For 15 years, the Pirates have been the opposite of a Weeble, that toy with the slogan: "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down."

Pirates wobble but they don't stay up.

They'll have short bursts of competence, only to revert to failing miserably. As a result, they nail an annual winning percentage between .400 and .450 with an almost metronomic efficiency.

The latest 1-9 road trip, in which your Pittsburgh ballclub played with the ferocity the Washington Generals display against the Harlem Globetrotters, leaves them in the same territory last September's eight-game losing streak did.

The Pirates should lose between 87 and 95 games for a sixth consecutive season and, if they lose five of the next six, can drop exactly 95 for the third consecutive year. That would be the 13th time in 15 seasons that the team has lost between 83 and 95, the exceptions being the strike year of 1994 (53-61, for a relatively robust .465 winning percentage) and the maiden 2001 season in PNC Park when they lost 100.

That .440 winning percentage across 15 summers is why a recent ESPN poll has Pirates fans winning about the only thing they can: "Whose fans have it the worst?"

The Steelers, playing just on Sundays, have won two more than the Pirates in the past nine days.

So on a day when the team should announce its new general manager, let's look at a contract he might want to eat.

Manager Jim Tracy has a .418 winning percentage in two seasons, continuing a downward trend from his predecessor Lloyd McClendon (.430), his predecessor Gene Lamont (.456), his predecessor Jim Leyland (.496) and his predecessor Chuck Tanner (.509).

Any of those men would tell you that better players make the manager smarter, but Tracy certainly hasn't done much to impress. His teams, particularly this year's model, have underachieved even by the modest standard of avoiding 90 losses. It's hard to blame Tracy for Jason Bay and Zach Duke having their worst seasons, but is Tracy worth a million bucks a year? The new GM might decide it's better to pay Tracy that to go. He has another year on his three-year contract.

About the only thing for which you can credit Tracy this month is looking to the future rather than trying to pad his win total. He has been starting Duke and Paul Maholm because they'll have to pitch well if the team is to escape a record-tying 16th losing season next year.

Continuing to start the best pitchers, Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny, is more problematic. Snell could pitch more than 20 innings and Gorzelanny more than 40 above previous career highs last season. Some have suggested shutting them down to protect their arms, but Tracy believes they should experience a long season in preparation for that year when the Pirates have big September games they'll have to pitch.

Gorzelanny has been off his game in his past couple of starts, chasing his 15th win; he has given up 21 hits, 6 walks and 10 earned runs in 10 2/3 innings. Snell, more experienced in a long season, has settled into a nice groove in four September starts (1-1, 1.67 ERA, 20 strikeouts, 13 walks, 21 hits in 27 innings).

Snell's stats might make a case for building up an arm, but given the Pirates' track record in protecting young pitchers, it might be better for Gorzelanny to skip his final start and leave at 195 2/3 innings, still well above the 161 1/3 he pitched in the majors and minors last year.

Matt Morris is another story. He needs to end his year on a good note because he is due $9.5 million in 2008 and lately hasn't pitched like he is worth a tenth of that.

Former general manager David Littlefield traded for Morris, 33, not long before Littlefield was sacked (coincidence, some say). The Morris deal was shocking because it seemed a bigger gamble than signing Tony Armas last winter, and is looking more so now.

Armas, four years younger than Morris at 29, hasn't been good. The Pirates surely will buy out Armas' contract for $500,000 rather than pay him $5 million next season. Morris comes with no such parachute, and he has pitched so poorly in 10 Pirates starts, Armas has been slightly more valuable this season.

Since the All-Star Break, their work for the team hasn't been close:

In a column two weeks ago, I argued that Littlefield was better than his predecessor, Cam Bonifay, because he didn't leave a toxic waste dump of bad contracts behind.

Unless Morris rebounds to be at least an average pitcher, Littlefield will have Bonifayed his successor good.