Pittsburgh Pirates

In a night filled with stories, the Pirates finally ended one—their horrendous twelve-game losing streak.

The Pirates did so in a 6-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians in game two of the series. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1960 Pirates' World Series victory, Pittsburgh fans were out in full force at PNC Park for the third sellout of the season. A contributing factor, one might say, to the elevated play from the struggling ball club. 

Jose Bautista, a gem? With his .222 batting average? This is just another case where a player's "headline" number is rather misleading.

It's true that Bautista has "only" 52 hits in 234 at bats. But 18 of those, or more than one-third of the total, are home runs. Another 15 have gone for two or three bases. Meaning that when he does hit, it's usually not a single.

Pitcher Paul Maholm is a "veteran." So is Zach Duke. But only on the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Both of them are still arbitration eligible. Ross Ohlendorf (acquired from the Yankees in 2008) can be put into this group as well.

The same is somewhat true for recent acquisitions—shortstop Ronnie Cedeno, second baseman Akinori Iwamura, outfielder Ryan Church, and utility infielder Bobby Crosby.

On Wednesday, June 16, Jesus Christ rose again!

Christ's 1,977-year absence has been laid to rest.

He was spotted rising in Pittsburgh, in the form of baseball player Pedro Alvarez. 

Christ's disguise may have fooled many, but not Pittsburgh Pirate fans—a strong and devout group of Catholics.

When Christ came to his first at bat, he received a standing ovation from the fans that decided to come watch the Pirates lose their 10th consecutive game.

The Pittsburgh Pirates officially called up 3B prospect Pedro Alvarez from Triple-A. He was called up before Wednesday night’s game against the Chicago White Sox and batted sixth for the Pirates.

Alvarez, the second overall pick in the 2008 June Draft, was hitting .277/.363/.533 with 13 HRs and 15 doubles in 242 ABs in Triple-A. He will be the everyday third baseman moving forward and Andy LaRoche will move into a utility role for the Pirates.

I am a new writer to the Pittsburgh Pirates page but not a new writer to this site. I have lived in Pittsburgh all my life and have only been a Pirate fan for three years.

I am 20 years old and soon to be 21 in August. As everyone knows about the losing streak, that means I don’t ever recall a good Pirates team.

I got hooked on the Pirates when I bought a 10 game pack and started to attend games in 2008. Funny enough I originally got the 10 game pack to make sure I would have a ticket to one of the Yankee games.

The Pittsburgh Pirates had a great farm team, with the likes of Jose Tabata, Neil Walker, Brad Lincoln, and Pedro Alvarez. As recently as early last year, that even included Andrew McCutchen. Not to mention, Garret Jones.

Now, with the exception of Alvarez, they've been called-up to fill some fairly big holes. Alvarez's arrival is anticipated as soon as he's ready

McCutchen replaced Nate McLouth, who was traded for pitching talent, and Jones was supposedly the "new Nady."

One of them is still a cellar dwelling team. The other no longer is. And that's not just by the standings.

The Pirates' win percentage of .390 is genuinely cellar-dwelling. They've been lucky for most of the season, in that one or more teams have had (until recently) even worse showings. But this luck seems to have run out, at least for now.

The Nationals have a win percentage .483. That puts them only half a game above the cellar, but only in the very competitive National League East. They're also only five games out of first place.

The 2010 Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen leaves a lot to be desired, but Evan Meek has quietly become a very good set-up man.

His numbers this year are staggering. He's 3-1 with a 0.78 ERA and a 0.84 WHIP. In addition, his 33:8 strikeout to walk ratio is very impressive.

In a category I call quality appearances, (an appearance of 2/3 of an inning or more, with an ERA below 4.00 and a WHIP below 1.33) he is 19 of 25. That is, 76 percent and most of those that don't qualify we're not extremely poor appearances.

Let’s face it—the Pirates are a bad team. Just look at the numbers of their pitching staff, and you cannot help but cringe.

A team ERA of 5.27 is awfully telling, as they have maybe two or three usable pitchers for fantasy owners.

Help may be on the way. Top prospect Brad Lincoln has been tearing up Triple-A, earning him a recall to start tonight against the Nationals. Just look at his production:

Six Wins
68.1 Innings
3.16 ERA
1.00 WHIP
55 Strikeouts (7.3 K/9)
14 Walks (1.9 BB/9)
.255 BABIP