Tracy's stepson

John Perrotto interprets the 17-34 start:

it is disingenuous of Tracy to completely distance himself from the failures of this season.

He hasn't been immune to making mistakes, such as letting Oliver Perez go back out for the ninth inning of Sunday's 5-4 defeat against Houston after he had already thrown 120 pitches.

Putting a catcher like Ryan Doumit at first base where he could misplay a hot smash into the game-winning run in the late innings at Arizona last Tuesday wasn't a great tactical move.

Pinch hitting Hernandez, the Pirates' least productive hitter, for Craig Wilson, one of the Pirates' most productive hitters, in the 10th inning of the blown bunt game in Cleveland was another shaky decision.

Tracy is right to hold his players accountable. After all, they get paid large sums of money to perform.

But you get the feeling from listening to Tracy on a regular basis that he believes he was 17-0 in the Pirates' first 51 games and his players were 0-34.

Read the whole thing to learn about Tracy's stepson.