Pittsburgh's Playoff Run

At first glance at the title of this post, you might think to yourself, "Ugh, not more Penguins talk. I hate Sydney Crosby, he's such a d-bag." Then you might have looked at the author of this post, and think, "Hmm, isn't he the baseball guy? Wait just a gosh darn minute! He knows nothing about hockey, and it's too early to rant about how much the Ravens suck. Is he talking about the Pirates? Nah, he can't be, even he's not that farfetched."

Then you would check the MLB standings and see that the Bucs are only two games under .500 and 6.5 games behind the Cubbies. They're not so bad now, are they? I'm not going to say they're going to win the division, and I'm not going to say they're going to get the wildcard. All I'm saying is, if they do happen to do it, here's why it would happen. It's like O.J. Simpson's book, except not as deadly.

As of right now, the Buccoes are 4th in the National League in runs scored. That says a lot for a team that couldn't cross the plate at all in recent years. It seems as though their youngins are finally maturing, and are able to play ball with the big-boy teams and not wet their pants. Strictly being a station to station club on the basepaths, they have made up for their lack of stolen bases with clutch hitting and brilliant relief pitching. Especially by youngster Matt Capps, woodsman John Grabow and Hawaiian Tyler Yates.

They do have some issues though, as one could imagine. "Oh gee, if their bullpen is so good, and they're scoring a lot of runs, why aren't they in first?" Good question, GEO. (I know, right) Anyway, even though 8th isn't a bad place for homerun totals, they're still only batting .250 as a team. They've struck out the 7th most times, and they do have that base stealing issue. SOLUTION: Freddy Sanchez and Jason Bay need to step up. If McCloth and Nady keep producing the success they've been having at the plate, then that would be one hell of a lineup. Jack Wilson should be coming back soon from the DL also, so he should bump that average up when he comes back (assumingly).

But the more important issue is their starting pitching. Besides Matt Morris being a major bust, they really don't have a bad rotation. Everyone is just performing poorly. If Ian Snell and Tom Gorzellany can produce like they did all of last year, Pittsburgh might have a shot at this thing. All that needs to happen is for Zach Duke and Paul Mahlom to pitch decently, and they got themselves a team. I think that if the Pirates consider themselves in the hunt, and can get themselves another starter via trade, they could become contenders. That is, if all of the above happen. ;]

I'm not sayin'...I'm just sayin'.