The Pirates will be sending out a rotation of
Tim Lincecum
CC Sabathia
Dan Haren
John Lackey
Chris Carpenter
which is not too shabby. We feel like we'll be in every single game this year, based off of pitching alone. What was formerly a weakness has now been turned into a strength as well. The bullpen will be glad to get 6-7 outs, or whatever it is that's necessary to protect the lead given up the fab five. It will be a committee type of pen, but the early favorites for saves figures to be either Dotel or newly acquired Jon Broxton. This is how the Pirates pen currently shapes up:
RH Jon Broxton
RH Octavio Dotel
RH Joel Zumaya
LH Mitch Stetter
RH Manny Acosta
RH Josh Kinney
LH Eric Stults
RH Ryan Franklin
For depth purposes in the staff as well, knowing that Carpenter may be an injury liability this year, Pittsburgh has Braden Looper, who again posted the 43rd best WHIP in baseball last year, Jarrod Washburn, Eric Stults and Jeff Suppan all capable of stepping in and giving quality innings. So a 6-9 rotation of Looper, Washburn, Stults and Suppan isn't too shabby.
So the only thing left to do is score runs in Pittsburgh. We'll do our best, with no lineup particularly in mind, we're looking these players on offense contributing:
C- John Buck, Chris Gimenez
1B- Derrek Lee, Lyle Overbay
2B- Jeff Baker, Chone Figgins
SS- Yuniesky Betancourt, Chone Figgins
3B- Luke Hughes, Brian Buscher, Chone Figgins
LF- Manny Ramirez
CF- Dexter Fowler, Ryan Spilborghs
RF- Jermaine Dye
Bench- Fowler/Spil, Overbay, Dmitri Young, Luis Castillo, Roger Bernadina
With a core hitting group of Lee, Dye, Ramirez, Fowler...we think we'll score enough runs. The #2 waiver claim will hopefully produce us a catcher. Right now, the weak point looks to be SS. 3B we believe will be okay, with Hughes destroying lefties in the minors last year and Buscher hitting righties to a .799 OPS, which isn't the best, but solid enough. Spilborghs provides a safety net for Fowler in case he doesn't project well enough to start, but I figure he will be able to contribute. Either way, we have a good bit of depth at nearly every position. SP, Pen, Offense. Let's start the season.
