Pains me to say as a die hard baseball fan, but I have written them off as well. I can't stomach supporting a team that is run like the Pirates.
They fooled me back into believing they would actually invest into the team when they got good, that this management team and more importantly owner would be different once they started winning by adding pieces and adding payroll. But they proved they suck, that I was a sucker for starting to believe again.
The Cutch and Cole trades on the surface were not terrible. Cutch is clearly on the back end of his career and Cole was never resigning here and I think they got a decent return. So trading them actually made some sense.
But the two moves being made after doing basically nothing in the prime Cutch years when you had an MVP player who was way underpaid still sickens me to this day. Save me the nonsense how they added Burnett, or they added Happ, etc... They added guys that were all dirt cheap that they got on a bargain. Sure some worked out but the primary reason for getting those guys were because they were dirt cheap.
Franchise is a joke. They will not go outside their comfort zone financially under no circumstances.
Obviously today's Bucs are a hot mess, but I don't get your logic above.
The 3 pitchers the Pirates got at the deadline that year went something like 14-3 down the stretch, no matter how much they made.
Would you have felt better if they got 3 more expensive guys who contributed nothing?
That Pirate team was more mirage than anything getting to 98 wins. Their record in their division pretty much sucked, they feasted on lesser teams.
The two biggest problems at the end was Kang getting his leg tore apart, and Jake Arietta.
That said, in any normal organization experiencing a total collapse like this one, Hurdle would be GONE. The team obviously has no respect for him and won't play hard for him.
Look at Polanco not running out a ground ball to right field. He should have had his ass chewed out ala Billy Martin.
Then there is proof that the team is fractured. Remember the dugout confrontation between Freese and the 3rd base coach over retaliating for a player getting hit? Freese should have been gone the next day!
Searage, the miracle worker, has run out of magic. This pitching staff from top to bottom is horrible and getting worse. The team has scored enough runs to be at least around .500, but no lead is safe with this bullpen.
Best to ignore them because nothing will change under this regime, and its pretty obvious Nutting isn't going anywhere, and he's the boss, and he loves his management team.
Pirates are set up nicely for another 20 year run of putridness.
The only thing still in question is how low can attendance/interest go?
