Now that's what I call logic

You've probably noticed that the Pirates have run into a TON of outs on the base paths so far this season. I know I certainly have. Luckily for us, Doug Mientkiewicz is ready to explain:

"If you play the game to win, you have to take chances," he said before the game last night. "If you play the game safely, you're not going anywhere. I think the safe way around here hasn't worked. I don't mean to be rude, but I'm not here to lose."

OK, that makes sense. I get that. I'd rather watch a team and lose and play hard than lose and not play hard. Unfortunately Dougie keeps taking:

"In my case, was I out by 10 feet? Yeah. But it took a perfect throw. And the odds of a team getting three hits in a row in extra innings are pretty slim off a good bullpen. Hey, I'd rather go down swinging than being passive."

Somehow "out by ten feet" and "took a perfect throw" don't totally sync in my book. And having to no faith in the lineup isn't great either. But that's nothing compared to this:

"When word starts getting around the league that we're taking chances, those throws won't be on line for long," Mientkiewicz said. "You'll see outfielders picking up their heads a little faster to see what we're doing. I played on a team in Minnesota where we ran the bases like wild men. And we ran ourselves out of a lot of innings. And games. But we also created a lot of winning streaks in the long haul because we started to get other teams to throw the ball around. Nobody wanted to play us."

So, uh, if I understand correctly, running into outs on the basepaths will lead to other teams being afraid of the Pirates' prodigious base running skills, leading them to not throw the Pirates out as often? That's ... I don't know what that is. That's a guy that's frustrated at having been thrown out on the bases, I think.