Suck for Luck

After 19 years of embarrassment, it's not much of a reach to imagine Pirates fans are desperate for hope. The readers and writers of this blog are certainly no exception. We all HOPE the Pirates eventually turn it around and become a respectable organization that miraculously has a winning season. A winning season is one that ends with a team having won more games than it lost. I felt the need to elaborate as it has been SO LONG since the Pirates have won more games than they lost over an entire season. I guess I really didn't need to explain that, since the other teams in town manage to have such an occurrence  on a fairly consistent basis.

With the recent injury to newly acquired AJ Burnett, many desperate fans have begun to speculate that luck is a driving force behind the Pirates misfortunes. You know, the same AJ Burnett who has had back to back seasons with a 5+ ERA, is 35 years old, and has had Tommy John Surgery. Now, nobody is attributing the entire collapse of the organization to bad luck. That would be foolish. But when a team has been down so long, it is hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel.

The amazing thing is, there are many people who do see that light and think it is not that far away. I have written here before about my astonishment at the number of people who think WE are crazy for thinking a team that hasn't had a winning season in 19 going on 20 seasons is not run properly. There have a been a myriad of excuses to support the current FO team and their actions. Blaming Littlfield and McClatchy is reasonable; they were certainly not making the team any better. Blaming luck because of an injury to a washed up pitcher that probably would have been relegated to the bullpen by September seems ludicrous to me.

Maybe it is my overall bitterness to the 19, going on 20, straight seasons of losing baseball. I can't imagine why.... After all, we are lucky to just have a team. The previous GM sucked. The previous "principal owner" sucked.  The current group has obviously done a much better job, judging by losing 390 games the last 4 seasons. That is improvement to some people, I guess.

Maybe I am clearly an idiot for thinking that a team who hasn't won more games than they lost for 19, going on 20, straight seasons is not worthy of praise.

This past NFL season, a handful of struggling teams were "vying" for the top spot in the 2012 draft ( sound familiar?). The coveted prospect they so desperately wanted to acquire is Andrew Luck, the outstanding Stanford quarterback who most believe will be an NFL superstar. Ultimately, the Indianapolis Colts won the "Suck For Luck" Sweepstakes by finishing with the worst record and securing the top spot in the NFL Draft, almost certain to be used on Luck. However, Luck is far from a sure thing.

For 11 straight years ( not including having the #8 pick in 2012), the Bucs have had a Top 11 pick with two #1's, two #2's, and three #4's. They have had top 20 pick every year since 1994. Despite having such high picks over the years, the Bucs have little to show for it, nothing to show if you are looking for a winning season. The Pirates haven't had one of those in 19, going on 20, seasons.

Recently, this was blamed partially on luck as in many years, the "once in a lifetime player" was JUST out of reach for the Bucs. That is impressive, considering they have had 6 top 5 picks in a row. With the #1 pick in 2002, the Bucs took Brian Bullington, who never lived up to the hype of being a #3 starter. They chose him over BJ Upton, Prince Fielder, Zach Greinke, Cole Hamels, Jeff Francoeur, and others. I don't know if you can chalk that up to bad luck.

But that was with a different "principal owner" and GM. Things have changed since then, despite not having the W/L record to prove it. After all, the Pirates haven't had more wins than losses for 19, going on 20, straight losing seasons. Why should the last 4 matter? In the end, it is all just a matter of luck.