Futilitywatch '09: Pirates Attempting to Stave Off the Inevitable

Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march toward their record 17th consecutive losing season.

In our last installment two weeks ago, we left the Pittsburgh Pirates for dead as they sat at 12-16, in the midst of what turned out to be an eight-game losing streak that dropped their record to 12-19. Since then, the Bucs have reeled off seven wins in 10 games and sit at 19-22. In fact, if their bullpen hadn't blown an eighth-inning lead last night, they'd only be one game under .500 and Bucco Fever would be sweeping Pittsburgh. Or something.

Since Our Last Update

It's only fair to note that of the Pirates' seven wins in 10 games, five have come against the Rockies and Nationals. These are not good baseball teams. In fact, the Pirates took three out of four from the Nats and didn't even play particularly well in any of the games. As long as Matt Capps is struggling to regain his 2007 form (he was seen in the bullpen last week with a blindfold over his left eye as pitching coach Joe Kerrigan attempted to keep him from over-rotating), the bullpen is going to be a disaster area. The goat in Thursday night's late collapse was exiled former "ace of the future" Tom Gorzelanny, who spent the first part of 2009 in Triple-A, trying and failing to find whatever it was that made him a near-All-Star in 2007. It's odd the Pirates spend so much time pining for their 2007 form. They only won 68 games that year.

The bright side of things is that the rotation, led by Zach Duke and Paul Maholm, is still clicking along at a much improved rate and the offense is starting to come around a bit as well. After a terrible start, Brandon Moss has a 1.473 OPS in his last seven games and Andy LaRoche is clipping along at .302/.377/.453 since his 0-for-16 start and he's starting to look like the prospect that so many people had rated so highly in the Dodgers' organization. Given that Ryan Doumit is still injured, the offense has really acquitted itself quite nicely and is a big part of the reason the season hasn't hit the dumpsters yet.

A Little Bit of History

When I last attended a Pittsburgh Pirates' playoff game at the age of seven in 1992, there were 26 Major League Baseball teams in four divisions; 12 in the National League and 14 in the American League. Today, there are 30 teams in six divisions; 16 in the NL and 14 in the AL. The league has added a wild-card playoff spot, four teams (the Marlins, Rockies, Diamondbacks, and Devil Rays) and re-aligned the Brewers from the AL to the NL.

But this isn't to point out that the league has changed a lot since Andy Van Slyke and Barry Bonds patrolled the carpet in Three Rivers Stadium. Things undoubtedly have, but that's not the point here. The point is that each of the four teams that have come into existence since the last time the Pirates were any good have all won a pennant. The Marlins won the 1997 NL pennant and World Series, the Diamondbacks won the 2001 NL pennant and World Series, the Rockies won the 2007 NL pennant, and the Rays won the 2008 AL pennant.

The Pirates have been so tragically mismanaged in the past 17 years that the Marlins actually came into existence, won a World Series, were completely dismantled and rebuilt from the bottom up, and won another World Series in the time that the Pirates haven't even finished above .500.

The Numbers

Pirates record: 19-22
Wins remaining to avoid ignonimy: 62
Losses until infamy: 60
1949 Phillies' record after 41 games: 20-21
Wins by Zach Duke in 31 starts in 2008: 5
Wins by Zach Duke in eight starts in 2009: 5