Buccos

[9RoyHobbsRF]

How about those Pirates. looking good

hope they can keep it up

[GiambiJuice]

It would be "good for baseball" if they can actually sneak into the playoffs after 20 years of sitting at home in October. It won't happen, of course, but at least they are giving their fans some meaningful baseball past the month of April for a change.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Though I am not a Priates fan, I started watching baseball (around 1976) during the Pirates greatest decade.

1970-79
2 World Series titles
6 NL East Titles
3 2nd place finishes

I saw a lot of Pirates games on the Saturday Game of the Week, I still have many fond memories of the 1979 "We are Family" Bucs. A very fun team.

I hope the Pirates reach the postseason soon, shoot, maybe even this season!

[ol' aches and pains]

Hell, I'd settle for >.500.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

When we moved to San Jose when I was 12, it was a new growing area in South San Jose and everybody came from somewhere else. One guy was from Detroit, one from Chicago (although he was also a die hard Yankee fan), one guy was from Dallas, and one was from Pittsburgh. The guy from Pitt was a die hard Steeler and Pirate fan. I grew to like the Pirates and had a special app reciation for Clemente. If I had an all time team, I would choose Clemente as my RF, not because he was the best choice, but because he was my favorite choice for RF. I liked the 1971 team better than the 1979 team, although I bet against the 71 team and thought the Orioles would beat them easily. Some people forget Gossage's awesome 77 year with the Pirates. I like their new stadium and hope their run continues.

[BeatEmBucs]

It's coming together! I just hope it keeps up these next 3 months. Bucs looked good last year before August. Clint Hurdle made it the Bucs mission to "finish" in 2012. So far, so good, but August and September will be the telling months.

[Rich the Giants fan]

The Pirates have always been my (distant) second favorite NL team, possibly because I'm a big Steeler fan, though I too came of age during the era of the We Are Family Pirates. I loved Kent Tekulve, John Candelaria, Dave Parker, Pops Stargell and the rest. I loved the colors and I loved the hats with the performance stars awarded by Stargell. It would definitely be nice to see them get to the playoffs, though I too would be satisfied with .500.

[ian2813]

It is exciting to see the Pirates playing respectably for a change. I count them as something of a second-tier team in my hierarchy of favorites.

They currently lead the Wild Card race, and I'd love to see them make the playoffs, but like GiambiJuice, I'm not sure they're that good yet.

[ol' aches and pains]

If Andrew McCutcheon played in New York, he'd own MLB.

[Seattle1]

Part of me roots for the underdog and would like to see the Pirates finally get off the schnide and break .500 this year.

Part of me hates the Stealers, and by extension Pittsburgh & Pittsburgh sports fans, since the NFL openly threw Super Bowl XL to them against my Seahawks and would like to see the Pirates go on with their sub-.500 ways for years out of spite.

Probably the best outcome would be for the Pirates to finally break the .500 mark and enjoy a little success (let's say 82-80), but the Stealers go back to their post-steroids lackluster ways of the mid-to-late 80s. Having the Stealers go <.500 for 18 or 19 years, now that would be nice.

That I could live with. Even if the Pirates do get to 82 Ws every now and again.

[Captain Cold Nose]

Part of me roots for the underdog and would like to see the Pirates finally get off the schnide and break .500 this year.

Part of me hates the Stealers, and by extension Pittsburgh & Pittsburgh sports fans, since the NFL openly threw Super Bowl XL to them against my Seahawks and would like to see the Pirates go on with their sub-.500 ways for years out of spite.

Probably the best outcome would be for the Pirates to finally break the .500 mark and enjoy a little success (let's say 82-80), but the Stealers go back to their post-steroids lackluster ways of the mid-to-late 80s. Having the Stealers go <.500 for 18 or 19 years, now that would be nice.

That I could live with. Even if the Pirates do get to 82 Ws every now and again.

It's not the Stealers' fault the Seahawks didn't want to move the ball past the 50. Time to suck it up and realize how bad your team was that day. I would be embarrassed if that were my team playing (or, really, not playing is more like it) like that.

The Pirates have been building a nice team the last couple years. There's no reason why they could not become solid contenders like the Reds have become.

[GiambiJuice]

It's not the Stealers' fault the Seahawks didn't want to move the ball past the 50. Time to suck it up and realize how bad your team was that day. I would be embarrassed if that were my team playing (or, really, not playing is more like it) like that.

The Pirates have been building a nice team the last couple years. There's no reason why they could not become solid contenders like the Reds have become.

Could you ever see the Pirates spending $225 million to keep their best player for 10 years or taking a $30 million gamble on Aroldis Chapman?

I know they are both "small market" teams, but Pittsburgh and Cinci have different priorities. I just don't see Pittsburgh showing willingness to spend money to put a good product on the field. They extended McCutchen on the cheap, which is proving to be a brilliant move, but they haven't done anything else to show any commitment to the fanbase. They just trade away their good players before they become expensive.

[ian2813]

Could you ever see the Pirates spending $225 million to keep their best player for 10 years or taking a $30 million gamble on Aroldis Chapman?

I know they are both "small market" teams, but Pittsburgh and Cinci have different priorities. I just don't see Pittsburgh showing willingness to spend money to put a good product on the field. They extended McCutchen on the cheap, which is proving to be a brilliant move, but they haven't done anything else to show any commitment to the fanbase. They just trade away their good players before they become expensive.

Perhaps if the Pirates could re-establish respectability on the field, it would bring in the money that would allow them to make bigger financial commitments.

[GiambiJuice]

Perhaps if the Pirates could re-establish respectability on the field, it would bring in the money that would allow them to make bigger financial commitments.

From what I've read, they've been one of the most profitable teams in MLB for years, but ownership pockets the money instead of investing it in building a winner.

[Captain Cold Nose]

Could you ever see the Pirates spending $225 million to keep their best player for 10 years or taking a $30 million gamble on Aroldis Chapman?

I know they are both "small market" teams, but Pittsburgh and Cinci have different priorities. I just don't see Pittsburgh showing willingness to spend money to put a good product on the field. They extended McCutchen on the cheap, which is proving to be a brilliant move, but they haven't done anything else to show any commitment to the fanbase. They just trade away their good players before they become expensive.

It wasn't too long ago I couldn't see the Reds doing it either, though. Especially when the Ken Griffey Jr. trade and hometown discount resigning went the way it did.

Right now the Pirates haven't really shown signs they're going to try to keep the talent happy and in Pittsburgh. McCutchen is the key. When Joey Votto started to show signs he really was a special player at the MLB level, I heard so many people say we needed to enjoy him while we could. Because that is what Reds fans were used to since the Marge Schott era of no big contracts and no home grown stars. How the Pirates handle McCutchen now is so important for the future of this team. A stronger committment is needed to show whether this is just a nice thing to notice in July every year or something to pay attention to in September and subsequent Septembers.