Monday, October 04, 2010
By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/?m=1
MIAMI -- At 3:49 p.m. Sunday, with a one-handed Andy LaRoche popup, the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's 124th -- and one of its most miserable -- seasons reached a merciful conclusion, with a flat-liner of a 5-2 loss to the Florida Marlins at Sun Life Stadium.
Brian Burres gave up three runs, the offense did little, the defense did less, and that was the final contribution toward a 57-105 record.
And yet, it still is not really over.
Jeffrey M. Boan/Associated Press
Florida's Dan Uggla tears into a Brian Burres fastball for a two-run home run in the second inning Sunday at Sun Life Stadium, as catcher Jason Jaramillo watches.
John Russell is expected to be fired as manager as early as today, several internal sources told the Post-Gazette over the weekend. The fate of his coaching staff also will be made known soon, though changes on that front do not look as if they will be wholesale.
General manager Neal Huntington, expected to keep his job, had little to say on the topic before the game.
"As I've said the last couple weeks, we've been looking to finish the season strong," he said. "We continue to evaluate ourselves at every level internally, and we'll put things in motion in the offseason."
Huntington added that there was "no real timetable" for the team's evaluation process, which will begin this week in Bradenton, Fla., and cover a wide array of baseball-related topics, from personnel to possible offseason acquisitions to the 40-man roster. Huntington and Russell were scheduled to travel across the state Sunday night for those meetings.
Still, according to sources, an announcement on Russell likely will occur independent of those meetings.
Of the season, Huntington said, "A 100-plus losses is not where we thought we would be, and the losses have been tough, difficult ... a lot of them unexpected," he said. "At the same time, you see some pieces being put in place, some guys getting better, and you begin to get optimistic about where we're headed. Each one of these guys has to get better. Each one of us has to get better, myself included. We've got to have an offseason where we make an impact."
Russell's three-year managerial record is 186-299, and he did not hesitate when asked after the game what was most disappointing about this season.
"There were a lot of disappointing things," he said. "Coming out of spring training, we didn't know our starting rotation was going to lose 84 games. I think that was the biggest thing that disappointed me. We've got to find a way to win on the road, sure. But our season in a nutshell is 84 losses from our starting rotation. You can't overcome that."
Adding up the numbing numbers one last time:
• The 57-105 record marked the third-highest loss total in franchise history, and the seventh-lowest winning percentage at .352. The only higher loss totals belong to the 1890 team at 23-113, and the 1952 team at 42-112. The current Pirates had eight five-game losing streaks, four seven-game losing streaks and one that lasted 12 games.
• The 17-64 road record, including this 2-5 trip, tied for the second-most road losses in Major League Baseball's modern history, which began in 1900. Only the 1935 Boston Braves had more, at 13-65.
• The run differential of minus-279 was nearly 100 runs worse than any team in the majors. The Seattle Mariners, the majors' only other 100-loss team, finished at minus-185. Only the Pirates' modest late success kept them from challenging the 1932 Boston Red Sox's minus-349 for worst differential in history.
• The Pirates' 587 runs, .242 team batting average and .304 on-base percentage all were second-worst in the majors, with only Seattle lower. It was the 10th-weakest hitting team in franchise history. Opponents batted higher out of the No. 9 spot -- .217 -- than the following five Pirates did for the season: LaRoche, Aki Iwamura, Chris Snyder, Jeff Clement and Jason Jaramillo.
• That 34-84 starting rotation record that Russell cited, though improved after Ray Searage took over for Joe Kerrigan as pitching coach in August, still finished second-worst in the majors with a 5.27 ERA. The 34 victories were the fewest since 1952, and they had no 10-game winner in a non-shortened season for the third time in franchise history. Opponents batted .321 against Zach Duke, .303 against Paul Maholm, and only three other starters in the majors had such figures above .300. Charlie Morton, Ross Ohlendorf and Jeff Karstens combined for 57 starts and six wins.
• The bullpen's respectability was kept afloat by the tireless efficiency of Joel Hanrahan and Evan Meek, but the average number of walks and hits per inning pitched -- the key figure for relievers -- was 1.43, which ranked 28th of the majors' 30 teams.
• The fielding percentage went from first to worst in the majors, at .979, with 127 errors, an incredible increase of 54 errors from last year. On top of that, the team's catchers threw out runners trying to steal only 17.6 percent of the time.
There were individual bright spots along the way, notably the superlative rookie showings of second baseman Neil Walker and left fielder Jose Tabata, joined late by a powerful surge from third baseman Pedro Alvarez. Andrew McCutchen led all National League center fielders in several hitting categories in his first full season. Starter James McDonald looked like a promising trade acquisition. And Hanrahan and Meek could make for a stable back end to the bullpen for years to come.
The air in the clubhouse the past six weeks generally was upbeat, mostly because of the play of the younger players and the improved pitching. After Aug. 22, the Pirates went 17-22 for their only stretch of any semblance of competitiveness.
"It's been pretty hard, but it's what you make of it," McCutchen said. "Once we were able to fight for different goals other than looking just at the record, it didn't make it hard. I don't like losing. I really hate losing. But we had to find a way to have something to play for, every day, every week, and that pushed us."
Burres, who is no lock to stay on the 40-man roster this offseason according to Huntington in the morning, could have become the only one of the Pirates' 11 starters this season with a winning record -- he had been 4-4 -- but he gave up Dan Uggla's two-run home run in the first inning and Wes Helms' RBI double in the sixth to exit with a 3-2 deficit.
The pitch that bugged Burres most was the 3-0 fastball over the heart of the plate, when Jaramillo had lined up well outside.
"Wanted it down and away," Burres said.
Sean Gallagher gave up two more runs in the seventh, though one was unearned on a throw by Ryan Doumit from right field that sailed high above the cutoff man and all the way into the Pirates' dugout. Uggla drove in another with a smash off Walker's glove.
The rest followed the script.
The 2011 opener is April 1 against the Cubs in Chicago.
Dejan Kovacevic: dkovacevic@post-gazette.com
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10277/1092474-63.stm#ixzz11ObVzXRO
No comments:
Post a Comment