How the Hell are the Pirates 1 Game Out?

[EmpireWF]

I know they have some pretty sweet young hitters (McCutcheon and Walker mainly, with the Pressley kid making noise...and Karstens the starter has been great), but the hell are they one game out of the central?

They have a sick closer in Hanrahan but is the rest of the staff that good?

Can they keep it up?

[Goober]

Luck.

Their team war is 17.2. Fangraphs has them ranked 28th in team war%.

As a comparison,
Brewers team war: 26.1
Reds team war: 24.4
Cardinals team war: 25.5

[Warner2BruceTD]

Every non Cards, Brewers, and Reds fan should be rooting for them.

Some of the starters are coming back to earth (Morton for example). The have a good back end of the bullpen and some good young hitters, but ultimately they will fall apart at some point because of the starters. Moving forward, they will be good for a few years if they can fix that and the hitters keep progressing.

[nflman2033]

easy, the NL Central blows

[killgod]

I wish I was in the NL central.

[NAHSTE]

easy, the NL Central blows

Beat me to it.

It's a nice story though, I'm rooting for them to finish over .500.

[FedEx227]

They are drawing really well at PNC too which is awesome.

[NAHSTE]

They are drawing really well at PNC too which is awesome.

Yeah I watched their game on the 4th, it was packed there. It's such a gem of a park that you love to see it filled up. It seems like attendance has rebounded nicely now that school is out. I've seen some decent crowds in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, KC, etc. in the last few weeks. For some nights it's still only around 20-22k but that's better than the teens.

[inthecards21]

Glad to see the other Pittsburgh team finally coming out of the dumps

[Rudi]

They have 6 or 7 straight sellouts I read somewhere. But it is more a product of the NL Central mediocrity.

[Woy]

Glad to see the other Pittsburgh team finally coming out of the dumps

Yep, and even as a Cards fan I'm thrilled to see this. I interviewed the team president in April and knew he would have that club surprising a lot of folks this season. I also gave him a few tips to run the team.
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[Herm]

does a pirates fan exist on these boards? I saw Pedro Alvarez alot in college and he seems like a stud. I saw they just sent him back to AAA after a dl stint. I hope he can pull it all together one day and be the player i think he can be.

[EmpireWF]

does a pirates fan exist on these boards? I saw Pedro Alvarez alot in college and he seems like a stud. I saw they just sent him back to AAA after a dl stint. I hope he can pull it all together one day and be the player i think he can be.

Yeah, Alvarez has played like complete shit this year so they had to send him down, hopefully he can find his swing again in time to come back up and help.

[Kuzzy Powers]

Neil Walker.

[Woy]

does a pirates fan exist on these boards? I saw Pedro Alvarez alot in college and he seems like a stud. I saw they just sent him back to AAA after a dl stint. I hope he can pull it all together one day and be the player i think he can be.

I'm kinda happy there isn't tbh because the only person I can think of is Houtz. We already know how excited he got when Chad Henne would actually complete a pass...imagine how he would be if he was around for this baseball season? :horse: