OnlyBucs

I watched a few of the highlights of the game today and it was really nice to see Polanco drive the ball to left center field twice for rbi's. This weekend on the broadcast they had Steve Lyons on from the Sox team and he specifically mentioned Polanco pulling the ball and that he often gets his pitch to hit and pulls it foul. Lyons said the one mistake his father made training him to play baseball was that he needed to pull the ball for power. He wishes he would have learned to go the other way better earlier. Hopefully, Polanco will keep hitting the ball to left field. He has enough power to do that and be dangerous.

Polanco also has driven the ball hard to right in two of the games that I saw.



Polanco becoming a real hitter with some consistency would be a real boost to this team.

He has looked really good so far. Let’s hope he can turn the corner finally this season. If Polanco and Marte produce this lineup will be very good and this team will win more games then people think.

I read the Pirates lead the Grapefruit League in HRs with 38 so far. That's pretty encouraging considering they were in the bottom of HRs last year.

They also lead the Grapefruit League in homers in 2009 and ended up losing 99 games that season so let’s not read too much into it. Starting next Thursday in Detroit nothing the Pirates accomplished in Florida this spring will mean anything and help them win the games that really count.

Ok, maybe the admins can delete this thread since there really isn't anything "nice to see". Sorry for adding some insight!

It's encouraging but I still don't believe there will be any consistency. He hasn't changed anything with his mechanics. That swing is just too long to be consistent.

Ok, since it is dubious whether it was nice to see Polanco hitting the ball to left center field maybe I can find something that we are more in agreement with. It was nice to see Keller pitch two scoreless innings. I went to MLB and watched those innings and he hit 97 and 98 and looked like he has a nice easy motion. On two occasions he struck guys out looking with fastballs. Granted it was minor leaguer's that he pitched to but it was nice to see. Also, nice is he is from Iowa and that always makes me happy when an Iowan is on the Pirates.

It’s nice to see that there are nice things to see!



Still working on my prediction for the season. Trying to avoid my annual spring optimism. But there are some nice possibilities.

Though I predicted 65-97, I actually think they are closer to a 75 win team. I could see them winning 85 if everything breaks right, 65 if everything breaks wrong. But, I'd be very surprised if their win total is outside of that 65-85 window.