The Cardinals Are What The Cardinals Are, So What Will Pittsburgh Pirates Do?

It’s mid-August, the Pittsburgh Pirates are in a dog fight in the middle of the doggiest of days.  The Bucs will send Kevin Correia to the mound at PNC Park where he has been a winner for what seems like forever.  The question that is on the minds of Pirates fans isn’t that different than those that all fans have around Major League Baseball at this time of year.

What else can the team do to improve?

It certainly appears the Bucs have some options that could help the big league club immediately.  The only question that remains is will Clint Hurdle and the Pirates brass make the call to bring them up.

Hurdle has said a few times that he shows trust in his players.  He shows patience.  The biggest example would be Pedro Alvarez.  Most everyone wanted to send the Pirates third base man packing earlier this season.

Clint Hurdle didn’t.  He believed in Pedro.

The Bucco skipper now believes in his pitching staff, even while it starts to come unglued.  Hurdle stands firm.  He believes.

The ballclub has talent that is ready to show what they can do in the bigs.  Some of these players have been here before.  Jose Tabata.  Jeff Locke.  Chris Leroux.  Some of these players just need a shot, guys like Justin Wilson and Bryan Morris.

The Pirates have options should they choose to use them.  Their closest rival in the division apparently doesn’t have as many if you agree with what we think is an excellent post by DanUpBaby on VivElBirdos

"Because so far as I can tell, the Cardinals can do nothing about their surging rivals and their weird run-differential problem and their scuffling bullpen except hope that those things resolve as they play more games."

The article ends with a great final sentence.

Let’s just trust that isn’t the route the Pirates take.  It would be a shame to let replacement level players stay on the roster as the dog days roll on.