All Aboard the Blame Train

Stunned, shocked, sickened.  How fitting that the Three S's that have plagued the 2012 Pittsburgh Pirates and their dwindling support group for most of the late summer raises their ugly heads on Sunday afternoon, as the team has once again gained their magical number - 82...losses that is.  As in true 2012 Buccos' form, this milestone was attained in epic fashion.  Clinging to the fleeting hopes of finishing with an 81/81, the mostly reliable closer Joel Hanrahan manages to blow a save by yielding a long ball to former Buc castoff Xavier Paul.  Xavier Freaking Paul, the guy who has less power than most T-ball reserve infielders?  Perhaps the insult to injury, (and there always seems to be insult to injury these days) was Jose Tabata, representing the tying run, getting gunned down at third base to open the bottom of the ninth.  A team of Hollywood writers couldn't come up with this stuff.

And with that, 82 losses and a 20th CONSECUTIVE LOSING SEASON.  As the entire free media world west of Harrisburg is now lambasting this colossal collapse ad nauseum, micro-analyzing every bad thing Bucco from ownership down to the Great Pirogi Race, it's finally time for us at PittsburghFan to hop on the blame bus.  Deservedly, there is a shit ton of blame to assign.  You can't produce a 17-38 stretch after amassing the fifth best record in all of baseball without there being a few critics in the balcony.  After vowing to never repeat the collapse of 2011, Hurdle and Co. actually managed to not only repeat it, but trump it in 2012.  Consider that the team owned a poorer winning percentage than even the woeful Astros from August 8th on, and it will start to become clearer. The Bucs deserve every ounce of disdain that they will be garnering over the next several weeks,...and there will be plenty.  Despite the anger in my heart and in my fingertips, the focus of this post will be an honest stab at listing the key areas in which I feel have been the root under the team's failure.

1. The Collective Failures on the Basepaths.  For the vast majority of the 2012 season, the team failed to control the basepaths, both offensively and defensively.  An inability to throw baserunners out with any regularity, while seemingly running themselves out of innings on a nightly basis was far too much to overcome.  They lived on the edge all summer with the defensive side, brazenly assuring us that the 9% caught stealing rate was not hurting the team's outcomes, a supportable fact when they were 16 games over .500.  Then they flew to Milwaukee, and all of the sudden practically every single, walk, or hit batsman turned into a double, if not a triple.  Word spread quickly, and everyone ran, and ran, and ran. Bucco catchers, particularly Rod Barajas, were simply overmatched trying to prevent the thefts. A walk plus a stolen base plus a single equals a run, and you just can't win if you can't defend that. Things weren't any less painful during the other half innings. The offense boasts a team with certain levels of raw speed, yet at some point mid summer the baserunners seemed to collectively lace up cement sneakers while forgetting all baserunning fundamentals.  How fitting that resident numbskull, Tabata, gets nailed at third base for the first out in the ninth, ultimately solidifying the 82nd loss.  Fitting indeed.
2. The Rise and Fall of the Starting Rotation. Remember the All-Star Break this year?  Remember when AJ Burnett and James McDonald combined for the statistically best 1-2 punch in all of baseball.  Two aces on a team that rarely held a card higher than a Jack.  An oddly healthy Eric Bedard, a recently healed Jeff Karstens, and even the unflappable Kevin Correia managed enough quality starts to round out a strong rotation.  Things are a lot different these days.  Bedard, along with his 6+ second half ERA and his smug/aloof (is smaloof a word?) persona was sent packing.  Karstens went back to his home on the trainer's table, and James McDonald basically forgot how to pitch to any team other the Cardinals.  If you need one scapegoat to hang the crash on, then aim your sights at J-MAC.  You can scour the record books, and you'll have a very tough time finding a veteran starting pitcher who gains more points on a ERA after the All Star Break.  He's sporting something in the middle 7's in the second half.  All this from a guy who some felt should have started the All Star Game after mowing down hitters nearly effortlessly throughout the first half. That is historic Steve Blass Disease type stuff.
3. Lack of Veteran Bench.  Baseball people often use the term 'professional hitters' to describe a certain type of player, and make no mistake here, they aren't referring to the likes of Josh Harrison, Chase D'Arnoud, Jeff Clement, or Yamaico Navarro with this expression.  Like most seasons, the Pirates crossed into August with a mixed bag of has-beens and never-weres riding their pine.  The problem this year was that the August and September games were meaningful, dawg days type events, and those veteran hitters - those hard outs - are highly important in the late innings.  The seemingly endless string of non-productive at bats during critical moments of critical innings of critical games, was well, critical to the team's failures.  The acquisition of Gabby Sanchez, helped on paper, I suppose, but Yo Gabby Gabby's role at this juncture in his career has not been role player/utility/pinch hitter.  There were veteran role players out there, in fact, were already here, in the form of Casey McGehee. Unfortunately, the brass felt that the kids from Indy were the best bet.  It's times like these that make it really tough to fight that long running argument about the Bucs always taking the cheap way out.
4. The Regression of Jose Tabata and Alex Presley.  As a purely optimistic, my cup's half full, sort of Bucco fan, I tried to take positives away from September 2011.  Something I looked forward to was the flanking of Andrew McCutchen in the outfield with Tabata and Presley.  Although neither men were true corner outfield slugging types, they both showed the ability to go .300-ish with some good speed and a little pop.  Hitting 1-2 in front of Cutch, Jones, Walker, and Alvarez seemed like potentially good scenario for the home team.  Two leadoff hitters setting the table for the sluggers.  Rolling the clock forward to today, October 2012, and we can now view the tandem as a complete disappointment. Both men slumped mightily in the early going, each garnering all expenses paid voyages to Indianapolis.  Both players' averages are in the range of 50 points off of their high water marks, and both have been atrocious on the basepaths.  Tabata has been the true failure this year, as his offensive and defensive games have both tanked mightily.  You have to wonder about Tabata's brain at this point, as one would require at least both hands and maybe a foot to count the amount of mindless gaffes he's engineered both defensively and on base.  Two years ago, Tabata was a rising star.  Now, it's tough to envision him as a starting outfielder anywhere in the majors next April.
5. Neil Walker's Backbreaking Ending.  See #3, 'professional hitter'.  If there has been one consistently hard out in the Pirates lineup since his may 2010 recall, it's been local hero Neil Walker.  A truly clutch hitter who simply puts the ball in play with regularity, Walker has been the Bucs most consistent run producer for two plus seasons.  2012 was no exception, and Walker was on pace for at least .280, 15-18 homers, 90+ RBI.  Then there was the pinkie injury.  Then the back went.  All the sudden, the normally bulletproof Walker was spending his days in the trainer's room and his nights under heat pads.  Walker has appeared in just a handful of games since mid August, and, it's not too mysterious that his absences have been neatly paired with the Bucs' losing.  The Saber freaks will tell you all about the nebulous WAR (wins above replacement), trying to quantify the importance of a hitter like Walker.  Simply stated while using analog measurements, Walker's injuries cost the Bucs at least five wins, if not more.  Too many games were lost in August and September because of non-productive at bats in crucial moments.  One hit, one sacrifice fly, one ball in play could have swung numerous games.  The patented Neil Walker 12 pitch at bat that ends with a roped double into the gap was sorely missed in the August evenings.  Let's all hope that Neil is healthy come April.
6. Lack of Accountability.  Let's save the best and simplest for last.  Whether it was 19 inning games, blown calls, excessive rain delays that led to late flights back home, we as the fan base were force fed reason after reason for why the team couldn't beat anyone with regularity down the stretch.  The pinnacle of the cock and bull came via beleaguered (yet supposedly employment sound) GM Neal Huntington's flimsy "survivor mode" theory for the players' collective stinking up of the joint.  Truth be told, the team choked mightily.  After fading out of the divisional race, then the wild card, the team still could have delivered to their city what right now would have been practically equivalent to a Steelers Lombardi Trophy, - a winning season and the end to the longest running punch line in all of professional sports.  You cannot tell me that the men in the locker room did not appreciate the magnitude of this.  This would have been a ticker tape, end of year parade right down Federal Street.  All they had to do was win about 40% of their games for a few lousy weeks. (10-16 from September 6th on would have done it).  They couldn't even come close.  No one stood up, and every, and I do mean every, so-called leader performed at least one vanishing act when he was counted on most.  Even Burnett, the modern day Robin Hood who defiantly told baseball that even downtrodden Bucs fans have a right to happiness, hit the snooze button a few times down the stretch. Call it pressure, perhaps two decades of losing is just too deep a grave for this particular group to climb out of.  In the end, it's a choke of epic proportions, one that the super fans, like me, will not forget any time soon.  So guess what, the grave is a little deeper now, and next year won't be any easier.

Today is about the blame.  Later this week, we'll focus on the remedies.