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Pirates Morning Report: Defining Mediocrity

Final Score: Pirates 3 Royals 8

Why The Pirates Lost: Luis Ortiz threw 45 pitches in the 2nd inning, with most of them getting hit and threw the ball away on a pretty routine play which helped the Royals score 6 runs. The Royals had 8 hits for the game and got 4 of them in the 2nd inning including a 2 run home run by Salvador Perez to make the score 6-0. This was more than enough to win the game with the way the Pirate offense floundered around. For the first 5 innings the Pirates got 3hits, a miracle, and struck out 10 times. They wound up striking out 14 times for the game. They managed 9 hits and 3 walks but left 10 men on base. They got 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th off their old buddy Chirs Stratton who probably felt sorry for them. The Pirates are the definition of mediocrity. They are able to beat the bad teams but lose regularly to the good teams. It looks like we are in for another year of this, since apparently Derek (We All Need To Get Better) Shelton will be back to fall asleep on the bench for 2025.

The Key Moment Of The Game: Luis (I Was Taught To Throw By Pedro Alvarez) Ortiz shot himself in the foot to start the top of the second. After one out, he walked Robbie Grossman a .226 hitter on 4 pitches. Adam Frazier hit a little dribbler about halfway out to mound and Ortiz threw the ball way offline down the right field line to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. The Royals took advantage by getting 3 straight hits to make the score 4-0. Essentially the Pirates never threatened to make a game of it and the mediocre winning streak was over at 4.

Next Game: This afternoon, the Royals in Pittsburgh. Mitch (I’m Not A Top Of The Rotation Guy) Keller starts today for the Pirates. His last 7 games he is 1-4 with an ERA of 5.86. Trade bait anyone? Will he snap out of it today? He better, because Shelton has already told him he is not coming out of the game until he gives up 14 runs, the bullpen needs a rest. I can’t wait for 2025.

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Pirates Morning Report: Four Game Win Streak But Here Come The Royals

The Morning Report is back, and I find this upcoming series with the Royals interesting. We have the Pirates playing out the string, almost eliminated from the playoffs. We have the Royals in pretty good position for a wild card and still an outside shot at the division. They are in 2nd Wild Card spot 5 games ahead of the Tigers. These games are far from meaningless to the Royals. The Pirates are playing pressure free games. The Royals are in the thick of the playoff race and although their position is good, they are far from clinching anything. Many times, a team like the Pirates, pathetic, can be a real thorn in the side of a playoff contender this late in the season. The Pirates are just coming off sweeping the even more pathetic Marlins, to go on a 4 game winning streak. The Royals have been treading water the last 10 games going 5-5. Let’s see if the Pirates can play spoilers.

The other newsworthy item is it looks like Derek Shelton, unfortunately, will manage the Pirates next year. Cherington’s quote was, I believe he is the right man to manage this team in 2025. He sure as hell did very little managing in 2024, so he should be fresh to do the job. The bottom line, Nutting is not going to eat another contract. Everybody has to get better according to the management team. This is pretty pathetic, my favorite word today. I can’t even comment on such rhetoric. It is a shame that the fans of Pittsburgh have to put up with such incompetence. I think the Pirates have the talent. In order for this team to get into the playoffs next year we have to hope that they get off to a horrible start so Shelton will get fired around the 15th of May. One last thought, which will be expanded upon at the end of the season. WILL THE PIRATES SIGN ANYBODY DURING THE OFFSEASON THAT WILL CONTRIBUTE TO THE TEAM? That will be the first step.

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Pirates Morning Report: Too Bad We Don’t Play The Marlins Every Game

The Pirates have won 3 in a row and they are a much better team when the games are meaningless. Management is taking them seriously because they desperately want the team to win more than 76 games so they can say the team has improved. They are 69-76 in fifth place 1.5 games behind the Reds. They have to go 8-9 to show any improvement. This will be no easy task considering they have 3 games against the Royals and 3 games against the Yankees. They do have a game with the Marlins today trying to go for the season sweep. It seems like a must win if the Pirates are going to improve. The no fault insurance man Barry Falter is pitching for the Pirates. McCutchen got is 20th home run last night, and it was a big 2 out 3 run homer that helped the Pirates to their 6-4 victory. Aroldis Chapman had another shaky save and you have to wonder why he is closing. When Bednar had the closer role taken away, Shadow Shelton said the closer was going to be by committee. He must have not been paying attention to what was coming out of his own mouth, what a shock, because he essentially made Chapman the closer. As The Beach Boys would say wouldn’t it be nice to see what some of the other bullpen guys, like Nicolas, Mlodzinski, and Santana, could do in the 9th. Wrong, common sense breath. Hopefully the blog will be back on a daily bases on Friday.

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Pirates Morning Report: 3 And 2, Shelton Gets Testy

Since I have been away the Pirates have won 3 out of 5. In one of the losses they did not get a hit at Wrigley Field one of the most hitter friendly ballparks in baseball. Andy Haines said after the game that their process was good. It’s was after that game Derek (I Only Fall Asleep After The Seventh Inning) Shelton got testy about a question concerning Rowdy Tellez making his 3rd pitching appearance in about the last 10 days. There are about 3 of 4 pitchers coming off injuries that could have been used, that need the work. I think what bugs a lot of people is Rawhide Rowdy pitches the way he does everything in baseball like he could care less. Maybe this is why management uses him because it reflects their attitude toward the games. I would imagine that the sign, Never Give Up, is nowhere to be seen in the Pirate locker room. Don’t expect any 10-3 comebacks going into the 7th inning from this bunch. Even if there looked like a rally was brewing, Shelton would probably pinch hit for Bryan Reynolds with Alika Williams. The reporters are going to have to tread lightly with sour puss Shelton after games from now on. Poor baby.

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Pirates Morning Report: From One Extreme To The Other, But Hey It’s A Win

Final Score: Pirates 3 Guardians 0

Why The Pirates Won: Luis Ortiz pitched a solid 6 innings only giving up 1 hit. He did walk 3 to make it interesting and there were some nice defensive plays behind him, but it was the best pitching performance by a Pirate in the last few games. The bullpen, not a misprint, shut out the Guardians the rest of way, despite Shelton trying to give the game away again. After scoring so many runs in the previous 4 losses the Pirate offense got back to normal. They scored 3 runs on 9 hits and 4 walks, leaving 9 men on base. Nick Gonzales had 3 hits and Oneil Cruz had 2. Aroldis Chapman pitched a clean ninth to pick up the save and the 4 game losing streak was broken.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates had a particularly frustrating top of the 7th where they loaded the bases but failed to score. The score was 1-0 going into the bottom of the seventh. With many options available Derek (How Can I Help Lose This Game) Shelton brought in Jalen (I Can’t Remember The Last Time I Retired Three Batters In A Row) Beeks. He did not disappoint. Josh Naylor immediately opened the inning with a double to left field. On the next pitch Jhonkensy Noel hit a line drive but right at Bryan De La Cruz for the first out. Beeks then walks the next batter on 6 pitches. Even Shelton had seen enough and brought in Dennis Santana. On the second pitch of the at bat Lane Thomas hit a high fly ball to deep left field. Bryan Reynolds with his back up against the wall, leaped up and made a very nice catch. There was one problem for the Guardians. Josh (Can I Have An Eye Exam Today) Naylor, standing between 2nd and 3rd, did not think he caught the ball. He was off to the races and was rounding third when Reynolds threw the ball to second to easily double him off to end the inning. The Pirates added 2 runs in the top of the 8th on a big 2 out single by Rawhide Rowdy Tellez. Shelton asked Santana if 2 pitches tired him out like it did a couple of games ago, when he did not let him pitch the 9th. Santana said no and pitched the bottom of the 8th. The Guardians went 6 up, 6 down to end the game.

Next Game: This afternoon, Guardians in Cleveland. Mitch (Who Will We Get Today) Keller will pitch the rubber game of the series. The Pirates Morning Report will go on a bit of a hiatus over the next 12 days, as I will be on vacation where I will not be able to watch the games. I will probably do some periodic reports but won’t be back in full force until September 13th. I can’t say that I am really going to miss seeing this team play. Will they go on a hot streak? Only time will tell.

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Pirates Morning Report: Take Falter Out, Leave German In Why?

Final Score: Pirates 8 Guardians 10

Why The Pirates Lost: After just 59 pitches and 4 innings Barry (I Don’t Understand It Either) Falter was removed from the game. Granted he had given up 4 runs on 7 hits, walking 1 and striking out 2. The walk was in the first inning. He had had only 4 balls hit over 100 MPH. The way the bullpen has performed I would have at least thought the Pirates would see if he could get through the 5th and the 6th. Wrong, bullpen mismanagement breath. Right on cue the bullpen arrived in the name of Carmen Mlodzinski, and he promptly game up 4 runs which included 2 home runs. The Pirates had just taken the lead in the top of the inning 6-4 and this put them behind 8-6. The Pirates were able to score to make it 8-7. Domingo German was able to hold the Guardians at bay for 2 innings, so the score remained 8-7 going into the bottom of the 8th. We will get to that pathetic inning in a moment. All of this pitching debacle nullified another good offensive performance by the Pirates. Oneil (What Does Greg Brown Have Against Me) Cruz, Bryan Reynolds, Rowdy (Rawhide) Tellez, and Andrew McCutchen all had big games. They had 2 hits each and drove in all the runs for the Pirates.

The Key Moment Of The Game: As mentioned previously the score was Guardians 8 and the Pirates 7 going into the bottom of the 8th. With their leader thrown out of the game did anybody on the Pirate bench know what the score was? German was starting his third inning of relief. He got the first batter to fly out to Cruz. He gave up singles to the next two batters putting runners on 1st and 3rd. This was time to remove him from the game. Ok, bench coach Don Kelly come take out German. Kelly are you awake. It is a one run game. GET OFF YOUR ASS AND TAKE HIM OUT OF THE DAMN GAME. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU. Don’t answer that, we already know, you are a Pirate coach. You could argue that he should have been taken out after the first hit. They did not take him out of the game, and bim boom bam, 6 pitches later, it was single, single and before you could say fire all the coaching staff, it was 10-7 Guardians. It was 2 runs that they needed as McCutchen hit a home run in the 9th to make the final 10-8. Three out of the last 4 games the Pirates have given up double digit runs and that game they gave up 9. What a great idea to bring the bullpen in at the 5th inning. Could the Pirates just not play anymore.

Next Game: Apparently, they are tonight, Guardians in Cleveland. Luis Ortiz will start tonight but who really cares. This team has completely fallen apart, and the coaching staff is to blame. Nobody should be back next year, but we will see. What a mess.

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Pirate Morning Report: Mercifully Just 29 Games Left

The Pirates have just about a month of the season to go. Their playoffs hopes have been dashed by going 7-18 in the month of August. This will be their worse month of the season, no matter what they do in Cleveland the next two days. Even after scoring 23 runs in three games, the Pirate offense remains one of the worse in baseball. They are 21st in runs scored, 25th in on base percentage, and 27th in OPS+. This defines putrid. The pitching despite those horrific last 3 games, fares a little better. In fielding independent pitching, they are 12th in baseball. They are 21st in runs allowed and 18th in ERA+. Still in the bottom half of most things, but part of their problem is the Pirates bad defense. In Defensive Efficiency they are 24th in baseball. There was a lot of hype going into the season with talk of the Pirates contending for the division. The young Bucs were ready to play. What went wrong?

I will go into much more detail at the end of the season but here is a list in a nutshell with no expansion of details. I will take them in chronological order. A horrible offseason that included awful free agent signings, no significant trades. Ke’Bryan Hayes and Jared Triolo did not come close to the kind of production at the plate that they had during the last 2.5 months of 2023. With the exception of about 3 players the entire offense was way below league average. What looked like a good defensive team on paper, turned out to be one of the worst in baseball. An inconsistent and underperforming bullpen that plagued the Pirates all year. The bullpen was totally mismanaged, and many times players were put in positions where they would most likely fail. The Pirates did nothing to bolster this bullpen at the trade deadline despite their apparent deficiencies. In general, the Pirates do not make basebally plays. They throw to wrong bases, they do not run the bases well, and I believe have no idea what situational hitting means.

Now that the pressure is off, the Pirates may rally and finish close to .500. The other possibility is they may be tired of playing for a manager that is constantly throwing them under the bus to cover up his in game blunders. They may be tired of getting no help from a coaching staff that does not seem to know what they are doing. The latest example is Martin Perez. He has started 5 games for the Padres, and his ERA+ is 153 compared to 81 with the Pirates. The Padres have won all 5 games he has started. They noticed his best pitch is his curve ball and told him to throw it more. I guess the Pirates consider that rocket science. Better luck next year, maybe.

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Pirates Morning Report: How To Blow A 7 Run Lead By Derek Shelton

Final Score: Pirates 10 Cubs 14

Why The Pirates Lost: In one of the strangest 3 game series in Pirate history, the Cubs came back from a 7 run deficit to score 11 runs in the last 3 innings to sweep the series. My words were rather prophetic a couple of blogs ago when I wrote that this bullpen is so well rested, they will forget how to pitch. The bullpen in the last 4 innings gave up 11 runs, 11 hits, and 6 walks. One walk was in the 6th inning, so everything else happened in the last 3 innings. The Pirates scored 23 runs in the series and lost all 3 games. That is because the Cubs scored an unbelievable 41 runs. That is just 1 run short of 14 runs per game. Derek Shelton stated after the game we need to finish games. Here is a tip. Stop putting in David Bednar in the 9th. The problem with Bednar is easy to see but does not seem to be fixable, at least by this coaching staff. Last year before the All Star break Bednar had walked only one batter excluding intentional walks. Ever since then he almost walks a batter every time he comes in. Is there a mechanical issue or is it mental? Who knows, but this lack of command has been why he is getting hit. Yesterday he threw 9 non fast balls out of 28 pitches and only two of those were in the strike zone. Only one time was the pitch swung on. Talk about sitting on the fastball. It is ridiculous that he is still the closer. In a nutshell this bullpen has been shaky all year. The Pirates did nothing at the trade deadline to improve it. Padres added to their bullpen at the deadline. You can see what they are doing now.

Key Moment Of The Game: I felt it was when they did not let Dennis Santana come out for the 9th inning. He had thrown 2 pitches to get out of the 8th inning. This was the perfect time to see what he could do and have Bednar warming up in the bullpen if needed. That is how you finish a game, Shelton.

Next Game: Tomorrow night, the Guardians in Cleveland. Barry (Yesterday Was Not My) Falter will start. The Pirates are now 9 games under .500 and will be hard pressed to win as many games as they did last year. This was a team that expected to contend.

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Pirates Morning Report: Loo-Loo-Loo-Losers

Final Score: Pirates 5 Cubs 9

Why The Pirates Lost: They are a bunch of losers. They do what losers do. Since the Pirates lost 10 games in a row, they have been 8-8. During this stretch of games, they gave up 1 run in 27 innings and yet they only won one of those games. In the last 2 games they have scored 13 runs, and not only have they lost both games, but lost them by a total of 14 runs. Last night they threw in the towel early for the second straight game. Jared Jones was plagued with a lack of command and the home run ball, giving up 5 runs in 4 innings. The score was 5-2, still a ball game. Who does clueless Shelton bring in to pitch the 5th, Jalen Beeks and Ben Heller. They promptly gave up 4 runs on 2 hits, 2 walks and a hit by pitch. Nick Gonzales made an error to help things along. With the game out of reach Shelton then uses Carmen Molodzinski, Dennis Santana and David Bednar. Molodzinski even pitched 2 innings. Why couldn’t he have pitched the 5th. As Ace Ventura pet detective said, “They are loo-loo-loo-losers.

Key Moment Of The Game: It was the top of the 5th when the Pirates decided the game was over even though the score was 5-2. Jalen Beeks gets one out but a single and an error puts runners on 1st and 2nd. Shelton then decides to put Ben From Heller into the game. He strikes out the first batter he faces. In the next 21 pitches he throws 7 strikes which result in a hit batter, 2 walks, a single, and before you could say Derek Shelton is clueless the score is 9-2. After the game is out of reach, he brings in the A squad bullpen and they shut them out the rest of the way without giving up a hit. Great managerial moves.

Next Game: This afternoon, Cubs in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes goes for the Pirates today. I hear they are going to only let him go 3 innings to improve their position in the draft lottery. A season that was full of hope is spiraling into a mess. To show you how bad this team is, Michael Taylor, who was put on waivers, but nobody wanted him, is 5th in WAR among all the position players on the Pirates. This includes the players they acquired at the deadline and what they did for their previous teams. Let that one sink in for a while.

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Pirates Morning Report: What A Debacle

Final Score: Pirates 8 Cubs 18

Why The Pirates Lost + Key Moment Of The Game: I am combining these two because there is too much of a tie in. What is hard to believe is that after 5 innings the score was 3-2 Cubs. That is when the Pirates decided to throw in the towel. That is the only reason I can think of for leaving Domingo German in the game to take that beating. There were plenty of arms in the bullpen. I wonder when they decided to just give up. They put what’s his name in finally and he took another beating. The Pirates are more interested in creating feel good stories than they are in winning games. Just think in the last 3 games Rowdy (Call Me Shohei) Tellez has made more pitching appearances in the last 3 games than Bednar. Maybe they are considering making him the closer. Speaking of moves the Pirates announced they are moving Oneil Cruz to centerfield. All I can say it is about time, although I would have preferred him in right, but none the less putting him in the outfield should keep down the wear and tear on his body. He DH last night and already Greg Brown was questioning what his effort would be at the plate. This from a man that puts forth no effort in the booth. Henry Davis still looks lost at the plate. He will always be known as Mr. AAA.

Next Game: Tonight, Cubs in Pittsburgh. Jarred Jones will start tonight after almost a two month stint on the IL. He has been told that he won’t be removed from the game until he gives up 10 runs no matter what his pitch count is. The bullpen is so well rested that none of them remember how to pitch. Domingo German was told he may even pitch tonight if the game is close going into the 7th. David Bednar was told not to come to the park tonight because they are saving him for the Guardian series. In any other organization heads would roll but it is not happening here.