Off Day Insanity

All right, all right, I really, really do know that I absolutely shouldn't read the official Pirates' web page. The propaganda on the official Bucco homepage can put former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer's press briefings to shame.

That being said, what concerns me about this rather ridiculous article is not the title of the piece. No, it's the quotes from the players that, um, cough, are interesting. I expect inexperienced youngsters like Youman, Capps, and Snell to want to do more than play spoiler--that's progress, and wanting to win, overall, is, obviously, a good thing.

But, really, the manager ought to know better. "We're making great strides." Mr. Tracy, I don't expect the children to understand this, but your team is 9 games out of first place in a pathetic division. Your team is many, many games below .500. Your team, despite their recent hot streak that has Vegas betting on the team, is just not that good at baseball, as evidenced by their record.

Don't get me wrong. I want my team to win baseball games. It's even better to learn how to win games when there's "pressure" of some kind. I just remember how this same team responded to being "closer" to the race right after the All-Star break. 2-14, anyone remember July?

Which all goes to say that for whatever magical veteran presence Matt Morris brings to the team, counter me as one who believes that these Pirates, who can charitably be deemed naively optimistic and harshly be deemed downright delusional, might be likely to respond to the "pressure" of a pathetic but not truly present pennant race by their starting pitchers imploding and by their hot bats going starkly cold. (Such cynicism is par for the course for a Bucco fan.)

Now, of course, would a pennant race be fun? Absolutely. But, in the midst of offering some fascinating quotes (gotta love him), Ian Snell offers that the fans want to see a team at .500 and thinks the team should try to strive for finishing at .500 and not losing 100 games. .500 still seems way out of reach for me, given how these players have responded to pressure in the past, and the truth of the matter is, I just want the few talented youngsters to continue to progress to the point where they're no longer regarded as promising players with potential but as legitimate good MLB players. Not a promising young pitcher, but just a good pitcher any team would love to add to their rotation.

Of course, if all that happened, if Jeff Andrews could somehow straighten out Zach Duke as he rehabs in Indy, if streaky bats could stay hot, if the pitching staff could put up quality starts...yeah, right, it's a dream, and perhaps not even the right one when it comes to wanting David Littlefield to be out of a job before the 2008 season. But, at some point in time, a fan has to concur with the sentiment of this particular group of inexperienced kids: Winning beats losing, every time.