Tuesday, May 29, 2012

48 games in... Pirates need to win 58 more games

I picked the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the 2012 NL Central title.
That might have been a bit of a contrarian pick. It might have been me wanting to stick my neck out.

(What courage would it take to pick the Reds?)

One of my outlandish picks seems to be working out. I picked the Dodgers to win the NL West.
The Pirates aren't exactly setting the world ablaze but they aren't sinking either.

Like the Red Sox, the Pirates are currently a .500 team.
Unlike the Red Sox, the bar for Pirates success this year isn't that high.

It is 82 wins. 82 wins will take all of the "They haven't had a winning season since 1992" talk off of the team. It is the 20th anniversary of the last good Pirates team and it is starting to get nuts.

Now last year, the Pirates starting getting hot and for a while took over first place in July before a disastrous second half made it just another 90 loss season.

But now, with just about 30% of the season in the can, the Pirates have a truly legitimate shot to end this streak.

They could use a pair of bats, maybe even off of the bench and a lefty reliever. I'm not talking about trading the farm and bringing in Cole Hamels.

Just a few parts from some floundering teams to give them some depth.
Now last year they did make a few deals including bringing in Derrek Lee. But this year, they may be able to build on last year's rise and fall.

Can the Twins part with Josh Willingham?
Would the Royals listen about Bruce Chen?
Are the Brewers selling?

Get a few parts and aim for a 58-56 record the rest of the way.
Get this monkey off of your back.

Go for it!
Aim for mediocrity.







Follow sullybaseball on Twitter


No comments:

Post a Comment