Pirates Weekly Update (April 30, 2012)

The Pittsburgh Pirates finished the week Sunday afternoon with a 4-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves. After the loss the Pirates were forced to settle with a 3-3 week in which they looked very impressive at times even in a loss. The starting pitching of the team continued to excel and stay in the top 5 of the MLB in team ERA. However, even after AJ Burnett went 6 innings with just  1 Earned Run, the bullpen gave up 4 to spoil the streak of not giving up or scoring more than 5 runs in a game. The Pirates now hold that record with 18 straight to start the season. The other huge bright spot to the week was the play of Pedro Alvarez. He went 7/18 this week with 2 homeruns, 4 doubles, 3 RBIs, 2 walks, and a batting average of .389 (to raise his season average to .200). The Pirates finish up a 4 game series with the Braves tonight as James McDonald (0-1 with a 2.78 ERA)  faces Braves Pitcher Mike Minor (2-1 with a 3.42 ERA)

Pittsburgh Pirates Update

The first two weeks of the season are now in the books. The Pirates are sitting at a modest 6-9 record and are getting ready to start a three game series with the Colorado Rockies. To this point of the season the Pirates have fared very well against what most people believe is the toughest April Schedule in the NL, by facing just one team so far with a losing record in 2011. However, the offense that plague them so many times last season is once again a major concern. To this day the pirates have not scored more than 5 runs in a game (they also haven't given up more than 5 runs). Which is a huge area of concern because this team was supposed to have upgraded in the offense over the off season. Pickups like Clint Barmes, Rod Barajas and Nate McClouth have done very little season for the pirates and are starting to be questioned as every day starters. If the pirates had even average batting during the first two weeks of the season we could be looking at a team with a record like 10-5 instead of 6-9, because of how well the pitching has been, (4th best ERA in the MLB). The schedule gets easier down the road so it is too soon to write this team off as the 20th straight losing season.

Pirates offseason pickup AJ Burnett went 7 innings on Saturday giving up 0 runs and striking out 7 batters to improve and already solid starting rotation.

Pirates Baseball (As of April 17 results)

As the first week came and went for the Pittsburgh Pirates, they found themselves in a familiar place, the bottom of the NL Central. The Pirates troubles this season only begin with their record. The team has come up with just 18 runs in 10 games and has a team batting average below .200. These stats are easily the worst in the major leagues. However, the competition has a lot to do with these early season offensive struggles. The team so far has faced 4 Cy Young award winner in Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Clayton Kershaw, and Barry Zito. Also they have faced several pitchers who are considered the best in the game like Vance Worley, Matt Cain, Ryan Vogelsong, and coming up against the Diamondbacks Ian Kennedy and Tim Hudson. The runs are very hard to come by against these pitchers to begin with, when you throw in the Pirates history of lackluster hitting, results are not good. The only bright spot in the lineup so far this season is Center Fielder Andrew McCutchen who is batting over .300 early on and had the game winning hit against the Phillies on April 8. A positive to come out of the first 10 games is the starting pitching, the whole staff has kept them in essentially every game and has fought hard against starting pitchers who are considered head and shoulders better than them. If the Pirates can start putting up a few more runs, then the pitchers have a chance to start succeeding and competing.