Let's go Bucs!!! (Marlin: spring, control, promotion)

[erieguy]

Championships aren't important anyway. Saving $$$, keeping tix prices low, making the WC game, etc..., is success enough.

[Copanut]

No excuse for Kang to be out of the lineup.

[sskink]

It's irrational that the Pirates should lose so often to the Reds and Brewers.

It's also irrational that the Pirates are 24-9 (.727) vs the NL East while sweeping the Mets and 21-5 (.808) vs the NL West.

Yes, the Cards' record vs the NL Central is 32-18 while the Bucs' record is 24-32. Meantime the Cards record vs everyone else is 54-29 (.651) vs the Bucs' 55-21 (.724). And the oddest thing is that the Bucs best performance vs any NL Central team is against the Cards (6-7) followed by the Cubs. We'll see how the do vs Cincy now that Byrd is gone. They should do better.

The answer was mentioned above - April/early May. If McCutchen isn't hitting - and he wasn't for the first 40+ days of the season - the club isn't scoring. By the time Cutch said his famous "I'm sick and tired" quote, the Bucs were already 7-12 vs the NL Central. So they actually got better since.

As far as getting swept by Milwaukee goes, Locke sucks in the 2nd half and both "aces" looked like crap. There were no timely hits. Simple as that.

Funny thing about the Cards. They budget shopped for their one FA starting pitcher (Lackey). They only have Heyward because Tavares died. Their ace and clean up hitter have been gone most of the season. There's nobody on that team who's going to get a single top-5 MVP vote. The Pirates have a better offense on paper, yet both team's OPS are the same. Cards have better pitching, despite four of the six starters they've used w/o Wainwright making the minimum salary. Discounting Waino, their bullpen costs more than their starting pitching. And somehow they've made Jonathan Broxton decent again.

But the big difference? Defense and baserunning. Especially defense. And pretty much nobody talks about upgrading defense during the offseason. I imagine they will now.

Anyway, it seems the WC is now destiny. And I don't really care if it's here or in Wrigley. Bucs will win that, even if Arrieta pitches. Mark it down.

And sorry Copa... Kang is still hitting, but he needs a rest for a day or two. His legs are rubber. He's slower than he was and has less range than he did. It's very evident watching him.

Plus, since his first awful week-plus, ARam is hitting very well. They can do with using Kang only as a PH for another day or two.

[erieguy]

As it stands right now, and the way he's pitching, the Bucs won't beat Arietta. He would have to get tired or injured down the stretch.

[sskink]

Originally Posted by erieguy

As it stands right now, and the way he's pitching, the Bucs won't beat Arietta. He would have to get tired or injured down the stretch.

We'll see. I think he'll come back to earth a little. Scherzer was a shoe-in for CY until his no-no. Since then he's pretty much stunk - ERA over 4.00. Kershaw has had average stretches. Obviously Cole and Wacha have had troubles recently. The only guys who've been immune are Grienke and Arrieta. I think Jake will have some bumpy starts soon. He's already almost 30 innings past his career high and that's only going to increase.

[erieguy]

The Bucs staff hasn't been so stellar either. If all things stay the same until that WC game, Arietta is still better than any starter on the Bucs.

[Rocket88]

Originally Posted by erieguy

Championships aren't important anyway. Saving $$$, keeping tix prices low, making the WC game, etc..., is success enough.

Just curious, are saying that from Pirates brass perspective or fan's perspective? I'll assume it's the former. Wild cards are not enough for most fans any more. Maybe they are to Nutting if he draw a cool 2.5 million fans with a relatively speaking low payroll.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by Rocket88

Just curious, are saying that from Pirates brass perspective or fan's perspective? I'll assume it's the former. Wild cards are not enough for most fans any more. Maybe they are to Nutting if he draw a cool 2.5 million fans with a relatively speaking low payroll.

Fans perspective. It's been said here a few times about championships. It's also been said that the Bucs don't make much $$$, along with other fallacies. In reality a championship is the most important thing and why you play the game, to win. Many are satisfied with a WC game. Free t-shirts, pup night, Star Wars night, fireworks, etc..., are huge drawing cards and a WC is icing on that cake.

It's awesome for Nutting. As long as they stay the course, tix prices and revenue will go up and payroll will stay in the bottom of the league.

[sskink]

Originally Posted by Rocket88

Just curious, are saying that from Pirates brass perspective or fan's perspective? I'll assume it's the former. Wild cards are not enough for most fans any more. Maybe they are to Nutting if he draw a cool 2.5 million fans with a relatively speaking low payroll.

So now it's just not good enough to have the 2nd best record in the NL. Now it's necessary to be on a pace to win 104 games.

You guys do realize that every year there are only one or two teams at best that play better than .600 ball. And sometimes none.

The Cards are a freight train. They're the Soviet Red Army Team. Let it go for chrissakes.

And the whole pup night/fireworks thing is old. The Bucs are filling the stands for baseball. But the f'n Steelers/Yinzer population can't seem to deal with that.

[erieguy]

Championships are the most important thing in sports. It matters not what the stats are from year to year. Championships are the only things that are remembered.

Without gimmicks and promotions there would be many empty seats. Hence there's a lot of advertising promoting them.