Pittsburgh Pirates

Archive for the ‘Baseball Fans’ Category

One of the best parts about professional baseball, for its fans, is that the offseason is relatively short, due to the number of games that need to be squeezed in over the course of a season. This means that before long it will be time to head to http://www.tvbydirect.com to secure your MLB package and be ready to watch your favorite teams. There are plenty of teams with reason to be excited heading into next year, and among them, for the first time in quite a while, is the Pittsburgh Pirates, who have experienced one of the more extensive stretches of mediocrity in the professional sports world.

While Pittsburgh did not finish with an impressive record (they wound up 72-90 in 2011) and obviously has work to do in order to contend, things are looking up. To begin with, the Pirates’ division – the NL Central – has been extremely difficult in past years, due largely to the dominance by the St. Louis Cardinals, as well as, in more recent years, contention by the Milwaukee Brewers. However, the Pirates – generally bottom dwellers in the division – managed to finish this season in 4th place, which, while not on its own encouraging, could bode well as the division figures to be weakening. Milwaukee and St. Louis may be significantly worse next season if they lose their best players in Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols respectively, and the division may be more up for grabs than usual.

Additionally, the Pirates are a young team with some promising talent. Center Fielder Andrew McCutchen is certainly one of the budding stars in the National League. Jeff Karstens turned in a solid performance as the team’s top starter, posting a 3.38 ERA over the course of the season. The Pirates will certainly need to develop some of their youth, as well as likely bring in some external talent, in order to truly contend, and it may still be a process that takes multiple years. However, the Pirates appear to be closer than they have been in a while.

This past season, the Pirates were in the hunt for the NL Central lead up until almost the All Star break, and experienced a rather dramatic second half drop-off. This too is a strong indication that this team is learning how to compete, and gathering the talent to make winning an option. It’s still an uphill climb, but for the first time in many years it is at least somewhat exciting to be a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates.