{"id":839977,"date":"2018-08-29T15:15:24","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T19:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/?p=839977"},"modified":"2018-08-29T15:15:26","modified_gmt":"2018-08-29T19:15:26","slug":"pittsburgh-pirates-five-collapses-pbd11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/pittsburgh-pirates-five-collapses-pbd11\/","title":{"rendered":"Examining 5 collapses in 8 years: Who’s at fault?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since 2011, the Pittsburgh Pirates have consistently entrenched themselves into a playoff race as deep into the season as July.\u00a0 In three of those seasons (2013-15), they made the playoffs.\u00a0 In the other four, they finished under .500.<\/h2>\n

Barring a turnaround, the current 64-68 Pirates will likely finish under .500, marking five collapses in eight years.\u00a0 What has caused the Pirates to peak in July so consistently?\u00a0 In the Clint Hurdle<\/a> era (which started in 2011), the Pirates have a July record of 121-84 (.590 win percentage).\u00a0 They have never finished under .500 in that month.<\/p>\n

As we know, August and September are another story.\u00a0 Excluding the playoff years, the Pirates have tailspun themselves back into irrelevancy in those months.\u00a0 Like I said, this has now happened five times in eight years.\u00a0 But why?<\/p>\n

Theory 1<\/h3>\n

Blame Clint Hurdle.\u00a0 Blame the coaching staff.<\/p>\n

That seems to be a popular thesis these days.\u00a0 But it does hold some water.\u00a0 In 16 seasons as a manager including this year, Hurdle has produced a winning record four times.\u00a0 His career win percentage is .488.\u00a0 He is slightly below average.<\/p>\n

Besides managing mostly average teams, Hurdle has been known to lead some fantastic runs.\u00a0 Every year with the Pirates, that run has come in July.\u00a0 With the Colorado Rockies in 2007, we all remember the 21 wins in 22 games to get them to the World Series.<\/p>\n

Hurdle is a rah-rah inspirational quotes kind of guy.\u00a0 When things are going good, he is the perfect voice to keep it going.\u00a0 When things are going bad, an inspiring quote can only say so much.\u00a0 Fundamentals and clean baseball are things that keep good teams from enduring extended slumps.\u00a0 The Pirates haven’t exactly been tight around the edges during the collapse years.<\/p>\n

Coaching is the problem.\u00a0 A voice is needed to reign the troops in when things go awry.\u00a0 Clint Hurdle is not that voice.<\/p>\n

Theory 2<\/h3>\n

Maybe the talent assembled isn’t nearly good enough to be a true contender.\u00a0 During the collapse years, the Pirates have had mostly young teams.\u00a0 It is a long and grueling season.\u00a0 Young players notoriously run out of gas late in the year.<\/p>\n

Also think about this.\u00a0 During the collapse years, the Pirates usually tread water for the first few months of the season.\u00a0 They aren’t necessarily out of the playoff race but they aren’t seen as a team that will make a real impact.\u00a0 Then the July highs come. During that month they insert themselves right into the playoff mix.\u00a0 The problem with the July highs is that the come down hits hard.<\/p>\n

The talent isn’t just great enough.\u00a0 The first few months of average baseball is a true metric of what the team actually is.\u00a0 Getting hot for one month is just that.\u00a0 One month.\u00a0 Sustaining that high level of outplaying your true talent for multiple months is impossible.\u00a0 Adding a player at the deadline can only move the needle so much.\u00a0 An average team is an average team.\u00a0 That’s why they play 162 games.\u00a0 To weed out the pretenders.\u00a0 In five of the last eight years, the Pirates have been exactly that.<\/p>\n

A coaching staff won’t change that.\u00a0 Draft better.\u00a0 Develop better.\u00a0 Trade better.<\/p>\n

Obviously something is wrong with the Pittsburgh Pirates.\u00a0 Which theory is it?\u00a0 Not to be a cold take artist here, but I think it’s a combination of both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 2011, the Pittsburgh Pirates have consistently entrenched themselves into a playoff race as deep into the season as July.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":835876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[703638948,610258686],"tags":[140059],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nExamining 5 collapses in 8 years: Who's at fault? - The Sports Daily<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/pittsburgh-pirates-five-collapses-pbd11\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Examining 5 collapses in 8 years: Who’s at fault?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/pittsburgh-pirates-five-collapses-pbd11\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Sports Daily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-29T19:15:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-08-29T19:15:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/usatsi_10930467-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1943\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/pittsburgh-pirates-five-collapses-pbd11\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/pittsburgh-pirates-five-collapses-pbd11\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alan Draper\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2c8aadde2571800d0de74323730df7b5\"},\"headline\":\"Examining 5 collapses in 8 years: Who’s at fault?\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-29T19:15:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-08-29T19:15:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/pittsburgh-pirates-five-collapses-pbd11\/\"},\"wordCount\":567,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/pittsburgh-pirates-five-collapses-pbd11\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/usatsi_10930467-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Pittsburgh Pirates\"],\"articleSection\":[\"MLB News and Rumors\",\"Pirates\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/pittsburgh-pirates-five-collapses-pbd11\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/pittsburgh-pirates-five-collapses-pbd11\/\",\"name\":\"Examining 5 collapses in 8 years: Who's at fault? 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