Who Are These Guys?

Have the 2010 Pittsburgh Pirates become the 1927 New York Yankees? Who are these guys swinging the bats the past five days or so? The dog days of summer are here, the World Cup is over, training camp is still a week or so away and the Pirates are out of the playoff race. In Pittsburgh, this is usually the worst sports time of the year by far. The Pirates, however, may just give us something to watch until the Steelers and Pitt begin their regular season, other than non-contact practices and meaningless pre-season games of course.

The reason the Buccos just might give us something to watch is the youngsters look like they are starting to figure out this Major League hitting thing. Over the past five games, during which they have four wins, the Pirates have scored a combined 48 runs. That is nearly 10 runs per game, and the most encouraging part is that the guys doing the damage are the guys who are in Pittsburgh’s long term plans.

Pedro Alvarez, the guy probably most important to the Pirates near and long-term future, has gone 9-20 over these five games, with 4 HRs, 9 RBIs, 7 runs and maybe more importantly, four walks against five strikeouts. Alvarez has shown his world-class power, absolutely clubbing the four home runs he has hit (two each in the past two games) but has also shown the ability to stay patient at the plate and hit his pitch. Alvarez’ development alone could be reason enough to watch these Pirates down the stretch.

Four other important members of the Pirates near-term future; Garrett Jones, Jose Tabata, Lastings Milledge and Neil Walker; have more than chipped in their own fair share. Walker has gone a red-hot 14-24 over the five games, Jones has gone 6-20 with a home run and 6 RBIs, Tabata has been the table-setter with 8 hits and 8 runs scored and Milledge has continued his steady play over the past month or so with a 6-16 mark during the five game Pirates’ run fest. The Pirates have done all of this with Andrew McCutchen out of the line-up the last three games, and we all know what McCutchen is capable of. The Pirates are also getting solid contributions from a red-hot Ronny Cedeno and Delwyn Young, two more guys that could be contributors to the team over the next couple of seasons.

I should be quick to point out that five games is a tiny sample size. Every team, no matter how bad, goes through a few hot stretches over the course of a 162 game season. But these are the new Pirates, the guys we have been hoping and waiting for since Neal Huntington took the general manager job and began trumpeting these young guys. They look to have their feet properly wet and the evaluations can begin. At the very least, these past five games can give us hope for the future…or at least a reason to watch over the final 68 games.