OnlyBucs

It doesn't inspire confidence. Between Brault, Anderson, Keller, Kuhl and likely one of Brubaker, Ponce, De Jong and Cahill, I can't think of even one I'd feel good about expecting a strong performance.



Brault might be the best candidate but he's not a consistently strong performer. At best, he's probably a #4 on a decent staff. Cahill and Anderson were taken from the free agent leftovers which makes sense given their very modest stats the past few years. The rest have yet to establish themselves beyond the "we hope they'll become good someday but they're not there yet" stage.



ST stats are not usually good predictors of performance but the hitting and defense has been encouraging. And while we hope the pitchers will do better than what they've shown this spring, they have not given us any reason for optimism.

547974656273642427160 wrote: It doesn't inspire confidence. Between Brault, Anderson, Keller, Kuhl and likely one of Brubaker, Ponce, De Jong and Cahill, I can't think of even one I'd feel good about expecting a strong performance.



Brault might be the best candidate but he's not a consistently strong performer. At best, he's probably a #4 on a decent staff. Cahill and Anderson were taken from the free agent leftovers which makes sense given their very modest stats the past few years. The rest have yet to establish themselves beyond the "we hope they'll become good someday but they're not there yet" stage. 



ST stats are not usually good predictors of performance but the hitting and defense has been encouraging. And while we hope the pitchers will do better than what they've shown this spring, they have not given us any reason for optimism. 
At this stage, I would be happy if we have 3 or 4 starters that can give a strong performance in 50% of their appearances.



What concerns me most about Brault is that he is probably good for 120-130 innings at best.



In a typical season a team throws around 1450 innings. And I think the starters count for 800-900 of those. I could see this year's starters only going 700 innings.

6A4C4D5A4C5C2F0 wrote: It doesn't inspire confidence. Between Brault, Anderson, Keller, Kuhl and likely one of Brubaker, Ponce, De Jong and Cahill, I can't think of even one I'd feel good about expecting a strong performance.



Brault might be the best candidate but he's not a consistently strong performer. At best, he's probably a #4 on a decent staff. Cahill and Anderson were taken from the free agent leftovers which makes sense given their very modest stats the past few years. The rest have yet to establish themselves beyond the "we hope they'll become good someday but they're not there yet" stage. 



ST stats are not usually good predictors of performance but the hitting and defense has been encouraging. And while we hope the pitchers will do better than what they've shown this spring, they have not given us any reason for optimism. 
At this stage, I would be happy if we have 3 or 4 starters that can give a strong performance in 50% of their appearances.



What concerns me most about Brault is that he is probably good for 120-130 innings at best.



In a typical season a team throws around 1450 innings.  And I think the starters count for 800-900 of those.  I could see this year's starters only going 700 innings.


Which means the Pirates are going to have to have their #s 6-12 starters cover those 100-200 innings. That's not going to go well.

Yea, we're entering a 162-game season without ONE reliable starter.



Doesn't sound like a good business plan.

446675686B6E69664572646468070 wrote: Yea, we're entering a 162-game season without ONE reliable starter.



Doesn't sound like a good business plan.
Unless your business plan is to draft Elijah(?) Green in 2022.

Starting pitching will definitely be a weak point. I have the idea also that they wouldn't hesitate to trade a starter if they got a good offer. It's best to think of this season as one of growing pains. I'm expecting to see a lot of the young pitchers passing through.