On the whole, though, the Pirates are a pretty good franchise

Chris Jaffe of the Hardball Times notes that today is the 40,000th day since the Pirates reached the .500 mark as a franchise for the first time in their history. In general, the Pirates have been good enough that they're still above .500 as a franchise today, even though they haven't had a winning season in some 7,000+ days. They don't have much longer to turn things around, though, if they want to stay above .500 as a franchise: Chris estimates that if they keep losing they'll fall under the mark by about 2016. 

Baseball history is so cool sometimes. The Pirates less so.