-The Pittsburgh Pirates will make their debut on ESPN for the season, and for the first time since Sunday Night Baseball in 2002. Never in their wildest dreams could anyone imagine a spot on ESPN in late July. Baseball Tonight personalities, SportsCenter anchors, and National reporters have really taken a fondness to this team. I do not believe any of them think this team can win this year, but it is fun to see them still in it week after week, and be the lead of Baseball Tonight more often than not.
-99 Games into the season. 52-47, 3 way tie for First Place in the National League Central. If the Pirates played in almost any other division they would be in third place with that very same record. Sure the Pirates are playing great, but the inconsistency of Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cincinnati is also a big factor in this thing. Playing a numbers game, first for the fan that believes the playoffs are out of the question. The Bucs need 6 more wins to surpass last season's total. The Pirates also need to win 30 of their next 63 to end the 18 year losing streak. The Pirates remaining schedule includes-
- Four games with Atlanta.
- Three with Philadelphia
- Three with San Francisco
- Ten with Milwaukee
- Ten with St. Louis
- Six with Cincinnati
- Three with Arizona
-The Trade Deadline is less than a week away, and several approaches can be taken.
- Neal Huntington can take a minimal approach and maybe add a Reliever, and stand pat on offense. Pedro Alvarez is tearing up in AAA. And despite the naysayers on this guy, he is still the key piece to this franchise. He is the centerpiece and this team this year needs him, and the team needs him for many years to come. Huntington may have to hope that him, Tabata, and Doumit will provide enough offensive spark for the team. At this point watching d'Arnaud and Wood playing Third Base is getting harder and harder everyday. Presley is joining the army of the wounded, and by no means are Pearce, Paul, and Diaz better than Tabata. Doumit is an often injured guy with a good bat, will upgrade over Eric Fryer, and maybe take some of Overbay's at bats.
- The Pirates can go out and make a small upgrade, or even a less sexy upgrade. Ryan Ludwick would be a welcomed addition. Carlos Pena, Josh Willingham, and a player of that nature could also help. Yeah they can help, and may be enough to help this team. But at the end of the day, not one of those guys makes Pittsburgh better than the other three teams in the NL Cental.
Josh Willingham is batting .241 with 13 HR's and 50 RBI's. Average addition.
Carlos Pena is batting .221 with 20 HR's and 51 RBI's. Not Bad addition
3. The Pirates can go out and make a splash. They go after Hunter Pence, Carlos Beltran ect... The more I hear, people seem against that. I am not sure why. People do not want to mess with the future. Hello? This IS the future. This team is anchored by two players under the age of 25, in Walker and McCutchen. Two other guys that are younger are supposed to be doing the same in Tabata and Alvarez. I would say those four, along with Taillon and Heredia in A ball are the only "untouchable pieces" in the entire organization. If the deal breaker was Jose Tabata, I'd even let him go. Stetson Allie, yeah he would be in a package deal if it meant making this team better. Why wait? They have caught lightning in a bottle this season. This team is in First on July 25. The Minors have been built up for this very reason, to add to the Major League club. People will argue this team has chemistry, and not to mess with chemistry, fact is this team is 25th in the league in Runs Scored, and 23rd in Batting Average. That is not very good, especially in this division. The Reds and Brewers can smack the ball around. Hunter Pence can make this team competitive with their lineups, and Beltran helps sure things up as well. One of those guys will make a world of difference, and they are not the same price. Beltran will be cheaper, and Mets will eat contract and he is only a Pirate for August and September and playoffs if he leads the team that far. Pence would be a lot more expensive, but you get to have him play alongside McCutchen for two more seasons, and have him as trade bait in a couple seasons as well.
Either way the Pirates will be playing against the two best teams in the League in the next seven days. The Pirates pitching will have to be really good to compete with the pitching they will face. The offense can not score 2-3 runs and win games. Aggressive base running, timely hitting, and a trade happening sooner rather than later can be the difference in the week. But the Bucs are in First entering the week of the Trade Deadline, Isn't this fun?
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