CUTCH SHOULD RETIRE

Here's an excerpt from my latest TribLive.com column:

Andrew McCutchen’s “veteran leadership” isn’t helping. The Pirates are lazy and undisciplined.

McCutchen is 38. He’s 9 for 48 in July with just one extra-base hit.

If McCutchen had any pride, he’d retire. He’s being used. He’s a nostalgia act, a mascot, a pierogi in uniform, a bobblehead come to life. McCutchen should be better than that.

The Pirates are barely a baseball team. They’re a marketing department. Fireworks and bobbleheads. A carnival that happens to feature baseball. A lesser version of the Savannah Bananas.

To read more, click HERE.

That's not meant to insult McCutchen. He's an all-time Pirates great, especially against the backdrop of a franchise that's been mostly rotten for nearly 50 years.

McCutchen's numbers are certainly adding up: He passed Willie Stargell on the all-time hits list with a fourth-inning single Monday night vs. Detroit at PNC Park.

But McCutchen is mired in a dismal situation. The Pirates stink. McCutchen's talents are fading. His mobility is minimal.

Statistically, McCutchen is one of the Pirates' better players this year: His OPS of .715 ranks third on the team. His OBP of .336 ranks first. But those stats are only good in a very dire context.

McCutchen has earned $131.4 million playing baseball. He almost certainly doesn't need to make more.

It's a fun game, though, and the only livelihood McCutchen has ever known.

The Pirates are the only team that would employ McCutchen. Here's betting they want him back next year. By way of further exploiting him.

McCutchen has earned the right to call his own shots in Pittsburgh. But he'd be best served retiring.