO fault.  If they were 6-7 games better, no one would be complaining about many of these other issues. I agree that if Cutch had played better and not just Liriano but Cole as well would have pitched better the Pirates definitely would be leading one of the two wildcard spots. However, I still don't think it would have been enough to compete with and overtake the Cubs. The Pirates came out before the season started when everybody was picking them to finish 3rd in the division and already picking the Cubs to win the division and saying things like "We will see how good the Cubs are" real arrogant and sarcastic like. And here we are with about 50 games or so left and where are the Pirates at?? In 3rd place and nowhere near the Cubs in the standings. They didn't do enough with this rotation to win the division.



You cant have a rotation of consisting of Niese,Nicasio and Locke coming off a 98 win season and expect to win a division and overtake a team with as much talent as the Cubs had. It was a losing battle from day 1 and the results at the present time speak for themselves.

4A6D7C787D605F6B7C7D7D60190 wrote:

And if he's just ticked off at the Pirates' front office for screwing up this year, well I get that. But still, he has to look squarely in the mirror and realize he himself is a HUGE part of the problem this season.




This is pretty much it.  Every one on this board has been railing for weeks/months about the FO messing up the offseason.  You know what, if McCutchen would have put up a year like the last few, this team would be the number one wildcard.  Secondly, if Liriano would have pitched like he did the last couple years, they may be contending with the Cubs.  Seriously, if those two guys would have performed as expected, I don't think it's a stretch to say they'd be 6-7 games better.  None of that is the FO fault.  If they were 6-7 games better, no one would be complaining about many of these other issues. I agree that if Cutch had played better and not just Liriano but Cole as well would have pitched better the Pirates definitely would be leading one of the two wildcard spots. However, I still don't think it would have been enough to compete with and overtake the Cubs. The Pirates came out before the season started when everybody was picking them to finish 3rd in the division and already picking the Cubs to win the division and saying things like "We will see how good the Cubs are" real arrogant and sarcastic like. And here we are with about 50 games or so left and where are the Pirates at?? In 3rd place and nowhere near the Cubs in the standings. They didn't do enough with this rotation to win the division.



You cant have a rotation of consisting of Niese,Nicasio and Locke coming off a 98 win season and expect to win a division and overtake a team with as much talent as the Cubs had. It was a losing battle from day 1 and the results at the present time speak for themselves.




See, you went where the masses keep going with this conversation. I don't think they expected to win the division this year with the strength of the Cubs and their future pitchers being in AAA. Rather, they expected to make another WC game and run the odds with two guys that can be an ace any night and a really good offense. I don't think they had any crazy expectation for Locke, Niese, and Niscasio. They are what they are. I think they just wanted them to pitch passably to June July. The problem simply was the guys they had paid and were absolutely counting on failing in epic fashion. What Liriano and McCutchen have done so far is shocking and, IMO, the sole reason why this team isn't a WC team at the moment.

160B2F2D23460 wrote:

And if he's just ticked off at the Pirates' front office for screwing up this year, well I get that. But still, he has to look squarely in the mirror and realize he himself is a HUGE part of the problem this season.




This is pretty much it.  Every one on this board has been railing for weeks/months about the FO messing up the offseason.  You know what, if McCutchen would have put up a year like the last few, this team would be the number one wildcard.  Secondly, if Liriano would have pitched like he did the last couple years, they may be contending with the Cubs.  Seriously, if those two guys would have performed as expected, I don't think it's a stretch to say they'd be 6-7 games better.  None of that is the FO fault.  If they were 6-7 games better, no one would be complaining about many of these other issues. I agree that if Cutch had played better and not just Liriano but Cole as well would have pitched better the Pirates definitely would be leading one of the two wildcard spots. However, I still don't think it would have been enough to compete with and overtake the Cubs. The Pirates came out before the season started when everybody was picking them to finish 3rd in the division and already picking the Cubs to win the division and saying things like "We will see how good the Cubs are" real arrogant and sarcastic like. And here we are with about 50 games or so left and where are the Pirates at?? In 3rd place and nowhere near the Cubs in the standings. They didn't do enough with this rotation to win the division.



You cant have a rotation of consisting of Niese,Nicasio and Locke coming off a 98 win season and expect to win a division and overtake a team with as much talent as the Cubs had. It was a losing battle from day 1 and the results at the present time speak for themselves.




See, you went where the masses keep going with this conversation. I don't think they expected to win the division this year with the strength of the Cubs and their future pitchers being in AAA.  Rather, they expected to make another WC game and run the odds with two guys that can be an ace any night and a really good offense.  I don't think they had any crazy expectation for Locke, Niese, and Niscasio.  They are what they are.  I think they just wanted them to pitch passably to June July.  The problem simply was the guys they had paid and were absolutely counting on failing in epic fashion.  What Liriano and McCutchen have done so far is shocking and, IMO, the sole reason why this team isn't a WC team at the moment. They came out before the season started and said their goal was to win the division not to just be a wildcard team. All the quotes out of spring and beforehand had them saying they thought they were good enough to compete with the Cubs. A team that just won 98 games the year before should have tried to make their team better not worse which is what the Pirates did by counting on guys like Niese, Nicasio, and Locke to fill out their rotation and "hope" that they would be good enough. Especially when you look at what JA Happ is doing in Toronto and the Pirates could have signed him if they really wanted too but they didn't. The Pirates weren't going to win with just Cole and Liriano being stable in their rotation. They needed more then that and failed to get the job done by thinking and hoping that guys like Locke,Niese, and Nicasio would be good enough.

McCutchen is getting terrible reads and jumps on both fly balls and line drives. He has always had a mediocre arm, but in the past, he frequently was able to catch up to balls hit to center. Now, when a ball is hit to center, I feel that it will often fall for a hit or go over his head. He also is dropping more balls that he reaches than I remember in the past.



Clearly Cutch isn't hitting with any regularity, and I can't remember the last time he hustled a single into a double or a double into a triple. And, through August, he has all of 4 stolen bases. I wonder if anyone has clocked his time running to first and compared his rookie season (a triple machine) to this season to get a sense of how much speed (if any) that he has lost.



I love what McCutcheon has accomplished for this team. If he were not on the team we likely would be talking about #24; as in consecutive losing seasons. That said, if he is not injured, the Pirates should shop him this off-season and prepare to move on with an outfield of Marte - Polanco - Bell/Meadows.

4B5672707E1B0 wrote:

And if he's just ticked off at the Pirates' front office for screwing up this year, well I get that. But still, he has to look squarely in the mirror and realize he himself is a HUGE part of the problem this season.




This is pretty much it.  Every one on this board has been railing for weeks/months about the FO messing up the offseason.  You know what, if McCutchen would have put up a year like the last few, this team would be the number one wildcard.  Secondly, if Liriano would have pitched like he did the last couple years, they may be contending with the Cubs.  Seriously, if those two guys would have performed as expected, I don't think it's a stretch to say they'd be 6-7 games better.  None of that is the FO fault.  If they were 6-7 games better, no one would be complaining about many of these other issues. I agree that if Cutch had played better and not just Liriano but Cole as well would have pitched better the Pirates definitely would be leading one of the two wildcard spots. However, I still don't think it would have been enough to compete with and overtake the Cubs. The Pirates came out before the season started when everybody was picking them to finish 3rd in the division and already picking the Cubs to win the division and saying things like "We will see how good the Cubs are" real arrogant and sarcastic like. And here we are with about 50 games or so left and where are the Pirates at?? In 3rd place and nowhere near the Cubs in the standings. They didn't do enough with this rotation to win the division.



You cant have a rotation of consisting of Niese,Nicasio and Locke coming off a 98 win season and expect to win a division and overtake a team with as much talent as the Cubs had. It was a losing battle from day 1 and the results at the present time speak for themselves.




See, you went where the masses keep going with this conversation. I don't think they expected to win the division this year with the strength of the Cubs and their future pitchers being in AAA.  Rather, they expected to make another WC game and run the odds with two guys that can be an ace any night and a really good offense.  I don't think they had any crazy expectation for Locke, Niese, and Niscasio.  They are what they are.  I think they just wanted them to pitch passably to June July.  The problem simply was the guys they had paid and were absolutely counting on failing in epic fashion.  What Liriano and McCutchen have done so far is shocking and, IMO, the sole reason why this team isn't a WC team at the moment.


while Liriano and Cutch have underperformed it has been balanced in some respects by other players over performing. Both Polanco and Marte are having best years of their careers. Joyce, S-Rod and Freese are doing better than any one expected in roles as part time players.

44597D7F71140 wrote:

And if he's just ticked off at the Pirates' front office for screwing up this year, well I get that. But still, he has to look squarely in the mirror and realize he himself is a HUGE part of the problem this season.




This is pretty much it.  Every one on this board has been railing for weeks/months about the FO messing up the offseason.  You know what, if McCutchen would have put up a year like the last few, this team would be the number one wildcard.  Secondly, if Liriano would have pitched like he did the last couple years, they may be contending with the Cubs.  Seriously, if those two guys would have performed as expected, I don't think it's a stretch to say they'd be 6-7 games better.  None of that is the FO fault.  If they were 6-7 games better, no one would be complaining about many of these other issues.


Yes, I have been saying that all year. For how bad the pitching has been (everyone points to that), they are still in it. The regulars who have been here for years are the ones who let the team down with their bad play.