Opening Day 2019, and a Marte Par-tay?

Like baseball fans the world over, I am excited that today is Opening Day of the 2019 season.  Even as a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team whose ownership seems to try to crush your soul well before the first pitch of every new season, it is a time for excitement and hope.

How are the Bucs going to do in this new season?  Well, I'll address that momentarily, but first, a word about center fielder Starling Marte, the most tenured Pirate on this current roster.

While out driving yesterday, Poni and Mullsey on The Fan were interviewing Pirates broadcaster and Chief Propaganda Minister Greg Brown and asking his thoughts on the season. Among other delicious bon mots that Brownie delivered was this one about Starling Marte.  Marte, said Greg, was a player who was equal in talent to players like this past winter's big free agent signees Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.

Really?

That prompted me to head to baseball-reference.com and do a little research.

Marte is now 30 years old, and has played seven seasons in the major leagues.  He has accumulated exactly 3,400 plate appearances and 3,108 at bats.  On a "per 162 game" basis, Mate has hit 17 home runs, driven in 67 runs, has a .286 batting average and a .783 OPS.  He has made one all-star team, and has won two gold gloves.  He has hit 20 home runs once in his career.  One area where Marte truly has excelled is in stealing bases.  He has stolen 42 bags per 162 games, and when he has played a full season, which he has done five times, he has never had fewer than 30 steals.

Something that baseball-reference cannot quantify, but if you watch the Pirates regularly you know it, is Marte's penchant to, shall we say, make lots of mental mistakes and at times just not appear to be fully present during the course of a ball game.  And there is also that 80 game PED suspension on his resume.

Conclusion:  A talented ball player, no doubt, but after seven seasons and over 3,000 at bats, what we have seen from Starling Marte is what we are going to get, and in fact, he could begin to decline now that he has crossed into his thirties.  

And this note to Greg Brown.  For all of Marte's skills and talents, he ain't no Bryce Harper or Manny Machado.  In case you were wondering, each of the players has also played seven seasons, and here are their "per 162 games" stats:

Machado  31 HR, 90 RBI, .282 BA, .822 OPS

Harper  32 HR, 91 RBI. .279 BA, .900 OPS 

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As for the '19 Pirates, I do believe that they could well be a better team than the one that won 82 games last year, but I fear that they could have a very difficult time obtaining that same victory level this season.  The team played fairly well within the Central Division last year, but other teams in the Central did a lot to improve themselves, while the Pirates did very little.  Example:  The Cardinals new acquisitions were Paul Goldschmidt and Andrew Miller.  The Pirates signed Lonnie Chisenhall and Jordan Lyles.  See what I mean.

Quick random thoughts from this part of The Grandstand:

• The starting pitching will be the key to the team's success. Taillon, Williams, Archer, Musgrove.  If these four guys click, it won't matter who they will use in that fifth spot.
• Jung Ho Kang sure has produced in the Grapefruit League.  If he can do that in the regular season, his signing will have proved to be the most important one that the team made in this past off-season.  
• Which Josh Bell?  The guy who hit over twenty bombs and drove in over 90 runs in '17, or the guy with the reduced numbers in '17?
• I look forward to seeing this Erik Gonzalez kid play short.  Maybe that Cleveland trade will prove to have been a steal for GMNH.  
• I'll also be watching what Cole Tucker is doing at SS for Indy as the year progresses.
• How soon will Gregory Polanco get back on the field?

While in Las Vegas last January, I placed a small ($15) wager on the Pirates to win OVER 79.5 games this year.  Logically, I don't think that they will, not necessarily because they are a bad team, but because they will have tough time winning that many games in a tough NL Central Division.  However, I didn't want to place a bet that would put me in the position come the final week of the season of rooting for the Pirates to lose ballgames.  I could never go that.  I do think that that small bet will definitely put a lot of interest in those final weeks of the season as the Pirates strive for 80 wins and beyond.  

Clint better be playing his A-team that week!

Enjoy the Opener.  Enjoy the Season.  And as always....LET"S GO BUCS!!!!!

Opening Day 2014

Two weeks ago, I had no intention of attending the Pirates Home Opener for this year, and then I received an email from friend David Cicotello in Tennessee who said he found three tickets to the games on Stub Hub, and he asked Fred Shugars and I if we wanted to repeat our experiences from game three of last season's NLDS, so, why not, I was now headed to the Home Opener, and what a terrific day it was.

The fact that the Bucs won in the tenth inning on a Neil Walker walk-off home run, which broke a scoreless tie, only added to the fun of the day.

It was a good omen when Fred and I arrived at the North Shore, walked into what has become our favorite pre-game eatery, Dominic's, and found an empty table for five.  Within five minutes David showed up (good thing since he had the tickets!), and shortly after that, we were joined by Dan Bonk and Len Martin.

L-R: Bob, David, Dan, Len, Fred

At the risk of sounding really corny, you really can't put a price on friendship, and I consider myself very fortunate to have friends like these guys.  And I say that even though Dan and Len blew us off shortly after lunch to sit with the rich guys in a corporate box.

OK, I'm not going to dwell on the balls-strikes-runs-hits-errors of the game, but I do want to comment on two aspects of what occurred yesterday.

The first was the new replay/challenge system.  Each manager challenged an umpire's call yesterday, one was upheld and one was reversed (both to the benefit of the Pirates as it so happened).  The system is brand new, there are no doubt bugs in it, and I am sure that MLB will figure it out as the season goes along, but after seeing it first hand yesterday, I have to say that I like it.  Neither replay review took as long to adjudicate as any typical challenge in any typical NFL game, and in both cases, the right call was made.  What's not to like?

Finally, the much talked about appearance of Barry Bonds in the pre-game ceremonies came off not with a bang, but a whimper.  Scattered booing of Bonds from the crowd was more than drowned out by loud cheers for MVP Andrew McCutchen.  We can debate the merits of inviting Bonds back until the cows come home, but for now, let's consider it a dead horse that we can now stop flogging.  However, I do have one question.  As I said, we have all asked over the last several days why on earth the Pirates did this, but my question concerns the other side of the coin.  What motivated Bonds to accept the invitation?  It's not like there was an outpouring of love between he and the City while he was here, and God knows, no one has had a great deal of nostalgia for him in the years since he left.  I am sure the Pirates paid for him to come here, but surely THAT couldn't be the reason, could it?  We'll probably never know the answer, but it would be interesting, to me anyway, to find out.

Here was the scene of Barry's re-introduction:

Opening Day 2014...Thoughts and Predictions

That grand and uniquely American celebration, Opening Day of the Baseball Season, takes place here in Pittsburgh tomorrow afternoon when the Pirates take on the Cubs at PNC Park. (By the way, I know that this "uniquely American" celebration actually occurred in Australia last week, but that's marketing in the 21st Century.)  Up until last week, I had no plans on attending the Opener, but thanks to buddy, David Cicotello, I will be there tomorrow.  Not sure how many home openers I have attended over the years, but there have been a few.  I can recall one in Forbes Field when my Dad wrote the absence note to the good Brothers at Central stating that I was sick.  My mother refused to lie and write it, but my Dad had no such qualms under the circumstances. I can also remember being at several openers at Three Rivers, one in particular when the 1979 World Series banner was raised.  I was also at the 2001 Opener, the first ever at PNC Park.  Anyway, all that aside, I look forward to being there tomorrow with Fred Shugars and David, where we will attempt to repeat the success we had when attending Game Three of last year's NLDS, a Bucco victory over the Cardinals.

I have opined extensively on Facebook about the Pirates rather curious decision to bring Barry Bonds back to Pittsburgh to, along with 1960 MVP Dick Groat, present Andrew McCutchen his MVP Award for 2013, so I am not going to go on and on about it here, other than to quote SABR friend Joe Guzzardi who stated to me, "That strikes me as a bad idea."  I'll just leave it at that.

Anyway, in attempt to do a pre-season prediction write-up a little differently, here are some things and people to watch in 2014:

Andrew McCutchen.  After a torrid spring training, and, yes, we know that spring training stats are meaningless, it is almost frightening to think that he might actually be better than he has been in the last two seasons. Not since the days of Barry Bonds, and perhaps even the days of Dave Parker, have the Pirates had a player who is in the legitimate discussion as to who is the best player in the game.

Travis Snider.  Yes, he has been the definition of mediocre since his arrival here, but if management is to be believed, injuries played a role in that underachieving performance, and he is now said to be healthy, and he did rip it up in Florida.  If that can continue, perhaps the Pirates don't have as big a problem in RF as is believed.

Russell Martin.  Other than McCutchen, this is the position player the Pirates can least afford to lose to injury.

A.J. Burnett, or rather the absence of A.J. Burnett.  He was at worst the number two starter on the staff, and he is being replaced by a combination of Edinson Volquez, the coming-off-of-injury Wandy Rodriguez, Jeff Locke, and Jameson Taillon, who is now nursing a tender elbow of his own. How this plays out could be the key to the Pirates season.

Gerrit Cole.  I just think that this guy to be the best pitcher to come up through the Pirates farm system since Bob Friend.  He's big, he's mean, and in the last month of 2013 he was easily the team's best pitcher.  I just can't wait to watch him pitch every fifth day.

Neal Huntington.  I am certain that no one is more aware of the Pirates most glaring weakness, the hole at first base, than is the GM.  How NH goes about addressing that as the season wears on will be interesting to watch.  I've long been critical of Huntington, and his ability to spread the b.s. in some of his statements to the public continue to drive me nuts, but he bought himself, and his "Plan", a lot of credibility last year, and his maneuverings at the trade deadlines were textbook.  How he does around July 31 and August 31 this year if the team is in the same position will be, again, critical to the success of the team.

OK, so how will they do?  Last year they won 94 games, which is a lot of wins for even really good teams.  To think that they will do this again is asking a lot.  Winning less than that in 2014 is not necessarily a step backwards. So, I am going to predict that we will raise this guy....

....89 times in 2014.  Eighty-nine wins will not be enough to overtake the Cardinals in the NL Central, but it will be enough to be in the race for a Wild Card spot, so what the the hell, I'll predict that Pirates will once again nail down one of the two wild card spots in the National League.  Once you make the Playoffs, according to Billy Bean, it's a crap shoot, and I'll worry about those predictions come October.

Enjoy the season, and LET'S GO BUCS!!!!!