Perhaps the best story in baseball this year has been that of the Pirates. After 20 straight years of wallowing in the bottom of the NL Central standings, never once managing so much as a winning record, let alone a playoff appearance, they have managed to field a winning team once more. They finished the regular season with a 94-68 record and beat the Reds in a wild card playoff to make the NLDS, where at the time of this writing they hold a 2-1 lead, just one win away from moving on to the NLCS.
The most exciting part of it all is how unexpected their sudden turnaround has been. After playing so poorly all those years, the Pirates have built up a solid base of top prospects in their farm system, enough that it was expected that they could be good again in the future. However only a few of those prospects were supposed to make much of an impact this year, let alone see the majors in the first place. For the most part that even turned out to be true. Not that the contributions of Gerrit Cole, who pitched to a 3.22 ERA over 117 innings after being called up midseason, should be overlooked. Still the reason that the Pirates are where they are right now has been more a story of high level production from unexpected sources.
First there’s the lineup, which has seen a lot of turnover as the season has progressed. Pedro Alvarez looked like he might flame out in the majors just two years ago after hitting .191 in 2011. He’s managed to find an approach that lets him stick though; despite hitting just .233 this season, he blasted 36 homers, his second consecutive year hitting more than 30.
Probably the biggest improvement to the lineup has been outfielder Starling Marte, playing in just his sophomore year. Marte has gained a reputation as something of a McCutchen-lite possessing the all around offensive skills that allowed him to hit .280 with 12 home runs and 41 stolen bases this year. Of course the entire lineup is anchored around Andrew McCutchen, the one true elite player on this ball club. He hit over .300 for his third straight season with at least 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases and is the leading candidate for NL MVP.
Few other hitters bear mentioning as their seasons were average at best and quite a few were even below average. Their shortstop Jordy Mercer had a nice season, triple slashing .285/.336/.435 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage) on the year. Likewise right fielder Jose Tabata was good, putting up a .282/.342/.429 line. Both served integral parts in the Pirates success but did not put up particularly flashy numbers.
A resurgent Marlon Byrd joined the team late in the season after a trade with the Mets. He only played in 30 games with his new club but could be a major factor in their postseason success after hitting .291 with 24 home runs this year. Byrd provides a nice continuation of the Pirates narrative this year. At age 35 he set a career high in home runs despite almost being out of baseball for good a few years ago.
The starting rotation takes this theme to a whole new level. Led by Francisco Liriano and his 3.02 ERA, the rotation is full of guys who struggled for many years, some for their entire careers, and suddenly found dominance in 2013. In the case of Liriano himself, this is the first time in fiv years he’s managed to pitch to an ERA below 5.00.
Fellow staff ace A.J. Burnett has been fantastic for the Pirates since being traded away by the Yankees two years ago. Despite putting up back to back 5+ ERAs in his final two years with the Yankees, Burnett has been dominant for the Pirates, posting a 3.51 ERA last year and a 3.30 this year.
Then there is Jeff Locke. At 25 years old he struggled mightily in his first two tastes of the majors in 2011 and 2012. Those struggles must have served as motivation for him since he went on to have a 3.52 ERA this year and earn All Star honors.
It doesn’t stop there however. For a big chunk of the season, the bullpen was mostly 36 year old Jason Grilli, who was getting his first shot as a closer and having remarkable success, converting 33 chances. When he went down with a season ending injury, they simply turned the job over to Mark Melancon. Melancon was included as an after thought in an offseason trade with the Red Sox after posting a 6.20 ERA last year. All he’s done this year is knock that ERA down to 1.39 and seamlessly take over the Pirates closing job after Grilli went down.
Going from a 79 win season to a 94 win season in one year without making any major trades or signing any big name free agents isn’t easy. Looking at the Pirates roster, it clearly requires a decent bit of luck as well. From an outside perspective the whole thing looks like a deck of cards that could collapse at any point. However as they are proving with their extremely involved fans this off season, so loud and enthusiastic that their chanting of “Cue-To!” caused the Reds’ Johnny Cueto to drop the baseball when getting ready to throw a pitch in the Wild Card game, Pirates fans are just happy to have something to cheer for again.
