A new year
This is a day late (I got home yesterday evening and wasn't planning on posting anything until I saw the Sosa article) but despite all of the things I've said about the Pirates this offseason, I figured that I would kick off the new year with reasons to be positive about the 2006 Pittsburgh Pirates.
- Jason Bay. I mean, how can you not be looking forward to watching this guy play? Coming off of his rookie of the year campaign, he played his first full major league season (he played 120 games in '04) and went off for 44 doubles, 32 homers, 102 RBIs, a .306 batting average, a .361 OPS, 21 steals in 22 attempts, and covered a ton of ground in the cavernous left field at PNC Park, even his throwing arm looked stronger by the end of the year. The best part is he's still under the radar, finishing 12th in MVP voting this year. That means that he might still see something to hit next year, for a little while at least.
- Zach Duke. For the first time in recent memory a prospect was hyped to death by the Pittsburgh media and Pirates fans and the guy actually delievered. Sure, he probably won't put up a 1.81 ERA next year, but not many people can. Still, I know I'm looking forward to his first full season in the 'Burgh, and I know I'm not alone.
- We haven't actually made ourselves worse this offseason. Moves like adding Casey and Randa don't help beyond 2006, but they don't hurt us for 2006 ever. Getting rid of guys like Mesa and Redman only make us better. Managing to not make ourselves worse is a definite upgrade over the past. We avoided things like signing Eric Byrnes, trading for David Bell or Corey Koskie, and so far the only evidence we have that they'd be interested in something stupid like signing Sammy Sosa is a Dominican article supposedly written by Rob Rossi.
- I don't care about his bat, is there any player that's more fun to watch in the field than Jack Wilson? Chances are good that his bat will settle in somewhere between his '04 and '05 incantations, and as long as he does that it's more than enough because of what he does with his glove.
- Kip Wells and Oliver Perez just can't be as bad as they were last year. It's not possible.
- Lloyd McClendon is gone. Say what you want about Jim Tracy, any time an opposing pitching coach calls your manager an idiot and a bully, things can't get much worse.
- Much like the freak year of 1997, the Central looks like it's primed for a down year. The Cardinals lost guys like Reggie Sanders, Larry Walker, Matt Morris, and Mark Grudzielanek and replaced them with guys like Juan Encarnacion, Fat Sidney Ponson, and Deivi Cruz. Plus, they're getting older (except that Pujols guy who's in his prime and very scary). The Astros lost maybe the best pitcher of this generation and didn't really replace him with anyone. They were in the World Series last year, but they may have been the worst World Series team in recent memory. Plus, they're really really old. They could see a huge drop off in '06. The Brewers are still getting better, but they're also still very young. The Reds are the Reds, big bats but no pitching. If Dave Williams is how you address your pitching problems, you probably haven't done it adequately.
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