# What in the hell has happened to the Pirates?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-hell-has-happened-to-the-pirates/636269>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [September 30, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-hell-has-happened-to-the-pirates/636269 "2012-09-30T02:10:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-hell-has-happened-to-the-pirates/636269/1 "2012-09-30T02:10:31Z")

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Two seasons in a row. A total collapse. No just sub par performance, but horrific performance after contending for a title.

Whose fault? Manager? GM? Players? Fans? Stray Dogs?

I’ve never seen this in baseball or been more frustrated as a fan.

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**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-hell-has-happened-to-the-pirates/636269/2 "2012-09-30T02:27:47Z")

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> [@jtgain](#):
>
> Two seasons in a row. A total collapse. No just sub par performance, but horrific performance after contending for a title.
> 
> Whose fault? Manager? GM? Players? Fans? Stray Dogs?
> 
> I’ve never seen this in baseball or been more frustrated as a fan.

You’ve never seen it? Just look a bit to your west. The Indians did exactly the same thing the last two years. They were in first place into June and then collapsed. It was a particularly bad collapse this year as they’re now fighting for last place.

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-the-hell-has-happened-to-the-pirates/636269/3 "2012-09-30T02:31:45Z")

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You’ve never seen it in baseball and you’re watching the division where the Cubs play?🙂

Seriously, though, the Pirates were 10 games over .500 as late as August 30. In their next 26 games, they gave up more 6 or more runs 14 times (although they actually won 2 of those games.) Looks like a classic case of the pitching staff running out of gas.

Were there any pitching trades after the All-Star break that might have come back to bite them in the ass? Injuries? Young pitchers who can’t rely on just their fastball after the other teams have seen them a couple of times?