Half Way There

After tonights game the pirates will have played the 81st game of the season. A lot of people act like there is no hope for this team but we are ONLY 6 games out of 1st place. Now that may is more of a testament to how poorly our division has played but still. Last year thru 80 games we were 38-42(11 games behind 1st), that was with Jason Bay, Xavier Nady, and Nate Mclouth patrolling our OF. So even after the so called salary shed last year and everyone up in arms over the deal NH made this team is only 1 game off the pace they were at last year. Now lets look at the difference between and last year.

I compared last years team stats from before the all-star break since i really was to lazy to go back thru every game and add the stats up myself. These are still close enough for what I'm talking about.

The major difference between this year and last year is the pitching staff, all thanks due to Joe Kerrigan. Thru 80 games last year the staff was horrid to give up 442 runs. This year they have allowed 95 fewer runs at 347: and that's with the implosions of Ian Snell. The additions of Ross "The Boss" Ohlendorf, Jeff Karstens, Charlie Morton and the resurrection of Zach Duke have help solidify the pitching staff. Key young relievers such as Jesse Chavez and Evan Meek have pitched well when called upon out of the pen. John Grabow and Matt Capps were roughed up a little in the beginning of the year but are now finding the swing of things and coming back into form. Every pitcher we have is going out and giving us a chance to win on any giving night and we don't have to win 9-8 like we did last year.

Right now the Pirates team ERA is 4.24 as opposed to last years 5.24(thru 95 games). The staff already has 46 quality starts compared to the 66 they had all of last season. Team WHIP is down from 1.61 to 1.39(major difference). Team OBP is down 28 pts from 368 down to 366, that still ranks them near the bottom but it is still much better than last year. OPS is down 70 pts from .828 to .758. While we still seem to walk a lot of guys it is not nearly as much as last year due to the pitchers pitching for more contact instead of trying to pick corners and strike guys out. There is no doubt in my mind what so ever that the pitching staff that is being put together by NH is the lone reason we are only 6 games out. Now if we would have never made the Bay,Nady,Mclouth trades who knows what our starting rotation would look like right now.


When it comes to the batting stats there is going to be a major drop off when you trade away the middle of your batting order and miss Ryan Doumit for most of the year. Other than the missing power in the lineup the categories are pretty comparable. Not much to explain with the obvious hole in the middle of the order. This team has become a little more aggressive on the base paths with the jump in steals. A lot like our pitching staff our offense has become more contact driven, Thus the rise in BA. They still strikeout way to much with the teams lack of plate discipline and they way they swing at everything not in the strike zone.

This years club also has the uncanny knack of ruining great innings fast. A lot of times this year they have gotten pitchers in trouble with 2-3 men on and 0-1 outs and somehow managed not to get 1 run in. The lack of power has translated into more DP's and not enough sacrifice flys to the OF when there are men on 3rd. There will be games we get 15 hits and score 10 runs and look like the best offense in baseball then come back the very next day and face a AAA pitcher just called up and make him look like Cy Young himself.

Ive found that this team has more problems with pitchers that have control problems than anything else. With their lack of plate discipline they always like to chase pitches that are 2 feet off the plate instead of working counts and taking the walk. That is something that really needs to be worked on but it doesn't help when your best hitter(Freddy) does it every at-bat thinking hes Vlad.

Missing Ryan Doumit for most of the year has not hurt us as much as it should have. Jason Jaramillo and Robinzon Diaz have filled in much better than expected. They don't have much power but they have been getting the job done. They have combined for a .273 average, 4 hrs, 36 rbis withe an OBP of .330. If they were 1 player they would be 2nd on this team for rbis which is awesome to see production from 2 rookie catchers. You just cant help but think/hope when Ryan comes back next week it will add a new dimension to this offense and add some more power to it.

With the trade deadline fast approaching who knows what this lineup is going to look like in a month. We could potentially lose Adam Laroche, Freddy Sanchez, Jack Wilson, maybe even Ryan Doumit. Leaving 3 maybe 4 major holes to fill not only in the lineup but in the field. Freddy and Jack are the best Double Play combo in the league while Adam is 1 of the better fielding first basemen. Our infield is another reason why our pitching has been the way it is. They are top 3 in fielding defense this year and cover A LOT of ground. So filling in Bixler,Pearce, and Young into those 3 spots would be disastrous for our pitchers.

First Half Awards
Zach Duke-Best Pitcher(he should be in the all-star game)
Freddy Sanchez-Best Hitter
Jaramillo/Diaz- Best Surprise
Ian Snell-Worst Pitcher
Brandon Moss-Worst Hitter( altho coming on lately)
Andrew McCutchen-For being the closest thing to god we've seen in 20 years.


I may have went a little of base from where i started this but the more i typed the more random crap came in my head.