Pirates vs. O's

by miskatonic86 on Jul 14, 2011 6:11 PM EDT

Well, it looks as though the Pirates are winning more than the O's

Yes, the Buccos do have good pitching prospects, but here's the thing about them-they have had a really soft schedule withing the last month and a half. And they're only 3 or 4 games above .500. From June 9th, this has been their schedule.

Arizona-won series

Mets-split

Houston-swept series

Cleveland-Lost in sweep

Baltimore-won series

Boston-won series

Toronto-lost series

Washington-split

Houston-won series

Chicago Cubs-won series

Basically, the only team they beat that has a very good chance of making it to the playoffs is the Red Sox, and Boston doesn't really fare well at National League stadiums anyway. They really need to beat the big boys if you are going to say that the Pirates are for real. Upcoming is the Astros again, but after that are the Cardnials and Brewers a bunch of times, the Phillies, and the Braves.

Here are the Pirate hitting rankings compared to the Orioles:

Runs:

Pittsburgh: 22

Baltimore: 20

BA:

Pittsburgh: 22

Baltimore: 10

On Base:

Pittsburgh: 20

Baltimore: 14

Slugging:

Pittsburgh: 25

Baltimore: 11

My point is this. Yes, the Buccos are winning more than the O's, but they haven't faced too many teams recently with excellent pitching. So nothing is set in stone yet. The Orioles have better hitting but are 16 behind .500. That can mostly be put on the pitching struggles. When is the FO finally going to wake up and realize that it's PITCHING that wins games, not just hitting. The Phillies don't have the best bats right now, but are winning the league on account of guys like Halladay, Lee, and Oswalt. If Andy MacPhail stays, maybe his best course of action is to buy the arms, and real arms too. Pirates have better pitching. Kevin Correia is a maniac, Joel Hanrahan never blows a save. Us? We just flip guys back and forth to Norfolk. Maybe Mark Connor quitting had something to do with it, I don't know.

Poll

Who will break their losing streak first?

Orioles

2 votes

Pirates

19 votes

Neither of them will win again

1 votes

The very same year

0 votes

22 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

I am fascinated with this topic

Because I’ve always been a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates. There are a lot of similarities between Pirate and Oriole personnel:

The Pirates restocked their management with Neil Huntingdon the same way the Orioles did with Andy MacPhail. The Pirates retooled with Clint Hurdle the same way the Orioles did with Buck Showalter. Both teams feature a promising young CF (although Pittsburgh has a solid advantage there). Both teams tried to hire a stopgap 1B. I’d say both Lyle Overbay and Derrek Lee have been dissappointments. I’d also say that Jeremy Guthrie is similar to Paul Maholm in that they’ve been with their teams for several losing seasons, they get little run support, but they are (usually) steady options.

One thing the Pirates did though, was part ways with just about ALL of their veteran talent. The Orioles do not seem willing to make this commitment. Season’s only half over and the Pirates could blow it, but at this time it looks like the Orioles should learn from this example.

I’d be interested to see the comparison between this year’s Oriole pitching staff and last year’s Pirates staff, I get the feeling they had pretty much the same results. That sort of analysis is too sophisticated for me though. I would leave it to one of the more statistically correct bloggers on this site.

by Fun Tymer on Jul 15, 2011 12:38 PM EDT reply actions

Neil Huntington is nothing like Andy MacPhail

Huntington is well versed in sabermetrics and is firmly planted in the 21st century. He’s a FAR better GM than Andy MacPhail.

Folksy literate type.

by birdman on Jul 15, 2011 1:00 PM EDT up reply actions

Yes, and I remember your excellent post

“Modernize this franchise.” Huntington and MacPhail are definitely on different pages,
but they were both hired in 2007.

by Fun Tymer on Jul 15, 2011 2:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Interesting take

I agree with most of these observations except I’m with Birdman below. I also think Maholm is quite a bit worse than Guthrie.

I am eating you, motherfucker. You cannot hurt me. - PhilR8

by O'sFan21 on Jul 15, 2011 1:43 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah it seems like the pirates have not been afraid to blow the squad up

and part with talent to bring talent in. We have maybe 2 (hardy, guts) guys anyone is interested in at all that are possibly on the table and everyone is arguing to keep and extend them.

by Benhem612 on Jul 15, 2011 2:22 PM EDT reply actions