**The OFFICIAL Pittsburgh Pirates Thread**

[hockey8978]

I EXPECT GOOD THINGS FROM THE BUCKOS THIS YEAR !

[mikeortank]

dont hold your breath :oops:

[Ghost_X_51]

hey you got one in 1979 be happy with that :)

[Wells4CyYoung]

Woohoo! You better believe it...this is the year...Everybody shout "LETS GO BUCS!!"

[Mariners in 2006]

At least you guys got a good NCAA Basketball team playing tomorrow...

[Wells4CyYoung]

At least you guys got a good NCAA Basketball team playing tomorrow...

Haha not quite. I hate Pitt. I go to WVU so they are our biggest rivals. All other Pittsburgh teams are fine with me.

[Lemieux66]

Sadly they suck. They won't come close to a .500 season. What is it now...11 or 12 straight losing seasons? This one won't be any different. "I hope I'm wrong"

[Lemieux66]

At least you guys got a good NCAA Basketball team playing tomorrow...

Haha not quite. I hate Pitt. I go to WVU so they are our biggest rivals. All other Pittsburgh teams are fine with me.


Pitt is IT when it comes to college hoops baby! :D

[mistermet]

the pirates will be good when earth collides with Jupiter. unfortunately, this cant happen because jupiter is made up of gas. so unless you upgrade your top hitter from raul mondesi, youre done for. :lol:

[REDSFAN2004]

met go easy on the pirate fans geez. :lol:

[makshim]

the pirates will be good when earth collides with Jupiter. unfortunately, this cant happen because jupiter is made up of gas. so unless you upgrade your top hitter from raul mondesi, youre done for. :lol:

And we can all expect big things from the mets... :roll:

[mikeortank]

At least the Mets have Cameron , Reyes and Matsui

[mistermet]

yeah i know, the mets stink. but i think were on the right track. weve got a young pretty good looking infield already and will get better in the future.
now: 1b-phillips 2b-reyes 3b- wigginton ss-matsui.

future: 1b-brazell 2b-reyes 3b-wright ss-matsui. and this could be next year.

then our rotation looks great too. once we have scott kazmir and matt peterson here, well be awesome.
rotation now:glavine, leiter, trachsel, seo, ??????. closer:looper :x
rotation future:kazmir, peterson, keppel, heilman, seo. closer:RING :)

now we need some outfielders.

[mikeortank]

Wiggington - stinks but I forgot about Floyd and Phillips

[makshim]

Wiggy and Reyes are the only bright spots on the team. Kaz is a joke, striking out 100 times in JAPAN is ridiculous. Cameron, strikes out too much. I'll also give you Patterson, but thats it :-)

[mistermet]

wigginton is nothing compared to the 3b prospect down at AA--David Wright. This guy is awesome and he'll probably be up by the end of this year. great on offense and defense.

[aroundthehorn1229]

let me say I am just happy that big fat mo can't hurt the METS this year..he needs to finally go.....hey maybe the pirates will take him!!! :D :!: :lol:

[mistermet]

:idea: YES THE PIRATES CAN TAKE HIM AND HIS INJURED KNEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[makshim]

wigginton is nothing compared to the 3b prospect down at AA--David Wright. This guy is awesome and he'll probably be up by the end of this year. great on offense and defense.

You Met fans think too highly of all your players. I could be telling everyone how Jose Navaro will be the next Pudge, but I'm realistic.

[Mariners in 2006]

I am kinda glad you guys took Cameron, he is one the best defensive center fielders in the game, but I couldn't stand to watch him strike out so many times last year in Seattle...Winn isnt that much better though, at least he can bunt for a hit

[Martin Dihigo]

Big Pirates Fan here and it looks like a long season.

I love the Pirates but their ownership truely stinks.
They do have a few bright spots -

Kip Wells - he is one of the top 10-15 national league starters and he might be better then that. Wells is a guy who should have 20 wins if he were on a competitive team.

Jason Bay - A bonafied talent. this guy looks like a 315 30hr .400onbase% guy. I wonder if he will go to a richer team when he becomes a free agent :?:

Tike Redmon - I didn't know much about him until he came up and hit about 330 for about 200+ at bats last year, while playing a bigtime centerfield. If he can keep that level up this guy will be a fun guy to watch. He still runs like he is trying to make the team ,helmet flying off stretching doubles into triples and theirs no pennant race going on.

Freddy Sanchez - a 2nd baseman who had a batting title type bat and got buku walks in the minor leagues - yet to prove himself at the big league level.

Thats about it. Im not looking forward to a great season anytime soon , but it would be nice to have one in a year or 2 if everything falls into place.

Its hard for the pirates = they have about a 30million payroll (a lot is Jason Kendall's) and inept ownership. Thats a bad combination when you try to compete with teams having at least 3 times as much payroll and quality ownership.

[Mariners in 2006]

I live in the Northwest and remember watching Jason Bay play AAA ball...I watched him when he was with the Portland Beavers (San Diego's Minor Team) and he sure looked good...

[mistermet]

actually the padres got Bay from the mets in the Steve Reed deal two years ago. to bad Steve Phillips :evil: was to stupid to see the potential. could have had our starting right fielder. :cry:

[nirvana1039]

http://www.scorebook.com/ug/000012423.jpg (http://www.pittsburghpirates.com)

This is the place to talk about Pirates baseball. By talking, I mean a semi-intelligent discussion. I don't wanna see posts saying "da pirates R teh sux!!!1!1one! yayo!" so if that's your intention, don't even bother.

Last night's game (http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/wrap.jsp?ymd=20050909&content_id=1203406&vkey=wrapup2005&fext=.jsp&team=away)

Pittsburgh 8
Cincinnati 4

W- Vogelsong (1-1)
L- Hudson (6-8 ) (damn sunglasses smiley)

Player of the Game
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/images/2004/09/19/gCtTKJVl.jpg
Jason Bay
2-4, 2 HR (28 ), 4 RBI (80)

Oliver Perez started his first game since June 26 in St. Louis, where he lost a fight with a laundry cart after the game and broke his big toe. He went 4 1/3 innings, giving up 5 hits, 3 earned runs, and 2 homeruns. He walked 2 and struck out 5. Since he didn't pitch 5 innings, he didn't qualify for the win. His pitch count was getting up there and I guess they didn't wanna pitch him too much his first time out there in 2 1/2 months. He still showed the lack of control that caused his above 6 ERA, but hopefully he can end the season on a positive note.

Alright, now that I got this going, let's talk Pirates baseball!

[DonovanforMVP]

You know, i'm not a Pirates fan. Never have been, love the Steelers, like the Penguins, but i always find myself rooting for them. I remember when Bonds was there, my mom didn't like him, and she was a big Pirates fan, when he left, she said "we'll do better off without him" How's that working out for them?

Tough breaks though, it says a lot that no one has posted in he thread (until now) Pittsburgh will never be favored, but one of these years they're gonna shock people, when the Cardinals end their run (2-3 years, I don't see Pujols staying there long, or La Russa) I think the Pirates will be the class of the division. I was upset when Keandall left to go the the A's (Even though I like te A's) He seemed like a pirate to me, the same with Bay, i couldn't picture either with another team. I really hope Duke isn't a fluke (Ooh, I rhymed, how cool, derp!). His stuff is awesome, but anyhoo, I really believe this team will start being good. I'm rooting for Cuban to buy the Pirates, that's at least two Pennants a decade

[R3MO]

Pirtates are t3h ownzorz3szz d00d!

Ok fine...

I love the Pirates allways have allways will.

I know their whole Roster by heart and check every peice of news i can. Daryle Ward is by far my favorite player on the team. When he moved to the Pirates is when i started to really like them. I really wish i could go to a Pirates home game, but i cant seem to find the time or the money.

Anyways thats what i have to say about the Pirates.

In closing i would just like to say.....YAYO!!!!

[nirvana1039]

I forgot I even made this topic! :?

Well, yeah, I wasn't very suprised by the lack of replies in here. I was going to update it, but no one seemed to have very much interest so I didn't even bother. The one good thing about being a Pirates fan is that there's no bandwagoners. But, there's a reason for that. :(

I can't wait for there to be a pennant race in Pittsburgh. We haven't so much as finished at or above .500 since I was, like, 4 or 5, so I've never witnessed a playoff race firsthand. :( We need some bats though. We got oodles of young pitching. We got Oliver Perez, Zach Duke, Paul Maholm, Sean Burnett, Ian Snell (even though he's had no big league success, he has potential), Bryan Bullington, and John VanBenschoten, Dave Williams. That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but that's a good bit of pitching. There needs to some trades, because, well that's more pitching than you can cram into a rotation, and five of them are lefties, so we could get some hitting for that. If we can get some hitting, we can be dangerous down the road.

Edit: Hey R3MO, could you tell me how Clemens is doing against the Pirates tonight? :D

Edit again: Barry Bonds can suck my balls

[stripmallp]

Did ya'll know it was International Talk Like a Pirate Day? Sept. 19.

[DonovanforMVP]

Yes, actually, yes I did.

Yar, the Pirates be stinkin up the ship. At least they lit up Captain Clemens. The Pirates be possesers of some pithcer booty.

[nirvana1039]

Wow! The Pirates are on a 4 game winning streak! :D :D :D

http://www.pacbellpark.com/images/2004/09/29/2zj3dqVF.jpg

Ian Snell got his first win last night! (so much for him not having any ML success) He shutout the Astros and beat his childhood idol Roger Clemens. The Rocket gave up 6 runs (only 2 earned) and 11 hits over 5 2/3 innings. He also struck out 5.

Snell only allowed 3 hits over 8 innings of work. Why Mackanin pulled him before the 9th is beyond me. How much of a confidence boost would it be to throw a 3-hit shutout to beat the Rocket for your first major league win? But no! Let's put in Jose Mesa! Even with a 7-0 lead, I still wasn't that comfortable with him in the game. He loaded the bases, but he managed to get out of the inning without any damage.

Freddy Sanchez showed some rare power, hitting 2 doubles and his 3rd career homerun.

Tom Gorzelanny makes his major debut tonight. :? Yeah, even I've never heard of this guy before today. So, I have no idea what to expect out of this guy.

Jason Bay stole his 20th base last night. He is now 20 for 20 on the season, and is now one steal away from the record 21 stolen bases in a season without being caught, which was set by Kevin McReynolds in 1988. He is now the 6th Pirate to go 30-20 (30 HR's and 20 SB's).

I think it was a good thing to get rid of Kendall. He was making $10 million a year, and that completely ate away our payroll. Besides, I like the guy we got now, Ryan Doumit.

[lllllll23lllllll]

Merging is a beautiful thing..... :)

[nirvana1039]

Merging is a beautiful thing..... :)

I didn't know that there was another Pirates topic. I didn't even know there was another Pirates fan :?

Anyways, that topic sucked. It kind of turned into a Mets topic or something. :lol:

[lllllll23lllllll]

the pirates will be good when earth collides with Jupiter. unfortunately, this cant happen because jupiter is made up of gas. so unless you upgrade your top hitter from raul mondesi, youre done for. :lol:

met go easy on the pirate fans geez. :lol:

Yeah, lets go easy.... :lol:


Atlanta 88-67 .568 -
Philadelphia 83-72 .535 5
Florida 80-75 .516 8
Washington 78-77 .503 10
NY Mets 77-77 .500 10.5


x- St. Louis 96-60 .615 -
Houston 85-70 .548 10.5
Milwaukee 77-77 .500 18
Chicago Cubs 76-79 .490 19.5
Cincinnati 72-82 .468 23
Pittsburgh 62-92 .403 33


You guys are more than welcome to scrap down in the basement. :P

[nirvana1039]

Well, just like several seasons before, the Pirates finished below .500 with a 67-95. Injuries devastated this team with injuries to Craig Wilson, Oliver Perez, Jose Castillo, Mike Gonzalez, Jack Wilson (appendectomy in the offseason), Chris Duffy, and others. The only constant threat in the lineup this year was Jason Bay, so the Pirates didn't stand much of a chance.

However, the Pirates layed a foundation for the future. Young lefties Zach Duke and Paul Maholm showed dominance at the major league level. Chris Duffy stepped up as a solid player on offense and defense while he was on the team, hitting .341 and becoming a regular on Web Gems. Bay is currently negotiating a long term deal with GM Dave Littlefield, so he'll be a Pirate for a long time.

Oliver Perez and Kip Wells both struggled this season. Both were plagued by lack of control. Perez's ERA was around 6 for most of the season, more than half of his 2.98 ERA in 2004. Wells was near the NL lead for losses. Both of these pitchers have shown that they can be dominant starters, so I would except them to work on their control this offseason and in spring training.

Jason Bay silenced those who predicted a sophomore slump after the 2004 campaign in which he was the NL Rookie of the Year. He lead the team in nearly every offensive category, hitting .306 with 32 homeruns and 101 RBI's. He was 21 for 22 stealing bases. He was tied for the record of most steals without being picked off in the 3rd to last game, on the look to 3rd, throw to 1st move no less. :oops: He was the only Pirate to start all 162 games.

Jose Castillo also showed some of his potential. He was agruablely the best all-around 2nd baseman in the NL. He hit .268 with 11 HR and 51 RBI's in 101 games. He also showed some specatular defense. Castillo and Jack Wilson form one of the best double play combos in baseball. To get a taste of what these two are capable of, watch the video on here, "7.22.2005 l Wilson, Castillo flash leather". http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/team/player_media.jsp?player_id=333292

Well, I'll update this when the Pirates decide on their next manager and any transactions or anything.