Pittsburgh Pirates Weekly Link Dump 7/7/14

The Pirates had a terrific week, sweeping the Phillies and winning the Diamondbacks series. The Pirates now find themselves in sole posession of second place in the National League Central and 4.5 games behind the first place Milwaukee Brewers. They have an extremely important four game road series with the St. Louis Cardinals followed by a three game road series against the Cincinnati Reds, both division rivals who are within 1.5 games of the Pirates.

The successful week was capped off with three Pirates, Andrew McCutchen, Josh Harrison and Tony Watson all getting selected to the all star game:

Read my analysis here.

David Manel of Bucs Dugout wrote up an excellent piece on the trio of Pirates all stars.

Following the announcement of the all star roster, Dejan Kovacevic of the Tribune Review wants to know if Andrew McCutchen deserves to be considered as the best player in baseball. A terrific read, check it out here.

Also from Kovacevic, he considers three things that the Pirates need to do in order to become contenders, number one will surprise you.

On Sunday, in the conclusion of a three-game sweep of the Phillies, former Pirates ace AJ Burnett faced off against his prodigy Jeff Lccke. Robin got the best of Bat Man in this one. Read Travis Sawchick’s write up of the 8-2 thumping of the Phillies.

Sawchick suggests trading Vance Worley on his blog.

Bill Brink of the Post Gazette writes about Volquez’s recent success. Read it here.

Read Rob Biertempfel’s report on how the Pirates changed Marlon Byrd’s career, according to Byrd.

As always, for updates and tweets on the Pirates, follow @aminkoff93