The Pittsburgh front office made two bad decisions in signing Barmes and Barajas. Over time those two offensive black holes would be enough to sink any offense not belonging to the Yankees or the Reds.

Can anyone explain why the starting pitching went blewie all at once? Did the lack of offense finally get in their heads? Or were they simply pitching above their ability level earlier in the year and returned to mean? Just curious.

Some of the problem is developmental, a natural growing pains process. Marte is LF looks like a worthwhile commitment, but you have to deal with what it necessarily entails. Alvarez has shown remarkable signs of progress, but teams still respond to the pick-your-poison dilemma by walking Cutch to get to Pedro, and too often it still works.

Another factor is change: even good changes take a while to work smoothly into the chemistry (see Angels, Dodgers, LA). Here, the pain that comes with patience must be endured. Barmes is an excellent SS who can develop into a .250 or so hitter, and that would be plenty given his D; Wandy will be a solid #2 or #3 starter once he settles in; Snider can become a valuable asset if they can find a place and a role for him and commit to it.

Meanwhile, Cole will be arriving next year and could become the ace of the staff. Huntington’s task this winter will be middle relief to support the Grilli-Hammer combo at the end, adding another starter who can eat up innings; and maybe making some unpleasant decisions/admissions (that long-term commitment to Tabata ain’t working out) and dealing with necessary next steps on those. But their line these past 2 yrs. has crept upward, and they need to pay attention to other low-market clubs that have managed to succeed with challenges similar to theirs (see Oakland).

It appears the front office tried to make trades to help this year, while still keeping the long-term improvement in mind. (No aging erstwhile sluggers like D-Lee and Ludwick this year.) That’s a good plan, especially with a still-young team at key positions.

The original point here is still true: they collapses both years after deadline deals were made. There needs to be an organizational investigation to figure out why.

I am a long suffering Pirates fan and I fear we don’t even break the streak at this point.

Hurdle needs to figure out a way to recapture some of their early season success and put this past 6 weeks behind them. Don’t know if it can be done at this point.

To have them play as well in the first half last year, and the first 2/3 this year (just about the best team in baseball during June and July), then collapse as they have isn’t just frustrating; it’s downright confusing. Still, Hurdle has to be evaluated by the overall results, at least for the time being. If someone wants to criticize him for the late season failures, he deserves credit for the early season successes. This is still a team with holes, and for two months this summer, no one wanted to play them.

They absolutely, positively have to get more men on base, though.