The record since the All-Star Break does not impress me, and it does not give me a whole lot of hope for 2007. Any collection of middling professionals should manage a .500 record; such a win rate must always be the most likely outcome of many games.
When the Pirates went 30-30 to start the 2004 season, then I was excited. Not because the team was at .500, but because they had just won something like 20 of 30 to get to that mark. They were playing very well and winning at a .600+ clip for several weeks at a time.
Then they went to New York and Boston and played like the Washington Generals.
We all know that team was no good, and this current team has done nothing to show us they are any better. There may be nothing a team can do to redeem a 30-60 start short of 48-24 finish.
Expecting a ballclub to play .500 ball ranks right up there with expecting your teenage children not to get arrested. It's not much of an expectation. And it's one the Pirates have consistently missed year after year.
It's possible to enjoy winning a series from the slumping Braves, and to enjoy beating the slumping Astros, and it's fun to follow the pursuit of individual milestones like a batting-average championship. There's enough to like about the team; there's no shame in following them or pulling for them. But any talk of there being clear signs the Pirates are turning the corner--that's premature. They remain Losers with a capital "L" until the standings suggest otherwise.
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