OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - The Bucs Start Here - A Pirates Do-Over

luckymann · 08-24-2021, 02:50 AM

Our middling form continues into the new month, and matters compound further when we lose Cy for a week to a finger blister.

We get beaten up pretty badly at home by the Cubs, although we do enjoy a rare win over Waddell, with Biff Schlitzer accounting for himself very well. But it’s our only win in six as we can scrape up just 8 runs all told.

Even at this early stage it is becoming clear that, unless something dramatically changes things, we are a step or two off the pace this year. There’s no real quick-fix for this, clubs are hanging tightly onto the sort of players we would want to trade for, meaning inequitable sacrifices would be required to acquire them and we’re not going down that path again. Moreover, I’m not remotely convinced any such trade would be a net positive. We’re not playing horribly, just subpar and inconsistently at a time when the Cubs are just on fire. We just need to hang tough and do our best, but expectations are being tempered with every week. We’ve had some bad luck losing Harvey, and I’m not sure we can play much worse than we have with Wagner and McIntyre both hitting circa 200 to this point, so perhaps like last year we can pull it together and get back on track.

Perhaps.

Winning three from four against the Giants is a decent enough first step to that end. But the Cubs are unstoppable and, after a 2-2 split with the Phils, we trail them by a whopping 11 games with just 34 having been played. 3-1 series wins against the Superbas and Doves make no headway either, although they do put us above 500 for the first time since early days.

We finish the month strongly to give us a 17-13 sectional and lift us into third, albeit still a nasty 10½ GB the 36-11 Cubs.

The View from the Gangplank

I think I’ve covered most of it in the run-through. There’s no doubt we’ve managed to turn things around somewhat and the lads are certainly trying their best. Let’s see if we can continue our upswing in June.
Zaza, after suffering a mild setback, remains on the sidelines with no certain return date as yet. We’ll be proceeding as if he’s out for the year and take it in our stride if and when he does return.

Around the Leagues

The A’s and Sens have just pulled away a little bit in the AL, with the equal-third-placed Tigers and White Sox 4½ behind the Sens, who trail the 28-15 A’s by 1½.
The Cubs' ERA sits at an astonishing 1.69 to this point. The Senators, with 1.81, are the only other side who sit under 2 in this category. The league ERA is 2.44. We are presently at 2.40.
One bit of bad news for the baby Bears is the loss of Ed Reulbach for a couple months due to a herniated disc in his back.

Awards

05/04 POTW: AL – Nap Lajoie (Philadelphia) 500 / 4 RBI; NL – Joe Tinker (Chicago) 500 / 1 RBI.
05/11 POTW: AL – Joe Lake (Chicago) 2-0 / 0.00 / 6 K / 18 IP; NL – Bill Keister (Brooklyn) 379 / 2 HR / 7 RBI.
05/18 POTW: AL – Slow Joe Doyle (Washington) 2-0 / 0.00 / 7 K / 18 IP; NL – Mordecai Brown (Chicago) 2-0 / 0.50 / 14 K / 18 IP.
05/25 POTW: AL – Eddie Collins (Chicago) 478 / 1 RBI; NL – Mike Mowrey (New York) 478 / 1 HR / 4 RBI.

AL Batter of the Month: Eddie Collins (Chicago) 389 / 0 HR / 15 RBI.
NL Batter of the Month: Josh Devore (Brooklyn) 400 / 0 HR / 9 RBI.
AL Pitcher of the Month: Jimmy Dygert (Washington) 6-2 / 1.26 / 44 K / 71.1 IP.
NL Pitcher of the Month: Mordecai Brown (Chicago) 8-0 / 1.00 / 37 K / 72 IP.
AL Rookie of the Month: Elmer Steele (Chicago) 4-2 / 2.23 / 23 K / 60.2 IP.
NL Rookie of the Month: Ed Summers (Cincinnati) 6-2 / 1.59 / 22 K / 68 IP.

S+ HOME

REPORTS HOME

PIRATES HOME

08-24-2021, 02:50 AM	#145
luckymann Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2019 Posts: 13,970	1908 May Our middling form continues into the new month, and matters compound further when we lose Cy for a week to a finger blister. We get beaten up pretty badly at home by the Cubs, although we do enjoy a rare win over Waddell, with Biff Schlitzer accounting for himself very well. But it’s our only win in six as we can scrape up just 8 runs all told. Even at this early stage it is becoming clear that, unless something dramatically changes things, we are a step or two off the pace this year. There’s no real quick-fix for this, clubs are hanging tightly onto the sort of players we would want to trade for, meaning inequitable sacrifices would be required to acquire them and we’re not going down that path again. Moreover, I’m not remotely convinced any such trade would be a net positive. We’re not playing horribly, just subpar and inconsistently at a time when the Cubs are just on fire. We just need to hang tough and do our best, but expectations are being tempered with every week. We’ve had some bad luck losing Harvey, and I’m not sure we can play much worse than we have with Wagner and McIntyre both hitting circa 200 to this point, so perhaps like last year we can pull it together and get back on track. Perhaps. Winning three from four against the Giants is a decent enough first step to that end. But the Cubs are unstoppable and, after a 2-2 split with the Phils, we trail them by a whopping 11 games with just 34 having been played. 3-1 series wins against the Superbas and Doves make no headway either, although they do put us above 500 for the first time since early days. We finish the month strongly to give us a 17-13 sectional and lift us into third, albeit still a nasty 10½ GB the 36-11 Cubs. The View from the Gangplank I think I’ve covered most of it in the run-through. There’s no doubt we’ve managed to turn things around somewhat and the lads are certainly trying their best. Let’s see if we can continue our upswing in June. Zaza, after suffering a mild setback, remains on the sidelines with no certain return date as yet. We’ll be proceeding as if he’s out for the year and take it in our stride if and when he does return. Around the Leagues The A’s and Sens have just pulled away a little bit in the AL, with the equal-third-placed Tigers and White Sox 4½ behind the Sens, who trail the 28-15 A’s by 1½. The Cubs' ERA sits at an astonishing 1.69 to this point. The Senators, with 1.81, are the only other side who sit under 2 in this category. The league ERA is 2.44. We are presently at 2.40. One bit of bad news for the baby Bears is the loss of Ed Reulbach for a couple months due to a herniated disc in his back. Awards 05/04 POTW: AL – Nap Lajoie (Philadelphia) 500 / 4 RBI; NL – Joe Tinker (Chicago) 500 / 1 RBI. 05/11 POTW: AL – Joe Lake (Chicago) 2-0 / 0.00 / 6 K / 18 IP; NL – Bill Keister (Brooklyn) 379 / 2 HR / 7 RBI. 05/18 POTW: AL – Slow Joe Doyle (Washington) 2-0 / 0.00 / 7 K / 18 IP; NL – Mordecai Brown (Chicago) 2-0 / 0.50 / 14 K / 18 IP. 05/25 POTW: AL – Eddie Collins (Chicago) 478 / 1 RBI; NL – Mike Mowrey (New York) 478 / 1 HR / 4 RBI. AL Batter of the Month: Eddie Collins (Chicago) 389 / 0 HR / 15 RBI. NL Batter of the Month: Josh Devore (Brooklyn) 400 / 0 HR / 9 RBI. AL Pitcher of the Month: Jimmy Dygert (Washington) 6-2 / 1.26 / 44 K / 71.1 IP. NL Pitcher of the Month: Mordecai Brown (Chicago) 8-0 / 1.00 / 37 K / 72 IP. AL Rookie of the Month: Elmer Steele (Chicago) 4-2 / 2.23 / 23 K / 60.2 IP. NL Rookie of the Month: Ed Summers (Cincinnati) 6-2 / 1.59 / 22 K / 68 IP. S+ HOME REPORTS HOME PIRATES HOME Attached Images __________________ HISTORICAL DO-OVERS A'S RED SOX DODGERS PIRATES MARINERS CUSTOM SAVES LGB NEXUS Last edited by luckymann; 08-24-2021 at 07:31 AM.