It’s hard not to be too disappointed with the Pirates. I mean, they’re not awful, and the pitching is coming around. And despite being eight games below .500, they’re still within reach of the Brewers at nine games back. I’m not saying they’ll compete for the division, but at this point in most seasons past, the Pirates have been out of it.
Xavier Nady has to be the team MVP so far this year. He’s been better then Jason Bay and he leads the team with fourteen homers and 43 runs. Throw in a .219 batting average and a .504 slugging and it gives Bay a nice complement.
Ronny Paulino has been the biggest disappointment with his .627 OPS. I know we shouldn’t have expected him to hit .300 again this year but I know I was looking for a bit more from Paulino. If the Pirates fall out of contention, you’d have to hope they’d see what they’re catching prospects have and maybe give Paulino more of a spell here and there.
Tom Gorzelanny and Ian Snell have become quite a one-two punch for the Pirates in the rotation and this is the biggest positive of the season. I give a slight edge to Snell even though he has two fewer wins but Gorzelanny has definitely held his own. When you throw in Paul Maholm, you have a nice front end of the rotation, now the Pirates just have to figure out what the back end of the rotation is going to look like.
Ian Snell gets the start tonight in the opener against the Braves and the Pirates will face Tim Hudson when they come ot the plate. John Smoltz is injured so we won’t be seeing him and I’m optimistic, based on the pitching matchups, that the Pirates can take two of three in this series.
