Pitching an Uncertain Future

The Pirates of Penance and the Buccin' Ear were positively giddy. After outscoring the Reds 16-5 in the first two games of a three-game series at PNC, the Pirates dropped a six spot on the board in the first inning of the finale. Total domination! The bats were alive! Victory 14 gleamed on the horizon! One could almost see the sun glinting off the Allegheny, reflecting the new-found glow of Pirate success.

Well, hold on. This is the Pirates we are talking about. Starter Victor Santos coughed up all but two runs of the lead by the fifth inning, the bats went dead, and rookie Matt Capps sealed the defeat by giving up three of four runs in a fateful seventh inning. Final score: Cincy 9, Pittsburgh 8. So much for momentum.

Jason Bay, who has started to return to the form of his first two seasons (he hit a homer and drove in four runs today) insisted that the team is "going in a better direction" than it was a couple of weeks ago. Well, as much as I like his attitude, I have to disagree. Remember, this is a team that prior to the Cincinnati series dropped two of three to the Florida Marlins. And just as bad teams lose two of three to other bad teams, they also win two of three when they should sweep.

The failure of Santos (4-13 in 2005 for Milwaukee; obviously an ideal pick-up for the Buccos) to shut down the Reds returns the focus to the Pirates' pitching after two games of relative respite. Coming into the year, Santos had a career record of 17-33 with an ERA of 5.00. Never let it be said that he has disappointed with the Pirates; he's lived down to those numbers. Santos has this spot in the rotation because of the ill health of Kip Wells, who suffered a blood clot that required removal and is expected back in July. Does his return provide cause for hope?

Well, no. Wells is coming of an 18-loss season and has never lived up to the promise he provided when the Pirates acquired him from the White Sox. He has shown flashes of brilliance, and he clearly has above-average stuff. The problem is that Wells has never been able to consistently change speeds off his plus fastball. When he can't keep hitters honest with breaking stuff, he tends to get drilled.

Anyway, it's not like Kip Wells was going to deliver us from Victor Santos. He has a 55-69 career record, and after two initially promising seasons with the Pirates has gone 13-25 with an ERA near 5.00. In this he is similar to Oliver Perez, a spectacularly talented pitcher who initially eased the pain of the Brian Giles trade by pitching brilliantly for a bad 2004 team (sorry for the redundancy). Hopes were high in 2005. So of course he pitched horribly, broke his hand by smashing it into a wall at midsummer and has continued to plunge in 2006, going 2-5.

In addition to Santos, Perez and the waiting-in-the-wings Wells, the staff includes the young arms of Zach Duke, Paul Maholm and Ian Snell. Of these, Duke seems the most promising, and he pitched quite well in the second half of 2005. Even he, however, has shown signs of the Pirate malaise. His ERA thus far is over 4.00, and were it not for his domination of the Chicago Cubs, we might well find him in Victor Santos territory. Maholm has shown some signs of recovery after an awful start, but Snell has been maddeningly inconsistent and any reasonable observer would have to say he wouldn't be on the staff of most Major League teams.

The awful state of the pitching staff is made further frustrating by the recent penchant of highly rated Pirates pitchers to develop arm problems. Sean Burnett, Bryan Bullington and John Van Benschoten have all suffered serious injuries, and their futures are in doubt.

We keep waiting for rays of hope from the Pirates. Is there a purpose to unrelenting negativity about the status of the team? Well, I'd say yes an honest assessment came from a management team that is willing to admit that most of the decisons they've made have not worked out.