The Pirates Look Back While Trying To Move Forward

The Pittsburgh Pirates

didn’t plan on this happening.    Time is running out on Spring Training and a familar face is taking the mound today against the Astros.  A little too familar for our liking.

Brian Burres signed a minor-league deal this offseason with an invite to the  Pirates Spring Training Camp.   One would have to guess that the Pirates never planned on Burres getting a start in camp especially as the Grapefruit League season nears a close.

It’s not a good sign.

We want the 29-year old to pitch well, we just never dreamed it would be for the Pirates this season.  We thought it would be more like a mentorship at AAA Indianapolis.  Maybe a call-up here and there, because the 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates need so much more than an occassional good start from Brian Burres to improve like Pirates fans want to see in 2011.

Burres was removed from the 40-man roster this winter mainly because he isn’t going to win many ball games for a ML club. In 2010, Burres had a 4.99ERA over his 13 starts and 20 appearances with a 3.9BB/9 and 5.1K/9

In the offseason many people expected the Pirates to land some answers for their pitching staff.  Now with Opening Day looming, the Pirates are looking backward.

Presumably the averageness of Brian Burres was simply too much to pass up.   His impressive Spring Training stats have someone fooled.

In 2010, Burres represented everything that was wrong with the Pittsburgh rotation. He was hittable. He has no swing and miss stuff.   He’s a replacement level pitcher.

While it certainly didn’t hurt having Burres back as a spring training invite, giving him the ball thinking he will miraculously achieve a new result is dreaming too big.  But what do we know?  Hell maybe he has a career year– maybe he comes up with another arm angle, one that works this time, as BTBS documented in 2009. [article below.]

But for us, it simply doesn’t show much improvement in a shaky staff, nor does it show risk by the Pirates. Like we said earlier in the year, if Brian Burres sees Pittsburgh it means the Pirates are in trouble. Burres is a safety blanket. Based on his past performance, we know what Brian Burres the starting pitcher is. He is just like any another replacement level arm who happens to be left-handed.

And that just isn’t enough to change the Bucs fortunes this year.

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Clipped from: www.beyondtheboxscore.com (share this clip)

Thanks for all the suggestions.  We agree with some of you who wouldn’t mind seeing Burres in a situational role.  There really aren’t many other options for the Pirates right now.

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