So on opening day, our Battlin' Bucs laid a little smack on the defending NL West champion Dodgers. Let the knee-jerk, ridiculous predictions begin. For some reason, we Pirate fans feel that it is actually possible to gauge the entire season on how we played opening day. First to put this in perspective, just let me say that we have won the past four opening day games and those seasons didn't turn out so hot. I have already heard from my own friends that this is "our year." A term that can be taken many different ways. Our year to go .500? Our year to make the playoffs? Our year to win the Series? My guess, none of the above. Obviously everyone would like to snap their fingers and see the Pirates as a 95 win team with a strong minor league system. It just is not going to happen that way. It took a good two to three years of house cleaning and rebuilding the system to get where we are now and it will no doubt take two or three more before we see any vast improvement in the standings. Sure, this team is talented, but they are not expecting to contend. If they were, Pedro Alvarez would be in the starting lineup already. The fact that he is still in the minors shows that management knows that rushing him into the bigs will not help us win the division this year. All it will do is lead to earlier arbitration. My whole point is that we shouldn't get over-excited about one win. I personally don't think we should let that teaser get the best of us, even though we are tied for first place, on pace to go undefeated, and Garrett Jones is on pace to hit 324 homers. Might as well give Zach Duke the Cy Young too and start planning the World Series parade. Don't let them fool you into fooling yourself. Whether you want to admit it or not, you know how this season is going to go. But they made sure they won this one just to keep your hopes alive for another day. Did anyone notice that John Russell managed like it was game seven of the World Series? When he saw an 8-2 lead turn into an 8-5 lead, he went into Joe Torre mode. Pinch hitters, pitching changes, he had it all. And it's all because he knew that on that day, in front of that rare sell-out crowd, that he couldn't lose that lead. Nothing would have deflated an entire off season of hope like blowing a six run lead on opening day, something we have seen the Pirates do occasionally. But not this team, not this manager, not this year.... at least not yet.
I agree....although I hope you are wrong..
ReplyDeleteYeah I hope so too. I definitely think the time is coming if we can keep all these guys. Maybe 2012 wild card?
ReplyDeletePredictions:
ReplyDelete1. 67 wins
2. Church, Dotel, maybe more traded at the deadline (not necessarily a bad thing).
3. Mccutcheon,Jones,Alvarez,Doumit middle of the order by September could be exciting.
4. Most errors in NL.
5. I'll still watch.
1. I have to go under and go with 62 wins. Only because I think we're worse than last year when we lost 99. This year I predicted 100 losses.
ReplyDelete2. I agree. Church has value and we can get more prospects for him and, as far as Dotel, we don't really need a closer because we still stink. Keep buliding that farm system.
3. Doumit will probably be on the DL in less than a month. But it will still be a fun young lineup.
4. Yup
5. Yup
good point on doumit - he spends more time on the DL than behind the plate. jones just hit another bomb by the way (he got jammed and still hit it out in the deepest part of the park).
ReplyDelete