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Pittsburgh Pirates
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The Pittsburgh Pirates are a ball club at a cross-roads already in a young season that’s only 2 games in.
The starting rotation has been a surprising strength as they boast the 2nd best quality start percentage in baseball, yet, they sit 4 games under .500 with an 8-12 record.
The Pirates are missing two key cogs in Starling Marte and Jung Ho Kang because of stupidity from both that gives the Pirates a built in excuse already for not contending in 2017 but why is this team such a bad fundamentally sound ball club and whose shoulders does it eventually fall on?
They can’t field and it’s a bad group running the bases.
This is an atrocious fielding team and it’s not like it’s just one guy as the Pirates issues defensively have long been focused on Andrew McCutchen in center field. It’s almost at every position. If the Pirates were even average in the field, they’re probably 3-4 wins better right now.
Some around baseball believe the Pirates being such a bad team in the field and other areas that are not always measured by talent, will lead to the team finding an excuse to part ways with manager Clint Hurdle at somepoint before the 2018 season.
Hurdle is under contract for 2017 with a club option for 2018.
Industry sources say Pirates President Frank Coonelly is among the top decision makers in the organization [hide] who have been eyeing Tom Prince as the eventual replacement to Hurdle for over a year now. Coonelly and Prince are very close.
Coonelly is big on having home-grown successors were the Pirates to go in another direction at somepoint from Hurdle or Neal Huntington.
Huntington is hamstrung by this ownership on a yearly basis but that doesn’t mean Huntington is free from criticism.
The Pirates lack of depth is glaring with their 2017 roster and it’s making them unable to withstand the loss of Kang and Marte who are good players but let’s not kid ourselves, the Pirates didn’t lose two Bryce Harpers.
The Pirates have a problem right now where they haven’t developed players properly as the fundamentals are a mess but it’s starting to look like they haven’t drafted well enough as the drafts have not produced enough complementary level players.
The inability to come up with anything from their system better than the bench they’ve had to put out there this season at different points in Alen Hanson, Jose Osuna, and Phil Gosselin is worrisome.
And a big problem for the Pirates moving forward is what if Tyler Glasnow and Austin Meadows don’t become the stars they have long envisioned?
The good thing for the Pirates in 2017 is you really need to be bad to not at least be in the mix for the second wildcard. If the pitching staff continues to overachieve, they could still hang around for a couple months.
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Related posts:
Rumors: Pirates sticking with Huntington, Hurdle beyond 17
Huntington says Hurdle has played “significant role” in Pirates improving by 22 wins last two seasons
Pirates officially announce 4 year extensions for Huntington, Hurdle
If Neal Huntington becomes the fall guy for the Pirates collapse, so should Clint Hurdle
