169 Comments

Just two games back from 10% odds of 1.1 pick! Twenty-one games left to make some progress there.

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I have faith in Cherington to lose except when it'd be helpful to lose.

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Yeah he's truly a worst case scenario GM at all times, isn't he? Even if he somehow got the 1.1 pick he'd botch that, too.

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In fairness, he nailed the last one.

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Sure but I would have made that pick.

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Fine, but it is unfair of us to discount things that go right. He made the right pick last year and that was huge for the organization. He deserves credit for doing the right thing, even if it was obvious. He could have also drafted Crews or Langford. Neither of which would have been bad picks, but not the best one.

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Get back to me when he drafts and develops a bat well

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What if, instead of wasting our time on this garbage, we spent it learning, exploring a new hobby, reading, writing, spending time with friends and family, exercising, cooking healthy meals, deepening our spiritual lives, listening to or playing music, meditating, drawing, painting,

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Do it. That's what I did about ten years ago. All of those things but play my guitar cause I didn't become Hendrix after a year of practice. Play a mean bongo drum though. I never renewed the MLB package after moving. I'm a fan of all things Pittsburgh so that is why I at least follow on here and box scores. That and my 44 year old ass remembers riding the school bus in our little league uniforms to games and being in awe of Slyke.

I don't regret any of it. I bet you won't either. Time to let the hoard of farm creatures out and fry some eggs for the chaps. Life's a garden.

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All great ideas! Have at it brother this crap is truly a waste of time. The entire organization is full of incompetent losers.

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The hours I have wasted on the Pirates since 1992 is truly scary, and awfully depressing.

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I’m going to try my best to practice what I preach. This team sucks and it’s been a real bummer to realize how little enjoyment I get from the wins compared to how much negativity comes with the losses. Baseball is the real beautiful game but a no salary cap league is a broken league. I feel like I’m Charlie Brown and the football Bob Nutting keeps pulling away at the last second is the promise of the next wave of prospects and the next five year plan. I wanted to do this sooner but the thrill of watching Skenes and Jones convinced me to hang on but I’m done sinking my time into this product.

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Good for you, Jason. I've told myself if Cherington and Shelton are here come March I'm doing the same. This team only deserves the old-timers who have the nostalgia of the 60s and/or 70s wins. Anyone under 50 who's following—myself included—are at some point just fools. I've set my own end date for offering attention to the Pittsburgh Pirates, too.

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Even us old timers are sick of this shit!

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I’m 70 and I feel like a total fool. Since Stan Belinda got jobbed and Bonds failed to get Bream at home it’s just been one false hope after another.

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I shouldn't say they deserve you but it's defensible if you keep following because you at least have that connection to a time when they won, if that makes sense. Sorry you feel like a fool alongside us under 50s, though. It's a shitty feeling.

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What bothers me in retrospect it that I didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have at the time. From 1960 to 1979 it was just a given that the Pirates were one of the best organizations in baseball. That’s just the way things were.

Then Parker decided to become a druggie, Edmeads died in a freak on-field accident, Stargell got old, and we had a brief downturn. Then we get Barry Bonds with the frickin’ #5 overall pick in the 85 draft. To this day I cannot believe that that team did not make a single World Series.

So arguably from 60 to 92, 58 to 92 if you want to stretch it, the Pirates were always part of the national baseball conversation. I can’t believe how low we’ve sunk. It’s appalling.

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Why do you pit this as an either/or proposition? I hope for all of our sakes we are doing many of those other things, while suffering as a Pirate fan. I know I am. I love baseball and the Pirates, but there is much, much more to life than that!

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I love baseball and in turn, I’ll always love the Pirates but I’ve lost the joy around it. Anymore I feel like I unconsciously flip between here and P2 and listen to post game podcasts or check box scores all because it’s a deeply ingrained habit and nothing else.

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Well it isn’t super joyful to lose again and again, but maybe stepping away makes sense. We only get so many years on this Earth. I know I will stand in judgment someday before God and I will need to answer for how I spent my time. It is quite possible that I do spend too much time on the Pirates and that it is a “vanity” that takes me away from more important things, yet sport is a deeply human thing and when participated in and followed in moderation I think it can give glory to God. I hope that is how I indulge it, but it sounds like you may need a break to pursue other worthwhile things!

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I'm not doing all of these things but I'm learning handtool woodworking and about to build a 20'x7' built in shelving storage unit out of walnut ply and walnut faced caps, reading Susanna Clarke's Piranesi just now, just planted like 40 perennials in the shade and rock gardens today, I get a ton of time with my daughter, do compound lifts in my basement gym 5x per week and am hoping to start weighted rucking soon, I could eat a lot better but when I cook I eat well, have no spiritual life to speak of, have been getting into a ton of music my dead dad liked of late, no meditating but I do cold plunge here and there, no drawing or painting unless doodles with my daughter counts. Watching very little Pirates baseball the last month has helped me manage the time, that's for sure.

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This is awesome, we need more of these things in our lives and so much less of the Pirates

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Winning baseball is a great joy but miserball which is what Nutting plays shrivels and hardens the heart.

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Some good news, Termarr with 3 hits tonight including a homerun. Homerun might have been foul but the ump called it fair.

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Like the team just keeps wretching. You think they are done, but there is more to come. The lows, the humiliations, the punches to the gut, and the utter letdowns this team has foisted upon us this year is historical.

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Things are going to get worse before they get better. Just wait until Skenes or Jones or Keller goes down with TJS. The odds are like 66% one of them will the next calendar year.

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One hopes against that. Bednar, Holderman, and Chapman have played tagged with who is “it” to destroy wins this year. This team easily, easily, should be 76-66 with a decent bullpen. How is it possible that ALL 3 of them have taken turns crapping the bed this much? It’s insane.

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Have to think teams advanced scouts have picked up something on our relief pitching approach.

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Probably word got around that our bullpen sucks. The secret's out.

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Trevor May dissected Bednar tipping pitches; safe bet other MLB clubs with competent staff have done the same

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Bednar and Holderman and Chapman all have great stuff and stuff+ numbers. I think it's got to be sequencing or approach or something (aside from stretches where Chapman just walks a million dudes now).

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Just what you knew BDLC would come up with there.

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Tankathon, tankathon, tankathon, tankathon, tankathon, tankathon, tankathon, tankathon, tankathon, tankathon, tankathon, tankathon, tankathon, tankathon, tankathon, tankathon!!!!!!

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Ouch. Ball 4

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Nightmare bullpen.

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Just end this season. Not only do we blow saves, we make sure to give up more runs on top of that just to squelch any residual hope. I feel for Shelton in this sense, he didn’t blow all of these saves.

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Was having a really good day till now. UConn won a football game by 46 pts, Notre Dame lost at home to Northern Illinois, Pitt won a game they should've lost... all was going right. Got overconfident.

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Glad your day went to shit. TANKATHON!

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Three out of four is still a good day. And had a great time with the dog and a great pizza from Harry's. It's a solid 8/10 of a day.

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Pirates could have swept but got swept instead.

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Feeling confident with Chapman for the save.

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Or not

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Took you guys long enough to say something!

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BRey due here, OPS back down to .799.

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IKFér

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Hahaha this team's identity shows itself again. They _need_ to lose.

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Was an out, but nice to see Cruz actually hit something deep on the fly. Too many grounders lately.

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Michael Kennedy with an excellent outing tonight for the Grasshoppers. He's put together a quality season.

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