Screw the general baseball thread, this deserves its own for history...Pirates!

The season has been a rousing success even if they were to lose all the games still on their schedule. I'm saving today's paper.

 

I think I'd probably watch Pirates vs. anyone in the WS. Certainly over another Yankees vs. Phillies series. And for the record, I'm a Rangers fan.... you sound like me last year.

 

Just watched the start of SportsCenter, which led with Bucs-Stros. As much as SportsCenter anchors embarass themselves when they try to do a theme, I think they set a new low with the disco tie-in.

I'm not certain, but I thought I saw Mike Veeck place a couple boxes of explosives between Cindy Brunson and unnamed, generic anchordude. Maybe I was just hoping that took place.

Besides the awful disco tie-in and some references that were more late 60s than late 70s, ESPN seemed to forget that the Pirates were actually good in the early 90s. Sid Bream notwithstanding.

 

Don't listen to her, Elliotte. Among the many great things about Pittsburgh is one of the best women's hospitals in the country, Magee, just in case the pregnant Mrs. might need them. I am a tad biased since little OOP was born there, but their reputation more than backs me up on this.

 

I agree with most of that, but Kartstens may be the best example of a guy on that team playing over his head.

That said, if the Pirates want to prove that this won't just be more of the same, they need to find a way to keep McCutchen long term.

 

Oh I definitely agree on Karstens. However, he's only had this one good year, meaning you might be able to sign him to something incentive-laden or short-term. The Baseball Cube has him $1.1 million for this year, in a deal to avoid arbitration. With guys like John Lackey getting $15 million, and knowing that Karstens will probably regress, I think any kind of two or three year deal at less than $10 million a year is OK. Not great, but you probably figure he's league-average for a couple years at around $5 million to $8 million.

 

You just can't be happy, can you?

 

But I thought the Pirates could never be competitive, because baseball doesn't have a salary cap and only big-market teams flourish. Or at least that's what someone who frequensts this board said, even as a different WS champion emerged year after year.

 

Please let this thread be about celebration, enjoyment and the actual playing and watching of baseball. Please.

 

This. I don't need to know how much money my third baseman is making for each at-bat. I just want him to move the runner along.

 

0-13 against the Brewers, Braves, Marlins and Indians, 49-31 against the rest of baseball.

 

The Pirates no longer have the ability to piss me off or make me happy. Not even trying for nearly 20 years will do that.

Being competitive into July in one season doesn't change things, no matter how much people like micro would like to argue that it does.