15-19 A Lot Better than Deserved

The sweep over the Giants has given us all a lift and reason to look forward to better things to come.  However, a look at the team stats would reveal just how badly this team has played and how fortunate they are to be only 4 games under .500.  

There are 30 Teams in the Major Leagues - the Pirates rank:

• 14th in Hitting which is excellent - Thanks to McLouth and Nady
• 29th in Fielding - Thanks to Florida for being the only team worse
• 30th in Team ERA at 5.15 - Thanks to the bullpen

I see this as a positive, because winning with stats this bad reflects a team committed to not quit and to hang in there no matter how bad the circumstances.  That's a good sign that the team is comfortable with the Manager and staff.  I think this team is capable of posting an ERA in the 4.30 range (about middle of the pack) and once Wilson returns to Shortstop in a few weeks, the defense should get a lot better.  I may be a few days off, but Walker has only made one error at 3B at AAA.  His average is around .200, but has some nice stats for extra base hits.  McC is absolutely lighting it up in all aspects.  

Liked the fact that almost 17,000 fans turned out for the matinee game yesterday - maybe they ought to schedule more early afternoon games.  

emjay, I agree.  With their terrible pitching it is amazing that they  have won 15 games.  The offense has been really good though.  They are 5th in runs in the NL, but have given up the most runs too.  I was unsure about this team coming into the season for two main reasons, the bullpen and could the offense score enough runs.  I would say that other than a few really bad meltdowns early in the season, the bullpen has been pretty good.  The offense has been much better than I expected, even with LaRoche and Bautista struggling for much of the year.  The two areas that I expcected to be solid, starting pitching and defense have been major dissapointments. 

I don't know what to say about the starters.  Morris was worse than horrendous.  Snell and Gorzo have taken a step back.  Maholm is good/bad/good/bad (way to inconsistant).  Duke has been a pleasant surprise.

The defense has been the biggest dissapoinment.  Last season, they played well in the field.  The Wilson injury has hurt the team big time.  Plus management didn't fully grasp that Rivas, Gomez, and Bixler weren't capapble of playing solid defense.  Lets hope that Jack gets back soon.

Let's Go Bucs!

4 games under .500 with the three things you mention.

The pitching has to get better and I believe it will. I think you'll see that ERA start to drop now that Morris isn't out there every fifth day LaRoche is starting to hit. and Jack needs to get healthy. I would like to see Gomez get the majority of time at SS, but I can understand playing Bix to give him a legitimate look.

emjay,

that horrific ERA is more attributed to the starters than the bullpen.  Our starting pitching ERA is higher, and is by far the highest in the majors (can't find the exact numbers right now).  The bullpen, IMO, has actually been fairly good.  Sure, there have been a couple bad games, that happens, but overall I think most would agree that our bullpen has been fairly reliable.

Agreed, there is good reason for some optimism, although we need to beat a team with at least 6-7 MLB talents in their lienup. SF's lineup is a joke offensively and it certainly helped out our worst 3 starters resulting in some nice wins.

The starting pitching will get better, Snell has been OK and is due for a dominant start, The back end lefties all are good enough to give us 2 out of 3 decent starts. The only question is Gorzo, he certainly appears to be hurt, but we have to hope for the best.

Offensively, this team is at least average in the NL, Nady, McLouth, Bay,  and Doumit are all plus players so far and LaRoche, Sanchez, and Bautista appear to be turning the corner on bad starts. If only Jack could find a way to fix his mangled calf we would have a very solid lineup 1-8. The bench actually has some options on it too with Mienty, Michaels (who should do an better job in limited work than Nyjer), Gomez, and Paulino all hitting at a MLB level.

The bullpen appears to be strong when we get a quality 6 inning start. Marte, Yates, Grabow, and Capps are all above average as 7th-9th inning guys. Osoria, Burnett, and JVB should be adequate as mop up guys.

Great post and great responses from everyone.

I do see lots to be optimistic about.  As Jalcorn said, pitching should get better and several bats have awoken, particularly Bay who is .500 over the last 7 days.

The Braves series will be a crucial litmus test to see where we truly are, but the sweep over the Giants was HUGE!

Let's see Snell regain his form tonight.

Finally, MJ makes  a great point that the fans are starting to notice.  Perhaps some synergy from the stands can ignite the players on the field.

Make that 17-19 and 5 in a row.  One more win off the Braves and we win the series, HUGE!!!

Pitching looked pretty strong tonight.  Naysayers will comment on the Braves road woes, but at least they have not cured what ails them at PNC.

Michaels looks like a good acquisition so far, McLouth got a deserved night off and Bay continues to rake.

BR91:  The Bravo's have some major gaps in their order that really present themselves on the road.  Some of these guys are all-world in Atlanta, but they cannot seem to get comfortable on the road.  Still, there were some very loud outs on both sides, and the Bucs came up with the clutch hits.  Pitching again allowed the offense the time to win the game.

Michaels was beaten and abused in Cleveland where he was signed to be the answer to their need for a power hitting corner OF - he responded with a .207 batting average.  They have to look at his 3 hits last night and ask "where were you in April"?  As stated, he will be a nice throw-in for a trade as the deadline nears.  Russell showed a lot of trust putting him in CF and giving McL a game off.  I think Cleveland will still be paying most of his salary for 2008, so teams looking for depth in the OF and at the plate will get a great deal on this guy.   

Anybody noticed that Gerut - a ST flash - is batting just above .100? 

Very nice article about NH and his travels prior to the draft, and his eye on the future.     

The Buccos are rounding into form.  They've gotten strong starting pitching (last 5 games), timely hitting, and no errors (last 6 games!).  Where was this team earlier in the season?  We need to be a little realistic though.  I don't think that Doumit, Nady, and McLouth will be quite as hot as they have been for an entire season.  But also, I don't expect the starters to be so bad either.  Maybe they will cancel each other?  Let's hope that they can continue to improve.  (And beat the Cubs for goodness sake!)

I was at the game last night and there was plenty of enthisiasm, which was nice to see.  If this team ever wins consistantly, going to PNC will an even better experience than it is now.

Let's go Bucs!