2009 Pittsburgh Pirates Fans

[ratpenat]

Its 16 years and counting since the last time a winning season has come through these parts. As of late, the product on the field makes the Rickeydinks of the 1950s look like championship caliber teams. As fans, we have become frustrated with unfulfilled promises, rebuilding plan after building plan, skyblasts and bobblehead promotions........In 2008 a new regime was brought in and stressed accountability and showed signs of perking up the situation, only to blow it up again.
In 2009, we fans face a dubious and honorable record......to become the first northamerican professional sports franchise to have 17 straight years of losing seasons. In honor of this close to attainable achievement.......I, a Pirate fan since 1973, create this forum so that we can discuss, crticize, critique, applaud, cry, and reminisce the good old days.
So, in the words of the Voice of the Pirates Rosey Roswell, "Open the window Aunt Minnie here she comes......."

[ft420]

Now I know it's Baseball season....

I'm looking forward to enjoying the games and trashing our front offices with ya buddy.

[ratpenat]

FT, yeah bro, I hear ya. I am anxious to see what happens this year. We in Pitsburgh have gotten to the end of our rope. I still truly believe that things will not be right until they oust Nutting as the owner, he is part of the problem. He doesnt want to spend to win. They may have spent on Alvarez and scouting in South Africa, India and the Dominican this year but I really think we need to sign a couple of people to add some veteran presence in teh clughouse and to anchor the rotation.
Also, the whole Tbata thing is off the wall.......married to a woman 23 yrs. older than him and she steald a baby from immigrant farm workers and tells him its his. I want to see how this will impact his play......................

[ratpenat]

I like this Andrew Mc Cutchen kid.........and yes, I do think coaches Perry Hill and Joe Kerrigan will make a difference.

[nascar1993]

Happy for you! and I'm glad you are back here after long time

[ratpenat]

yeash nascar....its good to be back.......after football i ahve been following the penguins hockey.......so for a few months we all dont hook up until baseball season, and then its football for all of us. But with hockey and baseball coinciding now, I will be around quite a bit now. you going to watch the races tomorrow???

[Nanoball]

Hi Ratpenat,

Been following your rambling monologues bout the pirates last season from a distance.
Sometimes very amusing, especially after the giveaway "trades".
Now I write since I am the "insert appropriate word here" owner of Nate McLouth in the myp2p fantasy league, didn't draft him, the computer did that for me.
What word should I inset the the sentence above?

Is it still considered a compliment to say that you guys at least have the nicest ball park?

[$h00ter]

we had quite a good spring training (17-12-2) so far.
Im hoping for a good season!
We lost some good guys (did internet research and played some MLB Game) got a bit more into baseball.
I'm still supporting Pirates and I hope I will learn some more stuff about our club, players and the sport itself!
Thanks for the thread ratpenat

[crazypghfan]

Hey Ratpenat. nice to hear from you again. When i read your opening thread you kind of forced me to give you my opinion abou this up coming Pirate season. I hve been a pirate fan since 1965. I must admit the previous 16 seasons were very hard to swallow. We (pirate fans) always here that in spring training that the "attitude" has changed and the pitching staff looks good. And then in the regulat season the rotation can,t find the plate and another season goes into the toilet. Now any knowledgeable baseball fan knows that good pitching beats goods hitting any day of the week. Going inot this season i rate our lineup as "above average " as far as defense and offense. Now having siad that, i believe that IF our rotation can come up with some early seasons wins and finally get that "positive mental attitiute", the pittsburgh pirates 2009 edition can finally make some "noise"(if you will) and get over that 500 mark and posiibly contend for a wild card spot. Or is everything i just stated above a "April Fools Joke. I guess only time will tell. "Lets Go Bucs"!

[ft420]

6-4 Manatee Community College??? My sympathies... omg.

[ratpenat]

UGGGGHHHHHH......as if this week has not been bad enough with cold, wet, crappy weather on my trip to barcelona.......we go and lose to a community college........the only comfort is that it was a split squad..........
Thanks everyone for dropping by and writing some thoughts......its also great to see some old friends and make some new ones here in the forum. Above all, pnce again, it is wonderful how sports brings cultures together, Shooter, I admire your efforts. One of my hobbies is Pirates history....would love to share it with you.

[ratpenat]

crazy pgh fan......I envy that link to good old Forbes Field "The House of Thrills", and I totally agree with your assessment thsi year. I like the talent we have, but pitching is the key. I can only hope that Kerrigan´s work will have an impact, and I do believe that throwing inside will be the key.
I also feel that health will be a major issue as well, and people like Sanchez, Doumit, Moss, will have to keep off the DL.
As for pitching.....a breakout year would be nice if someone like Karstens, or a Snell rebound would take place. I dont see Ohlendorf getting it done.

[ratpenat]

Over the course of 122 years of history we have had our share of histrical moments, 4 big ones come to mind this year in 2009:

1. 100th Anniversary of the 1909 World Champions

2. 100th Anniversary of the opening of Forbes Field "The House of Thrills"

3.. 50th Anniversary of Harvey Haddix´s No Hitter vs. Milwaukee Braves

4.. 40th Anniversary of Bob Moose´s No Hitter vs. New York Mets

5.. 30th Anniversary of the 1979 World Champions

[jurgen_nl]

looks like it's about time for the pirates

[ratpenat]

looks like it's about time for the pirates

I hope so dude..............I am excited for the season but I do realize that we will end up breaking the Phillies record from 1933-1948 as the franchise with the most losing seasons in Major League History...........can only hope before I die that I see them win more than 81 games. I am 36 now, so I hope sometime in my life I will see it again............
cheers...................

[ft420]

Hey now... hope all is well in Valencia and wherever everybody else is from, too!

well.. 2 words... Revenue Sharing. Until MLB decides to do it, small market teams like ours will suffer. Being a Reds fan I can only dream of what we might have done this year with Adam Dunn and Josh Hamilton. We finally get some pitching and now no boppers for a hitters park. I think we got Shef today... I know they we're talking as of last night... so there's a little help. But they'll prolly trade the pitching away by the deadline. You guys now what I mean. Our draft picks and prospects are other team's all-stars.
So good luck you guys and cheers to a winning season for the Pirates as well. Let's meet in the playoffs for a beer.

warning: shameless plug alert... Any chance of squeezing a few Bucs out of you Pittsburgh fans towards our MLB streaming funds?

http://www.myp2pforum.eu/mlb-basebal...streaming.html

Hopefully we'll be able to see the carnage daily...

Best regards from Florida ~presently..the land of mildew

ft

[ft420]

@ Rat...

Good job by Penn State hoopsters on winning the NIT. good game last night... all the guys are a credit to the Nittany Nation. Cheers!

[ratpenat]

Hey now... hope all is well in Valencia and wherever everybody else is from, too!

well.. 2 words... Revenue Sharing. Until MLB decides to do it, small market teams like ours will suffer. Being a Reds fan I can only dream of what we might have done this year with Adam Dunn and Josh Hamilton. We finally get some pitching and now no boppers for a hitters park. I think we got Shef today... I know they we're talking as of last night... so there's a little help. But they'll prolly trade the pitching away by the deadline. You guys now what I mean. Our draft picks and prospects are other team's all-stars.
So good luck you guys and cheers to a winning season for the Pirates as well. Let's meet in the playoffs for a beer.

warning: shameless plug alert... Any chance of squeezing a few Bucs out of you Pittsburgh fans towards our MLB streaming funds?

http://www.myp2pforum.eu/mlb-basebal...streaming.html

Hopefully we'll be able to see the carnage daily...

Best regards from Florida ~presently..the land of mildew

ft

FT, I agree on the revenue sharing.........baseball would be better off, more exciting, and much more competitive. The NFL and NHL are great examples. Baseball reminds me very much of the Spanish soccer league here: 2 huge teams that buy up all the great players and championships, while all the rest just play out the season amongst themselves. No fun!!

As for squeezing out some Bucs, I will look at my funky dividends and see what I have, I just purchased my airline tickets to come home in August and December, but I will see what I have left on the card, for I would like to contribute to the cause.

I will definitely be in Tallahassee in August, I will know the dates soon, get a beer or something.

[ratpenat]

Here is an interesting tidbit I found on a Pirates blog, enjoy!!!!!!

Ten Reasons to Get Excited About the Pirates in 2009
by Charlie on Apr 3, 2009 6:00 AM EDT 9 comments

Optimism! Optimism! I'll give this a shot.

1. Andrew McCutchen's debut. McCutchen has been tantalizing us in the minors for years, and this year we'll finally get to see him in the bigs. Expect a solid approach at the plate, a decent average and good defense. In other words, expect a competent, well-rounded position player, the kind seen too few of in Pittsburgh these past several years.

2. Pedro Alvarez charging through the minors. Well, hopefully. Alvarez hasn't had a single official pro at-bat yet, but he hit .444 in 18 Spring Training at bats and elicited comparisons to Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujols and Babe Ruth. It goes without saying that those comparisons are all hyperbolic, but until Alvarez proves that's true, we can dream, right?

3. Latin America is back. A number of prospects from the Pirates' newly-unclogged Latin American talent pipeline are likely to make their stateside debuts this year. WTM has some suggestions about who to watch out for.

4. Ryan Doumit. Doumit's .875 OPS ranked fourth among catchers with at least 400 plate appearances last year, ahead of everyone but Brian McCann, Joe Mauer and Geovany Soto (and he was just one OPS point behind Mauer and Soto). He's one of the best offensive catchers in the business, and we should be thrilled to have him around.

5. The draft, the draft, the draft. The Bucs' 2008 draft was far better than any draft conducted under Dave Littlefield, both in terms of the team's willingness to spend and in who they signed (although, obviously, much remains to be proven on that last front). Bob Nutting has already told the Pirates' front office he expects more of the same this year, so expect the two draft days to be all kinds of fun.

6. Defensive improvements. Defensively, the Pirates should be better at third base (assuming Andy LaRoche is healthy), center field and left field. They may also be better in right, and they shouldn't be appreciably worse at any of the other positions, at least not until there are trades. That's good, because one of the least-understood stories of the Pirates' 2008 season was the effect of the Bucs' terrible defense on its pitchers, particularly Zach Duke and Ian Snell. This isn't to say that either of those guys would've been like Walter Johnson if they'd had real defenses behind them, only that they wouldn't have looked nearly so bad.

7. Andy LaRoche. Yeah, I said it. LaRoche was good his entire pro career until last season, when he mysteriously couldn't do anything. If those struggles were the result of the thumb surgery he had before last season, and if he's healthy, maybe his solid Spring Training performance this year means something, and he can pick up where he left off. Hey, I believe. Sort of.

8. Exodus from the N.L. Central. The only top talent to join an N.L. Central team this offseason was Milton Bradley, while C.C. Sabathia, Ben Sheets, Kerry Wood, Mark DeRosa and Ty Wigginton all left. No team in the Central had a particularly good offseason, and a weakened division could mean more wins for the Pirates than they ordinarily would've had. (Of course, we're ignoring for now that the Bucs dealt Jason Bay in July.)

9. Embrace change! Adam LaRoche and John Grabow will probably be dealt this season, and Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez could go as well. Maybe that's not exciting for most Pirates fans, but I think it should be, because whoever comes back is much more likely to be part of the next winning Pirates team than those folks are. Speaking of which...

10. Jose Tabata. Forget the bizarre wife-baby-kidnapping-fatherhood-fraud story. The story that got lost in the shuffle is that Tabata hit .407 this spring. That might not mean anything, but Tabata has done nothing but hit since being traded to the Bucs in July. He's only 20, and he can keep his personal life from affecting his play, he could be a lot of fun this year, and perhaps even make it to Pittsburgh by season's end.

This can be found on Pittsburgh Pirates MLB Baseball Front Page

[ratpenat]

I must say as the franchise of Roberto Clemente and pioneers in Latin American Scouting, it sure is great to see us investing time and money in Latin America. ¡¡¡Arrrrriba!!!!!