The Pirates avoided a ten game losing streak with a 6-4 win over the Cardinals last night. Today, they have the day off, before returning home on Friday for a series against the Giants.
The Pirates are currently 25-37, which is good enough for third in the NL Central. They are two games ahead of the Cubs, but ten games back from the Wild Card spot, and 12 games under .500.
This is about the best that we could expect from this team so far this year. They’re a bad team, prone to bad stretches like the one we just saw. However, they’re not the worst team in baseball. They are, factually, the seventh worst team in baseball by record, and have the second worst run differential.
At the same time, this is a team that is fun to watch right now, as bad as the record is, and as bad as the losing stretches are.
The offense has a young group of outfielders playing around a surging Bryan Reynolds lately.
The pitching staff has been promising to watch lately, with the arrival of Roansy Contreras and some positive steps from Mitch Keller.
At some point, we will even see Oneil Cruz in the majors, adding a new level of nightly appointment viewing to this team.
I don’t know if this team has enough help coming from the minors to turn the losing around this year. I do think this team will continue to be more interesting as the year goes on and more prospects arrive. Overall, I think the more positive signs of hope for the future, the more interesting a presently losing team becomes. That’s just how I look at it.
What are your thoughts on this Pirates season so far? Leave your off-day thoughts in the comments.
