That One Hurt

[element1286]

Ouch....isn't fun watching mediocre bullpen guys blow a lead in the 8th, especially after the comeback.

We will see if this team has fight in them, they battled back in May after dropping below .500, hopefully they do the same in August.

 

[evolver115]

Yep, worst loss of the season, heck worst series of the season.

 

[magnumo]

Yeah..... I thought they were going to salvage the last game of the series. Two consecutive sweeps definitely are the low point of the season so far.

As usual, the Pirates have a lot of late season games left against NL Central teams. If they can't break out of this VERY soon, their once-promising season will become very disappointing. Although Houston will make it very difficult for the Pirates to finish in the cellar, they could drop all the way to 5th by season's end.

In addition, I'm noticing a lot of complaints about Hurdle all of a sudden, especially his use of the bullpen. Guess he's not as smart as he was earlier in the season. Nothing like a little success to raise expectations to an unreasonable level.

 

[element1286]

Yeah..... I thought they were going to salvage the last game of the series. Two consecutive sweeps definitely are the low point of the season so far.

As usual, the Pirates have a lot of late season games left against NL Central teams. If they can't break out of this VERY soon, their once-promising season will become very disappointing. Although Houston will make it very difficult for the Pirates to finish in the cellar, they could drop all the way to 5th by season's end.

In addition, I'm noticing a lot of complaints about Hurdle all of a sudden, especially his use of the bullpen. Guess he's not as smart as he was earlier in the season. Nothing like a little success to raise expectations to an unreasonable level.

Rightfully so, IMO. Especially in the Braves series.

 

[magnumo]

I disagreed with a few of Hurdle's moves as well, but no manager makes all the right moves all the time. I'm just thankful we don't have someone like McClendon running the team. I used to post that I disagreed with a Leyland move from time to time..... perhaps he did something which looked wrong to me once or twice a week. But it seemed as though I disagreed with McClendon a half a dozen times every game.

My only point was that Hurdle didn't become stupid all of a sudden. He has the same leadership skills he had before the losing streak. I believe in the notion that losing makes any manager look bad and winning makes any manager look good. (McClendon was an exception to that rule: I don't think he could look good as a manager under any circumstances.)

Along the same lines, I actually had a lot of respect for John Russell as a manager. Seems to me that Russell's biggest faults were two-fold:

- He was a little too phlegmatic for today's fans (and maybe today's ballplayers).

- It seems that he let the front office override his better judgment on some things..... I don't think Hurdle would put up with any of that.