A moment of reflection

So far this year has not gotten off to a great start. While our starting pitching has been better than hoped for, the hitting has been less than good. Strikeouts abound and McCutchen has yet to really get going and Alvarez has yet to play decent for more than his last game. Add to that Ohlendorf's early injury, and Snyder taking a while to get off the DL and the expected poor short stop play, and Pirate fans ought to be happy.

An 8-11 is not good and points toward another losing season, but we are really only 2.5 games out. Coming up on the end of April, and we are still in contention. Add to that we have a 7-5 record versus the division with all but two of those games coming on the road. The problem is we have played the West Division leading Rockies and the second place East Division Marlins. And we have yet to play the Astros, who have an even worse record than we do.

In other words, I think the Pirates have a real shot at contending this year. The Brewers are not as good as advertised. Admittedly they have not had Zack Grienke yet, but the Royals traded him for a reason, and it was not just mal-content. His best days are over and I think that trade will be a really bad one for the Brewers. The Cards and Reds are beatable. The Cubs are average, and the Astros ought to be canon fodder. When we start to play some of the other divisions losers, like the Mets and Dodgers, we ought to improve our overall standing.

This series starting tonight is a big one. The Nationals are 9-9 and basically in the same boat we are. Medicore, although they are in a tougher division and have even less of a playoff hope than we do. We need to win this series. It is the first series that I think has profound implications for how the rest of our season will go.