10/2/2014

Does Negativity Solve Anything?

After a disappointing loss to the Giants in the Wild Card Game, every Pirates fan was disappointed. Could the Pirates have played a better game? Absolutely. Did Clint Hurdle make the right decision to use Gerrit Cole on Sunday and Edinson Volquez for the Wild Card Game? It depends on what frame of mind you have, but Hurdle liked the veteran experience from Volquez. He went (13-7) with a 3.04 earned run average in 31 starts. Cole went (11-5) with a 3.65 earned run average in 22 starts. Though both pitchers had very good numbers, it is hard to tell if one was better than the other. The one thing that people also needed to factor was Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner. Did people expect him to throw a shutout? I doubt it. Bumgarner was very effective to say the least. In his shutout, he only gave up four hits, but struck out ten.

The Pirates season is over and the players have a significant amount of time to relax and to get ready to be back in 2015. Just because the Pirates lost their only playoff game does not mean that people should be negative. I understand that there were some questionable transactions that the Pirates made, but that happens in baseball. Could Bob Nutting have spent more money on other players? Sure. Could Neal Huntington have acquired players at the trade deadline? Yes. Should we criticize the Pirates for making minimal transactions? No. The management felt that they had the core of players that would get them to the playoffs.

Does negativity solve anything? No. Fans have every right to be disappointed that the Pirates had an early elimination from the playoffs, but in reality, it was just a game. One loss is not a matter of life or death. Fans should be happy with all of the young talent on the team and look forward to next year. The 2015 season is 186 days away, but it will be a time for the Pirates to start fresh and continue towards another playoff berth.