There hasn’t been a lot to get excited about recently if you are a Pittsburgh Pirates fan.
Last year, the Pirates went 57-105 for their 18th straight losing season. It was also Pittsburgh's worst record since going 42-112 in 1952. Pittsburgh certainly won’t contend for the NL Central this season, but they are hoping that a young group of players will show improvement under new manager Clint Hurdle, who took Colorado from the basement of the NL West to a World Series in 2007.
To get a better feeling of what Pittsburgh will look like this season, here is breakdown of their starting lineup and starting rotation, plus our MLB predictions on where they will finish this year.
Starting Lineup
The Pirates went out and acquired Lyle Overbay, in hopes that he could provide a spark in the middle of a young lineup. Overbay hit 20 home runs to go along with 67 RBIs while playing for the Blue Jays last year, but it could be hard for him to repeat those numbers hitting with this group of players.
To repeat these numbers, Overbay will need all kinds of help from guys like Andrew McCutchen and Ronny Cedeno. Both players however are coming off disappointing runs in 2010. McCutchen has all the talent to become a great player in this league, while Cedeno also has the tools to be a good player, though he hasn't been able to put it all together and could end up losing his job to Pedro Ciraco.
The Pirates do have a trio of young talent that could end up making this offense one opposing teams actually have to worry about. Second baseman Neil Walker, third baseman Pedro Alvarez, and left fielder Jose Tabata all showed they are more than capable of producing at the big league level, and figure to only improve as they continue to develop. Garrett Jones and Matt Diaz should also do a solid job platooning in right. The only huge concern the Pirates have going into the season that was not addressed is catcher Chris Snyder, who hit just .169 last season.
Starting Rotation
What will keep Pittsburgh from making huge strides in 2011, is the fact that they just don't have the starting pitching to compete with the rest of the teams in NL Central. The Pirates top of the rotation doesn't pose much of a threat at all with the likes of Paul Maholm and Ross Ohlendorf. Maholm went 9-15 with a 5.10 ERA, while Ohlendorf went 1-11 with a 4.07 ERA.
Don't expect big improvements from either of these guys this year.
The bottom of the rotation will feature former San Diego starter Kevin Correia, promising young righty James McDonald, and either Charlie Morton or Scott Olsen. McDonald has the talent to become the ace of this staff, but Pittsburgh needs a miracle for this pitching staff to turn things around in one season.
2011 Projection: 5th Place NL Central
The future doesn’t look great for Pittsburgh in 2011, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see Pittsburgh improve on their dismal 2010 performance. The Pirates have a solid core of young players in the field, they just need the pitching to go with it. The Pirates MLB odds to win the NL Central are currently listed at +10000.
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