Futilitywatch 09: Sliding Towards the Breaking Point

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

Despite the fact that I've started each of the last five or so seasons with very little hope that the Pittsburgh Pirates will do anything (push for a playoff spot, finish .500, not embarrass me as a fan ... anything), I still try to be as positive as possible about the Pirates' chances during the season. It's not easy, but it's the only way to keep going as a fan.

At some point each summer, though, the Pirates do something to crush my soul, be it one awful loss or 13 in a row. This year, the Pirates have teetered on the edge of that breaking point a couple times, but to their credit they somehow haven't passed it yet.

Since Our Last Update

We last left the Pirates at 28-32 and scraping out wins after the Nate McLouth trade, mostly because of the spark provided by Andrew McCutchen. Shortly after that, they took a weekend series from the Tigers and pulled within three games of the mythical .500 mark in mid-June, which was far more than any Pirate fan expected from the team this year.

Things went downhill quickly, though, as a date with the Twins in the Metrodome, where they seem nearly unbeatable, brought two losses in three games. That was quickly followed by a sweep at the hands of the red-hot Rockies (and incredibly unpopular ex-manager Jim Tracy), and a loss in the first game of a three-game set with the last-place Indians.

This prompted most Pirate fans, myself included, to proclaim that the "June swoon" was in full effect. They followed these six losses in seven games with a pretty easy win over Carl Pavano, which is really hard to get excited about. Then, last night they were down 2-0 heading into the late innings when the rookie took over again. McCutchen doubled and scored the first run of the game for the Pirates in the sixth inning, the drew an eight-pitch walk after falling behind in the count 0-2 against reining AL Cy Young winner Cliff Lee with the bases loaded in the seventh to tie the game. As if that wasn't enough, he then knocked in Jack Wilson with a walk-off single in the ninth.

The Pirates are still six games below .500 and it'll take a Herculean effort to avoid the mark, especially since more trades are on the horizon, but it's really hard not to be giddy about a young, exciting player like McCutchen.


A Little Bit of History

Perhaps I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself here, but the Pirates have only had one Rookie of the Year winner in their history since the award was instituted in 1947. That winner was Jason Bay in 2005, who was 25 at the time. Before Bay, though, several Pirates made runs at the award in the 1990s and early 2000s before Bay. Josh Fogg finished 7th in 2002, Warren Morris finished third and Kris Benson fourth in the voting in 1999, four Pirates finished in the top ten in 1997 (Rich Loiselle was fourth, Jose Guillen seventh, and Tony Womack ninth), Jason Kendall was third in 1996, and Tim Wakefield was third in 1992. Clearly, good showings in Rookie of the Year voting doesn't necessarily precede success.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, have had an almost unfathomable 16 winners, starting with Jackie Robinson taking the first award in 1947 all the way through Todd Hollandsworth in 1996. That includes a run from 1992-1996 where a Dodger won the NL award starting every year (Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi, Hideo Nomo, and Hollandsworth were the laureates). Those Dodger teams made it to the playoffs twice, in 1995 and 1996, and were swept in the Division Series both seasons. Maybe Pirate fans should be rooting for McCutchen to not win the award.

Numbers

Pirates' current record: 33-39
Record required to avoid losing season: 48-42 (49-41 to actually have a winning season)
1949 Phillies' record through 72 games: 39-33
Triples by Andrew McCutchen and Nyjer Morgan (pictured): 10 (five apiece)
Teams with fewer than 10 triples total: 7 (Seattle, Florida, Chicago Cubs, Atlanta, Baltimore, Toronto, and Oakland)