Pittsburgh Pirates 2010 Review: It Started Bad

The Pittsburgh Pirates 2010 season started off with a pretty cool commercial during the Super Bowl

But in the end, the Pirates 2010 season sucked.  And thanks to Frank Coonelly we were able to see the Bucs suck more than ever before!  In fact it was 150 times in all of their High Definition glory on FSN.  

You know what?  The revenue from the TV deal was one of the biggest positives from 2010.

Looking back through all of the posts, we actually enjoyed the enjoyed the 2010 season.  So we thought  we should put together some of the crap we wrote.   We aren’t sure how many posts it will take, maybe five?  But we will try to break it up for you.  We know that you’re one tough Bucco fan.  But this shit could be painful, kind of like getting a weeks worth of root canals.

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The Pirates didn’t participate in any perfect games, mainly error filled ones after the Pirates perfect season was ruined when some asshole invited the P90X junkies Mike and Mike to PNC Park to hawk their book.

Clipped from: rumbunter.com (share this clip)

Despite being outscored by 22 runs, the Bucs were over .500 in mid-April largely due to a power surge from this guy, El Legend:

As April wore on, the Pirates apparently didn’t get the word that 2010 would be the year of the pitcher as most Bucco fans witnessed more belly itching than pitching in 2010.

Clipped from: rumbunter.com (share this clip)

We attempted to look at the baffling beginning to the Pirates season in a 28 game review. We were so wrong on so many levels.

The Pirates have played an easy schedule. The Pirates road record, 5-11, is not good. The Pirates record at home is good. It’s 8-4. But the Pirates have played awful at home as well, mainly based on a humbling series sweep by the Milwaukee Brewers in April.

In 28 games, the Pirates have been outscored by 76 runs.

Damn, I am confused. Outscored 76 runs and the record is 13-15? Yes it is. I promise.

We saw the awful play of the infield coming and preached about it with many of you this offseason, but the struggles of the Pirates pitching caught us by surprise. We thought the offense could be a tick better than projected, but to say we had any idea the club would be 13-15 in spite of all this mess would be a lie. Heh, it’s been fun, but we have no explanation.

I am not certain the Pirates do either.

The Ugly:

1. It can be broken down very simply. When the Pirates pitching sucks, it really sucks. I shouldn’t do this, but last year the pitching after 28 games was some of the best in the league, and rightfully so, the Pirates had 12 wins. This year, the pitching has sucked, the worst in the league in fact, and the Bucs have won thirteen games. Baseball is so damn simple and so freaking confusing at the same time.

2. A 4-5 start was followed by the Pirates sweeping three games from the Reds which was followed by a 3-10 skid. But the skid was all fixed by yet another sweep. This time it was the Chicago Cubs being whisked out of PNC Park in a series in which the Pirates starters had an ERA of 1.89 and a 1.16 WHIP. Huh? Rocco explain this to us?

3. Lastings Milledge was the missing link in the Pirates outfield last season. Not much has changed. Headed into tonights’ game, the Pirates outfielder was hitting just .171 since April 21. He just isn’t getting it done.

4. Jeff Clement hasn’t touched a ball very hard in his recent 0-for-19 slump. He was given an opportunity to be the Pirates starting first baseman and unfortunately swung and missed, much like he did at the plate consistently since April 5. Sure, he had a stretch of unfortunate luck, but then the slump ensued. Ugh.

5. Aki Iwamura is the Pirates highest paid player. He has been awful defensively. He runs like a first grade girl on the basepaths. But he has been great at the plate, well in the first inning at least. Headed into tonight Aki has hit .333 (6-for18) in the first inning, but .173 (13-for-75) in the “other innings.”

6. Ronny Cedeno refuses to walk. He has two walks in 89 AB. Last year in 341 at bats with the Mariners and the Bucs he walked 19 times. He has struckout 21 times in 89AB this year. He struckout 29 times in 155 AB with the Pirates last year. Bad.

7. The defense has been disgusting. The box score shows a few errors, but even more have never made into into the scoresheet. Aki Iwamura is actually making Ryan Doumit look like Molina. Obviously, that is not an easy magic trick.

8. Brendan Donnelly has made eleven relief appearances. Donnelly has allowed seven earned runs on eight hits. He has given up 10 walks in nine innings. He is on the DL. We expect him to be there often.

9. Octavio Dotel is receiving a RumBunter free pass. Did you ever have a child? The month before your wife has birth is pure hell. The male species can do nothing right during this time. However. The upcoming joy should create a bounceback for Dotel. I still think we will curse repeatedly in the ninth inning during his save opportunities. One, because of the amount of runners he will put on base, two because of the solid contact he allows and finally because when he coughs dirt flies from his pie hole, but remember he is still showing indications of getting swings and misses. Sigh.

The Dramatic!

10. Chris Jakubauskas was lucky. This is lucky. The Pirates have been dramatic. This is dramatic [especially against the Brewers.] I am not calling 13-15 lucky although I probably should.

11. It could be argued that a gentleman named Brian Burres has been the Bucs best pitcher. Certainly, he has been the pitcher with a propensity to win when the club needs him most. What a story.

The Good!

12. Ryan Church has started to get hot. He hit key HR’s in the Cubs sweep. His slugging is .482 and leads the team. He has been dramatic since opening day. [Church HR Video]

13. Andy LaRoche has been a force at the hot corner, the plate, and in the lives of many kids he invites to the park in his tremendous community efforts. He leads the team in OBP at .407. When he spoke about team chemistry recently, we normally blow stuff like this off, but this clean slate talk makes some sense. His defense is often overlooked too. Solid.

14. Despite being majorly overworked, the Pirates bullpen has been Stargell star worthy. Recently, the combination of Evan Meek and Joel Hanrahan have been especially filthy.

15. The team meetings are working. I have sent a business card. The Pirates had another meeting today, this one with a guest speaker, focusing on team-building. Sure enough, an 11-1 romp ensued a few hours later. Book your next meeting at Nemacolin dammit.

16. The Pirates allowed 20 runs on 25 hits against the Brewers. Why is it in the good column? Because it could have easily been 25 runs on 30 hits.

17. Andrew McCutchen has been a catalyst. His two homer game was a thing of beauty. Rolling his ankle at first was not. Bad Things man, Bad Things. It’s a great video and it’s located at the top of this page under the Video tab. Check it out. Well, what are you waiting for?

18. Dramatic when combined with shocking is fun. Cue the Ryan Doumit grand slam off Trevor Hoffman Part I. The Ryan Doumit homerun of Trevor Hoffman Part II.

19. The Ronny Cedeno walk off was special. Then he slumped, nevertheless, the work of Perry Hill still shines brightly in the play of RC. [Video]

20. Paul Maholms’ glove work was highlight worthy.

21. Garrett Jones’ walk off smash against the Reds was a fist pumping thing of beauty. [Video]

The Future:

22. Neil Walker is right back where he left off at AAA. He was scorching before he was called up to the big leagues. It is nothing different than he did last season for a few months before the callup. I have seen enough of the disgusting crap around the diamond, bring up Walker.

23. Pedro is hitting at AAA Indianapolis, but still needs some work in my estimation. What the hell do I know, I am just a truthsayer. His pic looks cool. He has seven homeruns and a pile of RBI in his last few games. Damn, that picture looks cool.

24. Jose Tabata has 37 hits which leads the International League and he also has swiped 13 stolen bases. I have seen enough of Milledge.

25. The buzz about John Russell in the last year of his contract? Jeff Euston of Baseball Prospectus had an interesting take on it that I hadn’t heard before:

"In Pittsburgh, Pirates manager John Russell has somehow cobbled together an 11-15 record despite an offense that has scored just 3.4 runs a game and a pitching staff that has allowed 6.8 runs a game. Despite 95 and 99 losses in his first two seasons, Russell’s relationship with the Pirates’ core of young players could buy him more time."

26. The idea of a save is great, but rather limited. Now, this idea sounds like what Evan Meek is starting to do. The Douse? The Book–Playing the Percentages in Baseball.

27. To wrap: I am confused and at the same time, damn glad I don’t have the job of making it better.

28. See you in 28 games.

We will continue the review of 2010 in another post….

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