The state of the Pirates, both recently and rolling the clock way back, is such that it genuinely doesn't deserve to be ignored, even with the Steelers and Penguins, the two teams in town who care, now taking all the attention.
It's so sickening that they shouldn't get off that easily.
Nothing but facts:
• In losing to the Brewers, 3-0 Monday night at PNC Park, Gregory Polanco made the final out by trying to stretch a single into a double. With a three-run deficit. Greg Brown shouted on the broadcast, "Unbelievable!"
• Two innings earlier, Elias Diaz was thrown out trying to stretch a one-out double into a triple. With a two-run deficit:
• The loss was the Pirates' sixth in a row.
• That losing streak has seen the Pirates score a total of nine runs.
• That losing streak has seen the Pirates not hold a lead after any inning.
• The loss was the Pirates' 11th in the past 12 games.
• Those dozen games have seen the Pirates score a total of 22 runs, seven of which came on one night in Milwaukee.
• All 12 of those games immediately followed the team's announcement that Neal Huntington and Clint Hurdle had their contracts extended by four years.
• In one of their five victories this month, the Pirates allowed a 37-year-old lefty to carry a no-hitter into the 10th inning, a perfect game into the ninth.
• On Aug. 12 in Toronto, the Pirates had climbed back to .500 and pulled within two games of first place in the Central Division. Since then, they're 10-25.
• Since winning 98 games in 2015, the Pirates are now 20 games under .500 at 146-166.
• In 10 years under this front office, the Pirates have had seven losing seasons.
• Half of those 10 years will have seen 90-plus losses should this one get there, too.
• Not one on-field achievement under this front office has been commemorated anywhere at PNC Park. There has been no division title, no pennant, no championship. If this front office left town tomorrow, it'd be like they were never here.
• When the Pirates announced the four-year extensions, the only accomplishment listed in the press release was being named Baseball America's Organization of the Year in 2015.
• In 10 years under this front office, the Pirates' collective WAR in the major leagues for players they drafted ranks 23rd out of 30 teams, this despite picking No. 1 overall once, No. 2 overall twice, No. 4 overall once, and despite outspending every team on the draft in that period.
• On Sept. 5, Huntington was asked by a reporter what had him most encouraged about the franchise's future: “The outstanding job our scouting department has done in the draft at finding high-level talent despite drafting late.”
• The Pirates have had 22 losing seasons in the past 25.
• The Pirates once went 35 years between World Series championships, from 1925 until Bill Mazeroski's home run in 1960. The current drought of 38 years, dating back to the 1979 Family, is the longest in the franchise's 131-year history.
• Kent Tekulve, the man who threw the final pitch of 1979 in Baltimore, will retire after this season. As a broadcaster.
• Of the 24 participants in the past dozen World Series, eight of them -- or one-third -- were based in markets that are either the same size as Pittsburgh or smaller: Cardinals (three), Royals (two), Indians, Rockies, Rays. Three of those participants -- in one quarter of the Series played -- became champions.
• The Pirates' average attendance -- and this is based on paid tickets in circulation, not actual turnstile count -- is now 23,831. A year ago, it finished at 28,112. That drop of 4,281 is the greatest in the majors.
• The Pirates' TV ratings on AT&T SportsNet are down more than one-third from two years ago.
• The Pirates spent $5.5 million on Daniel Hudson this season. And $706,250 to Jared Hughes to have a fine season in Milwaukee. And $2.3 million on Drew Hutchison to spend his entire summer in Class AAA Indianapolis. That's $8,506,250 in essentially dead payroll.
• Jon Niese and Antonio Bastardo, the first and subsequent players acquired as a result of the Neil Walker trade two years ago, are both out of baseball.
• Huntington is the most tenured GM in the National League.
• Two weeks ago, Huntington reiterated his stance that the Pirates' failures against two last-place teams, the Reds and Giants, were largely to blame for this season: “If we invert our record against two teams this year, we’re a game and a half out.” The Pirates were swept in Cincinnati this past weekend. They're now 6-13 against the Reds, 1-5 against the Giants.
• If you invert those records ... you're still spectacularly insulting everyone's intelligence with some random second-grade hypothetical. ... OK, OK, that delved into opinion. Sorry, restraint is required.
Back at it ...
• The Reds are now 1.5 games behind the Pirates. The Reds might soon be offended by ever having lost to the last-place Pirates.
• Bob Nutting, in the statement announcing the extensions, was quoted as saying of Huntington and Hurdle: "We have made a tremendous amount of progress under their tenures." No data was given to support that.
• The current season is on pace to wind up as the worst since 2010, when 105 losses cost John Russell his job.
• Dave Littlefield was fired after three seasons of 90-plus losses, six losing seasons overall. Both Littlefield and Russell were fired with Nutting's approval.
• On Sept. 9, Jordy Mercer spoke up publicly in St. Louis -- exclusively to our Josh Yohe -- about what a bunch of players had been complaining about privately regarding the $600,000 giveaway of Juan Nicasio: "It stinks. It stinks to see a guy like that, who was having such a good year … it stinks to not have him on our team anymore. And it stinks to face him, to be honest. That’s the hardest part."
• Nicasio was instantly elevated to the Cardinals' closer role and recorded saves against the Pirates that night and the next.
• A veteran player told me last week in Milwaukee, referring to the clubhouse mood in general but mostly regarding Nicasio: "F---ing bad. So sad."
Yeah. That.
WHAT'S BREWING
• Our now-weekly Cartoon Canon by Rob Ullman revisits some serious Steelers glory.
• Yohe and I went hard at the Datelines news segment of the DK Sports Radio morning show, and it was more than a little fun:
Here's the whole Weekday Wakeup show.
• Yohe and Sara Civian will cover Day 5 of the Penguins' camp in Cranberry, and Audrey Snyder, naturally, will cover their preseason game in State College against the Sabres.
• Lance Lysowski is covering Pirates-Brewers tonight at PNC Park.
• Matt Gajtka will have this week's Midweek Reader. All I know is the subject matter, and I can't wait.
STEELERS
• Press conference: Mike Tomlin
• Location: Rooney Sports Complex
• Time: 12-12:30 p.m.
• Our coverage: Kaboly
PENGUINS
• Event: Game vs. Sabres
• Location: University Park, Pa.
• Faceoff: 7:08 p.m.
• Tickets: Sold out
• Our coverage: Snyder
• Event: Training camp, Day 5
• Location: Cranberry Township, Pa.
• Time: 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
• Open to fans: Yes
• Parking: Free
• Our coverage: Yohe, Civian
PIRATES
• Event: Game vs. Brewers
• Location: PNC Park
• First pitch: 7:05 p.m.
• Clubhouse open to media: 3:30 p.m.
• Home batting practice: 1:15 p.m.-2:15 p.m.
• Visitors' batting practice: 2:15 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Open to fans: 2:05 p.m., Clemente Gate
• Tickets: Available
• Our coverage: Lysowski
PITT
• Event: Practice
• Location: Rooney Sports Complex
• Time: 9-11 a.m.
• Open to fans: No
• Our coverage: Lysowski
PENN STATE
• Event: Practice
• Location: University Park, Pa.
• Time: 3-6 p.m.
• Open to fans: No
• Our coverage: No access
DK SPORTS RADIO
• 5-11 a.m.: Weekday Wakeup, with DK, Matt Gajtka
• 2-3 p.m.: The Penguins Show, with Josh Yohe, DK
LIVE Qs AT 5
• Today: Josh Yohe, entries at 2 p.m.
• Wednesday: Lance Lysowski
• Thursday: Audrey Snyder
• Friday: DK
• Saturday: Christopher Carter
RANDOM FUN THING
• Tuesday: Cartoon Canon, by Rob Ullman
• Wednesday: Staff survey
• Thursday: Lithuanian baseball talk, by Adam Flango
• Friday: Favorites and Likes, by Taylor Haase
PNC STAFF LOCATOR MAP
Audrey Snyder has the hockey club out her way:
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