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It is that time of year ladies and gentlemen. Spring Training is coming to a close and Opening Day is vastly approaching. Since Opening Day is getting closer and closer, it is time for my Pirates preview. This year I'm going to do things a little differently. Its going to be a position by position breakdown of what this team has right now and maybe what the future could hold.      One are that the Pirates have some future hope is at the corners of the infield or first base and third base. Last season, we had a mix of players play the positions ranging from Pedro Alvarez to Garrett Jones. We used minor leaguers Chase d'Arnuad and Josh Harrison and at the trade deadline we acquired Derrek Lee who tore it up in September but opted for retirement instead of signing with the Pirates. Before I tell you what this year will look like, let's have a look at the 2011 First and Third Baseman. Pedro Alvarez had an amazing last month to the 2010 season and finish with 16 homers. However, he took a major step back in 2011. He batted .191 with only 4 HR's and 19 RBI's. He only played in 74 games because of injuries and being sent down to Triple-A Indianapolis to try to figure out was happened between 2010 and 2011. He starts this season being the starter at third base but the Pirates traded Jose Veras to Milwaukee for Casey McGehee. They brought McGehee in to play in case Pedro doesn't figure out his swing. Some say he was rushed through the minors, others say that he just needs to work it out in the majors and it will come. Once Alvarez figures it out, this team will come together offensively.       
      We had two others that played third. Josh Harrison and Pedro Ciriaco split some time there as well. Harrison hit .272 in 65 games and Ciriaco hit .303 in 23 games. While these two were good backups, they are not the future at this position. Alvarez is going to be the future or the Pirates will have to look elsewhere. This season Harrison is joined by McGehee and Matt Hague, who will make this team because Charlie Morton is starting the season on the 15-day DL, are gonna play along Alvarez at third.       
       First base on the other hand has a few options. Last year, Garrett Jones and Lyle Overbay platooned first. Jones hit .243 in 148 games and Overbay .227 in 103 games. Jones played right field as well as first. Steve Pearce was given one last chance to show the potential he had in the minors but only hit .202 in 50 games. The trade deadline came and the Pirates made a slight splash by picking up Derrek Lee from the Baltimore Orioles for a couple Single A prospects. He made a bigger splash when he started playing then he took a pitch to his wrist and was out for all of August when the Pirates went 8-22. He game back in September and finished with a .337 BA, 7 HR and 18 RBI. Unfortunately, Lee decided to opt for retirement instead of signing with the Pirates.     
     This season we have Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee platooning first as well as Matt Hague on the bench. Hague has shown some good potential by just collecting hit after hit in the spring. However, we will see if that converts to regular season success. I feel that Jones and McGehee will do just fine at first but I think this team should take a long look at Hague who was a MVP at Triple-A last season. Of course all of what happens depends on Pedro Alvarez. If he has a great season, the McGehee will play at first more often than third. If Pedro struggles than we will see McGehee and Harrison at third, Jones and Hague will play more at first.

It is that time of year ladies and gentlemen. Spring Training is coming to a close and Opening Day is vastly approaching. Since Opening Day is getting closer and closer, it is time for my Pirates preview. This year I'm going to do things a little differently. Its going to be a position by position breakdown of what this team has right now and maybe what the future could hold.

Let's look at what the catcher position brought us last year. Last year we used 8 different catchers. It ranged from our regulars Chris Snyder and Ryan Doumit to Dusty Brown and Wyatt Toregas. Chris Snyder hurt his back in June and was done for the season. Doumit hurt his ankle and missed most of the season. When both went down to injury, we used Dust Brown and Wyatt Toregas. They were not great but they filled a position until the team traded for Michael McKenry from Boston. His average wasn't great, a .222 hitter last year, sured up the position because of his defense and his ability to manage the game and keep the pitchers cool. Everyone wanted to see Tony Sanchez jump for Double-A to the majors but GM Neal Huntington said he wasn't ready to join the team.

Let's put how bad the catcher's spot was on offensive into perspective with some stats. The total Home Runs hit by Pirates catchers was 13. Mike Napoli hit the most by a catcher 30. His team, the Rangers, were in the World Series. The collective Batting Average of the Catchers for the Pirates was .219 or .265 if you use only the 3 regular catchers (McKenry, Snyder, Doumit). Victor Martinez hit .330 for the Tigers and they won the AL Central. Pirates catchers hit a total of 65 RBI's. Martinez hit 103. This is one area that lacked in offensive production last season.

2012 brings a little more hope than what 2011 showed. They let the oft-injured Ryan Doumit go. He signed with Minnesota. Chris Snyder has also signed with . We kept Michael McKenry, who will keep some of that familiarity with the pitching staff. The Pirates sign Rod Barajas in the off season as well. He brings a veteran presence to the catching position. His batting average wasn't so great last year,.230 , but he does has some pop in his bat. Tony Sanchez is supposedly our future at catcher. He didn't seem to look that way in 2011, however he did come back from breaking his jaw twice. This season, he has something to prove in the Triple A.

I believe that the what the catchers lack in offense they definitely make up for in defense and being able to call a game. This season I think these two will bring just enough offense to help the team but not enough to push the team that much closer to a winning season. I say Mike McKenry finishes with a .245 BA, 5 HR and 25 RBI's, Barajas with .265 BA 15-20 HR and 55-65 RBI's.

A news update today on the Trib Live states that the Pirates Organization is raising ticket prices for next season. They haven't done this since 2002, when the Pirates lost 100 games during PNC Park's first season. The Pirates haven't stated how much the prices will jump but because they are doing [so good] that they need to charge people to see this "improvement". This would O.K. to accept if it were another team that was already winning multiple seasons but not getting to the playoffs but [still] winning. After 18 seasons the Pirates are starting to show positive light; so what is the first thing management does, raise prices? I really don't see that being a good idea, especially after that 10 game losing streak, when we are starting the real Pirates come out.

Now don't whine and say I'm being harsh on the Pirates; they are doing a lot better this year then previous years, true, they are but lets not push this expectation further then it needs to go. Lets just get a winning season first, do it again next year and if [they] do win again next year, by all means raise ticket prices. I just don't want to hear all the whiny Bandwagon fans complaining about prices going up then next year the Pirates "fall short of expectations" and hear all that whiny bull crap, "the Pirates suck", "when will they get it together?". Stuff like that makes me mad. I loved the Pirates since I was little and I will in the future.

I believe if the Pirates were doing good BUT the attendance at home games stayed the same, they would not have raised ticket prices. You only have all the Bandwagon'ers that show up when a team is winning to sellout games and make "the brass" think we should capitalize on this by charging more. And when those same Bandwagon'ers don't show up any other day when the Pirates are losing again; we [the] regular fans get to pay higher prices, because of their "one time attendance".

I'm sorry Pittsburgh, you seriously are a Bandwagon town and it is disgusting. Why can't you just be true to the team you like and the ones you don't? If you have never liked the Pirates when they were losing don't like them now because they are winning. That's like saying [though personally I'm not] I'm a Yankee fan hardcore, I wear all the team merchandise, go to the games, I bleed blue and white; BUT because you live in Pittsburgh, you have to conform to those around you and become an Pirates fan overnight.

* About me: I am not a professional journalist, I do not have the training or anything like that. My talents lie with Business Management and Web Design. I do like to write occasionally
Written by Adam Davidson, Submitted 8/12/11

So on this date, August 5th, the Pirates are 54-56, 7 games out of first place. It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the Pirates.

It started with the second game in the Atlanta Braves series. The game went 19 innings and the Pirates were able to shut down the Braves from the 7th inning on. Unfortunately, the game ended with a bad call. Julio Lugo was on his way home from a ground ball and Pedro Alvarez made his throw home. Michael McKenry caught the ball a good few feet before Lugo started to slide. McKenry made the tag but the umpire, Jerry Meals, called Lugo safe and the game ended on that call. The problem is that the replays showed that McKenry made the tag before Lugo touched home plate. Fans actually started threatening Meals’ family. This took it too far. It’s one thing to complain on social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter, but there is no reason to threaten a person’s family. He made a bad call; it happens and until we have a system in place this is what we have. The next night, the game went extra innings, 10 innings, and again the Pirates lost.

One thing that was evident during these four games is that the Pirates lacked a power bat. It has been evident all season but it was really emphasized during the Atlanta series. So last Sunday the trade deadline came and went with the Pirates doing something they haven’t done in a while, being buyers at the deadline. For those of you who don’t know what I mean it is very simple, being buyers at the deadline means that you add to your team to address your needs, like a primary power bat. If you are a seller at the deadline, it means that you know you’re not going to make the playoffs so you trade away some talent to get younger better in the long run. It is what the Pirates have done for the last 18 years. They have given away great talents like Jason Bay, Jason Schmidt, Xavier Nady, Nate McLouth, etc. This year, we added Derrek Lee and Ryan Ludwick. Both Lee and Ludwick add a power bat to the lineup that we desperately need in order to keep up with St. Louis and Milwakee.  Lee made his mark by clubbing two home runs in his debut. Unfortunately, Ryan Ludwick went 0-4.

The Pirates are in the midst of a 7 game losing streak. We were swept by the Phillies, which was not a surprise because the Phillies are the best team in the majors. It would be tough to beat them when you face Halladay, Lee, and Worley. The Cubs came into town for a 4 game series. We were 6-2 against them so far this year and have owned the Cubs over the past few seasons. This series though played out a little different than recent series have. The Cubs swept the Pirates. At least 2 of the games were lost by one run. Charlie Morton and James McDonald each had a great start in this series, both went seven innings. The problem came in the 8th innings of each game. We don’t have that setup guy to get us to Hanrahan in the 9th.

It was one of the issues that should have been addressed at the trade deadline but the Pirates addressed the need for a power bat. It will be a tough last two months. I still hold out hope for the team that they will finish above .500. I’m not worried about the division title. It was nice to get the lead for the fans sake, but we need to focus on just getting a winning season. This is the number one objective for me as a fan. Get a winning season then the rest will follow. The starting pitching is turning around back to where they were at the beginning season, but the bullpen is starting to lose the luster it had this year. Evan Meek might be back in September but it’s looking very unlikely. Hopefully we can get a set up man at the August waiver trade deadline.

Otherwise, it is going to be a tough last couple of months for the Pirates to finish above .500. This should be goal number one. The division will come later.
Written by James Barry, Submitted 8/4/11

I was watching today’s  Pirate game, they won 9-1, and it made me think of what type of team this is. This team doesn’t have a lot of high price talent like the Red Sox, Yankees, or Philadelphia. They do however have the right type of players. Players who believe in Clint Hurdle’s system and want to win now are what this team has. Neil Walker, Andrew McCutchen, and Alex Presley make up the young guys who are showing that Neal Huntington is making the right decisions in drafting and when he traded guys like Jason Bay and Nate McLouth away. Charlie Morton is one of the guys who we got in the McLouth trade. He struggled last year to a 2-12 record. This year however, he has a 7-5 record and a 3.80 ERA. It’s been an interesting ride for him to get to this season.

It all started back in the summer of 2009. The Pittsburgh Pirates traded Nate McLouth to the Atlanta Braves for Gorkys Hernandez, Jeff Locke, and Charlie Morton. So far, Hernandez and Locke are still in the minor league system but they should be joining the major league club within a couple of years. Morton has since been called up to the majors and shown that at his best, he is the ace of the staff. He has played 3 seasons for the Pirates. In 2009, he threw 97 innings in 18 starts. He went 5-9 with a 4.55 ERA. He also threw a complete game with a shutout. His ’09 season showed that he is very good but has room for improvement.

2010 was a big step back for Morton. While in the minors, one of his big pitches was a devastating sinker. Unfortunately, when he came to Pittsburgh, then pitching Coach Joe Kerrigan shied him away from that sinker. It showed in the stats.  He went 1-9 in his first 10 starts. Ross Ohlendorf also struggled to a 1-11 record. Morton however was expected to grow. He ended up being sent back to the minors to work out his issues. He spent some time with a psychologist to work on his low self confidence. He obtained this because he struggled more than he should have. When he came back to the team, there was a different pitching coach by the name of Ray Searage. Then-manager John Russell brought him in because he needed to prove that he could win, but it didn’t help and he was let go.

Ray Searage, however, was retained under new manager Clint Hurdle. It gave him a full spring training to work with all the pitchers from Joel Hanrahan to Charlie Morton. He helped build Morton’s confidence back up and brought back Morton’s sinker. Charlie now has a record of 7-5 and 3.80 ERA. One showing stat about him is his ground ball to fly ball ratio. It is 1.81. It shows that the ball is being hit on the infield more than in the air. His last few starts have been a little worry some but he is coming around. One thing I’ve noticed about him this year is that his self confidence is back. He also has had Chris Snyder, who is on the DL, and Ryan Doumit, who is also on the DL, calm him down if he started walking too many guys or giving up too many base runners.

All of this shows that Charlie Morton, when on his game, is one of the better pitchers in baseball. He struggles at times but every pitcher has a bad start or two. I believe he is in this team’s long term plans and will not be traded. One day, we could see a starting staff of Morton, Gerrit Cole, Stetson Allie, Luis Hereida, and Jameson Taillon. The day all of these guys come together could mean a dynasty is in order. However, 3 of these guys are in the minors still and Cole has yet to sign on the dotted line. As a fan, it makes everyone excited to see this team for the next few years to come.
Written By James Barry, Submitted 7/10/11

How many people thought that the Pirates after three months of the regular season went by that they would be 2 games over the .500 mark? Nobody, except a few crazy optimists, in this city thought that. We all believed that this team would be about 6-10 games under by this time. However this team goes every night and proves us wrong. They prove us wrong with pitching and timely hitting.

Our pitching has been the biggest reason why we are competing so well this year. Kevin Corriea has been the biggest surprise in the rotation. He has gone 10-6 with a 3.79 ERA. I thought coming into this season, he would be one of the players that would have to have a better season than his last in San Diego in order to help this team win. So far he is showing that he was a better signing than Jorge De La Rosa, who by the way has been shut down for the season with a shoulder injury. I’ve already established how well Charlie Morton has done this year but in case you have forgotten, 7-4 with a 3.63 ERA. He has struggled over his last few starts but they gave him a day off so he could rest and get back to the groundball machine he was. Jeff Karstens might be the biggest surprise on this staff as well. Since he was put in the rotation, when Ross Ohlendorf went down with a shoulder injury, he has pitched better than expected, 6-4 with a 2.65 ERA. His ERA is 6th best in the National League right now. It shows that when given the opportunity, players on this team can surprise you. Joel Hanrahan is another one of those surprises. The man has converted 23 out of 23 saves. I thought that manager Clint Hurdle was a little crazy when he named Hanrahan the closer at the beginning of spring training, but I see now he made the right call. Pittsburgh has the 5th best ERA in the National League, 3.47. Daniel McCutchen has a 2.14 ERA and he was supposed to come out of the bullpen in long relief. He has shown he can get guys out in high pressure situations. Paul Maholm may have a 4-7 record but his ERA, 3.17, isn’t the reason that he has 7 losses. The Pirates just don’t seem to get any run support for him.

The Pirates bats have been the one thing that has been a little disappointing this season. Pedro Alvarez before he went on the DL, he was only hitting .208 with 42 strikeouts. Hopefully he spends a little extra time in the minors and works on whatever was plaguing him this year. Personally I think that he was forcing his swing. He wanted to hit that big home run when a single can be just as good. Andrew McCutchen, after having a slow start, has come on strong. He is hitting .289, tops on the team right now. Neil Walker is struggling a little bit right now. Even though he has 52 RBI’s, he is only hitting .250. However, that translates to being 1 for 4 in a game on average, which that one hit could be a couple RBIs. The other problem this team has been having is the strikeouts. We are 4th in the majors in strikeouts, 639. It shows that while we are more aggressive at the plate, we swing maybe a little too much. I like what Clint Hurdle has been preaching this year. When we win games, they are going to be tough, drag-out wins. This team is not built to score 6 runs a game. However, this team is built to limit teams to about 3.5 runs a game. Once a few guys get healthy, Alvarez and Ryan Doumit, this team will get back on a more consistent track at the plate.

I’m going to finish this article by talking a little bit about the trade deadline. It ends July 31st. Fans have clamored for the Pirates to trade for that big bat. It’s not going to happen. Unless they overpay for a player, which I doubt very much, this is the team that will be here for a few years. Other teams know that The Pirates have stock piled their farm system with great talent. Paul Maholm is the only real tradable option really here. I wouldn’t want to trade any pitching right now because 1) there isn’t much help in the minors yet, 2) pitching is what has carried you to this point. I think the Pirates shouldn’t make any big moves just yet, unless they get an offer that is too good for them.
Written By James Barry, Submitted 7/2/11

Well, for those of you who think interleague baseball should end, I hope you were in Pittsburgh for this past weekend’s series with the Pirates and the Red Sox. Friday, Saturday, Sunday saw PNC Park filled with fans of baseball. It was a great series that was filled with excitement and reminded all us long time Pirates fans that when the team is competitive, the city loves baseball. Look back to the 1960-79. It was the best time for baseball in Pittsburgh. In that span, we won 3 World Series titles, (1960, 1971, and 1979). We had Hall of Fame talents like Mazeroski, Clemente, and Stargell.  Even after 1979, the team enjoyed some success. Jim Leyland got the Pirates to the National League Championship in 1991 and 1992. They came within a Sid Bream slide at home to making the World Series in 1992. After that season, the Pirates have not had a winning season. Pirates’ fans know this but the reason I bring it up is because fans showed up to see this team play successful baseball.

Most of the fans might have been Red Sox fans but the Pirates definitely showed up in support of their team. It was like a few years ago when the Pirates played the Yankees. We won 2 out of 3 against them as well, including a game in July that was suspended from rain. This series sold out before the season began. It sold out when single game tickets went on sale. As a fan of the Red Sox and the Pirates, I was very excited to see this series. Now in years past, I would have said that the Sox would sweep the Buccos, especially since the Red Sox are the best team in the American League. So, as I have most of this season, I had lowered expectations going into this series. I don’t have to defend why but all I need to say is 18 years of losing and you would be skeptical. This series, as most of the season has gone, was quite surprising. It started off with the Pirates winning game one, 3-1. The bullpen came through in the clutch for us on this night. Paul Maholm pitched 5 plus innings giving up 6 hits and one run. The combined efforts of Chris Resop, Tony Watson, Daniel McCutchen, Jose Veras, and Joel Hanrahan kept the Red Sox to that one run.  Jose Veras came through with probably the biggest battle of the evening. He gave up a couple quick hits to Darren McDonald and J.D. Drew. Jason Varitek sacrificed to third which moved McDonald and Drew to second and third. Marco Scutaro struck out looking to bring up the pitchers spot. Terry Francona called upon one of the most clutch hitters in Sox history, David Ortiz. He came up with 2 on and 2 out and Veras battled with him. Veras got him to ground out to the short stop to end the inning. Joel Hanrahan came in and shut down the Sox in the 9th for his 21st save in 21 chances.

Game 2 of this series brought its own drama and excitement. 5 total home runs were hit in this game. Pirates hit two HRs and got a big one from Lyle Overbay in the 4th inning. He hit a booming shot to right field and scored Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker. Jeff Karstens even helped his own cause by singling in Ronny Cedeno to take the lead 4-2. Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Reddick and Jacoby Ellsbury all homered for the Red Sox, all solo home runs. Garret Jones hit a solo home run for the Pirates as well. Once again the bullpen came through for the Pirates. Jeff Karstens gave 4 runs in 6 and 2/3 innings. Daniel McCutchen, Daniel Moskos, Tim Wood, Tony Watson, and Joel Harahan proved that this team’s strength is in the bullpen. They limited the Sox to 3 hits over the last 2 and 2/3 innings. Hanrahan once again showed that he deserves an All Star selection with his 22nd save in 22 chances. Pirates won this one 6-4.

Game three however showed that the Pirates are still learning. They committed 4 errors en route to a 4-2 loss. It was a little disappointing for this rising team. James McDonald threw 6 innings but 101 pitches. He gave up 5 hits, 2 runs and struck out 5. It was a decent start but the errors were too much for the Pirates to overcome. This game also had another development. Jose Tabata strained his left quadriceps running out a bunt to first. He was taken out on a stretcher, which is not a good sign. He has since been put on the disabled list. Alex Presley was called up Monday and will more than likely take his spot in the lineup since he is hitting .336 in Triple A Indianapolis.  Jonathan Papelbon came in and shut down the Pirates in the ninth for his 14th save.

This series showed that while the Pirates are definitely getting better that the team still has some room for improvement. Sooner or later, the starters will level out and the bullpen will be relied upon later in the season. Hopefully by that point, McDonald and Charlie Morton remember that they can be very great. Morton has lost some luster on his throws. It is still a long ways away from saying where this team can finish but they have shown us that it’s ok to believe the hype for now, just be cautious.
Written By James Barry, Submitted 6/27/11

It was a series filled with drama and late inning come backs. The Pirates took two of three from the Arizona Diamondbacks. The first game of the series had some drama. Top of the 1st inning Kelly Johnson homered of off Pirates starter Kevin Corriea. Pirates get the lead back though. Bottom of the 2nd, Chris Snyder hits a sacrifice fly to deep center field. Andrew McCutchen scored on the sac fly. Ronny Cedeno was up 2 batters later and singled in Lyle Overbay to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead. Bottom of the 4th inning, Andrew McCutchen hits a ground rule double to deep center. He moved over to third on a Lyle Overbay fly out to center. Chris Snyder up again and again he sacrifice flies to left to score Andrew McCutchen from third. Pirates are up 3-1 at this point. Next inning, the D’Backs takes the lead over. Juan Miranda homers to right field. Kelly Johnson singled to center, plating Daniel Hudson and Ryan Roberts. The inning gave the D’Backs the lead 4-3 at that point. Chris Young came up in the top of the 8th and hit a blast to deep left field, 412 feet, and added on to Arizona’s lead making it 5-3.

The Pirates were not done on this night however. Garrett Jones started off the rally by hitting a double to deep right center field. Jose Tabata was up next and hit another double to right field to plate Jones. Pirates trail 5-4 at this point. Josh Harrison, who was recently called up to play third with Pedro Alvarez on the DL, hits a single to score Tabata. Pirates tied it up at 5-5. Xavier Paul stepped up next and hit an infield single that move Harrison to second. Andrew McCutchen took a walk and brought up Lyle Overbay with the bases loaded. Overbay delivered with a bases clearing double to give the Pirates the lead for good, 8-5. Joel Hanrahan came in and closed it out for his 15th save in 15 chances.  Some notes from this game are as follows. How the teams did with RISP, Pirates with runners in scoring position 4-12, D’Backs 1-7. Kevin Corriea faced 23 batters and threw 14 first pitch strikes. Daniel Hudson faced 26 batters and threw 16 first pitch strikes.  Daniel Moskos still has yet to surrender an Earned run at this point.

Game 2 brought the same amount of late inning drama. This one went 12 innings. Chris Snyder left this game with a back injury in the 2nd inning. He was trying to extend a single to a double and hurt his back on the slide. He is now on the 60 day DL after having back surgery. Ryan Doumit is out till July, which doesn’t leave this team with an experienced catcher. Dusty Brown was called up when Doumit was hurt because Jason Jaramillo was also on the DL. The 3rd inning, the Pirates scored first via an Andrew McCutchen sacrifice fly to left field. The sac fly scored Jose Tabata to give the Bucs a 1-0 lead. Top of the 8th, Arizona tied it. Stephen Drew, younger brother of Boston’s J.D. Drew, singled in Kelly Johnson to tie it at 1-1. Pirates couldn’t score in the bottom of the eighth or the ninth so this game went to extra innings.  The Diamondbacks scored in the top of the 10th when Drew came through again with another single that scored Kelly Johnson. They led 2-1 at that point. J.J. Putz came into close out the game for the D’Backs.  Unfortunately, he couldn’t. Neil Walker came through for the Pirates with a single that scored Andrew McCutchen.  It tied this ball game up 2-2. Bottom of the 12th and Andrew McCutchen came to the plate. He hit a blast to left field that stayed fair long enough to win the game for the Pirates. The Pirates returned to .500, 30-30, for the first time this late in the season since 2005. One thing that has kept this team around .500 is the starting pitching. This was another start where the starter gave up only 2 runs or less.  Paul Maholm is a lot better than his record indicates. He has not gotten a lot of run support this season.

The third game of this series however didn’t go the Pirates way. Jeff Karstens went 7 strong innings not giving up a single run and limiting this Arizona ball club to only 4 hits. Chris Resop unfortunately could not keep the shutout going. He let Micah Owings on with a single. Chris Young came up and ended the shutout with one swing of the bat. He blasted the pitch to left field and gave the D’Backs a 2-0 lead. The Pirates couldn’t get anything going in the bottom of the eighth and the ninth innings unfortunately and took the loss to drop a game below .500.

This series showed that this team is not the same team as last year. Last year, this team would have not come back in those situations. Some of the credit goes to Clint Hurdle, but most of the credit goes to this team. They were a very young team last year. They figured out what they were doing wrong and fixed it. It helps when you have an experienced manager who has dealt with molding a young team together.
Written By James Barry, Submitted 6/11/11

So we are officially two plus months into this season and the Pirates have been hovering at the .500 mark. We were 18-17 on May 9th, then as the Pirates do best, we lost 5 straight to drop 4 games under at that point. It hasn’t been all bad. As of today, June 6th, the Pirates are only 28-30. They have just taken 2 out of 3 from the best team in the NL, the Philadelphia Phillies. Surprisingly, this team is a lot better than the team that lost 105 games last season.  The big part of the turnaround is that the pitching has been a lot better.

The Pirates had a 5.00 ERA in 2010. This year we have improved to a 3.53 ERA. Most of that comes from Charlie Morton having turned around his game. We all know the story of Morton. He struggled extremely, last year under former pitching coach Joe Kerrigan. Ray Searage replaced him as pitching coach and has helped him get back to where he was when the Pirates traded for him. Searage got Charlie to look at footage of his delivery and they both agreed that it wasn’t correct. They took the offseason and this spring to redo his release point. Morton has added his devastating sinker back into his pitches and it shows a lot. His ground ball per fly ball rate is 1.90, best in the majors. He also is tied with Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay with 158, 3rd best in the majors. If you read my article previewing this season for the Pirates, you would know that Charlie Morton was on my, if he recovers from last season, list. Another one on that list was Kevin Corriea.  Kevin Corriea has been better than expected. He is tied for the major league lead in wins with Roy Halladay, 8. He is 16th in the National League with a 3.40 ERA. One of the other options the Pirates we considering signing was Jorge De La Rosa. He had a 3.51 ERA but will be out for the rest of the year with a shoulder injury. James MacDonald is 3-4 but he had a slow start to the season, having missed a lot of spring training with a left side injury. Paul Maholm has a 2-7 record but he is not getting the run support.

Let’s not forget the bullpen either. The team’s bullpen ERA last year was 4.57. It shows high because the starters were not going 5 or 6 innings a lot. This year’s ERA, 3.35, is lower for the reason that the starters are going 6 or 7 innings into the game, giving the bullpen time to rest. Joel Hanrahan is a perfect 14 for 14 in save opportunities. Daniel McCutchen has a 2.03 ERA and has become a very reliable option after he was supposed to be a starting pitcher. Daniel Moskos was drafted as a starter out of Clemson but he has a 0.00 ERA out of the bullpen.

However, all is not well in the world of the Pirates. The hitting is the one issue plaguing this team. Their team average, .239, is 14th in the NL. They have only scored 227 runs, 13th in the NL. Neil Walker has a .265 average, Andrew McCutchen a .273 average, and Jose Tabata a .239 average. These three guys are supposed to be the future of the franchise and they need to hit more. I get that they are still young but I guess I expect more from the guys who are supposed to bring a winning season to this city. I didn’t mention Pedro Alvarez. The reason is because he has been on the disabled list twice this year and he hasn’t had the chance to really get his bat going. I think that once healthy, he should take a couple extra games in the minors and work on his mechanics. I believe he keeps trying to hit the home run, when a single can be just as good.

I just can’t get over that our pitching is doing so well yet, our hitting hasn’t come around yet. All I keep hearing is that it will come around soon. My hope is that it comes around in time for a big August/September push and we get that oh so elusive .500 season.
Written By James Barry, Submitted 6/6/11