It's been a Rocky Road for the Offense

It’s been a rocky road this year for the offense. The plans that were set by the Pirates “braintrust” did not fall into place as is usually the case when we’re talking about the Pirates, but slowly and surely the offense has started to click on most cylinders. With the pitching staff the Pirates have put together this year that is enough on most nights. The hope for the Pirates pitching staff was that it would continue the quality pitching of the first half of last year. That was not a surety considering how the pitching fell apart in the second half. Correia, Maholm and Karstens were shut down and the options to replace them were not as successful, causing the bullpen to be overworked. Between the second tier of starters and the overworked bullpen the downfall of the team was as dismal as a 19 season losing streak. Flash forward to this year. The Pirates had Charlie Morton, Kevin Correia, James McDonald, and Jeff Karstens returning to start fully back up to speed. Gone was Paul Maholm and his erratic effectiveness to a perfect place for that type of pitching, the Chicago Cubs. Management signed Erik Bedard to potentially take one of the five starting slots. It looked like that might have to be how the rotation was going to look until Huntington came through with a gem of a deal for the Pirates. The Yankees had grown weary of AJ Burnett’s lack of winning and thought their staff was strong enough to do without him. They were even willing to pay a large part of his paycheck. A package gift wrapped for the Pirates. It isn’t very often someone will come to you looking to get rid of an ace and also say we’ll pay you to take him. As I indirectly mentioned, the Pirates don’t seem to have much luck on many deals. Fortunately for them, though, they struck gold on this one. Burnett was traded to the Pirates and other than a short injury issue at the beginning of the season Burnett has been incredible this year. You don’t win 8 games in a row by pitching poorly. Add to the addition of Burnett the fact that another pitcher has stepped forward with “ace” quality stuff. The Pirates staff has 2 pitchers that quite a few teams would give up a king’s ransom for. That second ace pitcher is James McDonald. He has held other teams to 2 runs or less in almost all of his starts. He has been nothing short of magnificent when he has been on the mound. Throw in quality pitching from Correia and Bedard and the bullpen staff and you have a pitching staff that is among the top pitching staffs in baseball and very tough to score on. The only thing keeping the Bucs from piling up more wins this year is the lack of offense. The Pirates did have a plan this year for their offense. They signed a group of new infielders to infuse some offense in positions that were lacking, as well as 2 new infielders to provide defense up the middle to go with the pieces they already had in place. Rod Barajas was signed as a steady influence from the catcher’s position who could also provide some power. Barajas started slowly and could not climb above the Mendoza line, but as most streaky hitters go, once he started to hit, he started cranking out home runs. Clint Barmes was signed to take over for the inconsistent Ronny Cedeno. The hope was that he could hit .250 and be a steadying force on the left side of the infield. Barmes spent the last month also trying to climb over the Mendoza line. Maybe by the end of the season he’ll reach .230 or .240, but after such a slow start that’s a difficult climb. He has provided the defense and a HR here and there. The Pirates also counted on Pedro Alvarez to continue to develop and start hitting HRs frequently. He has contributed HRs and driven in runs, but he has not been patient at the plate and has struck out frequently. Pedro is in his second full season and is still developing. If the Pirates are to break that season losing streak and compete for a playoff spot they will need to count on the bat of El Toro. Casey McGehee was signed as a backup plan for 1st and 3rd base. If Alvarez continued to struggle or if Garrett Jones could not provide any offense Casey McGehee could step in and replace either and would get to show he can provide the offense. GJ has provided similar offense to what he had contributed the previous few years, a towering HR here and there with some singles and doubles thrown in. Basically, most of the offense has struggled to produce runs. The one exception to that has been the play of Andrew McCutcheon. McCutcheon has been outstanding. He has provided magnificent play in the field and at the plate. He and Pedro Alvarez have competed for the lead in Home Runs, while McCutcheon leads the way for the Pirates in batting average somewhere in the .340 area. Can you see why the Pirates wanted to lock McCutcheon up for as long as they could reasonably do. If a poll was taken to ask the Pirates what one player was the cause of the Pirates finally ending their streak. The answer will undoubtedly be Andrew McCutcheon. The other player that the Pirates are depending on for stability is the Pittsburgh boy, Neil Walker. Walker doesn’t have the numbers that McCutcheon does, but the fans love him simply because he is from Pittsburgh and he has also been a dependable fixture at second since being inserted there. Walker is still young and still has room for growth in his position and at the plate. Throughout travels through the system he hit for average and when he becomes thoroughly comfortable at his position there is no reason to expect he will not have a breakout season at the plate. For now, though, he is providing consistency above the average of most of the team. From John Wehner to Neil Walker the Pirates fans love their homegrown talent. If nothing else this is why Walker will be a fixture at 2nd for years to come. Will the Pirates make this their first winning season in 19 years? We will find out in a few months. Something tells me this guy

will do everything in his power to end it, and he has a lot of power.For now, though, the fans are enjoying being in the chase. We can only hope it will last into October.