MLB Preview: Pittsburgh Pirates

The 2007 season was an all to familiar one for the Pittsburgh Pirates as they underwent their 15th consecutive losing season and fired another manager. John Russell replaces Jim Tracy as skipper of the Pirates in the 2008 season, and the Pirates will need a lot more than a new Manager to reverse their troubled fortunes this season.

The Pirates do have some building blocks as they have a nice top of their starting rotation and have one of the games best young closers. Now all they have to do is find some extra pieces to plug in their lineup and they may be able to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Now it's time to answer three questions about the 2008 Pittsburgh Pirates.

(1) Will the Pirates set a new MLB record for having 16 consecutive losing seasons?

Even an eternal optimist would have to say the answer to this question is a resounding Yes. The Pirates just do not have a very good team this year, and although they have some nice pieces, it won't be enough to allow this team to win 13 more games than they did last season.

The club is undergoing another overhaul in the front office as they have a new CEO on board, and ownership continues to tighten up the purse strings. The Pirates have been in the bottom half of payroll during this 15 year stretch of futility, and that will not change this season. The Pirates made very little noise this off-season, and their highest paid player Matt Morris was acquired in a deal that made absolutely no sense when it was consumated last season.

The Pirates traded two prospects to the Giants to acquire a pitcher who will be 33 and who's ERA was over 6 last season. On top of that the Pirates agreed to pay his 13 million dollar salary. Former GM Dave Littlefield was fired for a number of erroneous decisions, but had the Pirates fired him for that action alone they would have been justified.

(2) Can the Pirates expect repeat performances from their two young starting pitchers?

The lone bright spot last season for the Pirates was the emergence of their two young starters. Tom Gorzelanny posted a sub 4 ERA last season and won 14 games on a club that won 69 all season. Gorzelanny proved himself to be one of the best young pitchers in all of baseball last season as he uses a low 90's fastball and some devastating off speed pitches to keep hitters off balance.

Ian Snell also posted a sub 4 ERA, but did not get the run support that Gorzelanny received as he posted a 9-12 record last season. Snell has no fear on the mound and is not afraid to attact hitters with his fastball. Snell sets up hitters by using his fastball, and then uses his devastating slider to send them back to the dugout.

The Pirates also may have found their closer of the future in Matt Capps as he became the closer near the All Star Break, and never looked back as he posted a 2.28 ERA and saved 18 games for the Pirates last season.

There is no reason to think these three young arms can't match what they did last season, or even improve upon it, if that happens then the Pirates will possibly be able to approach the .500 mark by 2009.

(3) What can we expect from the Pirates offense?

Well the simple answer would be not much, but to be fair the Pirates did have a lot of subpar seasons from some regulars in the lineup who are capable of much more. The Pirates star player Jason Bay battled through a knee injury much of last season, and his numbers reflected that as he hit for far less power, and shaved about 50 points from his batting average.

Adam Laroche was the key acquisition last off-season for the Pirates, and actually gave Pirates fans some optimism heading into the season. That optimism soon faded as Laroche got off to a terrible start in April and May. He did rebound to post respectable numbers during the 2nd half of the season, but by that time Pittsburgh fans focused their attention on the Steelers training camp.

The team does have a former batting champ on their roster in Freddie Sanchez, Sanchez is a serviceable 2nd baseman, but is already in his 30's so he won't be the 2nd baseman when the team is a contender. The rest of the infield is led by Jack Wilson and Jose Bautista, the Pirates will definitely have to look at improving their infield in the near future.

The team does have some help on the way from the minors as Andrew McCutchen projects to be a star at CF, and showed glimpses of it last fall as he got a cup of coffe in the big leagues. The Pirates also have Steve Pearce waiting in the wings to take an OF slot in the near future.

The team does have a glimmer of hope in the future, but there is still a lot of work to do before the Pirates can become the offensive juggernaut they were during the Bonds, and Bonilla era in the early 90's.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will be near the bottom of the standings once again in the NL Central, but it appears that the new front office is on the right track as they do have some building points to move forward with.

The young pitchers may represent the only hope this organization has to seeing a winner in the near future.