Sports Betting – Pirates Hope to Clear the Next Hurdle. The Pittsburgh Pirates have been one of the worst teams against the baseball sports betting odds for a long time but they hope to turn things around next season with Clint Hurdle as their new manager.
Hurdle was the hitting coach for the Texas Rangers this past season and the Rangers had a lot of success against the online sports betting odds as they ended up winning the American League pennant.
The Pirates lost 105 games this past season, their worst season in 58 years. The Pirates fired John Russell the day after the regular season was over. It was ugly for the Pirates under Russell as they lost 299 games in three seasons. Now they will turn things over to Clint Hurdle.
Why Go with Hurdle?
The Pirates picked Hurdle because they believe he can work well with their young players. The Pirates have some young players like Neil Walker, Andrew McCutchen, Jose Tabata and others. The problem for the Pirates is that they didn’t have enough of them. The Pirates had the worst ERA in baseball and the second lowest batting average. Whether or not Hurdle can get the job done is the question. Hurdle was 534-625 with the Rockies from 2002-09. He did lead them to the World Series where they were swept by Boston. The Rockies won 14 of their final 15 games that season and then won seven straight in the playoffs before it ended in the World Series.
If you go deeper though, the Rockies were second in the NL West once under Hurdle, they finished third once, fourth a total of four times and last two times. The only winning season they had under Hurdle was that World Series year. Hurdle was fired in Colorado in May after the Rockies got off to a rotten start. It seems like the Pirates reached a little bit with the hiring of Hurdle although it may not matter since they are going to lose a lot no matter who the manager is.
Hope for Pittsburgh?
The Pirates have not had a winning season since 1992. It seems very unlikely that Hurdle is the manager that will turn things around. The Pirates have lost at least 94 games in each of the last six seasons and it may not get much better against the sports betting odds at SBG this season.