Frank Coonelly Speaks in Midst of Pittsburgh Pirates September to Misremember

The Pittsburgh Pirates release their 2013 Marketing slogan….in the middle of September?

The Pittsburgh Pirates President Frank Coonelly made an announcement today.   I didn’t even read it.

Why should I read it?   What will I learn from it?    More talk?    More plans of action?

We got a plan.  How about looking at the present.  The right here and now.  How about stop talking and start doing.

The Pirates were smoked, outside of two knocks by Pedro Alvarez, by a New York Mets pitcher named Jeremy Hefner.  The right hander didn’t record an out in his last start in which he threw thirty pitches gave up six hits, seven runs and a walk.

Hefner’s ERA jumped from4.99 to 5.79.  Before that awful start against the Phillies, he gave up a homer in one inning pitched, before that he allowed five runs while getting just eight outs.

Hefner.  Jeremy Hefner.

But anyway, let me take a guess here…a wild guess.  We think the Pirates players did read the announcement from Mr. Coonelly.

Since the present day looks so awful, let’s look at the recent past.  How about focusing on the month of September?  The team has six wins and 18 losses this month.  Six wins.  Six.

The schedule looked like cream puff when just focusing on the teams the Bucs played before wrapping up in New York this afternoon.  Seriously, it was as soft as a Jeff Karstens 68 mile per hour breaking ball.  And the team blew it.

Three wins over the Astros.  Two wins over the Cubs.  One win against the Mets.

The month started wth two losses to the Brewers. The Pirates bounced back with two wins over the Astros.

The Chicago Cubs then swept the Pirates by a score of 20 runs for the Cubbies and 7 for the Bucs.

In dire need of wins to stay relevant, the Pirates were swept by the Cincinnati Reds.

In need of a sweep against a really poor Cubs team, the Pirates split, grabbing two wins.

The Brewers swept the Pirates by a combined score of 18-8.

The Astros, the worst team in Major League Baseball, took two of three from the Bucs.

The team has lost two games to the New York Mets as another losing season stares them directly in the eye.   A losing season will make this the most epic collapse in the history of baseball.

So why are we talking about anything other than fixing what is broken right now?

If you want to keep reading this sad shit, we did a roll call of production below.

Want to see what the offensive players are doing this month?  Travis Snider is hitting .125.  Michael McKenry is hiting .182.  Josh Harrison is hitting .211.  Jeff Clement, the first bat off the bench, is hitting .214.  Rod Barajas is hitting .216.  Pedro Alvarez is hitting .217.  Alex Presley is getting a lot of time this month, probably due to his .235 average?  Meanwhile Jose Tabata is hitting .355 with 20 less at-bats than Presley.

Garrett Jones is hitting .247.  Starling Marte .259.  Gaby .264.  Neil Walker .269.  Andrew McCutchen is at .278 this month.  Brock Holt has vanished from the lineup despite a .295 average in September.

The pitching has beeen even worse.  All of these pitchers are off the chart–Van Den Hurk 21.60 ERA.  JMac 12.60.  Resop 7.71.  Jeff Locke 7.50.  Jason Grilli 7.04.

Some bright spots have been Kevin Correia, Wandy Rodriguez, Kyle McPherson, Tony Watson, and in just four innings–Bryan Morris.