2006 Pittsburgh Pirates Predictions & Season Preview
June 5, 2008
The 2006 Pittsburgh Pirates predictions show them looking to be more like the Cincinnati Reds, playing to out score teams as opposed to playing to shut team down. If this is indeed the direction the Pirates Organization wants to go, they’ll undoubtedly run into the same problems Cincinnati had on the mound as the Bucs don’t have a proven pitching staff or even a dominant starter. They gave up their top wins guy, Williams, for Sean Casey, and Wells, their runner-up in wins, will likely miss the entire season with a blocked artery and Pittsburgh has said that they’ll try to fill the void from within the organization. They’re in a terrible pitching predicament, but with the addition of some players they could possibly support their pitchers better than last season. With that being said, the 2006 Pirates have the makings of a good overs team as they could have the lineup to score some runs, but they won’t be holding too many teams down, especially in the high powered NL Central.
The pressure of their pitching staff falls on Zach Duke, he came over in the middle of the season to go 8-2 with a 2.92 ERA. Oliver Perez was dangerous until what is believed to be a lack of conditioning set him back to a 5.85 ERA last season. Kip Wells went 8-18 with a 5.09 ERA, not exactly what they had in mind, but all three of these guys are relatively young and will need to grow if the Pirates are going to do anything this season. The bullpen is a liability, which will put more pressure on these young arms to shoulder even more of the load late into games.
The Pirates big off season deal landed them Sean Casey, a 2-time All-star and perennial .300 hitter from Cincinnati in exchange for a young question mark pitcher in Dave Williams. I think Pittsburgh comes out ahead on this deal but it won’t be near enough to put them over the hump in the NL Central. Pittsburgh put up 3 straight seasons of 70 wins or more before fading to just 67 victories in 2005. This number will likely sink again this season. They also are looking for Jeromy Burnitz, who they signed to a one-year deal, to give them a big lift from the left side of the plate. Although, he might have been the best available player, what the Pirates really need are some strong right-handed sticks to alleviate their major trouble with left-handed hurlers. Over the past 3 seasons, if you were to have gone against Pittsburgh as a greater than +150 dog when they were facing a lefty starter, you would have been 16-2. This is a very strong trend that you will want to look for this season. It’s sometimes hard to risk paying the juice on heavy favorites, but if you were to have done your homework and followed this trend last season, it would have been a solid investment to lay the heavy favorite. However, trends are subject to change and the addition of Randa, Casey, and Burnitz to go along with rising star Jason Bay could produce some positive changes.
