Previews

With an absolute lack of any new Pirates news to write about this afternoon, and an exam and a lab report keeping me from spending the necessary time to write up something in depth of my own, I'm going to use today to put up a bunch of links to Pirates previews from other non-Pirates sports/baseball blogs (since the function of Pirate blogs at this point in the season is like a running season preview).

• Charlie of the Bucs Dugout has a 5 questions style preview up at Hardball Times.
• Batter's Box has a long preview that starts out with this great ultimatum:

  In about 2009, the tone of all Pirates previews will have changed. By that time, the tone will either have become noticeably more respectful or will have blown over the fine line between failure and utter despair.

  That's the truth, though it may be sooner than that (via Bucs Dugout).
  
• Baseball Think Factory also has a long Bucco preview (via Romo Phone Home).
• At the Replacement Level Yankees Weblog they've run season simulations with Diamond Mind, ZiPS, and BP's PECTOA (2000 seasons with Diamond Mind and ZiPS and 1000 with PECTOA). ZiPS was kindest to the Bucs, giving them an 11% chance of making the postseason and an 81-81 record), with PECTOA putting them at 8% and Diamond Mind at 4%. The final average of the projections puts the Bucs ahead of the Astros and Reds at 78-84 with an 8% chance of making the playoffs. 8% sure isn't a lot, but it's more than the Royals, who averaged a 0% chance of making the playoffs on all three systems.
• And last but not least (last as it was up a week ago and I neglected to post about it) is Deadspin's "Four Tiny Tidbits On the Pirates" giving four fun facts about the Pirates that most of you probably already know, but the baseball loving public probably didn't.