30 MLB Teams in 30 Posts - 2022 Edition: #9

Welcome back to the next post in my 30 MLB Teams in 30 Posts countdown (plus the contest - see the bottom of the post for details on that).

#9:  Pittsburgh Pirates (Previous Rankings - 2019, 2020: #3, 21)

As someone who lives in Pennsylvania, the Pirates (or the Phillies) are my "home" team.  I've always much preferred the Pirates over the Phillies (mostly because I'm a Steelers fan and I find Eagles fans to be super obnoxious).  Anyhow, I haven't minded rooting for the Pirates on the side because for the better part of almost three decades, they haven't been a problem for my Reds despite being in the same division (other than a one-game Wild Card in 2013 in which Pittsburgh won).  

You may wonder why the Pirates went from a Top 5 team in 2019 to a Bottom 10 team in 2020...that's easy to explain:  The Pirates were complete thugs in 2019.  Do you remember Yasiel Puig trying to single-handedly fight the entire Pirates team?  Do you remember Derek Dietrich hitting like Babe Ruth against the Pirates (and then standing and admiring every.  single.  long.  ball.)?  Yeah, the Pirates remember - and while the Reds didn't help things it was the 2019 Pirates who were playing dirty against the Reds (and most of the NL Central too, at least if you listened to fans of the other Central teams during that year).

Now that we are a few years out from that...and now that both the Pirates and Reds are firmly entrenched in trying to "out suck" one another with ineptitude, it's hard to find much reason to dislike Pittsburgh again (the team, that is, the owner sucks).  Also, it's always worth mentioning that the Pirates have a great ballpark and you should definitely visit it if you ever get the chance...terrible team usually, but great ballpark!

My 2022 MLB Rankings (so far):

#30:  St. Louis Cardinals

#29:  New York Yankees

#28:  Boston Red Sox

#27:  Washington Nationals

#26:  San Francisco Giants

#25:  Chicago Cubs

#24:  Milwaukee Brewers

#23:  Miami Marlins

#22:  Atlanta Braves

#21:  Texas Rangers

#20:  Arizona Diamondbacks

#19:  Philadelphia Phillies

#18:  New York Mets

#17:  Baltimore Orioles

#16:  Los Angeles Dodgers

#15:  Los Angeles Angels

#14:  San Diego Padres

#13:  Oakland Athletics

#12:  Colorado Rockies

#11:  Houston Astros

#10:  Minnesota Twins

#9:  Pittsburgh Pirates

#8:  ???

Contest entries to date (see here for details):

Fuji 30

Crocodile 30

Brett Alan 29

John Sharp 26

bbcardz 25

hiflew 22

Matt 22

The Lost Collector 20

Night Owl 13

Mike Matson 9

Jafronius 5

Nick Vossbrink 4

Wilson 3

Adam Kaningher 2

Alan Deakins 2

madding 1

Wrigley Wax 1

Up next, another team for which I had a great time watching them play in their home stadium live (in a game my Reds ended up losing - as usual I'm afraid).