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2011 Pittsburgh Pirates Review: Josh Bell Signs, Shocks MLB
By Tom Smith
We absolutely hate doing the yearly wrap up
on the Pittsburgh Pirates season, so we will lump the final five painful months together for you.
The Pirates started the month of August with a 54-52 record. Derrek Lee made his debut for the Bucs on August 1. The Pirates record the rest of the way would be 18 wins and 38 losses. But Derrek Lee was great so there is probably nothing to the correlation, right?
Without question, Josh Bell was the big story. Hell, when we look back on this post in a few years–it could be the story of 2011. As you know it was the last straw for Major League Baseball. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement made certain that small market clubs wouldn’t be spending millions of dollars on high school seniors with as much regularity as the Buccos.
Enough with the talk, here are the most popular stories from the final months of the season as chosen by you, our faithful readers.
August
We told you Josh Bell would sign. College?
Bob Nutting listened to all of the Pirates fans.
September
The Kiss 96.1 Freak Show came up big with this video…
Of course what would the season have been with out this video….
Joel Hanrahan went shopping for backpacks for the rookies. And took pictures….
The 19th consecutive losing season was clinched on September 14th. It’s hard to even fathom losing for that long.
October
Can you really blame the guys for having a drink? Even if it was blackberry brandy…..
The success of Gerritt Cole in the Arizona Fall League was cool after such a disappointing season by the big league club.
November
We started looking at all of the marquee free agents the Pirates have signed over the past few years. Then we wrote this post.
The Pirates free-agent market spending spree? Ahem. You saw it coming here first.
After reading the headline on this post, some of you had a great line, “there is just one?”
December:
Overheard on an almost daily basis are these words: “A first baseman is what the Pirates need! Why Not Sign Prince Fielder?”
So where is the powerful Pirates future first baseman? He was right under their nose.
The podcast team of Cocktails for 2 and EdWordToYourMother knocked it out of the park fourteeen times this year. Not bad for rookies. I am proud of our efforts. This was one podcast you loved.