Battle in the Basement

Back on July 4, the Buccin' Ear blogged (see the post "Avoiding History"):

"Circle the dates of September 4-7. That's when the Pirates invade Wrigley Field for a series with the victory-challenged Cubs that may go a long way toward not only determining the team's place in history, but also toward revealing this year's worst team in baseball -- or at least the National League, which these days is another way of saying the same thing."

At that time, the question of whether the 2006 team could avoid a worse record than its 1985 counterpart (57-104), was an open question. That question has all but been decided as we now arrive at the aformentioned four-game confrontation with the Cubs: with yesterday's 5-4 victory in Chicago, the Bucs are now 55-83. Win just three of the final 24 games, and they're home free with 58 wins. In fact, let's get greedy. If they can win just one-third of their remaining games, they'll avoid 100 losses.

Let's get greedier. Now the Pirates try to clamber out of the cellar, and the door continues to swing open. In fact, it's gaping. The Cubs' lead over the Bucs has melted to one-half game. Merely by winning two of the remaining three games, the Pirates will leave Chicago blinking in the sunlight of fifth place.

Big deal? Well, depends on who you talk to. After Salomon Torres clinched the win for his second save, he jumped off the mound, so it was clearly a big deal for him. Paul Maholm, who turned in another wearying, 100+-pitch performance (over just five innings) for the win, told The Post-Gazette,

"No question about it. We want to get out of the cellar."

As for the Cubs, first baseman Derrek Lee summed up their response in the Chicago Sun-Times:

''I don't want to finish in last place, but for them to get excited about that, I don't know how much difference it makes. We have too many other things to worry about. We have to take care of ourselves."

Okay, the Pirates didn't exactly get the Cubs' best shot yesterday, because their ace, Carlos Zambrano, had a bad back and didn't even approach his usual form. The Bucs scored all five of their runs off of him by the second inning, but watched Maholm give four of them back by the end of the second. But Maholm managed three scoreless innings, and the bullpen closed the door the rest of the way. So it was another win, the Pirates' fourth straight over the Cubs.

Does it matter? If you're the Pirates, hell, yes, it matters. This is a team that has never been out of the cellar in 2006. This is a team that was 30 games below .500 at the All-Star break. This is a team that has won just 19 games on the road all year. This is a team that will conclude its 14th consecutive losing season in another month. Every team needs something to play for. Does the Buccin' Ear want to see a bunch of guys playing for themselves or playing for a team goal? That's an easy one. I'd rather see guys excited over winning a game and showing some enthusiasm for slogging through the last month of a lost season than trudging off the field without spirit after a win (or loss, for that matter).

And the team is 25-23 after the All-Star break. You gotta start somewhere. Beats packing it in. Does it matter in the grand scheme of things?

Hell, no, it doesn't matter. The team will approach, if not reach, 100 losses. It has a serious power shortage, it is short a starting pitcher, it is unsettled in right field, and it isn't yet a serius threat to compete in the worst division in baseball. It has a depleted upper farm system, weak decision-making skills in the front office and thus far unproven field leadership in Jim Tracy. They've reversed their awful record in one-run games, but not their terrible performance in enemy ballparks.

They've got a long way to go. Should Pirates fans find glimmers of hope in their climb up the cellar stairs? The Buccin' Ear can't put it any better than The Stats Geek did in today's Post-Gazette:

"Alas, the Pirates have given fans no confidence they know how to invest. So even as general manager Dave Littlefield correctly assesses the pressing needs, a veteran starting pitcher and a left-handed power hitter, there's fear this only heralds the second coming of Mark Redman and Jeromy Burnitz."

Pirates Past: Happy 70th birthday to Bill Mazeroski, Hall-of-Famer and owner of the most famous hit in Pirates history.

Tracyism of the Week: Following Jason Bay's 2-for-12 weekend in St. Louis, RG offered this insight on the outfielder's struggles:

"We all go through things like that. Any of us that have ever walked to the plate, we go through things like that. You figure it out, that's what you do."

No word on whether Bay offered RG a Rolex for that sage advice.

Other Views: Hall-of-Fame writer Tracy Ringolsby had this to say about the Pirates in the September 1 online version of the Rocky Mountain News: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/sports_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_83_4961193,00.html
"Word out of Pittsburgh is that for the second year in a row, ownership is going to beef up the payroll for 2007. What nobody is saying is who's going to be spending the money.

"General manager Dave Littlefield is under contract, but he also has been on the job for more than five years, brought in his hand-picked manager, Jim Tracy, last offseason and is facing the potential of having a worse record than the year before for the third season in a row. The Pirates also could lose 100 games for the second time in 21 years.

"Having money is one thing, but spending it properly is another. "Too often teams looking for credibility feel they have to spend whatever budget they have, regardless of the return on their investment. Pittsburgh has suffered from that since long before Littlefield got the job, but last offseason was another display of misspending simply because the payroll budget jumped to nearly $48 million.

"The Pirates made three key free agent signings - third baseman Joe Randa, outfielder Jeromy Burnitz and reliever Roberto Hernandez. Hernandez was dealt to the Mets a couple of weeks ago. "Randa and Burnitz have combined to drive in 75 runs for the $10 million investment and are spending the bulk of their time on the bench, waiting for the season to end so they can become unemployed."