Now that the actual season is about to begin, it's time to talk about the team until the annual mid-season depression happens and we all lose interest. Hopefully there's no NFL lockout/strike/suspension of season because that means we'll just have the Pirates to talk about as far as pro sports are concerned for longer than usual this year.

Jen Langosch posted what is expected to be the 25-man opening day roster. Here we go with my comments.

STARTERS
RHP Kevin Correia
LHP Paul Maholm
RHP Ross Ohlendorf
RHP Charlie Morton
RHP James McDonald
McDonald, hopefully, will be healthy after being dinged up for part of the preseason. Ohlendorf struggled during the preseason, so hopefully he gets on track soon. Morton was solid in the preseason, which hopefully will be a building block...just no implosion like last year.

RELIEVERS
RHP Joel Hanrahan (closer)
RHP Evan Meek
RHP Chris Resop
RHP Jeff Karstens
RHP Jose Veras
LHP Garrett Olson
RHP Mike Crotta
The Hanrahan-Meek-Resop trio gives them an effective late-game relief group while Karstens can at least be an effective short-term starter if needed. Just need the starters to get to that trio and for the mid-long relief to be tolerable.

CATCHERS
Ryan Doumit
Jason Jaramillo
With Snyder on DL, we have these two. So...how long until Sanchez is ready?

INFIELDERS
Lyle Overbay
Neil Walker
Ronny Cedeno
Pedro Alvarez
Steve Pearce
Josh Rodriguez
Heard good things about Overbay this spring. If Walker and Alvarez can build on last year, they could have a solid infield. SS being the weakest link with a mediocre vet (Cedeno) and a Rule 5 guy (Rodriguez) being the options.

OUTFIELDERS
Jose Tabata
Andrew McCutchen
Matt Diaz
Garrett Jones
John Bowker
Hoping for good things from Tabata and McCutchen. Also hoping that platooning with Diaz helps Jones (by putting him against pitchers he's more comfortable against, as his left-right disparity last year was large.

Overall, the starting pitching is the weakest part of this team, with a combination of blah vets and young inconsistent guys we can only hope have decent years (in fact, I used the word "hopefully" three times in talking about three starters up above). Offensively, the team will be carried by its young potential stars. Having hot prospects-turned-blah guys like Bowker and Pearce exhibit success would be a big help, too, but as Andy LaRoche proved the past couple years, that's not something we can count on. There's talent on the team, but not really the overall depth a quality contender would have. 70 wins seems reasonably realistic. Young guys falter and it could be worse. Guys gel together and they get unexpected contributions and it could be better.

When reading that roster why does the scene from Major League when the construction workers talking about the team come to mind?

Whats the over and under of when McCutchen gets traded?

Automatik;729136 wrote:Whats the over and under of when McCutchen gets traded?

His contract runs through 2015, so hopefully he's safe for at least the next three seasons or so. And by that time, hopefully the mythical "when attendance/revenue improves, we'll have more money" moment will have happened with the young guys at least getting above .500, so there is at least the hope they'll try to keep him around. If that doesn't happen and the team's still in the 70-win bracket by 2013-14, he'll probably be gone as part of the next "uh, well, guess we'll try again with something..." debacle.

I actually have SOME hope with the lineup and bullpen but the starting pitching is awful. They'll improve over last year--then again, it's really hard to lose 105 games.

Just find a way to finish .500 or higher.

Ive got any bet regarding win totals with the Pirates vs Indians. Takers?

september63;729193 wrote:Ive got any bet regarding win totals with the Pirates vs Indians. Takers?

Not this year. Both teams are in the same boat (cheap ownership, slowly building up with young guys), but the Indians are a bit farther along. In 2009, they won their AA championship, while the Pirates won at A+. Last year, they won at AAA, while Pittsburgh won at AA. In theory, they should be a bit better. Nothing particularly good, but better nonetheless.

Vegas has the Pirates at 72 wins. I'm going under.

killer_ewok;729169 wrote:Just find a way to finish .500 or higher.

I'd love to see the Pirates turn things around and start competing but I really don't see it happening any time soon.

justincredible;729435 wrote:I'd love to see the Pirates turn things around and start competing but I really don't see it happening any time soon.

I can see it happening SOON, as long as some of the young pitching talent they have can do well at the MLB level. I'm not talking about waiting for Tallion and Allie, but the guys who are closer like Owens, Morris, Locke and so on. Their biggest weakness is starting pitching. They're also in a weak division where simply being above .500 puts you in contention for most of the year more often than not (as opposed to, say, the AL East where Toronto tends to be .500 or a bit better and no one cares because they're still 20 games out).

Can't see it happening this year, but I'd expect them to threaten .500 next year and be in contention after that. Assuming the prospect pitchers turn out, there isn't a rash of injuries or the front office gets replaced and they blow everything up to try again. In other words, with the team's luck the last 20 years, a 5% chance of that happening.

This is not going to end well.

You should change the thread title to :

"Heretic's daily whining about the fucking pirates blog" and make it a sticky....

Thread Bomber;730036 wrote:This is not going to end well.

You should change the thread title to :

"Heretic's daily whining about the fucking pirates blog" and make it a sticky....

You might be right. Although I'd change the name to "Heretic's daily fucking whining about the fucking Pirates blog".

Tomorrow, they're playing the shitastic Cubs. That is good.
Pittsburgh's starting pitcher is Kevin Correia. Last year, while playing for the Padres in their pitcher-friendly park, he still had an ERA over 5. That is bad. Very bad.

I just want to see a decent season.

Another thread on the "Succos"?

It's simple......The Nuttings + greed = another shitty season!

I like the righties in the bullpen -- Hanrahan, Meek, Resop, Veras and Crotta. Could be an area of strength. They'll need Beimel to come back strong and give them a reliable lefty.

Overbay looks like he could fit in well. Good defensively at first base and he'll add some doubles and home runs. His career high for home runs is 22, I think he'll top that at PNC.

Jaramillo had a surprisingly good spring. He seemed like a better player all-around. More of a defensive captain. And he did ok with the bat, too, mostly getting base hits but still. If that carries over to the regular season he might end up playing a lot this year.

Less than an hour until the season begins!

Not sure what to expect from Correia.

I watched his last start of the spring against the Yankees and he battled pretty good. Overall it was a positive effort.

In 2009, he went 12-11, 142 Ks, 3.91 ERA and 1.30 WHIP.

He struggled last year but his younger brother died tragically in May of last year which could have and probably did have some impact on him.

No runs in the top of the first, but Andrew McCutchen (aka: the bright spot on the team) showed his gratitude for being named my avatar pic for the season by cracking a two-out double.

An unearned run on an Alvarez throwing error mars an otherwise sort of adequate inning by Correia. Down 1-0. Season's over.

please draft Rendon to get Alvarez off third

Correia gave up a few singles in the third. Therefore, the score is 2-0 now. Maybe the team should try positive things like getting hits now. Emphasis on the plural, as they only got one through the first trip through the line-up and it only took Dempster 38 pitches to get through three innings.

Hmmm...while typing this, Walker provided the first out of the inning. Smashing!

And just after posting that, McCutchen became the second out. Even better!

This time, Overbay gets the two-out double. This would be a great time for Pedro to make up for his defensive fuck-up.

Which he does, by striking out!

Wait...my bad...that isn't making up for a fuck-up. That's fucking up again. Damn...

For the first time today, the Pirates open an inning with a baserunner, as Doumit singled. Let's see how this turns out.