Bucco's & .500

A Little Belief Never Killed Anyone

No, you're not dreaming if you did a double take on the Pirates current season record. The Pirates are 32-33 and I have been covering them and watching them all season. I'm still left with questions as to how they're on the verge of a winning record. But stop, and take a minute to think. If you're at .500, that means you've won as many as you've lost. Simple chemistry, huh? The Pirates starting rotation has been garbage, but at times the bullpen has been stout thanks to the addition of Tyler Yates and John Grabow's outstanding pitching. Grabow carries a 1.93 ERA in 32 appearances and Matt Capps is among the leaders in the NL for saves. It's good to know that if the Pirates carry a lead into the 9th, the Buc's can close it out 95% of the time. At times though, the bullpen has been slapped around a couple times, but they really haven't been costing the Buc's a lot of games. The entire pitching staff (starters & bullpen) combined ERA amounts to a staggering 4.76. Not exactly tops in the majors, but most of that has come from the starting rotation and 3/4 of the starting pitching ERA came from Matt Morris' 5 starts before calling it quits. Tom Gorzelanny's 6.65 ERA catches your eye out of the starting rotation. He's walked 46 batters in 65 innings of work. He's basically the offense for the opposing team each time he pitches. Just ask Dontrelle Willis how his ERA has ballooned this year in Detroit, it's called control and Gorzo is struggling heavily with that. With the bad though, comes the good, and Phil Dumatrait since being converted to a starter since the departure of Matt Morris has been solid. Dumatrait hasn't been pitching deep into ball games but has been very effective in his 8 starts. He carries a 3.44 ERA in 65 total innings (ERA & Innings include relief appearances) and has been pitching with the chances of wins in his past few outings. The pitching for the Pirates at home has been a respectable 3.79 ERA while on the road the Bucco's carry an atrocious 5.99. Not one guy from the starting rotation carries a winning record on the road and Dumatrait's 1-1 record is the best in only 4 road starts. That's sure to reflect the 12-19 road record for the club while being a successful 21-15 at home.

Then there's the other side of the team, hitting. The hitting has been pretty solid lately and Nate McClouth has been having an outstanding season, however, he's fallen off lately. He's still putting up some good numbers and still has putting up some power on the boards. Xavier Nady is still holding down a .312 average and has been crucial in the Bucco's middle of the line up. The Pirates middle of the line up including (and excluding Ryan Doumit) has a combined 37 HR and 149 RBI of the 311 runs produced by the ball club. Jason Bay has pumped in 14 HR, same as Nady, and has punched in 45 RBI's. It seems like he's returning to the Jason Bay that won the NL Rookie of the Year award. If you couldn't tell, I'm pointing out that the Pirates are getting some solid batting from key players up and down the line-up. Jack Wilson has returned from his calf injury and is still batting over .300. Is he going to return to his 200 hit season form? It's hard to tell since he's only played 18 games this season, but it looks promising. Freddy Sanchez on the other hand, was caught in a serious early season slump, but has pulled his average from the Mendoza line up to .240 and has been hitting the ball more consistently since being moved to the lead off spot. He has since been moved around in the batting order, yet he's still producing at a consistent rate. When Wilson went down with an injury the Pirates were moving Luis Rivas, Chris Gomez, and Brian Bixler into the line up for some sort of an offensive punch. They had a hard time finding the batting and the fielding liability they get from Wilson. All three have helped in certain situations, Bixler being the weakest of the links. Bixler had a couple 2 hit games and Luis Rivas had himself a multi-home run game. Chris Gomez would be the guy to go to, as he has carried a .313 average and has still been used since Wilson's return in order to give players some days off. The credit and gold medal of the Bucco line up has to go to Ryan Doumit. The guy was having an outstanding season before fracturing his thumb and finding himself on the 15 day DL. He has since returned where he found himself struggling 1-12 in his first 3 games. That ended quickly when he caught fire and is 9-11 with 4 home runs, 2 doubles, and 7 RBI's in his last 3 games. He's brought his average back up to the .360 range he was at before getting injured and with him being a power, switch hitting catcher, how can that hurt your line up? Doumit has been placed in the clean up spot in the order and it seems to be working out quite well for John Russell. The Pirates offense is 14th in BA, 10th in runs, 15th in HR, and 5th in RBI's for all of baseball, not just the National League. That's pretty impressive. They only trail the Red Sox, Phillies, Cubs, and Rangers in RBI's produced. All 4 of those teams lead their respective divisions.

I'm here to say, that if the Buc's can get some quality starting pitching (which they have lately), the Pirates could find themselves above .500 for good and moving up the standings. Have some faith, the Pirates have the pieces to make a run at something special in this 2008 season where they find themselves on the verge of holding a record no one wants. Most consecutive losing seasons. They have made some moves in the off season, like picking up Tyler Yates, while also picking up a nice commodity in Jason Michaels. A winning season CAN happen, it's just a shame we find ourselves in one of the best divisions in all of baseball with the way the Cubs and Cardinals are playing.