Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates are concluding yet another terrible season with only two games left in the 2010 schedule. They are going to pick first overall in next year's draft and have over 100 losses.

This seems pretty dim and honestly it is hard to get excited over much, but the Pirates have their young core finally and have reinforcements on the way.

With any luck they will be just a little bit better in 2011 and will make huge strides in 2012. No need to look that far ahead as you will need a reason to get tickets for next year.

On a good night, Zach Duke can out-duel the likes of Cy Young-winners Johann Santana or Roy Halladay. On a bad night, well, last night's nine-run outing against the Florida Marlins was all too "good" an example of such.

Do these extremes net out, or is one more important than the other in determining Duke's worth to the Pirates?

Matt Shetler nailed it when he suggested that Duke be NON-tendered and not brought back in 2011. While Duke isn't exactly the worst pitcher around, Shetler rightly pointed out that Duke IS about as bad as a VETERAN pitcher will likely be.

It was announced that Altoona Manager Matt Walbeck would not be brought back for the 2011 season, just weeks after leading the Curve to the Eastern League Championship.  Walbeck also was voted Manager of the Year in the Eastern League, which makes the move surprising.

The Pirates haven't released all of the details on the move, but it is known that Walbeck was looking to be promoted to AAA or the MLB level after his successful run in AA.  The Pirates weren't willing to create a spot for him, so they parted ways.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have compiled a 100-plus game loss record in 2010 that is unenviable even by recent standards. Yet this represents a mix of the truly awful and semi-respectable.

There are now signs of hope for their play in some divisions, particularly their home in the National League Central, which is arguably the weakest division in the majors.

The Pirates have "arrived" against the Chicago Cubs with a 10-5 season result, as good as can be reasonably hoped for.

With all of the troubles with its parent club in 2010, the Pirates AA affiliate Altoona Curve and the High-A affiliate Bradenton Marauders recently completed very successful seasons.

In case you haven't noticed, or have been too turned off by the latest 100 loss season by the Pirates, most of the real talent in the organization are currently playing at one of these two levels.

All of the trades and all of the last three successful drafts will wind up paying off in the form of these talented young players. For once, the Pirates have "real" prospects.

I was sorry to see Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez traded away last year and not just because they were good players and all around great guys. It's because they were Pirate loyalists who would have been willing to play on the team for less than they appeared to be worth on the open market.

An important consideration for the low-budget Pirates.

In most years, the Pittsburgh Pirates would be fortunate to have one breakthrough pitcher. This year, they may have found two. And neither of them were Pirates at the beginning of the year.

Neither James McDonald nor Brian Burres were highly regarded by their former teams. McDonald was traded to Pittsburgh with an outfield prospect (Andrew Lambo) for all of reliever Octavio Dotel in July.

Charlie Morton has a fastball. He also has what's been colorfully described as "filthy" stuff, pitches with strange spins and angles that are likely to confuse batters, due to body motions basically peculiar to him. So why isn't he a winning pitcher?

One example came in the final game of the Mets series. He had gotten through three scoreless innings, and was struggling in the fourth. Lucas Duda, of all people, hit a two-run double.

No, the bad news is that the Pittsburgh Pirates didn't exactly win the recent series against the division-leading Cincinnati Reds. The good news is that the two lost games were "ties" (at the end of nine innings).

Paul Maholm, Charlie Morton and Brian Burres all had quality starts going into the seventh inning and received no decisions. Late-inning surges won the final game outright, and gave the visitors chances in the other two encounters.

Pop quiz: Who is the worst starting pitcher in Major League Baseball over the last four seasons?

If you said Zach Duke, then you nailed it.

The Pirates lefty has flat-out not been very good for a span that's lasted four seasons. In that time he has compiled a 26-51 record and a 4.99 ERA and more than once has led MLB in hits allowed.