Raining on the parade

Of late, there's been many positive things written about the Pirates and their 20-18 record since the All-Star Break, and while it's true that they've been playing better, it's also true that things are not completely rosy yet.

At the Bucs Dugout, Charlie brings up some very valid concerns about the young pitching staff. I'm interested to see what the Baseball Reference comps will be for Snell, Duke, and Maholm at the end of this season (unfortunately, I left my copy of BP 2006 at home when I came back to Pittsburgh so I can't see their pre-season PECOTA comps at the moment), though I doubt they'll be as encouraging as we'd like to see. The one thing about their performances in the second half that has been most encouraging is that both Duke and Maholm have managed to cut their walks down. When they were successful last year, Duke was only walking 2.46 batters per 9 innings and Maholm was walking 3.73 per 9. Up to the All-Star break this year, Maholm was walking 4.57 per 9 and Duke was walking 3.39 per. Since then, they've cut those numbers to 3.20 and 2.20 respectively. Still, it's easy to see that none of them have really pitched like aces at any point during the season (besides a start here or there). I'm still not entirely happy with the 38 games since the break as a relevant sample size though, and this doesn't take into account their minor league numbers (to look at what they might be capable of). This is something I think we'll have to come back to at the end of the season.

Also, Wilbur Miller has an informative (which is the word I will use instead of "depressing") look at Ed Creech's drafting record at OBN, way back to his mid-90s days with the Expos. Let's just say that there has been an established track record, and it's one that isn't pretty. In fact, it might be fair to say that he's gotten worse at drafting players over the years. Only time will tell on guys like Walker, McCutchen, and Lincoln, who seemingly might help Creech redeem parts of this list, but until they get to Pittsburgh they're only minor leaguers.