minus the fact that A-Rod has been on the DL for an extended period this season and still has those numbers. i know as a pirates fan, complaining about losing morphed into iggnorant bliss somewhere around 7-8 years ago, but believe it or not, it's not something we are used to around here. the thing i laugh about is that people do not understand that one dip**** GM put a crater sized hole on Crawford St. and fans don't understand that, a problem that huge is not fixed over the span of one season, maybe not even two.
Hopefully this is indeed the wakeup call to Drayton. WE ARE NOT CONTENDERS! (followed by you're an idiot Drayton, of course).
I'd hope it would have happened sooner, but clearly it hasn't. If getting swept at home by the Pirates doesn't do it, then there is very little hope of it ever happening.
The Astros don't have to worry about jack squat now. They can just suck all the rest of the way and still get their paychecks. What expectations can we possibly have on them when they get pounded all to hell by the Pirates? I have zero expectations the rest of the way for this team...other than individual stat lines on some of the players like Berkman and Lee. Even if we won 10 in a row down the line...we'd still probably lose the next 8 out of 10. What's the point? It still makes for some entertainment...but I'm way past getting upset about it. What's there to be upset about it? We suck. Period.
I really wonder how far we'd have to fall for management to see the writing on the wall. We're 12th out of 16 teams in the NL. But we're 11.5 out of the WC and 8.5 out of last. That might be "middle of the pack" enough for Drayton not to admit that the team is horrid and believe it's still fixable.
"Ignorant" implies lacking knowledge or being uninformed and "bliss" means happiness. So what you're saying is Pirates fans are actually enjoying these 16 years of losing seasons? I think not.
no, I think a Pirates fan has to be blissfully ignorant to consider themselves a FAN of the Pirates after this amount of consecutive suckage. I would have thrown in the towel after 7-8 years and maybe tell the Pirates orginization to get back to me when they are serious about putting a winning team on together. Maybe then I would reconsider paying money to watch them. Do you not feel robbed or scammed as a Pirates fan? Because that is what it sure seems like to me. 16 years is not just bad luck or a couple bad trades etc....thats an owner/owners that don't give a rats ass about what the fans want. which brings me back to my original point, you'd have to be blissfully ignorant to put up with that for as long as any FAN of the Pirates has. Again if you are a FAN of the Pirates, I am truely sympathetic, but again I did not mean this as a direct attack at you personally, it was a blanket statement.
It was a stupid blanket statement. Many of us around here were "FANs" of the Astros from 1962-1978. 17 seasons. We weren't "blissfully ignorant". We knew that: Spec Richardson was a dumbass. The Astros would never really compete as long as they were owned by various credit corporations. Eddie Matthews, Don Larsen, Nellie Fox, and Robin Roberts weren't going to help us "contend". My boy is from Pittsburgh. He cheers for the local teams there, come hell or high water, good management or bad. I do the same in Houston. Doesn't mean I pay for tickets when they suck (haven't been since 2004), but I still follow the team and care. We made it through Spec Richardson, George Wood, etc; we can make it through fatboy Purpura and EddieWade. You "would have thrown in the towel after 7-8 years and maybe tell the Pirates orginization to get back to you when they are serious about putting a winning team on together." That's fine. To each his own. But, even with Drayton and Ed pretending that this fiasco of an organization can actually compete, I do *not* feel "robbed or scammed as an Astros fan". It's a game, for cryin' out loud.
Huntington is a really smart GM and is beginning to turning things around in Pittsburgh. They are probably going to be one of the most active teams at the deadline. It's going to be interesting to see what they do. I think they are going to get a pretty good return for their veterans. With the change in culture and all the talent they are starting to bring, I wouldn't be surprised if they are the Rays of 2010 or 11. They're division rivals, but I feel good for their fans to finally have a good management team in charge. They have certainly suffered enough the past decade and a half.
Swept? Really? Seriously? By the F'n Pirates? I was ignorant to think we could make a run, especially after winning a series against the Cubs, but c'mon, WTF is up with this team...
It's all relative. We spend no money to suck. You guys spend a ton of money to suck or be mediocre. Sure, the Astros have been relevant in this decade unlike the Pirates but truth be told: the Astros have NO excuse imaginable to be where they're at. You guys have what....four All-Stars? The best the Pirates can hope for is to achieve success the same way the Marlins, Rays & Brewers did. Building a strong farm system, making sound roster moves and having good value players. My friends and I always joke whether we'll see a winning season in our lifetime. Right now, the Huntington/Russell duo is clearly making positive strides. We're something like seven games under .500 which is a far cry from the 90-100 loss teams we're used to seeing. Offensively, we're swinging the bats very well it's just our pitching sucks. Hopefully, we wont firesale all of our assets and for once actually get equal value in return. A pitching prospect or two would certainly be nice.
If fans stay with a team that is a perennial loser, they must be dumb. If they don't stay with a team that is a perennial loser, they are fair-weather fans. It will be fun to see what NH does. Nady and Marte packaged together should bring back 1 really good prospect and 2 good ones. Jason Bay's career OPS is almost identical to Mark Texeria's. If Bay brings back that kind of return, the Bucs could be pretty good in 2 years, adding new talent to McCutchen, McLouth, Doumit, and Pedro Alvarez.
the astros have plenty of excuses to be where they are. 1. Drayton McClain. His ego is bigger than MMP and unfortunately, his baseball IQ is lower than Cliff Lee's ERA. He basically shoved Gerry Hunsicker out of the Astros organization because he was sick of Gerry doing things 'Gerrys way' and not 'Draytons way'. That and he wanted to take all the credit. Drayton would rather have a clueless GM like Tim Purpura, who made such brilliant trades like Jason Jennings and Aubrey Huff, and signed Woody Williams and held onto Jason Lane and Morgan Ensberg 2 years too long, all because Purpura is a butt-kisser and a yes-man. He also let go of Pat Murphy who also joined Gerry Hunsicker in Tampa Bay.....where is Tampa Bay now? hmmmm. it only gets better. He botched the Andy Pettite deal just to get revenge on his agents for the Roger Clemens deals. Even though he came away with nothing, because he didn't even offer them arbitration, and we were given no compensation draft picks. And would it have mattered if we did? Probably not, considering Drayton was more interested in impressing Bud Selig by not signing 3 of his top draft picks for less than $1.5 million dollars, while outbidding the rest of the leauge for Carlos Lee for over $100 million. I wonder what happened to those draft picks we refused to sign? Derek Dietrich while Drayton has turned the team into one of the better organizations over the past decade or so, he has slowly aloowed the team to become nearly as bad as he found it. It's time to ride off into the sunset Drayton, if you are worried about not staying busy, you'll still have your billion dollar grocery biz to play with. Do yourself and the Astros a favor and fade away quickly. 2. Tim Purpura. it's simple. Jason Jennings, Jason Lane, Woody Williams, Ty Wigginton, Preston Wilson, Aubrey Huff, and totaly destroying Chris Burke. if you were specifically pinpointing this year. I agree to an extent. I knew we werent going to contend, but I thought at least be somewhere around 3rd place and 80-82 wins. I also didn't expect Roy Oswalt to have the worst season of his career. There are a ton more reasons. But the one glaring issue is something needs to change within the Astros org. I am willing to put up with a few bad seasons in order to rebuild, as long as the guys in the FO are willing to admit it, but for some stupid reason they aren't. So who knows maybe Drayton will pony up some dough and sign Ben Sheets to an epic contract, that would be a lil more comfortable line up......Roy, Sheets, Wandy, filler, filler. maybe they'll sign a decent 3B. Maybe they will sign a better CF. or maybe we can expect more of the same.
