HOKA HEY -- It's a good day to die!!! The 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates

never forget

pirates' combined record after august 1 over the last two seasons: 38-77 (.330, or 108.5 losses over a full season). and they won't have the astros to beat up on this year, after winning 12 of 17 against them in 2012.

clint barmes (66 OPS+ in 2012, 76 for career) is still the starting shortstop. should be better at catcher, if only because rod barajas put up -1 war last year. liriano, jmcdonald, who knows.

go bucs

now with more russ martin

I wonder how he will fare outside of yankee stadium. when he left the dodgers he looked like he was done-zo.

if he is merely competent, he'll be a significant upgrade (if perhaps not worth $8.5m).

in the pirates' recent history with canadians, let's hope he's more like jason bay than erik bedard

was Chief Dan George a Pirates fan?

“I can tell they’re in the transitioning stages right now,” Inge said.

aren't we all

after the two epic late-season collapses mentioned above, pirates to extend clint hurdle through '14 with a '15 option. i guess jim riggleman is the curt flood of managers?

For his managerial career, Hurdle owns a 685–798 record, good for a .462 winning percentage.

Russell Martin ... shortstop?

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/pittsburgh-pirates-catcher-russell-martin-shortstop-canada-world-baseball-classic-021813

awesome

http://cdn3.sbnation.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/8324293/gyi0063608694.0_standard_352.0.jpg

i always worry about clint hurdle's health

kind of unbelievable that he's only 55 years old.

he has one winning season in ten as a manager

probably just as well that he hasn't been in any actual pressure situations

After the season-opening series against the Cubs, Pirates have 29 straight games vs. teams that contended last year.

BP annual's comment on McCutchen invokes Audrey Hepburn on Cary Grant: "You Know what's wrong with you? Nothing!"

brandon inge, who will be 36 in may, has a career obp of .303, and hit 162/.205/.162 in spring training, has made the club.

what a joke team

Inge was a monster for the A's last year. That was a crazy month.

1st half Tigers all star.

repeat fluke?

uh he hit .226/.286/.389 with 85 strikeouts in 74 games for the a's last year. and the pirates already have clint barmes.

52 rbi tho -- must be clutch

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18jb80qmgw7qggif/ku-xlarge.gif

this is my favorite ilbb thread title

uh he hit .226/.286/.389 with 85 strikeouts in 74 games for the a's last year.

Yeah but we'll always have May and early June when he had all those random 4 RBI games.

gif as omen

hahaha, is that rosin gif from today?

raise the jolly roger

not sure how i feel about 36-year-old closer jason grilli wearing dave parker's #39 tho

That's foul.

after three games, the pirates are hitting .150/.227/.200

nice outings from wandy and j mcdonald tho

pirates' next 29 games: dodgers/d-backs/reds/cardinals/braves/phillies/cardinals/brewers/nationals

miss u astros

after six games, the pirates have 8 runs on 21 hits

as a team, they are batting .119

and as much as i lol at francisco cervelli, russell martin is thus far 0-for-pittsburgh

maybe we can get rid of clint hurdle, at least, although i shudder to think who he'd be replaced with

pirate fans have taken over the pool in arizona

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BHikdR_CIAAW0gM.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5_WcvwFPUg

26yo phil irwin is making his big league debut for the bucs today

it is not going well; his era was briefly infinite

well, still a happy ending.

that was p. stunning tbh

you can't really run out phil irwin, james mcdonald and jonathan fucking sanchez on consecutive days and expect to win

when is the arb clock deadline? bring up cole, i don't care if he only went two innings in his last start with indy. taillon looked good in the wbc. if miami is willing to bring up fernandez for a team that is (even more certainly) going nowhere, then wtf

btw russell martin and pedro alvarez are hitting .086/.200/.143 and .073/.174/.073 respectively. they're making clint barmes (.121/.171/.182) look like el oso blanco

geez I did not know Garrett Jones hit 27 HR last year

o shit pedro got a hit

with two hits today (and two rbis! including the game-winner!) clint barmes has reached the magical 801-hit plateau in his 948th major league game.

at his current career pace (.247/.296/.386), if he plays every game for the next 25.2 seasons, he'll catch pete rose

Jonathan Sanchez pitching for Pittsburgh
M Carpenter homered to center.
C Beltran homered to left.
M Holliday singled to center.
A Craig hit by pitch, M Holliday to second.
Pittsburgh's J Sanchez ejected by T Timmons in the 1st.
Pittsburgh's Manager C Hurdle ejected by T Timmons in the 1st.

poor man's aaron laffey

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-j3BDaJQHj2w/UXsg19lweBI/AAAAAAAAAsc/NwJhNjm1jZ4/s500/sanchez.gif

embarrassing

Pittsburgh - Top of 7th
Joe Kelly pitching for St. Louis
J Kelly relieved J Westbrook.

P Alvarez singled to center.
R Martin homered to right, P Alvarez scored. PIT 2, STL 2
C Barmes singled to right center.
J McDonald hit for A Burnett.
J McDonald struck out bunting foul.

jesus christ clint hurdle

@JonHeymanCBS 4h
steve grilli @GrillCheese49 very symmetrical start. 10 for 10 in saves, 0.82 WHIP, 0.82 ERA. #bucs

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/pics/steve_grilli_autograph.jpg

sanchez dfa'd, thank god

liriano had a solid outing in triple-a today, might be up in 10 days

so russell martin's kinda streaky

nevertheless, fuckin ppl are gonna make me update the pirates' ridiculous litany of failure vs. the brewers going back an unreasonable number of years

http://dealbreaker.com/uploads/2013/03/drudge-siren.gif clint barmes has homered off stephen strasburg http://dealbreaker.com/uploads/2013/03/drudge-siren.gif

now with Jose Contreras

clint barmes?!

Clutchen

RJ Bell ‏@RJinVegas 3h

#Pirates -210 over #Astros at MGM. Pittsburgh has not been a bigger favorite since 2004.

Thanks, Choo.

sid bream is crawling around in my head

This game has been pretty great

hate u

omg Farnsworth

can't even watch tbh

Don't look.

Joey V-oppo

at least i didn't pick the wrong day to stop drinking

I tuned away to Tampa... Votto is back to swingin' eh?

i was gonna make a stan belinda reference, but he has ms

the nats are gonna win out now, right

kent tekulve suggesting that dusty is calling for cutch-plunking

I'd say this was one of the better and crazier games I have seen all year, any club.

That play Tony Watson made on Choo was pretty amazing in the smoke of all that went down tonight.

This is going to be an intense 10 days or so for Pirates and Reds fans, as we are going to play this series in Pittsburgh, then play next weekend in Cincy and then most likely play that one game playoff.

Thought I had dreamt this when I woke up. :(

relax, unless you were planning on catching the Cards

I'm not sure what that means, Doc. We're tied with the cards after losing that game, I think.

2 behind, tied w/ Cincy. After 20 years, I think a play-in game is nothing to sneeze at.

Ah, I get you, sorry. For some reason I read your 'Cards' as 'Reds'.

http://imgur.com/7DJY9bQ

Watching the game on an old laptop with my dog. I think that, like snoopy, he's more a fan of the participatory sport.

http://imgur.com/7DJY9bQ

http://i.imgur.com/7DJY9bQ.jpg

How many games are left after tonight, anyway? (I tried to work it out but my brain sucks)

seven

Thanks!

jeez what happened here

jeff locke

then Arroyo throws 33 clueless pitches and they don't score

After 5 runs scored in the first inning I just decided to give in and get some sleep (not much, as it turns out, but still).

@Sawchik_Trib
And, yes, that's a .303 OPS for Liriano vs. left-handed hitters. A MLB single-season best, according to research by @jonahkeri

Dayum

90

wild finish, some nice glove work by morneau in the ninth

#Buctober

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/how-the-pirates-built-a-playoff-team

Congrats from Milwaukee. We're all sincerely (if somewhat passively) rooting for you guys

for giving you a step up toward WC homefield, the Mets say you're welcome.

thank u mets

Any thoughts before the long weekend?

It's my bday so I have a whole mess of stuff on, but gonna find a way to fit staying up til 4 in the morning every night into my plans. Maybe try to make my bro (who is visiting) stay up and watch Saturday night's game - not sure if I can persuade his wife.

if that was aj's last start as a pirate it was a good one

need one of two for home field on tuesday

If Bucs win the next 2 to finish 4 ahead of the Reds, it's gonna feel awfully contrived for them to have to beat em again to gain entry.

homerfest

My awesome brother got me a Pirates shirt for my birthday! So they better win the playoff...

It's beyond strange that a game that means everything between the two teams will be preceded by a game that means absolutely nothing.

pirates' 2013 payroll was $67m and they have $32m committed for 2014

it's going to be frustrating when they refuse to spend anything

Congrats McCutchen!

congrutchen

yay?

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2014-zips-projections-pittsburgh-pirates

I was thinking of visiting Pittsburgh in May and catch a Giants game or two, if money allows it.

Robocop Larish!

Outbluffed by AJ Burnett: The 2014 Pittsburgh Pirates