Game 117: Dodgers 9 Pirates 3
Subtitle: Everything Sucked and Neil Walker Got Hurt
Wait, that's not the subtitle, that's the recap.
In the back of my head, there's a voice that is saying that Andrew McCutchen hit a line drive home run to dead center off of Clayton Kershaw and that maybe that's a sign that he's getting hot again, but that would just be blatantly looking for a bright spot where I'm not sure that one exists.
Speaking of Cutch's homer, I got a good/sadly ironic chuckle out of Brown saying, "If McCutchen can get back to his July form, that would solve a lot of the Pirates problems." Yes, Brownie, all we need is our one lone superstar to hit .500 for an entire month to fix everything. Nothing major. Just a little minor request. No pressure.
Meh. I know this goes against the stated goals of the blogger but screw it, I'm looking for 18 more wins. If we accomplish anything more than that, awesome, that's the gravy. But at this point, all I'm looking for is 18 more wins.
Yes, but I would note the following:
1) In April, would any of us thought you make a strong argument that Andrew McCutchen was the best player in baseball?
2) The Pirates have the potential to have three above-average starters in the 2013 rotation, not to mention that Gerrit Cole could arrive at some point next season as well.
3) Starling Marte has, I think I can say in all confidence, handled the jump to The Show as nicely as anyone could have hoped
4) The Pirates have the potential to be above-average in the outfield corners next season, which is not something you would have said June 1st.
Put yourself in your April 1st mind set. What was more important, the 2012 win total or have the young core of talent and the top prospects move forward? The only importance of 82 wins is to have people stop talking about 82 wins. In and of itself, that number means nothing now and less going forward.
1 - Yes, I most definitely thought so.
2 - Disagree. AJ Burnett is the only quality, non-injury prone starter we have. Bedard has somehow hung on this long without seeing the DL for significant time. J-Mac clearly has some mental instability issues and rarely pitches past the 6th inning. Plus, Gerrit Cole is 3-4 in AA with a 3.43 ERA...not exactly tearing it upagainst everyone else's prospects.
3 - Agreed, .250 in 20 games is great, but not when the rest of the team is also hitting sub-.300 (minus recently acquired Snider and obviously Cutch).
4 - Next season? There are still 45 games remaining in THIS season.
Sure things look OK down the pike, but I feel as if someone gave me the BEST BBQ chicken EVER! I enjoyed it sooo much! But then when I was done they told me it may have been contaminated and that I need to get some Pepto. Instead I got some knock off versions called Wandy Bismol and Pepto Sanchez. So here I sit, waiting for the E. coli to set in, and they are telling me that after everything comes out of both ends and I'm on the verge of death, things are going to be just fine. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to next year...
Well, the bright side is that I spent a lot of time staring at my Pirate fridge magnetic schedule tonight and saw the Cubs and the Astros twice next month.
