What do you think of Pittsburgh?

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What do you think of Pittsburgh?

They caught us when we're playing poorly, that's all. 11 votes

They're for real, but they'll probably mess things up like they tend to do. 2 votes

They're as good an NC central contender as anybody for next season. 7 votes

Edgy MD
Sep 17 2006 05:45 PM

Shadow or substance?

metirish
Sep 17 2006 05:48 PM

I voted that they caught the Mets playing poorly,although the Pirates have some good young pitching so maybe they can contend,I think that would be kinda cool if they did.

Benjamin Grimm
Sep 17 2006 05:58 PM

Pirates: Loose.

Mets: Not so loose.

Valadius
Sep 17 2006 06:40 PM

They're 33-27 since the ASB. They have potential.

Frayed Knot
Sep 17 2006 07:33 PM

Shit happens

cooby
Sep 17 2006 07:38 PM

metirish wrote:
I voted that they caught the Mets playing poorly,although the Pirates have some good young pitching so maybe they can contend,I think that would be kinda cool if they did.

I would like that too. It's been a long time.

cleonjones11
Sep 17 2006 08:32 PM

They have a stadium that has real food

smg58
Sep 18 2006 08:38 AM

The Pirates need another power bat to go along with Bay. Their pitching is an enigma; they have more than enough talent, but Perez and (for the most part) Duke have gone in the wrong direction once they established themselves in the majors. They've been the anti-Tigers as far as getting the most out of their young arms goes. And they've made some terrible personnel decisions to boot. Perhaps they've figured something out with their pitching, though. We'll see.

soupcan
Sep 18 2006 08:43 AM

"They're for real, but they'll probably mess things up like they tend to do."

When they had Benson and Wells and Aramis Ramirez I thought that they definitely were on the upswing but they screwed that up. They'll probably do the same thing here. I'm not a big Freddy Sanchez believer at this point and this weekend was the only time I've ever seen Jason Bay do anything (and even with that he misplayed an easy fly ball).

So yeah they probably have a good young nucleus but they will continue to mismanage themselves into a second division team.

Benjamin Grimm
Sep 18 2006 08:47 AM

Many times poor teams have strong second halves, and it often fails to carry over into the next season.

I hope the Pirates become a good team. It would be nice if there could someday be a playoff game at PNC Park.

I remember at the end of the 1985 season people were speculating that baseball was dead in Pittsburgh. It was even thought that the Mets might be making their last visit there, and that the team would be elsewhere in 1986. That didn't happen, of course, and by 1990 the team was better than the Mets.

Now that the Pirates are safely in the other division, I'd like to see them return to glory. They were the best team in the league when I first started watching baseball, and they won the first World Series I ever watched. (In 1971.) When I think Pirates, I still think Stargell and Clemente, even though they're both dead at the present time.

MFS62
Sep 18 2006 08:52 AM

They have a nice core of young players. As someone said above, if they can come up with another power bat, they can contend in the NL Central in the near future.

Later

Edgy MD
Sep 18 2006 09:26 AM

I think Nady is that power bat, but he's been compromised somewhat by the appendectomy. I think next season he'll be a different guy.

cooby
Sep 18 2006 09:28 AM

They had Craig Wilson, too. And Sean Casey

Frayed Knot
Sep 18 2006 10:39 AM

Pittsburgh "young pitching" has seemed to be about a year away for about 5 years now.

Willets Point
Sep 18 2006 10:46 AM

Frayed Knot wrote:
Pittsburgh "young pitching" has seemed to be about a year away for about 5 years now.

...a year away from being traded to a better team.
...a year away from flopping miserably and being demoted to the minors.
...a year away helping the Pirates play spoilers in September.

They're always a year away from something.

cooby
Sep 18 2006 10:51 AM

...a year away helping the Pirates play spoilers in September

They seem to have caught up with this one this year

Johnny Dickshot
Sep 18 2006 11:12 AM

Pirates really screwed us last year too -- remember the Tike Redman Encounter: Just one game but a serious momentum-sucker. I think their success this week though was more about 3 lefties, a flailing Met squad and a strong bullpen than contender stuff. They could use better hitters almost everywhere, and bullpens are extraordinarily unreliable as a thing.

I'd like to see the Pirates return to relevancy myself. As a franchise, they're more likable than Cincy, St. Louis, Houston, the Brewers or the Cubs.

Actually I wouldn't mind their return to the East: The West or Central can have Florida.

Benjamin Grimm
Sep 18 2006 11:23 AM

Johnny Dickshot wrote:
I'd like to see the Pirates return to relevancy myself. As a franchise, they're more likable than Cincy, St. Louis, Houston, the Brewers or the Cubs.

True. I don't find the Cubs likeable at all. The Brewers mean nothing to me. (Maybe I still think of them as an American League team.) Astros are blah, too. Probably because of all those years with funny rainbow uniforms and that awful Dome.

The Reds and Cardinals have nice proud histories. I've forgiven St. Louis for the Whitey Herzog era. And I never had a problem with the Big Red Machine. (I still appreciate their 1976 World Series sweep of the Yankees.) But I do have more of an affinity for Pittsburgh than either of those two teams.

Johnny Dickshot wrote:
Actually I wouldn't mind their return to the East: The West or Central can have Florida.

I think that's probably the most likely scenario if the Marlins should move west in the next few years. The Portland Marlins would play in the West, and the Pirates would move to the East. And the Rockies could either stay in the West or move to the Central.

Speaking of the Pirates, has anyone heard about the special celebration being held in Chester, PA, Danny Murtagh's hometown? They're commemorating the all-minority outfield he fielded back when he was managing the Pirates.

old original jb
Sep 18 2006 01:09 PM

cooby wrote:
...a year away helping the Pirates play spoilers in September

They seem to have caught up with this one this year

I don't expect anything to get "spoiled", not at least for any team that I care about.

vtmet
Sep 18 2006 03:39 PM

Didn't vote but...they have a bunch of lefties, Jason Bay and a .249 hitting CFer that steal at will on the Mets...which is about all you need to beat the Mets right now...

Sanchez and Paulino look like they could be pretty solid contact hitters that might develop power later on, as well...