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Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march toward their record 17th consecutive losing season.Just a week ago, we left the Pirates and their fans reeling in the wake of the Nate McLouth trade. Even the fans that felt that the trade was a necessary step of rebuilding (you can put me firmly in that category) were shaken by the loss of McLouth. So now that a week has gone by, just where do the Pittsburgh Pirates stand?
Since Our Last Update
The biggest immediate impact of the McLouth trade is the arrival of highly touted rookie Andrew McCutchen. He's stepped right into center field and the leadoff spot for the Pirates, hitting .316/.333/.447 in his first eight big league games. On Monday, which matched him up against the Braves and McLouth less than a week after he replaced McLouth in the lineup, McCutchen had four hits, including a double and two triples, to help spur a late Pirate comeback before the team sputtered out for a 15-inning loss.
In fact, in the eight games since the trade, the Pirates are 4-4 against the Mets, Astros, and Braves, and won their last two against Atlanta to split a four-game series against McLouth's new team. They've actually been holding pretty steady at four or five games below .500 for the better part of a month now. That's mostly due to the continued success of the pitching staff, which continues to be much improved over the dismal group that was worst in the NL last year.
One clearly negative effect of the McLouth trade is the power void that his loss creates. While guys like McCutchen and Andy LaRoche are good for some extra base hits, the Pirates didn't hit a home run in the first seven games they played without last year's All-Star. They finally broke the streak with Delwyn Young's solo shot yesterday. Ryan Doumit's return, which is on the horizon, should go a ways towards curing the power drought.
A Little Bit of History
McCutchen's two triple outing game in his fifth major league game. Using Baseball-Reference's Play Index, we can see that only four other players since 1954 have had a two triple outing in the first five games of their career. This is a complete irrelevant stat that I nonetheless find interesting.
The last person to do it was Adam Piatt in 2000, who did it with the A's. He's the only person to add a homer in with his two triples, but he fell a double short of the cycle. He only hit four more career triples. Before Piatt, Spike Owen did it in 1983 with the Mariners. In 1969, John Sipin hit two triples in his first career game with the Padres. His career only lasted 68 games and he never tripled again. In 1959, Wilie McCovey also turned the trick in his first career game with the Giants. He only averaged about two triples a season over his 22 year career, but he did hit 521 homers and end up in the Hall of Fame.
All things considered, I'm sure Pirate fans are hoping that McCutchen turns out much more like McCovey than any of the other three guys I just named.
The Numbers
Pirates' record: 28-32
Wins to finish .500: 53
Losses until infamy: 50
1949 Phillies' record after 60 games: 33-27
Triples hit by Pirate players in 2009: 16
Teams with more triples: 1 (Kansas City has a whopping 22)
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