Dennis Eckersley Ripped The Pirates Organization To Shreds From The Red Sox Booth

Dennis Eckersley did not hold back when giving his thoughts on the current state of the Pittsburgh Pirates last night. Tough as he may have been, a "hodgepodge of nothingness" is a pretty apt way to describe a lineup which features the likes of Tucupita Marcano, Bligh Madris and Jason Delay.

He's not wrong and I'm sure Pirates fans agree with him, but I don't know that I'd be taking any shit from a Red Sox commentator right now. Is it better to be in last place with the sixth-highest payroll in baseball than in last place and obviously tanking? At least it's obvious why the Pirates suck: they're doing so on purpose. What's Boston's excuse?

On the whole, though, Eckersley is correct. The team Pittsburgh is putting on the field right now is a joke — I'm a big baseball fan and had never heard of five of the Pirates' starters from last night. I don't necessarily know what steps MLB can take to curtail the level of some of the tanking we've seen recently, much of it from the same teams who never improve, but something should be done for the sake of the fans in Pittsburgh, Detroit and Oakland.