Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 07, 2008
A Losing Record

AOL FanHouse notes the Pirates lost their 82nd game of the season today, making this the 16th year in a row they produced a losing record:

With today's loss, the Pirates clinched a losing season. That seems unimportant because the Pirates do that every year, but that's EXACTLY why it is important. With this loss today, the Pirates clinched their sixteenth consecutive losing season, tying the record for an American sports franchise set by the 1933-1948 Philadelphia Phillies, a team so bad that they changed their name to the Blue Jays for two years in the middle of the streak.

The article also notes the team has a good chance of making it 17 in a row, setting a new record. I don't know about that. They made some good trades, and with a little luck and .450 team can finish above .500.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:58 PM | Team Evaluation | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I remembered them having a pretty good team in '97, so I just had to look it up... that team fell just short of .500, going 79-83 (.488) and finishing in 2nd place! They were the best Pittsburgh team during the past 16 losing seasons tho. They were .500 on August 30th that year...and had even finished August 26 over a game over .500.... so close to finishing that way but yet so far.

Posted by: Devon Young at September 7, 2008 11:28 PM

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the Pirates finish above .500 next year. They are rapidly ceasing to totally suck, and as you say, a .450 true talent team can finish above .500 pretty straightforwardly. See also the 2007 Seattle Mariners.

Posted by: NBarnes at September 8, 2008 06:11 AM

Good trades????? Help me with that? Trading all stars and front liners for other teams spare parts and no top prospects usually aren't considered good trades. The only chance they have of finishing .500 is if Snell, Gorzy and Duke all the sudden hit their top potential and they amazingly find about 4-5 other pitchers. They'll be lucky to win as many next year as they did will this year.

Posted by: Bandit at September 8, 2008 07:55 AM
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