Pirates season hits new low

By Jeff

A month and a half ago the city of Pittsburgh was going crazy for the Pirates. The team was in first place in the NL Central in July. It was a new feeling to an entire generation of fans. Friend of the blog Dwayne was caught up in the joy of winning baseball in Pittsburgh.

Well, that excitement is long gone. The team has gone on a metoric nose dive of historic proportions. Since July 25, the team is 9-28 and has fallen to 62-75 for the year. The pitching has come back to earth and the hitting still sucks. That actually might be an understatement considering they are 25th in runs, 26th in batting average, 26th in on-base percentage and 26th in slugging percentage.

What is even more disappointing is players that were expected to take a step forward have not. Jose Tabata has done nothing special and spent extended time on the DL, Neil Walker strikes out too much and has cooled off significantly from a hot start to the season and Pedro Alvarez looks like Chris Stynes in the batter's box. Yes, I just compared Alvarez to Stynes, which is actually a fair comparison if you look at Alvarez's 2011 season and Stynes' 2004 season with the Buccos.

So this season could not have gone much worse, right? Absolutely wrong. Don't forget this is the Buccos we're talking about.

The new low point of the season came yesterday when the offense was shut down by none other than Dana Eveland. The Pirates traded for the same Eveland last year and got all f three appearances out of him, resulting in an impressively bad 8.38 ERA. He was designated for assignment shortly afer joining the team. But Eveland was back in the majors with the Los Angeles Dodgers yesterday and threw a gem. His line: 8 IP, 6 hits, 1 ER, 3 K, 0 BB and 1 W.

I try to be an optimist when it comes to the Pirates and to censor my language on this blog, but WHAT THE FUCK!? This is after Ryan Vogelsong came back from Japan and dominated the Pirates lineup. What next, Bryan Bullington returning to PNC Park and no-hitting the Bucs? Would you really be that surprised?

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