Pittsburgh Pirates: Forgotten All-Stars From the 20 Years of Losing

For 20 straight seasons, the Pittsburgh Pirates did not have a winning season. But they still had at least one All-Star in each of those 20 seasons. Many of which have become forgotten to time.

From 1993 to 2012, the Pittsburgh Pirates did not have a single winning season. Despite having some pretty awful teams in those 20 seasons, the team still had a National League All-Star in each of these seasons. This is due to the MLB requiring each team to have at least one representative in the MLB All-Star Game each summer.

Now, you probably remember players such as Jason Bay, Andy Van Slyke and Jason Kendall making the all-star games during their tenures with the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, there are many that were forgotten because of just how bad the Pirates’ were, or maybe they didn’t deserve to go to the All-Star Game at all.

Having forgettable All-Stars is commonplace in baseball. Each and every season there are players in the All-Star Game that probably should not be there, or are deserving but are forgotten due to being on a bad team.

Today, let’s go over five of those kinds of all-stars from the Pirates 20 year losing streak.

2002-2003 Mike Williams

Right hander Mike Williams was the Pittsburgh Pirates closer in 2002 and 20033. In both seasons, he made the NL All-Star team despite his results. In 2002, he may have deserved the call to the game. Throughout the year, Williams had a 2.93 ERA, 3.91 FIP and 1.22 WHIP. He did not really excel in anything in particular, nor really struggled either. He had a 16.1% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 0.9 HR/9 across 61.1 innings. He did, however, save 46 games.

The following year, Williams returned as the Bucs’ closer. His 2003 season might just be the worst season any relief pitcher has had that still made the All-Star Game. In 37.1 innings, Williams surrendered 26 earned runs on 42 hits. Five of those hits were home runs. He also walked more batters than he struck out, with a 20:22 K:BB ratio.

Mike Williams was traded in July of that year to the Philadelphia Phillies for Frank Brooks. In Philly, the ‘All-Star’ did better, but that isn’t saying much. He still gave up 17 earned runs in just 25.2 innings on 24 hits, and walked 19 batters and struck out just as many. Ironically, Williams is not really remembered for his awful All-Star Game or his 12 year baseball career. It’s more likely that you remember him as the guy who threw at Pedro Martinez and started a benches clearing brawl between the Phillies and Expos.

2011 Kevin Correia

In 2011, right handed starter Kevin Corriea made the NL All-Star team along with Andrew McCutchen and Joel Hanarhan. In the first half of the year, the Pittsburgh Pirates were in the postseason hunt and Corriea was showing some promise as a solid backend starter. Regardless, he still made the All-Star Game with a 4.01 ERA and 4.32 FIP. Correia only struck out 59 batters in 116.2 innings, but he had a walk rate of just 5.3%.

But after the All-Star Game, like the rest of the 2011 Pirates, he completely fell off a cliff. In his final 37.1 innings of the year, Correia gave up 52 hits, 30 earned runs, 11 home runs and 13 walks. Overall in 2011, he had a 4.79 ERA, 4.85 FIP and 1.39 WHIP in 154 innings of work.

The 2011 All-Star returned to the Pirates in 2012 where he pitched solid but still unspectacular. He threw 171 innings, and posted a 4.21 ERA, 4.43 FIP and 1.29 WHIP. While he only struck out 12.2% of all the batters he faced, he walked them at a solid 6.3% clip. He also surrendered home runs at a 1.1 per 9 rate. Regardless, the Pirates didn’t see enough in him to bring him back for 2013, and he signed on with the Minnesota Twins after his Pirates’ tenure.

1995 Denny Neagle

The 1994 and 1995 seasons were shortened because of a players’ strike, but an All-Star Game was still played in 1995. In this game, the Pittsburgh Pirates were represented by starting pitcher Denny Neagle

Neagle was not a bad pitcher like Williams or Corriea were, but with so many other more famous names in baseball, and bigger events surrounding the season, he became one of the more underrated pitchers mid-to-late 1990s. Neagle made the 1995 All-Star Game after getting off to a solid start to the year, posting a 3.34 ERA and 3.57 FIP through 107.2 innings of work.

He didn’t suffer a second half slump, still putting up solid work including a 3.53 ERA and 3.75 FIP down the stretch. Overall, he had 3.43 ERA, 3.60 FIP and 1.29 WHIP. His strongest skill was being able to limit free passes, surrendering just 45 across 209.2 innings and facing 876 batters.

In 1996, Neagle again got off to a nice start to the season, throwing 182.2 innings to the tune of a 3.05 ERA, 3.84 FIP, and 1.20 WHIP, walking just 34 batters in the process. But the Bucs traded him at the August deadline for Corey Pointer, Ron Wright, and a player to be named later who eventually became Jason Schmidt.

Neagle wasn’t on the same level as other pitchers during the 1990s, but like I said earlier, he was kind of overlooked during his run from 1995 to 1998. In these four seasons, Neagle combined for 3.35 ERA, 3.75 FIP and 1.19 WHIP. He walked just 202 batters across the 874.2 innings he pitched. That resulted in a walk rate of just 5.6%, or the 15th best in this time frame. That was still lower than Mike Mussina, Curt Schilling, or Greg Swindell.

1999 Ed Sprague

In 1999, the Pittsburgh Pirates had both Jason Kendall and Brian Giles, but neither of them made the All-Star Game. They are probably who you guessed (and so did I) who were the Bucs’ reps at the Mid-Summer Classic. But no, it was one year Pirate third baseman, Ed Sprague.

Sprague was signed as a free agent by the Pirates during the 1998 -1999 off-season. Up until that point of his career, the former Blue Jay and Athletic infielder only had one season where his OPS+ reached above 100, that being in 1996. So needless to say, Sprague had a career year with the Bucs in 1999.

Sprague got off to an extremely hot start to 1999. His first 349 plate appearances yielded a .300/.402/.545 line, 16 home runs, and a 136 wRC+. Numbers that might have even put him in MVP conversation at the time, but those kinds of talks would be put to rest in the second half. Sprague completely fell off in the second half, batting just .220/.270/.350 in his final 215 plate appearances of the season. This included an August and September where he posted an OPS below .600.

Sprague’s lone All-Star season finished with a bottom line of .267/.352/.465 with 22 home runs, a 105 OPS+ and 103 wRC+. He was also an awful defender at third base, having -15 total zone runs, and a -1.3 defensive WAR throughout the season.

Despite playing two more seasons after 1999, Sprague was on three different teams. Oddly enough, he had two stints with the Padres in 2000. Sprague started the season out with the Friars, but was traded to the Red Sox at the end of June. The Red Sox then released Sprague at the end of August who was then signed by the Padres almost immediately after. Sprague ended his career after 2001 where he appeared in 45 games with the Seattle Mariners.