The Good and Bad of the Pirates' Pitching

The Pirates currently sit at 11-9, one game back from the lead of the NL Central.  Not a bad position to be in, nearly a month into the season.  Almost all of the wins were due to a pitcher, starter or reliever, coming up with an amazing performance.  Similarly, a fair amount of the losses can be traced back to a pitcher not doing his job.  Here's a look at how some of the pitchers have been doing this year, and how things could look in the future.



AJ Burnett-  AJ has, as expected been the Pirates' best starter so far.  In his first two starts, he allowed three runs and recorded sixteen strikeouts.  Both were spoiled by the fact that the Bucs' offense was struggling mightily at the time.  He has continued to put up solid numbers, and has improved to 2-2 on the season (the Pirates' 6-5 win over the Reds went down as a no-decision for AJ).  Burnett seems to be the Bucs' most reliable pitcher for the duration of this season.

Wandy Rodriguez-  Wandy has been sensational so far in 2013.  In his first start, he shut down the Cubs through six innings, which would turn out to be the Pirates' first win of 2013.  In his next start, he injured his hamstring in only the second inning, and was forced to leave the game.  He missed his next start (Phil Irwin got the spot start, which turned out to be a thrilling comeback win over Cincinnati), and returned on the 19th vs. Atlanta.  He pitched a 2-hit shutout through 7 innings.  The Pirates closed out the game having faced the minimum 27 batters for the first time in decades.  As terrific as he has been, it is a very small sample size, plus the hamstring could come back to bother him.  Things look cautiously optimistic for Wandy.

James McDonald-  JMac, JMac, JMac.... Truly an impossible puzzle to solve.  Lights-out one day, lit-up the next.  Shut down the Cubs in his first start of the season, gets lit up for 10 runs in the 2nd inning against the Cardinals.  His most recent start against Atlanta was the epitome of inconsistency.  He struck out the first three batters he faced.  In the second inning, he loaded the bases, and proceeded to walk home the leading run.  Directly thereafter, he struck out three batters to end the inning.  Frustrating for fans.  I'm not going to venture a guess on JMac.  The potential for success is certainly there.

Jeff Locke-  Jeff Locke has been quietly mediocre.  He was unimpressive in his first few outings.  He had a good start on Tuesday vs. Philadelphia.  Personally, I don't think he will remain in the rotation very long.  Charlie Morton and Francisco Liriano are returning soon.  Later on, Jeff Karstens will be ready.  Gerrit Cole will be called up.  No space for Locke.

Jonathan Sanchez-  Similar story for Sanchez.  He's been remarkably mediocre thus far, including a 10 run torching by the Arizona Diamondbacks.  I would be shocked if he is in the rotation in June.

5 Starters, .500

I could write a list a mile long of things that need to happen for the Pirates to have a winning season.  Their first winning season in twenty years, the longest such streak in North American Professional Sports.  The most important thing to a team's success, by far, is strong starting pitching.  The Bucs' rotation of SP's this year is hard to gauge, due to some injuries and player inconsistency.  Here's what it looks like to start the season(Opening Day is monday!).

1. AJ Burnett  AJ was one of the Pirates' biggest bright spots last year.  In his second start of the year, he allowed a baseball record nine runs through four innings.  After that, he played like a true ace for pretty much the entire season, including a one hit masterpiece in which he came within four outs of a no-hitter.  He also served as a veteran leader for the team.  Look for the same strong play this year, but don't be too surprised if he slows down a little.  He is 37 after all.

2. Wandy Rodriguez The Pirates made three trades at the trade-deadline last year, and one of them could be considered a success.  That one success would be the trade that brought SP Wandy Rodriguez from Houston.  Rodriguez played excellent ball, although it was a small sample size starting at the mid-august trade-deadline.  All signs point to him having another solid year this year.

3. James McDonald JMac is probably the hardest pitcher to gauge of them all.  In the first half of the 2012 season, he played like an ace, an all-star.  After the all-star break (the midway point of the season) things went south in a hurry.  From the midpoint on, he posted an Earned Runs Average (ERA) above eight.  Eventually, in mid-August, he was pulled from the starting rotation and demoted to the bullpen.  So the question for this year is "which JMac will we see this year?  The ace, or the 8+ ERA JMac?  A lot of the Pirates' success this year depends on that.

Veterans Jeff Karstens and Charlie Morton will both start the season injured, and the following guys will fill in for them:

4. Jonathan Sanchez Sanchez, signed in the offseason by the Bucs, is one of the more bizarre stories on the team this year.  Four years ago, he threw a no-hitter.  Last year, he had an ERA above nine. NINE.  What is more disturbing is that the Pirates' front office somehow thought he would be a good addition this year, and signed him to a minor league contract.  The most disturbing is that they promoted him to the Majors, and gave him a spot as a starting pitcher.  Buckle your seatbelts.  Let's hope he proves me wrong.

5. Jeff Locke  Jeff Locke was given his first chance as a starter during the second half of last season.  He put up poor performances, simple as that.  However, he is very young, and shows potential. We'll see.

A lot of the Pirates' hopes this year depends on these people.  The latter two tossers seem like a dreadful back-end of the rotation, but help will come when Karstens and Morton return.  Another piece of good news:  2010 first-round draft pick Gerrit Cole is ready to play at the major league level.  He probably won't be called up to Pittsburgh until at least June, which would allow the Pirates to retain him for an extra year.