The Pittsburgh Pirates have had 18 consecutive losing seasons. Last season they lost 105 games. Only 6 Pirates teams have had a worse winning percentage since the franchise joined the American Association in 1882 as the Pittsburgh Alleghenys. Your 2011 Pirates have a new manager yet again to try and right the always-sinking Pirate ship. Clint Hurdle comes to the Pirates after spending last season as the Texas Ranger's hitting coach. Hurdle managed the Colorado Rockies from 2002 to 2009, leading the Rockies to the World Series in 2007.
The Pirates do have one of the games brightest young stars in Andrew McCutchen. McCutchen is lightning quick, as he stole 33 bases last season. He can be seen nearly every night making highlight-reel catches in the outfield. Beyond McCutchen the Pirates will have to hope that youngsters Jose tabata, Pedro Alvarez, and Neil Walker can all live up to their hype and produce big numbers. Right fielder Garrett Jones needs to do better than his .247 average from a year ago, and also needs to hit 30-40 homeruns to give this club a chance to win.
The Pirates starting pitching can be summed up in one word: bad. James McDonald finished the season nicely last season and a nice article about him can be read here. The Pirates bullpen can close out games if they have the lead late in the game. Evan Meek was a very good setup man last year and Joel Hanrahan looks to be a solid closer.
Will this team be better in 2011? Probably. Will they have another losing season? Definitely. Hopefully Clint Hurdle will take baby steps in 2011 to pull this team out of its misery of the last 2 decades and set the franchise up for success in the near future.
Projected startes:
C Chris Snyder
1B Lyle Overbay
2B Neil Walker
3B Pedro Alvarez
SS Ronny Cedeno
LF Jose Tabata
CF Andrew McCutchen
RF Garrett Jones
P James McDonald
P Paul Maholm
P Ross Ohlendorf
P Kevin Correia
P Craig Morton
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