I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty awesome. I watched that old, concrete shitheap crumble to pieces from high atop Mount Washington and cheered like crazy. On the way home, I remember thinking that, with a new stadium and a young team that they could build around recently-signed Jason Kendall, the Pirates might not suck forever.
I was young, I have difficulty thinking logically when it comes to the Pirates, and my brain was pretty well frozen after waiting a couple hours in sub-freezing weather for the detonators to fire. That's also part of the Pirate Mystique, that they can give us hope when logic is trying desperately to pimp slap us back into reality. Baseball fans, in general, are optimistic by nature. Maybe it's the fact that every new season starts in the spring, which makes us think about rebirth and new life. Maybe it's the fact that the season is so long that anything can happen. Maybe it's the fact that we're all suckers. That's probably it, because I'm fully intending on wearing a Pirates shirt to work tomorrow. I actually started this post two weeks ago, because I knew that the implosion was coming, but I waited until they officially clinched their 20th consecutive losing season to finish posting it, because I still believed that they'd somehow come through in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.
So, I'm going to pile on and hit everyone with some cold, hard logic and reality. I think it will be good for all of us, especially me.
Andrew McCutchen isn't going to have another season like this one, though he may come close. They wasted a perfectly good season from Cutch in the midst of finding different and interesting ways to lose and disappoint us. I understand that Cutch's average has dropped about 50 points since July and that his home run stroke has essentially disappeared, but I don't see him doing much better than .330/.400/.560/.960 for the rest of his career. They took his season and they crapped all over it.
AJ Burnett isn't going to have another season like this one. Joel Hanrahan -- today's collapse notwithstanding -- and Jason Grilli, his second half issues notwithstanding, are not going to have another season like this one.
Starling Marte and Alex Presley and Brock Holt and Jody Mercer are the future. But, they're flawed like the rest of the roster: They don't walk enough and they strike out too much, even Cutch. Pedro Alvarez is basically Joaquin Phoenix's character from Signs. Garrett Jones had a fine season, but he's also 31.
There are a number of promising pitching prospects, led by Gerrit Cole, but who's to say they won't fade in August and September like James McDonald? The line-up can't help but improve without Rod Barajas and Clint Barmes dragging down the bottom of the order, but who's to say that they'll find two guys that are better for next season? As it turns out, Ryan Ludwick and Adam LaRoche aren't bad players, they were just playing for a bad team.
That brings us to the recent statement from the Pirates that announced they will be retaining key members of the front office, like Neal Huntington, Kyle Stark, and Greg Smith, as well as manager Clint Hurdle. An implosion of this magnitude would tend to dictate that heads should roll. But, if I'm Bob Nutting, I have to ask myself a very important question. Who's out there -- that would take the job, which is a very important question -- that's better? I've always been of the opinion that you shouldn't fire a guy unless you have a better option in mind and that better option should bloody well be willing to take the job.
They could try to improve themselves with free agent additions -- even if Barmes, Barajas, LaRoche, Ludwick, and Derrick Lee show that those acquisitions don't usually work out -- but, as Slate pointed out in 2010, spending money only buys you so much. It doesn't buy enough wins to make it worth it just for the sake of spending money.
The other option is to go the route of the Indians, Rays, and A's and build from the farm system. But, the system is toxic and develops players that don't walk enough and strike out too much, with the possible exception of Neil Walker. They could blow up the entire system on down to the receptionist that answers the phone for the single A affiliate West Virginia Power and replace them all with people say, "Thank you for calling the Pirates, what's your on-base percentage?" But, that would require time and effort and they're entirely too busy cashing checks.
Everything stacks up to years of disappointment for fans and years of profitability for the Nuttings. I'm still going to 6-10 games next season because I'm an idiot. I enjoy watching Major League Baseball live and the city I live in doesn't offer any other options. I love baseball and I can't let the Pirates go. I wish I could teach them a lesson by boycotting them, but I can't.
The best, most realistic option is to give them my money, but not my heart. I guess that'll have to do.
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