In Praise of the Pirates Bullpen Construction

General Manager Neal Huntington has always been skilled at one thing: putting together a bullpen. Usually, that means picking free agents up off of the scrap heap and squeezing every last ounce of talent out of them. This year, he took a different approach. He re-signed Jason Grilli, traded incumbent closer Joel Hanrahan in a deal that brought back former closer Mark Melancon and acquired some long-men in Jeanmar Gomez and Vin Mazzaro, who also double as rotation depth.

So far, so good. No, really good. Pirates relievers are second in majors with a 1.89 ERA. This is particularly impressive as they've had to pitch a lot of innings to pick up the Pirates starters, who currently rank 11th in the NL in ERA. Grilli is 7-for-7 in save opportunities. Melancon has given up only 1 run in 11 innings with no walks and 10 strikeouts working as the eighth-inning set-up man. The back end of the bullpen looks just like Huntington hoped when he dreamed it up. But, it takes more than two relievers to fill out a bullpen.

For the first time in his tenure as manager, Clint Hurdle has two reliable lefties at his disposal out of the pen. Rookie Justin Wilson joins Tony Watson to create dream match-ups for their skipper. Neither is a LOOGY, though. Both of these guys can go multiple innings if need-be and can get both righties and lefties out.

The true brilliance of Huntington's plan, though, comes in the form of the easily-forgotten long men: Gomez and Mazzaro. Remember that starting pitcher ERA problem? After A.J. Burnett and Wandy Rodriguez, the starting pitching has been a mess. James McDonald, Jeff Locke and Jonathan Sanchez have been hit-or-miss...mostly miss. This has led to some awfully short outings out of the rotation.

That's where Gomez and Mazzaro come in. Having two reliable long-men in the pen (guys who can have a lot of success going once through the opposing team's lineup) is a huge asset to this club. It allows Hurdle to have an early hook with his starters and prevents games from getting out of hand early. In Sunday's victory over the Braves, for example, starter Jonathan Sanchez managed to slog through three ugly innings. He gave up two runs on four hits and three walks, somehow lowering his ERA to 11.12. Out came the hook and in came Gomez, who pitched 2.1 scoreless innings. He was followed by Wilson, Hughes and Watson, whose scoreless work set up Grilli's seventh save in as many opportunities.

This is a recipe for success. Obviously, the starters need to start pulling their weight or the pen will get overworked (indeed Melancon has already been pitching more innings than you'd like to see). Still, the bullpen construction continues to be a strength for the Huntington-led Pirates and this one may be his best yet. The next time Hurdle makes a call down to the "Shark Tank" (as they lovingly call themselves), you can bet they'll be up to the challenge.

Shouldn't there be accountability?

I'm hoping this post is a day too late. The Pirates defeated the Chicago Cubs today to snap a seven-game losing streak and help preserve their playoff hopes and their chances of breaking a streak of 19-straight losing seasons. But the game was a microcosm of the last two seasons: build up a lead and let it steadily slip away. Luckily, Pirates closer Joel Hanrahan was able to stop the bleeding by striking out Dave Sappelt with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth. That does not obscure the fact, however, that the Pirates have been on an historically bad downward slide that is made worse by a similar precipitous free-fall a year ago.

If things continue to go poorly, someone needs to be held accountable. I like Clint Hurdles enthusiasm and his endless reserves of positive energy, but his in-game decision-making has been questionable at best. His Spring Training mantra that hung on the lips of every player who survived last season's implosion seems to have fallen on deaf ears. These Pirates have not yet learned how to "Finish". At some point, management has to notice.

Speaking of management, Neal Huntington's record continues to be spotty. I loved his plan of re-stocking the farm system through trades and being aggressive in the draft, but his ability to judge talent has come into question. Just look at his free agent signings: Clint Barmes, Rod Barajas, Erik Bedard, Lyle Overbay, Matt Diaz, Bobby Crosby, Ramon Vazquez and so on. At some point you have to say he has vision, but not execution.

This year's trade deadline, too, was baffling to many observers. The Pirates had a real chance in a weakened NL Central to make the playoffs for the first time in 20 years. Their deadline acquisitions, though, were underwhelming and looked toward the future, not the present. Sure, guys like Travis Snider and Gaby Sanchez are likely upgrades over Alex Presley and Casey McGehee, but not considerably. Huntington liked their talent and thought they could be had at a modest acquisition cost and (most importantly to him) they were under team control for many years. Look, I get it. The economics of baseball are tough. But at some point you have to put your foot down, forget about next year, and start investing in right now. When the Pirates were playing well earlier this summer, average attendance was up over 2,500 a night. The Pirates have also announced a ticket increase next year after many years stagnancy. That's fine, but then you've got to remember that the priority is the team on the field in the major leagues each day. Otherwise, you can keep saying "next year" until that's the year after McCutchen's contract expires, or more likely, the year after Huntington is dismissed.

Maybe this team was playing over their heads for four months. That was certainly the case last year. But last year's team didn't have A.J. Burnett or Wandy Rodriguez or a mashing Pedro Alvarez. It can't always be the same excuse. I know they're trying. I know they haven't given up, but many fans are. There needs to be some accountability here, even if it's painful. Too much is at stake for the city, the fans, the team. I hope I'm wrong about all of this. I hope there's enough time to go on a run and be competitive in the playoff race down to the last series. I hope they do break their streak of 19 losing seasons. I just hope that if those things don't happen, someone stands up and tells us why.

Haven't we been here before?

Recently, Pirates fans have witnessed a 19-inning game, a Daniel McCutchen walkoff loss in extras and Andrew McCutchen go into a late-summer swoon. We've seen the starting pitching struggle, the bats fall silent and now the club is getting swept by bad teams. Sound familiar? It should. All of these things happened last year, too.

After being swept by the San Diego Padres, there was talk anew about whether this team actually had the staying power to compete for a playoff spot. Granted, the fall from grace last year was of epic proportions. A stretch of losing half that bad would be alarming. But even if this club doesn't falter as badly as that, it doesn't look good for their playoff chances. The latest Baseball Prospectus Playoff Odds Report has the Pirates playoff chances down to 27.8%. Their expected win percentage is down to .508.

Suddenly, the rhetoric from this club is changing. Rather than being sorely disappointed if they don't make the playoffs, there's already talk of being happy if they simply break the streak of 19-consecutive losing seasons. Expectations are changing quicker than a Justin Wilson big-league stint. John Perrotto recently asked Clint Hurdle if his team can still get to the postseason. Here was Hurdle's response:

"I have confidence in the men in our clubhouse," he said. "They've gotten this far and if you would have asked back in April if we would be happy with where we are now, the answer would have been yes."

Now, it's true that Hurdle's quote could be taken to mean the club is still fighting and that they are continuing to defy expectations, but this is coming from the mouth of the most over-the-top geyser of positive rhetoric in team history. Hurdle's primary function for this club has been as a motivator. There is rarely a hint of resignation in his voice. Until now. We can only hope that the players latch on to his more inspiring and helpful rhetoric from spring training:...finish.