A Turning of the Tides?

Going into this season it was the Pirates Bats that were supposed to carry the load in their eternal quest for .500 baseball. The happily delusional sort of Pirate fan this spring touted the emergence of Pedro Alvarez as a legitimate power hitter, the acquisition of slugging "weapon" Lyle Overbay, the good health of Ryan Doumit, and a new platoon of Garret Jones / Matt Diaz as reasons why the 2011 lineup would strike fear into the hearts of opposing pitching staffs. And they were right in that prediction. Pitchers across the league have to be quivering at the prospects of catching pneumonia from the steady breeze of swings and misses coming at them from 60feet, 6 inches away.

Since reaching that hallowed mark of .500 on June 8th that had the front office looking into splurging precious financial resources on a “30 and 30: This year it FEELS different” banner to hang out on Federal Street, the Bucco Bats have gone ice cold, putting up a meek 4 runs in the last 36 innings. So much for the Smizblog proclaiming this team the month of June batting champs. The fact is that the surprising (relative) success of this squad is all the more shocking for the way they have reached a level of quasi-respectability: through their starting pitching.
Free Agent Bargain Kevin Correia has lead the way, putting up numbers slightly better than his career average and staying calm, as a savvy veteran should do, in pressure situations. Nothing fazes this guy. He kind of reminds me of a slightly better, right handed version of Mark Redman.

Unlucky Loser, Paul Maholm has put up some sizzling numbers for a lefty in a contract year. Nothing suspicious about that sort of performance at all.

James McDonald has been expectedly erratic, but not terrible.

Charlie Morton has absolutely resurrected his career from the dead with the addition of a 2 seam fastball to compliment his natural talents. His numbers have been Ace of the Staff, All Star quality. Lets see if he can keep it up. After listening to some of his acoustic folk guitar ballads, I still question where the guys head is at.

My favorite pitcher of the season however has been the perennially overlooked Jeff Karstens. The guy is not flashy at all, and every year the Pirates set out a plan coming out of Spring that involves him tossing long relief from the bullpen. And every year it seems somebody goes down to injury or a project blows up, and he is plugged into the rotation and does well. He doesn’t walk a lot of guys and is efficient in his competent efforts. So of course I’m sure the front office will find a way to show this guy the door through trade or non-tendering in the near future.

A lot of credit needs to go to pitching coach Ray Searage for knowing which buttons to push in order to shape this staff into a legitimate major league rotation through at least 39.5% of the season. As the 2005 “30 and 30 in June” Pirates can attest however, as the weather gets hot and summer officially starts, the pretenders are separated from the legit contenders in Major League Baseball. I have a sinking feeling in my stomach that Pirates pitching will be shortly exposed, probably as we come up against American League bats in an extended stretch of interleague play that begins this Friday against the Cleveland Indians.

I can practically hear it already: Greg Brown bellyaching in early September about how the Pirates couldn’t get the bats going in the early part of the season when they were getting solid pitching, and now that the hitters have found their groove, the starting pitching is getting blown up every night and the relievers arms are falling off from all the extra work. Just wait till next year Mr. Sunshine will croon, newly extended GM Neal Huntington will make sure the pieces are more synched up for legitimate contention. Just like when Jim Tracy somehow managed to guide the club to a 37-35 record after the All-Star break in 2006, it will be a sure sign that a brighter, shinier future is just ahead.