Pittsburgh Pirates: A work in progress....Again.
I'm gonna go off topic a bit and talk about the Pittsburgh Pirates. The last time the Pirates made the playoffs and had a winning season all happened at the same instance. The year was 1992. Braves fans will remember the battles between the Braves and Pirates. This was a big rivalry for it's time.
Alot has changed since then, and some might go as far as saying Pittsburgh has been under the curse of Barry Bonds. '92 was his last voyage on the pirate ship. Every year I look at Pittsburgh's roster and see the unrecognizable names. There a team that is in a constant rebuild mode. Take a look at the Pirate outfield this century. Before being traded to San Diego Brian Giles was the only staple in LF while the other spots were leased out for a year. That role has now been taken over by another LF Jason Bay who has played 2 consecutive years. It's a makeshift team year in year out. Do they give up too easy? Quite possibly so. There in the NL Central competing with Cubs, Cards, Brewers, Astros but c'mon you can't give up on your team so easily.
This offseason I've been impressed with their aggressive dealing. The Pirates have acquired Damaso Marte, Joe Randa, Sean Casey, Roberto Hernandez, and maybe Jeromy Burnitz. Here's a mock lineup card: CF Duffy, 3B Randa, 1B Casey, LF Bay, RF Burnitz, C Doumit, 2b Castillo, SS J. Wilson. It's not a bad team, but still not quite a divisional champion.
On the mound this team needs to ride the waves of Oliver Perez and Zach Duke. These two are the future of Pirate pitching. Fogg and Wells were brought over from the White Sox back in 2002; the Pirates actually got the better end of the deal. Wells is supposedly the #1 ace but like the rest of the team has struggled. In the end, this team may come close to or at .500 like this year's Brew Crew but there gonna have to gel together much sooner than later.
Alot has changed since then, and some might go as far as saying Pittsburgh has been under the curse of Barry Bonds. '92 was his last voyage on the pirate ship. Every year I look at Pittsburgh's roster and see the unrecognizable names. There a team that is in a constant rebuild mode. Take a look at the Pirate outfield this century. Before being traded to San Diego Brian Giles was the only staple in LF while the other spots were leased out for a year. That role has now been taken over by another LF Jason Bay who has played 2 consecutive years. It's a makeshift team year in year out. Do they give up too easy? Quite possibly so. There in the NL Central competing with Cubs, Cards, Brewers, Astros but c'mon you can't give up on your team so easily.
This offseason I've been impressed with their aggressive dealing. The Pirates have acquired Damaso Marte, Joe Randa, Sean Casey, Roberto Hernandez, and maybe Jeromy Burnitz. Here's a mock lineup card: CF Duffy, 3B Randa, 1B Casey, LF Bay, RF Burnitz, C Doumit, 2b Castillo, SS J. Wilson. It's not a bad team, but still not quite a divisional champion.
On the mound this team needs to ride the waves of Oliver Perez and Zach Duke. These two are the future of Pirate pitching. Fogg and Wells were brought over from the White Sox back in 2002; the Pirates actually got the better end of the deal. Wells is supposedly the #1 ace but like the rest of the team has struggled. In the end, this team may come close to or at .500 like this year's Brew Crew but there gonna have to gel together much sooner than later.
posted by Adam at
1:18 PM
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