Opening Day in the Burgh: 2012

It is officially opening day in Pittsburgh.

I have mixed feelings on this special day:

-I'm tremendously excited. Baseball is back once again for the long haul. No matter how angry the Pirates make me, I love watching them. I watch all of the garbage just for those few special moments that happen every season.

Most people don't understand us Pirate fans, but we understand each other. Through all of our frustration and disagreements, we all want the same thing. Despite our expectations for this season, low or high, opening day represents a new beginning...even if we're just going to begin losing again, I'm excited for another opportunity.

-I'm nervous. There are so many things that could go terribly wrong this season. Pedro Alvarez' fate will almost be entirely decided. If he stinks it up the entire year--where do we go from there? Where do we put him in 2013? Do we just leave him in the minors? What does he become? It's a question that I'm not even sure I want to know the answer to. Please don't let us down Pedro.

Can Bedard stay healthy? He can be something of an anchor of this rotation--but the catch is, he has to be in it.

-AJ is ahead in his recovery and should be back this month. What will he bring to the table? Can he be the old AJ (or at least show some representation of it), or will he be New York AJ? Huge difference that will determine a significant amount of games this season.

I'm excited to watch the continued development of Andrew McCutchen. He is starting to turn into something very special. Andrew wasn't a superstar last year. I believe that changes this year. Andrew will be a superstar, and he will carry this Pirates team, even if it is only to 70 wins.

Walker needs to bounce back. He had a down year last year. For a guy who is probably going to have to hold down the 4 hole, he doesn't bring a lot of power to the table. But we've seen Walker do damage. He isn't going to bop the ball over the wall often, but he's clutch. He can drive it up the middle with men in scoring position. We need him to do that consistently.

-The bullpen. What are we going to see here? Hanrahan is going to be good, of that I'm certain. Maybe he won't have no blown saves until near around the all star break like last year, but he will be effective. He is the ONLY one I am that confident about. Nobody else stands out. Neal has been adamant about saying bullpens are the easiest thing to build. Prove it to us Neal, this bullpen needs to be solid.

For better or worse, let's play ball!!!!!!!!!!!

First pitch around 1:35 EST, Bedard VS. Halladay

7 days

A mere week separates Pirates fans from could be our impending doom--or a great season.

No matter your opinion on the future result of the 2012 Pirates season, you can't help crack a little smile when you hear that first crack of the bat--even if it is Shane Victorino hitting a blast into the PNC Park seats in the first inning off of Erik Bedard (ok maybe no smiles for that one).

Good news out of spring training today: K-Dro..ahem..E-Dro...I'm sorry...PEDRO Alvarez went 2/5 today. AND, he only struck out twice!! Yes..that's improvement. Now really, I still think he is going to rebound with a decent season despite this atrocious spring. I could see something like an average around .240-50 and 20-25 homers. It would be even better if he could strike out under 16,227 times!!

Oh yes...and the bad news. McDonald got F'ing ROCKED....by the Twins. The Twins. The Twins.

3 2/3 innings giving up 10 earned runs. That's less than encouraging. So much for the 7 inning performance he had several days ago--this Twins performance sends me back into panic mode.

A couple other notes...

-McLouth is having a huge spring. If he can get back to his "Pirates mode" baseball, ya know, specifically 2008, we could have an interesting situation in the outfield...

-Jason Jaramillo has signed a minor league contract with the Brewers, and Zach Duke has signed a minor league contract with the Nationals. Why is this important you ask?? It isn't.

-Juan Cruz will be headed north and join the big league club. Cruz was an interesting sign this offseason as it seemed pretty likely he'd be joining the bullpen.

-In case you...

1. Live under a rock

2. Live in a normal house and haven't heard the news

3. Don't watch ESPN (and you shouldn't)

...Chase Utley won't be playing on opening day, and as a result I'm sure, won't be playing the entire Pirates series. This is good news, because now the Phillies will only be a lot better than the Pirates...wow the Pirates have a brutal April schedule.

Twitter

Yo folks,

Since I don't think I've ever mentioned it on here before, make sure you check out my Twitter @thebattlinbucco...if you're in to that whole social media thing.

I have been doing live game updates as often as I can, and I'll be doing a lot more of that when we hit the regular season.

Josh Harrison, Pirates-Astros 3/24/12

Josh Harrison just keeps hitting the baseball...

He isn't a guy that is mentioned with the Pirates core of Cutch, Walker, Tabata...etc. Harrison is just a baseball player. Simple as that. He is a gritty little guy that hits the baseball and plays decent defense.

If there was one name that wasn't being discussed before spring training, that name was Josh Harrison. It seems to me that he still isn't being discussed. He leads the team in doubles this spring, but more importantly, he really is getting great wood on the ball. He had another double today in the first inning: a rocket shot to the opposite field gap.

For a guy that I looked at as a slap hitter last year, Harrison looks like he has added a little more power to his arsenal. He won't be an every day player, so he doesn't need to hit a ton of home runs. A good gap power hitter will be invaluable coming off the bench though.

Oh...and Harrison is hitting .520 this spring. So.......yeah.

Anyway, the Pirates lost 5-4 on Saturday afternoon, which isn't really a big deal considering the two pitchers who allowed the Astros to tie and win the game in the 9th and 10th innings won't see the light of day on the MLB squad. 

The Pirates have been looking at Igarashi, who gave up 3 runs in the 9th, but I don't think he's going to make it.

Walker had a clutch two out two run single in the first inning, and The Legend hit a massive moon shot home run later in the game. Cutch stole a base, and it remains very clear that the Pirates are going to be moving quite a bit on the base paths this year. That should be fun to watch.

It was also very encouraging to see James McDonald pitch 7 innings today, giving up one earned run. He only struck out three, but we have been hearing a lot about him having possible "dead arm" problems. This is a good sign, even though he was playing against the Asstros.

Pedro Watch 3/18/12

And so continue the Pedro Alvarez updates that I am going to name "Pedro Watch" from now on. Why Pedro Watch? Well, that little slogan should come in handy when I'm speculating on when Alvarez will come up from the minor leagues.

Alvarez is on a figurative high speed train heading right toward Indianapolis.

A little less than a week ago, I gave an update and analysis on El Toro's spring training here. At the time, Alvarez was 3 for 16 with two home runs and five strikeouts.

Alvarez has been awful since then. Seriously. Awful.

Since my update, Alvarez has gone 1 for 7. He has struck out five times. Yeah, he struck out five times in his first 16 at bats this spring. That wasn't good. Now he has struck out five times in his last 7 times at the plate? What!?!?!?!

Here is a video of Alvarez to remind you that he actually used to be a dangerous hitter. But was that guy in the background on to something???

Dejan Kovacevic tweeted on Saturday that the Pirates had said this performance was "Not representative of [Alvarez's] whole spring."

Sure, that could be true. Pedro Alvarez could have 10 hits in the next week and blast three homeruns without striking out. He could draw two walks and hit a triple while playing gold glove defense. Or the more likely situation could occur...this depressing output from Alvarez will continue.

Here are a couple other Dejan Kovacevic tweets from Saturday relating to Alvarez. No, these are not meant to be inspirational.

"Alvarez: Swing and miss, swing and miss, swing and miss. That's six of those in a row."


"Alvarez's hat trick is complete. Another swinging K. There was at least a foul back to the screen in there."


Is this what it has come to? We are celebrating, or at least noting when Alvarez fouls a ball back to the screen!?!?!?

Now, it is important to realize that I am reading very heavily into these spring training statistics. Statistics which probably aren't a perfect way to predict future performance. Unfortunately, these underwhelming statistics are the only means by which I can speculate at the moment, and this blog is all about speculation until the actual season starts.

I think Alvarez is due for a turn around season, but he is trying very hard to ground my expectations, and he is succeeding.

Oh Pedro...

El Toro is the hot topic of the 2012 Pittsburgh Pirates season. I really haven't felt the need to write about him seeing as to how I'm pretty sick of hearing about him myself....but I guess I'll weigh in.

Man. You shouldn't have changed your number Pedro. 

#17 Pedro

#17 Alvarez 2010- 95 games, 16 homers, .256 AVG, .788 OPS

#24 Alvarez 2011- 74 games, 4 homers, .191 AVG, .561 OPS

Yuck.

This spring- 16 ABs, 2 homers, .188 AVG, .750 OPS

The spring sample size is tiny, I know, and I would take it with a grain of salt even after a full month. He has just three hits this spring, which is horrible with 16 at bats, but two of them are homers. Watching some of these games, Pedro seems to be hitting the ball pretty hard. Luck always plays into baseball, and he might be a little bit on the unlucky side this spring.

With that though, are his five strikeouts. Five strikeouts in 16 plate appearances probably needs to improve.

Another issue is his walks, or the non-existence of them. Yeah...there are none. It's probably hard to walk when you are struggling at the plate as much as Pedro has been. That's why pitchers rarely walk, it's better to throw three meat balls down the plate than it is to give a pitcher a free pass. Similar situation to Alvarez. Pitchers would rather give Pedro meat balls than walk him. That's where Alvarez has to take advantage. He can definitely hit a fast ball, he just needs to do it with more consistency.

Whether you like it or not, I know I sure don't, the entire 2012 season rests squarely on Pedro's shoulders. No doubt about it. There are other players in this organization, but they really don't mean much if Pedro ends up in AAA by May or June.

McCutchen is not the Pirates clean up hitter. We saw him try to make up for the lack of power in the Pirates lineup last year when the Pirates were trying to win the division, it didn't work out for either the Pirates or Cutch. 

Lead us to salvation, El Toro.

#FreeStarlingMarte

Ok so I have calmed down from my Andrew McCutchen signing high...

It is a slight possibility that I may have overreacted to that situation just a bit. But c'mon. We're Pirates fans. Anytime something happens that makes me forget for one moment that we are a tiny market club with an owner              
who has a history of being frugal with his wallet will make me all warm and fuzzy inside.

But I digress. There are more important matters to discuss now. Sort of.

Starling Marte is a monster. Ever since the Pirates were contending at the trade deadline last summer, Marte's name has been an interesting discussion point.

Marte has been successful at every level. He won a batting title in the Eastern League last year at AA Altoona with a .332 batting average. His power also began to develop; Marte drove 12 balls out of the yard in 2011 (he had only hit 5 home runs the previous two years).

It's probably a good thing that the Pirates didn't deal Marte before their epic collapse. Marte has been a hot spot this spring training. He was an 8 hit streak yesterday before he flew out to right field. Yes, and 8 hit streak. Not 8 games with a hit in a row. 8 hits in a row. Holy sh....

I was able to jump on Twitter as I watched the last few innings of the Phillies game yesterday. Marte blasted a homerun on a pitch that was low and inside in the zone. He has quick hands and his power is developing.

He has blazing speed and is a plus fielder, although you wouldn't have known it by watching him in right field this spring. He has looked confused out there, but that's not his natural position.

So what are the Pirates going to do about it? Clint Hurdle was just on 93.7 The Fan. He said there is no chance that Starling Marte will be with the big league club.

Yes. If Starling Marte gets a hit in every single at bat for the rest of the spring, he will not make the big league club. This is slightly frustrating given the urgency of the 2012 season, but it is understandable that the club doesn't want Marte to skip AAA.

It will be interesting to see who Marte will replace, as he will inevitably have to replace someone. It comes down to Presley or Tabata. Personally, I'm a bit torn between the two.

There are accurate criticisms for both outfielders. Presley is still a question mark. He's never been through a full season in the majors. He isn't a great defender, though he is good enough to man left field in PNC Park. His swing, however, is solid. He has a very quick stroke that leads me to believe that we aren't going to see a ton of regression.

If anyone is in line for regression this season, it's Presley, but I don't think we're going to see too much of it. He has shown the ability to spread to ball around the field and he consistently puts the fat part of the bat on the ball. 

Tabata worries me. His ceiling is higher than Presley's, but ceiling isn't the best way to determine your starting lineup. Tabata's injury problems are of huge concern, as well as his lack of power. He does get on base at a good rate though, and serves as a better lead-off man than Presley

Marte will surpass both of them, and Presley will probably end up being the one that rides the pine due to Tabata's big contract.