OnlyBucs

According to Fangraphs article -April 13th--14 of last 15 teams who started that well made playoffs. Now we are 11-4. Starters are doing well, offense is very good and relievers have been bad. Polanco is hitting the ball in the air and Dickerson and Moran are excellent. It could be an interesting year. Even if the hitting cools off, the relief pitching should improve.

Doesn't mean anything to ESPN:



http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/2314 ... ams-week-2

That's because it means absolutely nothing at this point.

I agree it means nothing, but those rankings shouldn't be based on predictions or previous years, which it seems they are big time. A division leader shouldn't be ranked 13th or have a division foe ranked higher after being beat two out of three at home.

5D5C4756400007330 wrote: That's because it means absolutely nothing at this point.


Here's the thing, though:  for all of the people that says it "means nothing," you can be sure that if they were 4-11 suddenly it WOULD mean something.  I'm not sure it's fair to dismiss the positive while holding up bad things as examples of how we're right.



If the Cubs were 11-4 we would be hearing about it non-stop.



The Pirates would have to go 64-84 here out to meet ESPN's preseason prediction.

It does not mean "nothing". It may not mean a lot but it does means something. It's early yet. Harrison goes to DL. Interesting to see how Moroff or Kramer or Neuman does. Enjoy the ride!

7845484F585E45181B122A0 wrote: It does not mean "nothing". It may not mean a lot but it does means something. It's early yet. Harrison goes to DL. Interesting to see how Moroff or Kramer or Neuman does. Enjoy the ride!


Yeah, if it means "nothing" why are we even playing these games

I been saying this all along that if the Pirates were 4-11 people would be irate and bitching up a storm. So why can’t this last?? No reason to believe at this point it can’t and it won’t. The JHay hand injury will hurt but it’s better to have happen now then in June or July. If the Pirates can hang in there and sustain this and stay in first place and well over .500 this injury won’t hurt them as much as we think it will.

It certainly doesn't mean that the Pirates are going to cruise in to the playoffs, but if we rethink the concerns we had going in to 2018, we can check a bunch of those off.



- Is Polanco going to justify that contract - yes

- Is Bell a legit middle of the order bat - yes

- Is Marte going to be back to form - yes

- Is Moran a legit starting 3B, still a maybe, but trending yes

- Is Taillon an ace - yes

- Cervelli - great when healthy.

The rankings mean nothing. The rankings by ESPN mean absolutely nothing. It is just a fluff piece to get discussion going. This isn't college football deciding post season play. It means nothing that the Cubs are ranked higher than the Pirates. I don't think it is right, but it certainly doesn't matter.



The games matter, the rankings do not.