The Pittsburgh Pirates All-Decade Team

Here goes a kind of fun topic to debate.  With all of the losing and bad baseball, the last deade here in Pittsburgh has pretty much been forgettable.  However, there have been some good players here in the Burgh, all have since been traded. I wanted to take a look at the All-Decade Team of the Bucs.  I decided this by not only stats, but how many seasons spent here this deacde.  Some of the positions were no brainers, but otheres were a challenge to come up with a decent name.  So here is the All-Decade team, feel free to dispute this.

Catcher- Jason Kendall (2000-04)- This was an easy one to pick.  The Piates all-time leader in games caught was one of the more popular Bucs of the last 10 seasons.  Kendall played five seasons in The Burgh and led MLB in games and innings caught from 2002-04.  He rarely struck out and while having no power at the plate was a solid contact hitter while in Pittsburgh.   Runner up- Ryan Doumit

First Base- Adam Laroche (2007-09)- I know this will be a very unpopular choice among everyone, but he wins the job.  This goes to show how very little talent we have had in the system.  I looked at everybody and as unpopular as he is, Laroches just put up better numbers than the whole list of guys that include: Kevin Young (his best seasons were in the late 90's  he has very lousy numbers this decade), Randall Simon, Craig Wilson, Brad Eldred and so on.  Laroche averaged .270/22/85 during his tenure in Pittsburgh.  Runner-up- Young

Second Base- Freddy Sanchez (2004-09)- After being acquired and starting out at third base for the Bucs, Sanchez found a home a the Pirates everyday second baseman.  This was another easy selection.  Sanchez made two all star appearances and brought home a batting title in 2006 when he hit .344.  Runner up- Jose Castillio

Third base- Aramis Ramirez (2000-03) Oh I'd love to kick Dave Littlefield's ass for just giving away Ramirez, but it is what it is and atleast Rammy wins a job on this team. Aramis had fantastic seasons in 01, hitting .300/34/112 and 03 when he hit .282/27/106.  He also got better as a third baseman every season.  It was fun to watch him grow as a Pirate.  Runner up- Jose Bautista

Shortstop- Jack Wilson (2001-09)- Another no braineer here.  While I was never the biggest Wilson supporter, the guy was an amazing defensive shortstop.  While he never could find consistency with the bat, Jack dazzled with the glove.  The only thing we could count on in the last decade were Pirates lossess and Jack Wilson would be shown on Web Gems almost weekly.- Runner Up-  I don't really have a name for this, but I guess we have to give it to Abraham Nunez who got some time in 2000 and stuck around for a while as Wilson's backup.

Outfield- Brian Giles (2000-03) Giles likely brings home Pirate player of the Decade also.  Homerun toals of 35,37 & 38 in 2000-03, while driving in 123, 95 & 103 in those seasons.  Giles was as consistent as any Bucco up until he got dealt.  His career hasn't been the same since he left (or since testing went into effect), but he was a good ball player while he was here.

Outfield- Jason Bay (2003-08)- Losing Giles brought us Jay Bay, who also put up some fine seasons in the Burgh. Bay became the first Bucco to win the Rookie of the Year in 2004 and hit over 21 HR and 84 RBI in all of his full seasons here.  His best two campaigns were in 2005, .306/32/101 and 2006 .286/35/109, both years he went to the all-star game.

Outfield-Nate McLouth (2005-09)- Wow, was this spot hard to find a deserving guy and I choose McLoth by default, because there really just isn't anyone else.  I actually almost chose McCutchen based on a hal;f of a season.  While I don't feel Nate has done enough to be a member of an all-decade team, his one big season in 2008, .276/26/94, trumps anything the rest of the list has done.  Runner Ups- Xavier Nady, Chris Duffy and Craig Wilson.

Starting Pitcher- Josh Fogg (2002-05) Boy this is sad.  If finding a third outfielder for this team wasn't hard enough,  try looking at the pitching numbers.  My original plan was to list five starters, but to hell with that.  The soft tossing Fogg wins this spot.  I'm telling you I looked at everyone's numbers from Kris Benson to Jason Schmidt to Ian Snell to Ollie Perez, to Zach Duke and unfortunatly Kip Wells.  Fogg's numbers have them beat.  No one has had more than one season of double digit wins except Fogg, who had three.  he was 12-12 in 2002, 10-9 in 03 and 11-10 in 04.  The era was kinda awful but no other pitcher has earned the right.  Runner up- Zach Duke.

Closer- Mike Williams (2000-02)- Difficult choice between Williams and Jose Smoke Mesa, but Williams wins.  Even though he was traded in the middle of his Bucco run and resigned, Williams posted seasons of 24 and 22 saves, but had a monster season in 02 of 46 saves.  There have been others along the way like Mike Fetters, Soloman Torres and Matt  Capps, but the nod goes to Williams.  Runner up- Mesa

The Curse of Francisco Cabrera

Every time I see that picture, I want to throw up. That was the moment, where what I call, "The Curse of Francisco Cabrera," began. At that very moment, every thought of winning baseball in Pittsburgh went away. Who would have thought that after that very moment, we would be here talking about the Pittsburgh Pirates being the losingest franchise in sports history. Seventeen seasons in a row. It's sad, that a seventeen year old kid can drive to a game and buy a ticket to see a team play that has never had a winning season in his/her lifetime. NEVER

That damn, Francisco Cabrera. I've watched that game replayed on ESPN Classic about 20 times. Each time I watch, I keep thinking we're going to win this time. Guess what, we never do. Each time I say to myself, "This time Bonds is going to throw Sid Bream out." He never does.

About the streak, what's to say? It's been bad, but it doesn't effect me. I'm not even upset anymore. I will trade another year or two of losing, if it gets the ship righted. What's another couple years, we have suffered through 17 already. I will trade 18 or 19 years to be consistently a competitive team. We shouldn't have to, but that is where we are with this team..

Back to that damn Francisco Cabrera. If we win that game, would we still be here talking about 17 losing seasons in a row? I believe we would. We may have won the World Series in 92, but things probably would have played out the same. Bonds still would have signed with the Giants. We still would have bad ownership and we more than likely would have sent out bum after bum to play for us.

So who's to blame for the last 17 seasons. I'm not going into huge detail, because if I did, I would be authoring a book and I don't feel like writing all day. It's too easy to point the finger at the ownership groups, but I will, because they deserve it. From Kevin McClatchey to Bob Nutting, they deserve a big part of the blame. As positive as I am about the future, a big part of me still says we will never succeed under the current ownership group. What is sucess? It's not finishing .500 next season. It's not making a run at the Wild Card in two seasons. It's competing for the playoffs every season. I just don't know if the Nutting family will allow that to happen. He is the modern day Rachel Phelps from Major League. I will give him the benefit of the doubt for now, but I'm sure I'm just kidding myself.

Next, the bad General Managers. Not having good baseball people, making key baseball decisions has hurt this team. Anyone else want to point the finger at Dave Littlefield? It will take the team the better part of a decade to make up for some of Littlefield's awful mistakes.

Next let's look at the awful job the scouting department has done, along with the bad drafts. Not one positive draft in 17 seasons. The lack of young talent and bad draft after bad draft after bad draft has crippled this organization. Only recently has the organization taken the right approach to the draft. Why did it take 17 years to simply just draft talented baseball players. Why did it take 17 seasons to not draft with your pocket book in mind? Daniel Moskos instead of Matt Wieters anyone?

Finally, the bad contracts. The Pirates made a habit of giving aged out veterans one last big contact. Derek Bell, Pat Mears, Raul Mondesi, Jeromy Burnitz, Joe Randa, etc. (I'd list more, but I'd be here for a week). The few players they did have, they gave bad deals to as well. Giving Jason Kendall, a singles hitter, a deal worth 60 plus mil, just wasn't smart.

So, what have the Pirates given us in the last 17 seasons? Yeah, we got PNC Park, but try this one, 362 different players. Check out this list. It's great reading some of the bums of this list. It's a must read. http://www.post-gazette.com/downloads/buc_roster_Streak.pdf

Ah the names. let me know which are some of your favorites. By that I mean, which of these bums just make you laugh reading their names. Which of these guys had no business being in the big leagues? believe me there are a lot of them. Let me know what you think. I'm kinda partial to "Steamin" Trey Beamon, J.J. Davis, Will Pennyfeather and Andy Tomberlin. I could really go on all day here, so I will stop.

I also want to know some of your low points during the losing streak. One that sticks out in my mind was the Aramis Rameriz salary dump. Not so much the horrible trade, but Darren Lewis, who was acquired in the deal elected to retire rather than play for the Bucs. Another one was Mondesi, who the Bucs just let quit on them, yet to go sign with a contender 2 months later. Finally, there is good old Operation Shutdown. Enough said.

What else have we seen in 17 seasons? Three ownership groups, six managers and millions and millions of disgruntled Pirates fans. It's got to stop and I think it will eventually. I just want to see Huntington stay the course. Keep acquiring young talent, keep investing in the draft, and when the time is right, start to add to the good young core the Pirates have. At no time in 17 seasons have I had hope for this franchise, but I really do now. At no time in 17 season's, have i had any faith in Pirates managements decisions, I do now. At no point in 17 season's, have I been confident in what some of the players can do on the field, I am now. At no point in 17 seasons have I felt the ownership was interested in winning. I still don't.

Don't blame this group of young Pirates. They aren't the reason we hit 17 seasons in a row of futility. Look at this group as the bunch that will break The Curse of Francisco Cabrera. I can only hope.

For more good reading on the Bucs streak of futility, check out these tow links sent to me by Bill Gorby. Very good articles.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/sports/baseball/06pirates.html?_r=2&8dpc
and
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-pirates-losingtheirway&prov=ap&type=lgns