FanHouse Futilitywatch09

Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march toward their record 17th consecutive losing season.

Remember last week's Futilitywatch? The one that was so filled with vague optimism because the Pirates went 7-2 on a homestand and took a series from the Phillies? The Pirates have quite literally not won a baseball game since then, dropping seven straight on the road to the Brewers and Reds. That leaves them just three losses away from clinching their 17th consecutive losing season, which as you likely know by now would be a record for a North American sports franchise.

Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march toward their record 17th consecutive losing season.

After 12 losses in 13 games, the Pittsburgh Pirates managed to rally the troops and sweep the Milwaukee Brewers this week. That won't keep the Bucs from their 17th consecutive losing season and it might not keep them out of last place, but given the bad blood between the Pirates and Brewers it was about as gratifying as meaningless mid-August sweeps go.

Still, with just 12 losses to go before the historic 82nd loss, history is bearing down heavily on this team whether they want it or not. The longest losing streak in the history of professional sports. Think about that. Or try not to, if you're a Pirate fan.

Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march toward their record 17th consecutive losing season.

Since they finished making moves a day before the trade deadline, the Pirates' have gone into free fall. After winning their first two games in the post-Jack Wilson/Freddy Sanchez era against the Washington Nationals, they dropped two to the Nats and were swept by the Giants and Cardinals, then dropped two of three more to the Rockies. That's ten losses in 11 games and if you throw in the five game losing streak that happened before Wilson and Sanchez were traded, that's 15 losses in 18 games. Futility! Thy name is Pittsburgh.

Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march toward their record 17th consecutive losing season.

The reason that Futilitywatch wasn't made a weekly feature earlier in the season was fairly simple; I wasn't sure the Pirates would be interesting enough to do weekly updates on. The three weeks since we've looked in on the Pirates' slow march towards infamy is emblematic of that; there just isn't much that happens week to week. In a basic week, the Pirates win two or three games and lose four or five, their record slowly eroding, with hope slowly extinguishing.

That said, three weeks encompasses almost the entire career of Garrett Jones and with the trade deadline looming, it's certainly time for an update on the team that's a mere 29 losses from setting one of the most dubious records in sports history.

Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march toward their record 17th consecutive losing season.

How many teams in baseball history have traded 2/3rds of their starting outfields in consecutive years? The Pirates started 2008 with an offense-oriented outfield of Jason Bay, Nate McLouth, and Xavier Nady, from left to right. With Bay and Nady slated to become free agents in the two coming offseasons and having good years at the plate, the Pirates dealt them and shifted towards a defensive outfield of Nyjer Morgan, McLouth, and Brandon Moss. Now, Morgan and McLouth are gone and GM Neal Huntington may not be done dealing. Where does that leave the Pirates?

Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march toward their record 17th consecutive losing season.

Despite the fact that I've started each of the last five or so seasons with very little hope that the Pittsburgh Pirates will do anything (push for a playoff spot, finish .500, not embarrass me as a fan ... anything), I still try to be as positive as possible about the Pirates' chances during the season. It's not easy, but it's the only way to keep going as a fan.

At some point each summer, though, the Pirates do something to crush my soul, be it one awful loss or 13 in a row. This year, the Pirates have teetered on the edge of that breaking point a couple times, but to their credit they somehow haven't passed it yet.

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?

Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march toward their record 17th consecutive losing season.

In our last installment two weeks ago, we left the Pittsburgh Pirates for dead as they sat at 12-16, in the midst of what turned out to be an eight-game losing streak that dropped their record to 12-19. Since then, the Bucs have reeled off seven wins in 10 games and sit at 19-22. In fact, if their bullpen hadn't blown an eighth-inning lead last night, they'd only be one game under .500 and Bucco Fever would be sweeping Pittsburgh. Or something.

Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march towards their record 17th consecutive losing season.

In the three weeks since the initial Futilitywatch ran, the Pirates have been on a bit of a rollercoaster. They went on an impressive run, swept the red-hot (at the time) Marlins, and at one point stood at 11-7 in the waning days of April. Since then, they've lost nine of 10, dropping to 12-16 and reminding just about everyone why this 17th losing season was more of a foregone conclusion than anything since well before this season started.

Futilitywatch '09 is our semi-regular look at the Pittsburgh Pirates' march towards their record 17th consecutive losing season.

After a promising 4-3 start to the season, the Buccos have lost two straight to the dismal Houston Astros, who had previously been shutout by Zach Duke and Kyle Lohse consecutively. On Thursday, the Pirates lost a game in which Russ Ortiz started for Houston. Clearly this point in the season is as good as any to start a feature named "Futilitywatch."