Starting Rotation: Paul Maholm, Ian Snell, Zach Duke, Ross Ohlendorf, Jeff Karstens
There’s Paul Maholm, and there’s everyone else. Maholm had a stellar year in 2008, posting a 3.71 ERA with 19 quality starts out of 31 games started. He only had 9 wins, mainly because the Pirates never offered him run support. He’s clearly one of the most valuable if not the most valuable member of the 2009 Pirates.
Snell and Duke are following similar story lines: breaking on the scene as quality pitchers a few years ago, then completely imploding before our very eyes over the last 18-24 months. Snell’s problem seems to be lack of mental toughness, while Duke’s mechanics keep getting tweaked by hacks posing as Pirate pitching coaches. Hopefully, for both Snell and Duke’s sake, the Bucs finally have a pitching coach who knows what he’s doing, because they need to get things together if the Pirates are to avoid 95 losses this year. As long as they can put up solid numbers befitting mid-rotation starters, they’ll be an asset to the team. Otherwise, it will be time to seek other solutions from the mound.
Ohlendorf and Karstens both came over from the Yankees in the Nady/Marte trade last July. They are largely unproven commodities, but both showed they deserve a shot in the rotation based on the last 2 months of last year and this spring. Their performances this year will be under intense scrutiny. If they can hold up under that pressure, as well as the reality that their team isn’t going anywhere but they still have to compete, Neal Huntington might get relief from the fans’ incessant impatience.
Bullpen: John Grabow, Tyler Yates, Sean Burnett, Craig Hansen, Donnie Veal, Jesse Chavez
In a sense, bullpens are always a bit of a crapshoot. You have a couple guys that you know what you’ll get, and the rest can impress, disappoint, or fall somewhere in between.
Grabow and Burnett are the two that are predictable and dependable. Grabow remains one of the best lefty specialists in the game, and Burnett is a very solid long reliever. You might even throw Tyler Yates in there as well, if you count his mediocrity as dependable.
Then there’s the rest of them. All of them could make us very, very happy, or all of them could disappoint. It will likely be a mix of the two. The one to watch, though, is Craig Hansen, who came over from the Red Sox last July in the J-Bay trade. He has electric stuff, but no control. If he ever finds the plate, he could be a dominating set-up guy or even a closer down the road.
Closer: Matt Capps
Not the greatest closer, but better than at least half (if not 2/3) of the league. Bottom line, he gets the job done, and that’s what’s important with closers.
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