The Bad News Bucs

Can a baseball team really be affected by clubhouse chemistry?

This term, “clubhouse chemistry,” is one that’s been thrown around quite a bit. Most sports fans and experts will agree, there’s a little more to the success or failure of teams than pure statistics. There’s sometimes no statistical way to explain the unforeseen explosion of a perennially bad team. Now, I don’t claim to be knowledgeable about statistics, so I may place an unnecessary amount of emphasis on the more social aspects of teams. Still, there seems to be some teams that defy all logical prediction. Take the midseason meltdowns of the Michigan State Spartan football team over the past couple of years. Here is a team who looked to have very few weaknesses, save for their horrifically ugly uniforms. They play in one of the most prestigious college football conferences, the Big Ten. They have a quarterback who’s almost certainly headed for the early rounds of the NFL draft. Even these things pale as accurate predictors when compared to the actual performance of the team in early season games. This year, for example, the Spartans jumped ahead to what seemed to be a blowout lead over the highly ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish. In the end, Notre Dame came back and won the game following a colossal breakdown by the Spartans. The very next week, the Spartans had gone from a team capable of scoring easily on Notre Dame to a team that had lost to Illinois. I have no doubt that the “clubhouse chemistry,” the morale of the team, the team’s relationship with its coach and the relationships between the players of the team were the cause of this spectacular failure.

Since this is a baseball blog, it’s probably fairly obvious where I’m going with this. The Detroit Tigers, despite eventually losing in the World Series, are just one of those teams you can’t explain with statistics (or I can’t; I’m sure someone could). The whole was greater than the individual parts on this baseball team. Several of the players on the team this year during their domination of the American League were also on the Tigers team, three years ago, that lost 109 games. Certainly, the new additions helped the team; over the course of the years between the 109-loss season and the World Series appearance, the Tigers shed some players who were weighting them down and replaced them with talent. Kenny Rogers, Todd Jones and Magglio Ordonez are examples of these shrewd additions. You still wouldn’t think that a team with so many returning players from that infamous season would become the team to beat in the AL. The only explanation, in my opinion, is that the Tigers found the perfect combination of skills, abilities and personalities to craft a team out of a group of apparent non-stars.

So, can the Pirates pull off what the Tigers have done? I’m not holding out any hope for a World Series appearance in the near future, but I certainly believe that several of the players on the Pirates’ roster currently could help build a contending team; I’d like to see that team be built in Pittsburgh. A number of fairly recent Pirates’ trades have appeared on contending teams. For example: Jeff Suppan. His postseason performance this year makes me wonder what I missed about him when he played in Pittsburgh. Sean Casey, my favorite of Dave Littlefield’s veteran acquisitions before this past season, was the most competent-looking player on the Tigers during the World Series. So when people say that the Pirates’ young pitching staff look to develop into very underwhelming players, I like to believe that there can be a little more than statistics involved in the creation of a competitive player. It might take a little magic. Let’s hope that magic shows up soon.

Shawn Chacon's on the mound today. This is his scheduled "good" start, having given up the usual 7 earned runs against the Astros last week. Jeff Weaver is a match for Chacon, being the weakest part of the Cards' rotation. There's not much else to say. Randall Simon is back in the majors, playing for the Phillies.

Following yesterday's loss, the Pirates are the official owners of a 14th consecutive losing season.

Yea...

3 IP, 12 H, 7 ER.

Looks like the Mets haven't been able to fix him yet.

Oliver Perez is starting for the Mets today, still searching for that elusive third win. His second win of the season came on May 17th (it's September now...).

This means nothing, but the Pirates have passed the Devil Rays' win percentage. There's now two teams between the Pirates and the title of "Worst MLB Record." The Bucs are still the worst team in the NL, though, and we learned from the series against the Royals that any team in the AL is probably better than most of the NL Central. The Nationals and the Cubs are not out of reach, however. Screw draft picks; Littlefield can and will squander any of the small benefits of finishing last. Let's just see how many teams the Rats can pass. Also, the tragic number is still 1. Here's to staving off that 834238th losing season for as long as possible.

I can't resist. I have to mention Oliver Perez. Ollie pitched his first major league game since being traded yesterday, wearing Mets "ugly." No word on whether Perez's Posse made an appearance. His start was announced rather late, as Tom Glavine was scheduled to pitch until sometime in the afternoon. (Good news for Mets fans that Glavine isn't having surgery; when you start the season with Pedro Martinez and Tom Glavine in the rotation and end with Oliver Perez, your playoff chances tend to look rather dim.) I hope that they made it, because Ollie's start brought back fond memories of when he was in the Pirates uniform (2005-06 era).

He started off the game with 4 innings of hitless ball, 3 walks against 6 strikeouts. He even struck out former teammate Jose K. Then, in the 5th inning, all hell broke loose. Ollie opened the inning with a walk and a fielder's choice: 1 out, Abraham Nunez on first base. No-hitter still intact. Jon Lieber, another familiar face, steps up to the plate and attempts to bunt Nunez over; he is, after all, a slightly overweight pitcher. Ollie, who obviously likes to be unpredictable, walks him. The next play is another fielder's choice, which bumps Nunez to 3rd with Lieber out at 2nd and Scott Victorino on 1st. A single scores Nunez. At this point, Ollie is starting to feel the pressure to defend the remaining 1-run lead (2-1). Showing his nerves, he beans Chase Utley, loading the bases and bringing Ryan Howard to the plate. Ollie's no-hitter is shot since the RBI single. He needs only to get one more out to escape with the lead.

Ryan Howard crushes an 0-2 Ollie lollipop into the stands for a grand slam.

Perez got to stay on the mound long enough to strike out Pat Burrell and end the inning, but he was done after that.

So how did the Mets like their new pitcher's first start?

Despite Howard's slam, Mets manager Willie Randolph liked what he saw from Perez.

"It was an outstanding job by the kid," he said. "He pitched well enough to get the ball again. He'll probably get another start."

You'll see, Willie Randolph. You'll see.

Luckily, instead of Oliver Perez, the Pirates have dependable hurler Shawn Chacon. He'll pitch tonight against the Astros. Unfortunately, he had his "good" start last week, so he's due for another 7 ER performance. Who better than the Astros to fulfill the prophecy? They did it once already this season. Still, Chacon's 6.94 ERA is puny compared to the Astros' starter today. Jason Hirsch, a rookie, has a 12.75 ERA in 3 starts and is coming off a 10 ER performance. Hopefully, the Pirates can beat Hirsch while he's down. Jose Bautista is hitting 2nd with Jack still out, which is a change of pace. Ryan Doumit is also playing in his second game back from injury.

Yes, that is three games in a row that the Pirates have scored 5 runs and won. Paul Maholm gave up his 3 runs in the top of the 3rd, off a 2-run homer by Chris Burke and an RBI single by Craig Biggio. My normal, conditioned reaction to this would be, "Here we go again." This time, though, the Bucs surprised everybody and displayed their ability to play small ball. Jason Bay doubled Chris Duffy home in the 4th, and then a flurry of singles-hitting gave the Pirates the lead in the 6th. Freddy Sanchez, Ronny Paulino and Jose Castillo hit RBI singles and Jose Bautista hit a sacrifice fly for another run. Then the Pirates' bullpen stepped in, with Matt Capps, Damaso Marte and Salomon Torres all contributing to maintain the lead. Gonzo stepped in and delivered his 3rd straight dominating save performance, striking out the last batter to slam the door.

Tonight, it's a clash of the titans at PNC Park as Victor Santos takes on Roger Clemens. Ok, so there's only one titan. Clemens has had no problem against the Pirates in his career, and his team has finally started to back him up with some runs. Hopefully Santos can push his last appearance against the Astros (relieving Shawn Chacon in a 14-1 loss) out of his mind and focus on winning. The 'stros are a desperate team, so it should be interesting to see how this turns out.

The Pirates start their home stand today against the Houston Astros. Paul Maholm (5-10) takes the mound against Wandy Rodriguez. Paul got mauled in his last start against the Reds, but the start before that was his best outing of the season. I think it's time for another quality start for him, and it'll help that the Bucs are back in PNC again. Also encouraging is the fact that Wandy Rodriguez hasn't gotten a win since July 2, and before that not since June 11th. I guess that you could say that he's due for a win, but I prefer to believe that he's weakened enough for the Pirates to finally get a win against him.

Courtesy of WHYGAVS: Ryan Doumit makes his return today to fill the hole left by Jose K. The man known by some as Thor Jr. has been hitting poorly in the minors, but that doesn't seem to be a long term problem.