Fresh off a four-game sweep at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the fifth consecutive loss for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Bucs sit at a season low five games under .500 at 36-41.
The Pirates won a game Monday night against the New York Mets, but that doesn’t take away from what has happened to this team.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the Pirates led the National League Central and were nine-games over .500. But in a span of a little over just five weeks, the Pirates have managed to lose 24 of their past 34 games.
As there is no end in sight for the Pirates woes, you have to wonder when manager Clint Hurdle’s seat should start getting hot.
With most organizations, his butt would be in flames already, but not the Pirates, where despite this teams failures, Hurdle job is likely still safe and will be for quite some time.
He, along with general manager Neal Huntington, received a four-year contract extension prior to this season, so in all likelihood the Pirates could finish with the worst record in the majors and Hurdle likely isn’t going anywhere.
Bob Nutting isn’t going to pay two managers. That’s just how it is.
But should that be the case?
Someone has to be accountable for the Pirates struggles the past two-plus seasons and if it isn’t going to be Huntington, ideally it should be Hurdle.
Let’s look at how bad the Pirates have struggled since May 17.
Hitting
The offense has been abysmal.
Long gone is that team that started great with the bats and were one of the highest scoring teams in Major League Baseball.
Instead you are looking at a team that has ranked near the bottom of every major category possible.
| May17-June24 | MLB Rank | |
| Runs | 128 | 27th |
| HR | 26 | 28th |
| Walks | 101 | 21st |
| AVG | 0.234 | 24th |
| OBP | 0.301 | 25th |
| SLG | 0.367 | 27th |
| ISO | 0.132 | 27th |
| wRC | 125 | 25th |
| wOBA | 0.291 | 26th |
| wRC+ | 81 | 27th |
| Hard Contact % | 31.4 | 26th |
| ERA | 4.46 | 21st |
The numbers aren’t pretty and likely won’t get much better anytime soon.
It all hasn’t been the hitting as the Pirates pitching staff hasn’t been that good either, posting a 4.46 ERA.
The bullpen has had its struggles but has been better as of late. But both the starters and pen have been mediocre at best in the past 34 games.
Pirates starters hold a 4.45 ERA while the bullpen posts a 4.47 mark.
What is with these lineups?
Here is where Hurdle has and should continue to draw a ton of criticism.
Just in the last four days, Sean Rodriguez drew three starts in a row.
He’s got one hit in the month of June and over the past three games went 0-for-9 with six strikeouts. Rodriguez is 0-for-15 with nine strikeouts in his last seven games and keeps getting starts.
When you run a guy that is hitting .145 continuously, you aren’t putting your best lineup on the field.
The same can be said for Gregory Polanco and his struggles.
Hurdle simply doesn’t give the team the best chance to win on a nightly basis.
The strangest decision came Friday night against Arizona left-hander Patrick Corbin.
Left-handed hitters have a .794 OPS compared to right-handed hitters who own just a .542 OPS against Corbin.
But there was Hurdle, who ran an all right-handed lineup out there.
Granted he didn’t have Corey Dickerson available, but options like Colin Moran and Josh Bell made more sense than batting David Freese in the cleanup spot. Freese actually owns much better numbers against right-handed pitching (.899 OPS) than left-handed pitching (.527 OPS), but there he was batting in the four hole against a quality left-handed starter.
Even a guy like Adam Frazier would have made more sense than Rodriguez.
The end result was only four hits in 13 innings of play. Coincidentally, two of those hits came from the lone left-handed bat in the lineup in Austin Meadows.
Once again it was another example of Hurdle not giving the Pirates an opportunity to win a game.
When you are struggling the way the Pirates are, you have to play your best eight players most nights.
That’s something Hurdle simply refuses to do.
The Pirates care about rest, and guys can’t play all 162 games, but the reality is he can rest guys in the second half of the season when at this rate the games are going to be meaningless.
Hurdle has done nothing the past two-plus seasons to put this team in a position to win.
It’s funny how much we hear about how young this team is now that they are struggling.
We didn’t hear too much of that when they were going well.
You can’t have it both ways.
Does Hurdle have a great roster?
No.
But he manages the one he has very poorly and should be accountable for doing so.
In most other franchises, Hurdle’s seat should be, and likely would be very hot right now.
Not in Pittsburgh though, where he has all kinds of job security.
When will his seat finally get hot?
Check back with me in 2022 when his contract is about to run out.
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