Pittsburgh Pirates:
Can the Bucks pull a Detroit Tigers and rekindle their glory days?
When you consider the most irrelevant teams in Major League Baseball, you want to look for three key indicators: a long stretch of losing seasons, a lack of a marketable superstar and an owner/management with no strong desire to improve the team. The Pirates haven't had a winning season since, ahem, 1992 (the longest losing season streak in sports); haven't had a marketable star, arguably ,since Barry Bonds left town; and well, as for their desire to improve, one has to only look at the past off-season. They did nothing. But this team isn't the Tampa "Rays," as they liked to be called these days. The Pirates have a fairly rich history which includes five World Series titles, and a number of all-time greats like Honus Wagner, Bill Mazeroski, Ralph Kiner, Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell. That's why I compare them to the Tigers, another historic team that was dwelling it down in their division's cellar before climbing to baseball's elite. The difference here being that the Tigers were, and still are, making the moves to improve their roster and compete in the American League. The Pirates have it easier in the National League, in my opinion, but it is impossible to give them any credit after such a quiet off-season. Perhaps a new, well-known manager could help, along the lines of a Jim Leyland who led Detroit to success. The former Pirate skipper would have actually been a good fit. Instead, the Pirates promoted their Triple A coach, John Russell, who they previously fired as their third base coach less than three years ago.
The Bats: Non-existent. Something tells me you’re not going to see Pirates players fly off the board at your fantasy draft this year. Jason Bay, the team’s best hitter, saw a huge decline in numbers last season. Even if he was to return to his 05-06 form, he doesn’t have enough complimentary hitters surrounding him to get runs on the board. Their second most promising, all-around threat is shaping to be Xavier Nady, who at best can be a solid .280, 20, 80, 80 guy. I haven’t forgotten about Adam LaRoche, it’s just that that aside from belting 32 homers for the Braves in 2006; the guy is average at best. His numbers also dropped last year, and he doesn’t get on base enough (.345 OBP last season). Freddy Sanchez is an above average hitter for a second baseman, who bats .300 and has an underrated knack for driving in runs at the two-hole (166 RBI in the past two seasons). I wouldn’t be surprised if some team tries to snatch him before the season’s trade deadline. After that, the rest of the team lacks speed and power, never a good thing.
The Rotation: Fair and balanced. Last year the Pirates made a puzzling mid-season trade, acquiring SP Matt Morris from the Giants for two prospects. It appeared as if they were trying to add one more piece to fill out their rotation, which is led by the duo of Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny. Both are nice starters who will suffer from a lack of run support, which can lead to frustration, which can lead to second-half declines. See...last season. The Pirates don’t have a bad rotation; they just don’t have an intimidating one. There are no glaring weaknesses, with Pat Maholm and Zack Duke most likely rounding out the bottom, but they don’t have one guy who can be considered an ace, unless they somehow mutated the best qualities of Snell (heat) and Gorzelanny (breaking stuff) to form one pitcher. All five of their guys are capable of logging innings, so run support will play huge in how well the rotation does.
Fantasy Favorite: Matt Capps. Many would say Jason Bay here, but the guy has clearly fallen off in outfielder rankings, namely because his 21 stolen bases in 2005 is proving to be an aberration. Without speed, Bay is a very pedestrian fantasy player, at least when you compare him to top-three round talent. I like Capps, who came in after the all-star break and still notched 18 saves with a 2.28 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP. What I especially like is his strikeout potential as a closer. Capps had 64 Ks in less that half a season’s work, which makes him a strong case for 100 punch-outs this year. While he won’t get as many opportunities as guys on better teams, I still like Capps to finish with around 35 saves, an ERA in the twos, and potentially, 100 strikeouts.
Outlook: Bleak. In a division where other teams got better, i.e. everyone, the Pirates are almost a mortal lock to finish in last place. The team simply doesn’t have enough run producers, by way of power, contact hitters or speedsters, to give their starters some breathing room. The pitching could be a lot worse for this team, which is strange to say, for a team I have such low expectations for. Nonetheless, the Pirates did nothing to improve their position in the NL Central this season, and barring any highly unlikely mid-season trades (and not in the Matt Morris realm of impact), I don’t see this team winning more than 68 games. There will be no return to glory. No “We are family*,” at PNC.
*The 1979 Pirates, the last team to win the World Series, adopted the disco hit “We are family” by Sister Sledge as their team song. For whatever reason, no one seemed to care that it was a song about a family of sisters.
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