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18 losing seasons and counting. My 21 year old son has no recollection of ever seeing the hometeam play .500 baseball.....but the end is in sight. But it won't happen this year.

For first time in recent memory, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I picked up Yahoo's fantasy baseball mag for 2011 and to my surprise, three Pirates are on their list of the top 20 breakout players for the year:

- Pedro Alvarez
- Jose Tabata
- Neil Walker

The other reason for optimism is they continued the recent trend of not wasting a high draft choice on a player they thought they could sign and instead went after the best (arguably) player on the board this past year with pitching prospects Jamaison Taillon and Stetson Allie. With the first pick in the 2011 draft, I'm hoping they go after someone like Rice's 3B Anthony Rendon who projects as a power hitting corner infielder that could fast track to the majors.

They'll be better offensively in 2011 if for no other reason their top 4 or 5 hitters are still young and an experienced manager with a solid track record as a hitting instructor in the form of Clint Hurdle is going to help.

Pitching in 2011? None. Move on. Actually, one guy who will be interesting to watch (and a late round deep league pitching flier) is James MacDonald who put up some impressive numbers (44K's / 49 innings / 18 BB and allowing only one home / 3.49 ERA / 2.66 FIP) in his 8 starts after coming over from the Dodgers in the Dotel deal. Fangraphs had a story on him and labeled it "the biggest steal of trading season"

We'll see.

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Not losing 100 this year is my hope..

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sorry to say it man, but i'd put a pretty sizeable sand bet that they lose more than 100.

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You're killing me marty.

Not another 100 loss season please!

I'll take a sand wager on that - say something modest like500 sands the Pirates finish with 99 or fewer losses?

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that's all of the confidence you have in your buccos? oh....yeah, i guess that makes sense.

make it 1k and we're on.

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What do you expect when your best season in the last 10 was 87 losses?

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2009 Tanked Dynasty League Champ
2010 Draft Sharks Semi-Pro West Champ
2011 Draft Sharks Pro Champ
2012 Deep Black Dynasty Champion

I don't think they eclipse 100 on the sole fact they share a division with my Astros, the Cubbies, and the back half of the Brewers rotation.

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The difference between losing 100+ and under 90 may be strictly on the bullpen, Meek and Hanrahan could be solid and there's some other guys who could develop too but they're all calculated risks. I think their bats are good enough to almost offset the weak a/o young starting rotation, but the pen's the wildcard.

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Follow me @mchamberlin32

You got a bet. A 1,000 sand that the Pirates have 99 or fewer losses this year.

FWIW, CAIRO's current (very early) model projection for the 2011 season have them at 94.3 losses. I don't think AccurScore has released an early model yet.

http://www.rlyw.net/index.php/RLYW/direct/extremely_early_cairo_2011_mlb_projected_standings

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sounds good man....

FWIW, MARTY's current (very early) model projection has them at 111.4 losses.

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111 losses!

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I'm not sure the Pirates play 111 games every year.

Can someone list some truly awful Pirates' rotations from recent history with stats and compare them to this year's projected rotation? I just can't buy that they're THAT awful...

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I wonder how long Pedro Alvarez is going to pretend he is Pablo Sandoval......heard on Roto he is up to 240!

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uh oh. really following that offseason workout regimen well are we pablo? this one would have me worried.
this bumps the MARTY projection up slightly. 113.1 losses. the fact that he can't bend down to pick up a ground ball will almost certainly cost them one game. the fact that he's likely thinking about burger king at the plate in the 9th? another game.

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Sharks Baseball Leagues

2011/2012 Sun-Soaked Dynasty Champion
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2012 League of Titans Roman League Champion
2012 League of Titans Champion
2012 Sharks College League Champion

you're right. the way they've been playing, you'd think that the altoona team came up and played the last 60 games.


as for their rotation:
1) Paul Maholm....your #1 with a 5.10 ERA and a 1.56 whip....where can i sign up?
2) James McDonald....always an intriguing prospect, can he get this together? If he can, he'll be a steal for them.
3) Kevin Correia....who last year had a 5.40 era-playing at Petco. That will get better, I'm sure.
4) Ross Ohlendorf....i actually don't mind him-but he's unassuming
5) Charlie Morton/Scott Olsen....i once thought highly of olsen. once.

as for previous seasons- top 5 by number of starts.

2010
Maholm
Z. Duke
Ohlendorf
J. Karstens
C. Morton

2009
Maholm
Duke
Ohlendorf
Morton
Snell


2008
Maholm
Duke
Snell
Gorzellany
Dumatrait

2007
Snell
Gorzelanny
Maholm
Duke
M. Morris

2006

Duke
Snell
Maholm
V. Santos
O. Perez

to my friendly pirates fans....i won't go back any earlier and torment them.

_________________
Sharks Baseball Leagues

2011/2012 Sun-Soaked Dynasty Champion
2010/2011/2012 Take Two Dynasty Champion

Sharks Football Leagues

2012 League of Titans Roman League Champion
2012 League of Titans Champion
2012 Sharks College League Champion