- The rotation should be solid for the most part, but they'll have their share of ugly starts as well. We saw James McDonald and Kevin Correia absolutely fall apart in the last week of camp. J-Mac couldn't find the strike zone and Correia was throwing batting practice. Obviously those aren't your 1-2 guys in the rotation so you can afford them getting tanked every once in awhile, but it certainly wasn't encouraging. However, those two both had really good starts and stretches as well. It doesn't seem like you know what you're going to get on a given night with these two. Same goes with Charlie Morton as well. You really can't take much at all from Morton's spring numbers since he was focusing on getting healthy, but there were certainly good signs mixed in with some bad. Erik Bedard looks ready for the season, but his velocity has been down, so that's something to at least keep an eye on. A.J. Burnett was a huge addition and should boost this staff a bunch when he finally returns.
- This team can hit a little bit. They hit .278, which was good for 11th in the league. They also hit 30 home runs which was good for 9th. You have to take into account that Matt Hague and Yamaico Navarro were both in the top five for the Pirates in hits, and they aren't going to be getting many (if any) major league at-bats. However, the Pirates also hit pitchers more than the rest of the league which certainly won't ever help your batting average. Again, these statistics don't mean anything, but you'd rather have your team hitting than not.
- Depth could actually be somewhat of a strength for the team this year. We have six real Major League starters on the 40-man roster and some back-up options that aren't going to kill you every time in Brad Lincoln, Jo-Jo Reyes and Jeff Locke. A lot of the minor league players looked very good as well, such as Starling Marte, Hague, Rudy Owens, Tim Alderson, amongst others. The Pirates also got great springs from Navarro, Nate McLouth, and Josh Harrison who will be big players coming off the bench for the Pirates this year.
- You have to be seriously concerned about Pedro Alvarez. He looked just terrible at the plate all spring. That's almost an understatement. I never really thought a professional hitter could look so lost at the plate, especially a guy that was drafted at the top of the first round. It has been an extremely discouraging spring for Alvarez and it's tough to predict a turnaround anytime soon, which really sucks since he's the Opening Day starter at third base. His defense has been bad as well; Alvarez could end up being a huge liability to this team early on in the season, and that's not something anybody wanted to have to say this year.
- The bullpen might not be as strong as I initially thought it would be. Daniel McCutchen, Tony Watson, and Chris Leroux struggled a lot through the spring, and Evan Meek still doesn't have his velocity. Chris Resop was good, striking out nine batters in nine innings, and Juan Cruz earned himself a job allowing just two runs in 9.1 innings while striking out seven. Joel Hanrahan is going to be dominant again, but this team really lacks a solid eighth inning guy. They might end up missing Jose Veras more than we expected.
- Clint Hurdle didn't put the huge emphasis on aggressive base running and stealing that he did last year. If you can remember last spring the Pirates were trying to steal bases almost every opportunity they had. That didn't end up translating to the regular season, however. They still ran a lot this spring, but not as much as last year. It'll be interesting to see how aggressive the Pirates are on the base paths when the season starts, but it's easy to see them attempting a lot of steals with Alex Presley, Jose Tabata, and Andrew McCutchen at top of the order with very little power behind them.
- This doesn't seem like a club that is ready to play its best baseball in April, which isn't a good thing this year. They have an extremely tough schedule out of the gate and they are missing some big things. As I said earlier, Alvarez looks like a AA hitter at best, they are without A.J. Burnett for at least a couple weeks, McDonald and Correia had horrible outings to end their spring, and Charlie Morton won't be with us for the first couple series. Guys like Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones are really going to have to come out hot to try and compensate for all of that, but it doesn't look too great. You never want to start the season poorly, especially with a young team, but I'm sure Clint Hurdle and company will keep everything under control.
- On the other side of that, it could be a huge boost if this team can play good baseball through April and float around the .500 mark. That could be a real shot in the arm as they head into some easier games with some more fire power and this could be a really confident team. However, they have to win the games first. It's a really important first month as far as I'm concerned.
- The focus of this organization is also a bit more clear after the last month or so. The Alvarez decision really told me something about where the team stands in regards to the present and the future. Obviously the additions of Bedard and especially Burnett showed us that this team wants to compete this year, but it's still clear that the men upstairs have the 2013-2014 range in site for attempting to build a really strong team. I believe that's how it should be, although not everybody agrees.
So that's what I came up with. Things are getting geared up here at The "Mc" Effect as we get ready for the every day grind to start once again. We're excited and we appreciate everybody who reads. Happy Opening Week!