Pittsburgh Pirates 2009 Season Preview

on 03 28, 2009

Pittsburgh Pirates 2008 Review:

Pittsburgh finished a dismal 2008 season with a 67-95 record, 30.5 games back of the first place Chicago Cubs, and good enough for a last place finish in the NL Central. The Pirates found themselves in yet another “re-building year” in 2008. The last time the Pirates had a winning season was in 1992, finishing 96-66 and winning their third consecutive NL East division title. Since then, the Pirates have been an embarrassing franchise, unable to reward their loyal fans with any real success. The 2008 Pittsburgh Pirates featured a respectable offense led by Nate McLouth, Freddy Sanchez, Adam LaRoche, Ryan Doumit and Jason Bay (before being traded mid-season to the Boston Red Sox). McLouth led the team in hits, home runs and RBI with 165, 26 and 94 respectively. What really hurt the 2008 Pirates club was pitching. Paul Maholm led the team with only nine wins, a truly ridiculous statistic. Maholm finished 9-9 with a 3.71 ERA in his 31 games started. Three other pitchers started 21 or more games, none of those three managed more than 7 wins. That is simply astounding. The bull-pen wasn’t much better in 2008. The lone bright spots were John Grabow (6-3 with a 2.84 ERA in 74 appearances) and Matt Capps (2-3, 3.02 ERA and 21/26 in save chances). With such an ineffective pitching staff, it’s not difficult to see why the Pirates finished dead last in the NL Central and over 30 games behind the eventual division champion Cubs.

Pittsburgh Pirates 2009 Preview:

After losing Xavier Nady, Jason Bay and Doug Mienkiewicz, the Pirates failed to add any depth to their club in the 2008 off-season. And with depth being such a negative factor for the club in 2008, it’s hard to expect a different result come the 2009 season. The Pirates did manage to add Eric Hinske, Craig Monroe, Brandon Moss, Craig Hansen and Jeff Karstens, but you’re kidding yourself if you think that’s enough for Pittsburgh to turn it around in 2009. The starting lineup is essentially the same as what Pittsburgh featured in 2008, with a solid young 2-3-4 of Sanchez, McLouth and Doumit. This lineup is young and should continue to grow, but don’t expect much more from an offense that finished 19th in the majors last year in runs scored (735), 21st in home runs (153) and 27th in OBP (.320). The pitching staff is also very similar to the one that struggled through 2008, with a starting five of Maholm, Ian Snell, Zach Duke, Tom Gorzelanny and Ross Ohlendorf. These five starters combined for only 27 wins in 2008, compare that to Cleveland Indians pitcher Cliff Lee who won 22 games himself in the 2008 regular season. The bull-pen, aside from Capps and Grabow, will again be a tremendous weak spot for this team in 2009. With a young and mediocre offense backed by a poor overall pitching staff, look for the Pirates to once again lose close to 100 games and finish in last place in the NL Central.

Pittsburgh Pirates Surprise Player of 2009:

Nyjer Morgan is a widely unknown player within the MLB community, and with good reason. Morgan has only played in 86 games during the last two seasons, his only two seasons in the major leagues. However in those 86 games Morgan has hit for a .296 average to go along with 41 runs scored and 16 stolen bases. Projected as the starting left fielder going into 2009, Morgan should be able to be a surprising contributor to the Pirates’ offense. “Morgan’s ability to stay as a regular player is going to come down to his ability to get on base.” says Neal Huntington, Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager. “It’s going to come down to strike-zone discipline, his ability to draw a walk, his ability to get on base by driving the ball gap to gap, and using the bunt as a weapon for him.” Huntington is right, if Morgan can harness his ability to get on base, an area where he can change the tempo of a game, he could potentially be one of the most important offensive weapons in this lineup.

Pittsburgh Pirates Projected 2009 Record:

6th place in the NL Central with a record of 65-97.

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