Offense biggest reason Pirates a non-factor again
PITTSBURGH 鈥� The Pirates have dropped the curtain on a second straight disappointing season, one that kept them south of .500 again.
Culprits abound, but the biggest reason the Pirates were a non-factor was their offense.
Some of the young starting pitchers sputtered on fumes at the end, but they weren鈥檛 the problem. In fact, they offered hope.
The bullpen had to be rebuilt with significant changes made on the fly, but that settled down, too.
Truth be told, though, the young pitching is a significant asset, both for trying to build a contender and to have as trading stock to fill other holes.
As noted previously in detail, the Pirates got no better than 50 percent production from the projected 2-3-4-5 spots in their batting order. That鈥檚 going to lead to a lot of dreary nights, and the Pirates had them in abundance.
Starling Marte will be better. Gregory Polanco had better be. There鈥檚 still some life in Andrew McCutchen, and there鈥檚 still a year on his contract. If Jung Ho Kang can鈥檛 make it, the Pirates need to find a legitimate replacement.
This is not a 鈥渂low it up and start all over鈥� proposition.
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Three other things on the Pirates:
n Two questions (with answers provided):
1. Should the Pirates pick up McCutchen鈥檚 2018 option at $14.5 million? Yes.
2. Should they sign McCutchen beyond 2018? No.
n Here鈥檚 how long a baseball season is: Remember when Gift Ngoepe reaching the major leagues was a big deal?
n As AT&T 缅北禁地Net searches for a new analyst to replace the retiring Kent Tekulve on Pirates broadcasts, there鈥檚 one contemporary name who might be interested.
Jason Grilli bought a house in the leafy green northern suburbs with the idea of landing some broadcast work here after his pitching career ended.
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Because there are 800 or so college football games being broadcast by someone every Saturday, the depth of the announcer pool gets tested.
Former NFL player Takeo Spikes was the analyst on the ACC Network鈥檚 Rice at Pitt. Spikes may not be the biggest name, but he鈥檚 not as anonymous as some of the guys working the games from the lower part of the barrel.
Thanks to technology, any announcer willing to make the effort can pretty well get caught up on whatever team he might be covering. Then there are those late-week meetings with the coaching staffs, which get constantly referenced throughout the broadcast.
But in one cringe-inducing click-by caught on Saturday, football wasn鈥檛 the issue with Spikes. English was.
He managed to combine a 鈥渉as ran鈥� and 鈥渉ave went,鈥� a 1-2 that should have gotten him detention in the classroom instead of a job in broadcasting.
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There were a lot of things to like in Sunday鈥檚 Steelers demolition of the Baltimore Ravens.
The best was that for the first time this season, Le鈥橵eon Bell looked like he did last year. Maybe he鈥檚 finally shaken off the rust and made up for the time he missed by skipping training camp.
Now if Ben would only start looking like his old self 鈥�.
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Enjoy your new life, Kent Tekulve.
When a guy is 70 and a transplanted heart is giving him a precious second chance, he doesn鈥檛 need to be sitting around a TV studio at midnight waiting out the rain-delayed finish of an 11-2 game that everyone else has abandoned.
Maybe he can take a nice long ride on John Jaso鈥檚 sailboat.