Official 2012 Pittsburgh Pirates Thread

[jprolley]

i see 70-92

[FreeCandy44]

goodbye, cruel season.

[JS©]

McGehee for Qualls = finish below .500

Essentially, yes. Yes this is true. Even if McGeehee was still here, no good Qualls cost this team at least 2 games.

[jprolley]

McGehee for Qualls = finish below .500

Essentially, yes. Yes this is true. Even if McGeehee was still here, no good Qualls cost this team at least 2 games.

dont forget j-suck's meltdown against the padres and the rick vandenhurk game in chicago that they pissed away.

[DudeMan2766]

Okay, I have to do it. Since he doesnt appear to be around


So, is the season over?

[NashvilleCat]

i see 70-92

I see dead franchises

[Mr. Colby]

Hopefully replacing Ritchie helps these guys change their plate approach.

Their approach is to tire out the other pitcher even if it's at the expense of striking out. That's so lame. You can tire him out by swinging the bat and getting hits and making him pitch to more guys.

#1 thing they can do to lower K rates is learn to waste pitches. If you're in a 2-strike count and the guy throws you a pitch that is anywhere close to being a strike but you don't like the pitch, FOUL IT OFF! No excuse to leave it in the umpire's hands. Obviously you're going to get frozen by some pitches, but that does not explain all of the backwards K's over the course of the season. They do that, K rates will drop significantly.

[LeopardLetang]

McCutchen's season average is going to be above .325, which is fantastic, but make no mistake, he sucked over the last couple of months.

not exactly sucked. BA wasn't good, but .888 OPS in over 100abs in Sept.

[DudeMan2766]

I love how Madden is on this non-stop tirade against McCutchen and his fans but the only reason we don't like Bonds is because we're a bunch of racists.

[LeopardLetang]

i'd predict less wins next season. 75-87 but with lots of excuses and lots of good signs for the future causing many to argue for NH staying and others having their minds blown that people could think that after regressing in record and another losing season.

[Idoit40fans]

I can't see any reason for Huntington to be removed. Team has been improving significantly each of the last couple of seasons and he hasn't been the GM that long.

[shafnutz05]

i'd predict less wins next season. 75-87 but with lots of excuses and lots of good signs for the future causing many to argue for NH staying and others having their minds blown that people could think that after regressing in record and another losing season.

I'm in your boat. Going into this season, I predicted about a 75 win season. We got to 79, and that was with a lot of players really playing far beyond their normal abilities for a while. I don't really foresee anyway they build up such a large cushion initially next year.

[ulf]

I think 2 years could be a really good team. When Taillon and Cole come up, Marte's 3rd year, Pedro, Cutch and Walker all really in their prime.

[ulf]

As for next year, I'd say more of the same as this year. Without the initial surge and following collapse. I expected this team to be worse than last year's.

[Malkamaniac]

Hurdle needs fired for his dramatic OK speech alone.

[LeopardLetang]

maybe NH will surprise us next year. from last offseason to this one there were a lot of positives. it's easy to overlook them since he signed two starters who OPS'd about .600. but forgetting that, they go into next year with AJ and Wandy. that's awesome. i believe NH gives us a chance in the offseason to find another above average player. the fact that he went for and signed Bedard was big too. that's exactly the kind of chance they needed to take and was exactly the name i wanted. it didn't work out, but it showed that he was looking for a guy that could potentially be great and not just maybe a correia signing (which wasn't a bad one at the time, but the pirates had enough depth last year and needed a guy with upside.)

i also liked the appel drafting. showed he's again willing to go risky and negotiate with boras to try to get what they feel is the best talent. and even though they didn't get him, there's not a big downside to it and he offset it by drafting mathisen and barnes who both immediately performed well in the rookie leagues which was refreshing.

then the trades midseason. in a vacuum, they may have hurt the team for last year, but getting locked in talent with upside is the right thing for the pirates franchise. snider could be another failure like andy laroche, but he was cheaper, has a higher ceiling and a higher floor. and gaby, while a bit older, was only in his third season. two years ago he broke in as a rookie and put a full season together of .788 and repeated a full season last year of .779. until his 0-17 streak to end the year with the pirates, he was exactly on those numbers in his first 100abs with the bucs and can be expected to hit at those ranges or better. he's a big upgrade defensively at first as well. and another thing about these two guys is that they both have a very good BB%. patience is a huge weakness on the team, and it's nice to see guys who can put up a decent BB rate.

the fact is that i trust huntington to improve the team this offseason. i think he's getting better as well. i liked the trades, i liked most of the signings, and i liked the drafting. i would really like to see better use of a rule 5 pick next year though.

[cheesesteakwithegg]

Hurdle needs fired for his dramatic OK speech alone.

Not only that, did you hear his comments about Cutch?

[columbia]

Hurdle needs fired for his dramatic OK speech alone.

Not only that, did you hear his comments about Cutch?

What were they?

[Mr. Colby]

They need to can Hurdle and bring in hometown boy Terry Francona... dude wins

[DudeMan2766]

They need to can Hurdle and bring in hometown boy Terry Francona... dude wins

I would love that.

[Idoit40fans]

They need to can Hurdle and bring in hometown boy Terry Francona... dude wins

I'm not sure they have the extra $100 million needed for Francona to win.

[pittsports87]

Huntington is like the anti-Shero. He has stockpiled the team with prospects but his trades never work out. Unlike Shero who's trades seem to work out 99% of the time while our farm system is pretty weak other than on defense.

[Troy Loney]

This new MLB TV deal is going to put a major impetus on the lower revenue teams to identify their core players at an early age and lock them up. Everyone is going to be absolutley flush with cash.

basically it's another ~$30M/year for each team in the game. NH should feel some urgency to get long term deals in place for the guys on the ML team that he wants around.

[cheesesteakwithegg]

Hurdle needs fired for his dramatic OK speech alone.

Not only that, did you hear his comments about Cutch?

What were they?

I cant remember the exact quote, but it was along the lines of after the game, he told him "good job, young servant."

Prisuta played the clip on DVE this morning. I sent him a message on twitter asking for the exact quote, he never wrote me back. But it was close to what I have. They all said it was a poor choice of words by Hurdle.

[DudeMan2766]

http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/fandom/post/_/id/12516/the-20-most-depressing-pirates-facts-of-2012