2020 Pittsburgh Pirates Preview – MLB Preview & Prediction
Last season the Pirates ended up fading on the year and were not that competitive at all. The Pirates are definitely struggling with those changes and lack of major improvement on the year. What else really hurts the Pirates is the fact that the team did not look that impressive at all on the year. To make matters even worse for the Pirates is the fact that the team does not really have that good of a starting rotation at all and that definitely will hurt the Pirates chances of winning a ton of games.
Pittsburgh Pirates Starters
The starters of the Penguins is one that is filled with question marks. The staff ace is Joe Musgrove and he should be able to do decent on the year for the Pirates. However, after that the Pirates are not that well staffed with Chris Archer pitching in the second spot, Mitch Keller in third, Trevor Williams is in 4th and the final spot goes to Derek Holland. Last year Musgrove pitched in 32 games, 31 of those were starts. Musgrove threw a total of 170.1 innings and struck out 157 batters. Musgrove posted an 11-12 record with a 4.44 ERA.
Pittsburgh Pirates Relievers
The bullpen of the Pirates is not really looking that impressive either and could really end up rivaling some of the worst pens in the majors. The bullpen is going to have Richard Rodriguez in it, Kyle Crick, Michael Feliz, Nick Burdi, and Clay Holmes. The closer for the Pirates is projected to be Keone Kela. Kela last season ended up pitching in only 32 games with 33 strikeouts and threw 29.2 innings. Kela ended up posting a 2-0 record with 1 save and had 4 blown saves.
Pittsburgh Pirates Catchers
Jacob Stallings is the projected starting catcher for the Pirates. He is backed up by Luke Maile and John Ryan Murphy. Stallings last season ended up playing in a total of 72 games while posting a .262 average and ended up with 6 homers and a total of 13 runners brought home. When it comes to the defensive side of the ball Stallings ended up doing really good throwing out 40% of the runners.
Pittsburgh Pirates Corners
The corners for the Pirates is one spot that does look decent on the year with Josh Bell playing at first base. Colin Moran is the projected starter for third base. The backup for the Pirates is Jose Osuna at first and Erik Gonzalez is the backup for most of the other infield positions. Last year Josh Bell ended up playing in 143 games while hitting at a clip of .277 on the year and ended up hitting 37 homers while bringing in 116 runners. Moran on the season last year played in 149 games while hitting at a clip of .277 on the year and cranking out 13 homers and bringing home 80 runners.
Pittsburgh Pirates Middle Infield
When it comes to the middle infield the Pirates are looking fairly solid at second base in Adam Frazier. The shortstop position is the one that has question marks with Kevin Newman being the projected starter on the season. Both of those positions are backed up by Erik Gonzalez. Frazier on the year last season played in 153 games on the year and hit at a clip of .278 on the year while getting 10 homers and bringing home 50 runners. For his part Newman ended up playing in a total of 130 games and ended up hitting decent at a clip of .308 with 12 homers and bringing in 64 runners.
Pittsburgh Pirates Outfield
The outfield for the Pirates is looking somewhat decent in some positions, but others are kind of questionable. The starting left fielder for the Pirates is Bryan Reynolds, in center it is projected to be Jarrod Dyson, and in right the starter is projected to be Gregory Polanco. The backup at right is Bryan Reynolds, the starter in left, when it comes to backing up in center and left it is the job of Guillermo Heredia. Last season Reynolds ended up playing in 135 games while hitting at a clip of .314 and cranking out 16 homers and bringing in 68 runners. Dyson last season ended up playing in 130 games and hit at a clip of only .230 on the year while cranking out 7 homers and bringing home 27 runners. Polanco is often seen as the heart of the Pirates lineup and his missing last year showed with only 42 games played, but he did not produce in those games either with an average of .242 on the year with a total of 6 homers and 17 runners brought home.
Pittsburgh Pirates Prediction
The Pirates are one team that did not do enough in the offseason to show a lot of improvement. The Pirates do not have the pitching depth that can make difference in the games or even keep the games close, but also the Pirates are missing quite a bit of offensive production as well. Throw in the fact that even if the Pirates are able to play good this year, the Pirates cannot hold onto the division lead they build up and that leads to the Pirates having a lot of issues this season.
