2008 Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates have become so use to winning that it has been 15 seasons since the last time they had a winning year. The team will most likely tie the record of 16 straight losing seasons set by the Phillies back in the 30s and 40s. For a team that finished last in the NL with 68 -94 record didn’t do much at all to improve or shake up their roster. The team did bring in a Neal Huntington as the new GM and John Russell as the team’s new manager. The team does have a lot of young talent, and it will be interesting to see if they can keep hold of it. It seems they have made a habit of not being able to keep their young players in a Pirates uniform.

Pitching:

This is by far the best part of a pretty bad team. They have two very good young starters in team ace Tom Gorzelanny and number two starter Ian Snell. Gorzelanny went 14 – 10 with a 3.88 ERA, which is pretty impressive for a team that only won 68 games all year. Veteran Matt Morris will likely be the third starter as the only old guy out of the 5. Paul Maholm and once promising starter Zach Duke round out the rotation. Team closer Matt Capps was pretty impressive when he got the ball. He converted 18 of 21 save attempts and was only scored on twice in his final 30 appearances. The rest of the bullpen was pretty bad in 2007. Though they didn’t get many leads, they didn’t do a very good job of keeping them when the opportunity came up.

Offense:

The offense really lacks a big time bat in the middle of the order. The team leaders in homeruns were Adam LaRoche and Jason Bay with 21 a piece. This unit struggled to put runs on the board last year, and with practically the same lineup they will struggle again in 2008. 2B Freddy Sanchez had a pretty impressive year at the plate hitting .304 with 81 RBIs. Sanchez doesn’t hit the long ball but does lead the league in doubles with 95 over the past 2 seasons. SS Jack Wilson also had a pretty good year hitting .296. The team will need LaRoche, Bay, and Xavier Nady to increase their homerun totals if they want to increase their win totals.

Defense:

What might be surprising for a team that lost the most games in the league is that they had the second best fielding percentage in the NL. The team will have to repeat these kinds of numbers in 2008 if they want to improve at all on their win total. LaRoche played a pretty solid first base and Bay was third in the NL with 13 outfield assists.

Prediction:

With almost the same team in 2008 as they had in 2007 we don’t see how they will improve enough to get out of the cellar. With new management stepping in this year it might spark this team to a few more wins, but we still see them finishing last in the NL Central. Until they add some bats to go with their young pitching this team will continue to lose.

2008 Pittsburgh Pirates Odds to Win World Series 100 – 1

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