The Pirates - One Month In

Okay, if on Opening Day someone said to you that the Pirates would be 13-15 at the end of the first month of the season, I'm guessing that you would have signed up for that, right? Of course, some spoilsports have already pointed out that the team also stood at 13-15 in 2007 (lost 94 games) and 2010 (lost 105 games). Still, the 13-15 record of today somehow feels a bit different than those years.

Two positive surprises thus far are the Pirates ability to win on the road, and the performance of the pitching staff. after winning all of 16 road games last year, they are now 9-7 when wearing gray uniforms. Of course the corollary to this has been a disappointing 4-8 record at PNC Park. Even last year's 105 loss team managed to go 40-41 at home, so you hope that that will turn around for this team.

As for the pitching, who could have foreseen this:

Kevin Correia 4-2, 2.90
Charlie Morton 3-1, 3.52 (yes, this is THAT Charlie Morton!!)
Jeff Karstens 2-1, 3.57

James McDonald (1-2, 7.66) had a terrible start, but his last outing produced a win and six shutout innings, so who knows? Only Paul Maholm, 1-4, 4.14 can be considered a strong disappointment among the starters.

And the bullpen has really shone. Joel Hanrahan is 8-for-8 in save opportunities and sports and 1.80 ERA, and Chris Resop has been the real surprise at 1-0, 1.26 with 16 K, and only 5 BB.

It has been the offensive production that has been a disappointment so far. Neil Walker has probably been the best offensive player thus far (.287, 17R, 3HR, 14 RBI, .779 OPS), followed closely by Andrew McCutchen (.225, 14R, 5HR, 13RBI, .743 OPS). The biggest disappointment and concern has been the terrible start of Pedro Alvarez. There is no other way to put it, but Alvarez has been terrible: .213, 9R, 1HR, 7RBI, .562 OPS, and 32K and only 7BB). Simply put, for the Pirates to go anywhere, Alvarez HAS to hit and hit with power, as he showed he could do last year. Would a 10-12 game stint in Indianapolis be helpful, or do you let him play through it in the major leagues? Looks like the Pirates are opting to let him work it out on the major league level. Pirates fans will keep their fingers crossed.

One interesting set of statistics belong to outfielder Garrett Jones. Jones was seemingly marginalized over the off season, and didn't play well in spring training, but so far, he's turning in some nice numbers: .278, 9R, 5HR, 10 RBI in only 78 at bats, and his OPS of .902 is far and away the best on the team.

How are GM Neal's off-season free agent signings doing so far:

Correia - see numbers above. Give Neal a solid "A" for this one. I didn't see it coming, did you?
Lyle Overbay - .232, 11R, 1 HR, 11 RBI, .743 OPS. A good glove, but offensive numbers not close to the guy he replaced, Garrett Jones. A lukewarm "C" grade here.
Mike Daiz - .204, 3 R, 0 HR, 4 RBI, .480 OPS. A "D" grade here, but he has had only 49 at bats.
Scott Olsen - bitched in Spring Training about the possibility of being a bullpen guy, and then went on the 60 day DL. Give Neal an "Incomplete" on this one, but it has all the earmarks of being an "F."

The other frustrating part of this team is the - at best - inconsistent play at short stop. Actually, "inconsistent" is being kind. I have ranted much in recent weeks about the Pirates' inability over the last four plus seasons to develop or acquire a decent major league quality short stop, so I won't kick the Ronny Cedeno dead horse again, and I'll give Huntington credit for this much: he obviously recognizes the problem. Why else dumpster dive for a guy like Brandon Wood and his .168 career batting average? Maybe they'll catch lightning in a bottle with Wood. One thing for sure, the guys playing short in Indy aren't any better (check out the stats) or else they would be in Pittsburgh.

However, the best off-season signing thus far, and the reason why this 13-15 record feels different from last year's 13-15, is Manager Clint Hurdle. It is nice to have a manager with a personality and the ability to talk coherently, but more to the point, you have to like what Hurdle has done with the team so far. Some examples:

• Yanking an ineffective Evan Meek in a game and bringing Joel Hanrahan in the eighth inning of a game.


• Chewing out and then benching Cedeno after he failed to run out a ground ball in a game last week,


• Bypassing Meek as his 8th inning set-up guy for Resop, who has clearly been a superior pitcher so far (although perhaps Meek, now on the DL, has been having some physical issues)


• Standing up for his players by actually, you know, arguing with umpires


• Not being afraid to tinker with his batting order to move up more effective hitters (Tabata, Walker) and move down ineffective ones (Alvarez).

A 13-15 record projects out to 75 wins in a season (we know how THAT played out in 2010), and 75 wins would be an 18 game improvement over 2010. A HUGE jump by any measure, and difficult to pull off. I said when he was hired that if Hurdle got 70 wins from this team, he should be Manager of the Year.

We'll see if this all plays out, of course, but I am sure that you will agree that THIS 13-15 Pirates team is giving you more reason to follow them than last year's John Russell-led 13-15 bunch.

Oh, and the Post-Gazette reports that the Pirates may be in negotiations with Andrew McCutchen to sign a long term deal. This, of course, is the "plan" that Nutting/Coonelly/Huntington have been giving lip service to for the last several years. Let's see if this actually comes to fruition with, arguably, their best player.