Andrew McCutchen is on pace for a historic season for the Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates Andrew McCutchen is having a stupidly incredible season.  Many of us knew that Andrew McCutchen was a great player.  Now, the rest of Pittsburgh and the national media is taking notice with articles on Cutch rising up daily.

McCutchen’s name is being tossed around with Barry Bonds which only makes sense.  After all, the founder of #BUCN is having a once in a lifetime season. 

Currently he sits at a monsterous .369/.423/.649 triple slash. It all adds up to Cutch leading the NL in batting average, slugging, runs scored, and total bases.  He sits second in homers and RBI.  

McCutchen and Bonds will always be connected.  But this ESPN article by David Schoenfield, has some names that interest me even more.

Here’s another way to view McCutchen’s season. Leaving out the 1994 to 2008 “steroid era,” since 1950 only eight times has a player hit at least .350 with 30-plus home runs — Stan Musial (1951), Mickey Mantle (1956 and 1957), Ted Williams (1957), Hank Aaron (1959), Norm Cash (1961), Don Mattingly (1986) and Josh Hamilton (2010). (It happened 16 times between 1994 and 2008, including twice by Bonds.)

No jinx, no jinx….but Cutch seems destined to join that club. 

Pirates Skipper Clint Hurdle has a few aces up his sleeve still...

The ups and downs of the past year are starting to take their toll on Pirates fans everywhere, an emotional roller coaster that started like April and has continued during this Jekyll and Hyde season for the Bucs in 2012.  The Pirates are sitting at 21-24, 4.0 games out in the dilapidated N.L. Central – a division that is starting to resemble a train wreck in progress.  The bad news?  This team is hitting at a rate that will ultimately place them alongside some of the notoriously-bad 1960′s teams in terms of every offensive category.  The team has seen it’s three main free agent pickups – SS Clint Barmes, C Rod Barajas, and OF Nate McLouth – all flail away time after time, and has already cut bait with McLouth – one of the most fan-friendly signings the team has ever made.  McLouth is a player who genuinely wanted to be in Pittsburgh, and is now probably out of baseball for good after looking like he forgot how to play the game – Nick Esasky-style.  Barmes continues to be awful, adding terrible defense to a .176 batting average that is bolstered by 2-out hits from the 8-hole in the lineup – in other words, worthless hits.  Barajas has seen his production spike lately and is handling one of the top pitching staffs in the National League, adding some value to his signing.  The team as a whole has played a bad brand of baseball, highlighted by some of the worst base-running ever seen.

The good news?  There is some good news, I promise.  Let’s take a deep breath, enjoy the Memorial Day weekend, and bullet-point the items that should put a smile on even the biggest Pirates skeptics face.

1.  The N.L. Central is up for grabs – The St. Louis Cardinals were the obvious favorite after their mad dash to a World Series title last fall, but they have had a rash of injuries, costing them 1B Lance Berkman and SP Chris Carpenter, leaving them with two of their biggest stars on the sideline.  The man holding it all together currently is OF Carlos Beltran, an injury waiting to happen.  The Cardinals recently were overtaken in the division by the Cincinnati Reds, who are in first place with a 25-20 record.  The rest of the division has surprising Houston in third place at 22-23, but once the trade deadline approaches you can be sure that GM Jeff Luhnow will be playing the spare parts game with SP Wandy Rodriguez, 1B Carlos Lee, and anyone else the Astros can get solid value for.  The Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs are well into bad seasons in both cities, in fifth and sixth place in the division and getting further buries by the day.  This leaves the Pirates as a legit contender for this horrible division.  With six of the next nine games against the division-leading Redlegs, the Pirates have a chance to really build some momentum and place themselves in prime position to be in the division race by mid-June.

2.  Andrew McCutchen is a serious contender for N.L. MVP – Perhaps nobody expected the 25-year old centerfielder to be this good this fast.  McCutchen is a five-tool player who is right up there with the Matt Kemps and David Wrights of the National League in terms of their 2012 campaigns thus far.  Should the Pirates make a mid-season run and stay in the race for a playoff spot down to the wire, McCutchen could be very much in the race for the National League Most Valuable Player award.  The last Pirate to win the MVP was Barry Bonds in 1992.  Currently hitting .335 with 7 HR and 24 RBI to go along with 10 stolen bases and fantastic defensive that could win him his first Golden Glove, McCutchen is a bona-fide superstar and is in the Pirates fold through 2018 at minimum after signing a six-year extension back in March.

3.  The Schedule will play to the Pirates favor the rest of the way – Many of the stumbling blocks series are out of the way already, including road trips to Philadelphia and Atlanta, two trips that helped sink the 2011 Bucs.  The Pirates already have their initial west-coast trip in the tank, which is a big deal as the weather gets hot and the season wears on.  The Cardinals and Reds still have west coast swings to worry about.  The Pirates play the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros a combined 27 more times this season, which accounts for almost 1/4 of their total remaining schedule.  They also play 24 games against the Cardinals and Reds, the two teams they will be chasing all summer long.  Neither team is a powerhouse, and both are dealing with injuries and performance issues from payers they expected to be major contributors.  The Cardinals have lost 1B Lance Berkman for at least 10 weeks.  The Reds are experiencing problems with their starting pitching beyond Mat Latos and Johnny Cueto.  SP Mike Leake and SP Homer Bailey have been mediocre at best and the Reds will probably be looking for starting pitching help at the deadline.  The Cardinals, as mentioned before, are getting great seasons thus far from Rafael Furcal and Carlos Beltran, two players who annually end up on the DL.  It remains to be seen if the loss of Berkman continues to leave a void in their lineup or if rookie 1B Matt Adams can show the power the Redbirds will need to offset Berkman.  OF Matt Holliday is heating up, so that may give the Cardinals another bat with Beltran, who has been off the charts this season – .292/14 HR/38 RBI through 47 games played.  The rest of the Bucs schedule will include Inter league matchups with Detroit at home (3-games), Kansas City at home (3-games), at Baltimore (3-games) against the surprising Orioles, at Cleveland (3-games) against the first place Tribe, and a home series (3-games) against the horrible Minnesota Twins, who are already 11.0 games back in the A.L. Central.  Baltimore, Detroit, and Cleveland pose serious challenges for the Bucs, while the Royals and Twins should be winnable series played in PNC Park.  A four-game series at Philadelphia looms in late June, with the possibility that both 2b Chase Utley and 1B Ryan Howard could be back in the lineup by that point.  Let’s not forget about those pesky Milwaukee Brewers – the team that has given the Pirates the most trouble over the past five years.  We have yet to see the Brew Crew, which means we will see ALOT of them and their depleted lineup in the coming months.  The Pirates kick off June with a 3-game set in Milwaukee, then play another 3-game set at Miller Park right after the All-Star Break.  What that means is the Pirates will get the Brewers in two HOME series in the “dog days of summer” that could be make or break for both clubs.  By that point, the Brewers may be in seller mode and looking to rebound in 2013.  The Pirates will see the struggling San Diego Padres for six games in August, wrapped around pivotal series against the Diamondbacks and Dodgers at home.  This is a schedule that sets up for the Pirates to at least maintain a .500 record through August, and hopefully GM Neil Huntigton will make some moves early enough this season to help the offense.  Last season, the acquisitions made came way too late and it cost the Bucs the two biggest series of the season (@ ATL and @PHL) that began the burial of the 2011 Buccos.  “Real Deal Neil” should be manning the phone lines by mid-July if the Pirates are within 5.0 games of the top in the N.L. Central race.

4.  Help is on the way from Indianapolis – With the sudden drop of Nate McLouth, the Pirates are now thin in the outfield.  They seem reluctant to give rookie OF Gorkys Hernandez a long stint in the lineup to see where he is developmentally, so if the continued struggles of OF Jose Tabata extend through June, the call should go out for help from down the farm.  Hopefully, the help will come in the shape of OF Starling Marte, who besides a minor injury has shown that he is ready for the big leagues.  He is currently hitting .316 with 16 extra-base hits and 12 stolen bases at Indy.  The other option is to bring Opening Day OF Alex Presley back into the major leagues, as he has ripped apart AAA pitching since his demotion.  Second baseman/shortstop Jordy Mercer is looking like he is ready to make the jump as well, hitting .295 with 2 HR and 20 RBI in just 166 at-bats at Indy.  With the struggles of Clint Barmes, the Pirates may turn to their internal insurance policy at shortstop and Mercer is that guy.  A surprise at AAA has been the play of veteran OF Brandon Boggs, who is leading the team with a .335 BA and could be a useful fourth outfielder for the Bucs.  On the pitching end, the Pirates have RP Duke Welker on the high-speed path to Pittsburgh.  The hard-throwing right-handed pitcher dominated AA and will try to do the same at AAA.  If he excels at Indianapolis, the Pirates have an ace up their sleeve for another quality bullpen arm – a commodity that is integral to any contending team in a pennant race.

5.  SP Jeff Karstens is almost ready to come back – Karstens has been a very reliable major-league starter and with the Pirates starting staff looking good, there is no rush on his timetable to return.  However, when he does return it should mark the end of Kevin Correia in the rotation – a significant upgrade.  A rotation of McDonald/Burnett/Bedard/Morton/Karstens is a formidable group, and the emergence of Brad Lincoln as a quality reliever/fill-in starter has given the Pirates even more options for the stretch run.  Jeff Karstens return will be a shot-in-the-arm for the club and combined with the now dominant McDonald, the Pirates young pitchers can combine with their veterans to create a staff that rivals any in the National League Central.

6.  Potential Trade Targets will be plenty – Last year when the Bucs brought in 1B Derrek Lee, he immediately showed what new blood can do to a struggling club.  Before his injury, he was giving the Bucs exactly what they needed – a big bat in the middle of the lineup.  This season, names such as Twins 1B Justin Morneau, Astros 1b Carlos Lee, Padres OF Carlos Quentin, Dodgers 1b James Loney, injured Arizona SS Stephen Drew, Twins OF Denard Span, Rockies SS Marco Scutaro, Padres SS Jason Bartlett, and even Red Sox OF Cody Ross could be had in deals.  The Pirates have the young pitching that teams crave (although Jameson Taillon, Gerrit Cole, Luis Heredia are not up for discussion).  Any of the players mentioned above would bring pieces the Buccos need to acquire if they are in this for real in 2012.  Expect to start hearing the rumors floating out there in late-June as management evaluates the Pirates chances of making the postseason.

7.  SP James McDonald has become a sure-fire ACE - When the Bucs acquired McDonald from the Dodgers for journeyman reliever Octavio Dotel, nobody could have projected how quickly he would become the ace of the Pirates pitching staff.  But two years later, he is just that – and the national media is beginning to take notice.  Since the 2011 All-Star Break, McDonald is up there with names like Verlander, Halladay, Lee, and King Felix as the best starters in baseball.  He is the “stopper” the Bucs have lacked for some many years, and is quietly putting together a Cy Young quality season.  If the Pirates offense can get some run support for him, a 20-win campaign is not out of the question.  Pirates fans should be packing PNC Park to see James McDonald pitch this season, as he is emerging the same way that Doug Drabek emerged in 1990.

8.  Clint Hurdle will NOT let this team fail - The Pirates Manager is loyal, almost to a fault.  However, he will pull the plug on hitting coach Gregg Ritchie if the offense continues to slumber.  The other Hurdle man on the roster, Clint Barmes, is already on a tight rope and if he does not get his hitting in line with his career marks, expect the Pirates to pull that plug sooner than later.  Hurdle has been publicly frustrated with Barmes horrific strike out rate and recently was caught by the ROOT Sports cameras as he chastised the shortstop for a bad defensive play.  Barmes is on borrowed time in Pittsburgh.  Expect either Josh Harrison to take over the spot or a call to Indianapolis for Jordy Mercer fairly soon.

OK Pirates fans, after tonight we sit 22-24 and have a chance to sweep the Chicago Cubs tomorrow afternoon, leading into the biggest series of the young season – a 3-game series at PNC Park against the first place Reds.  If the Pirates get hot and – knock on wood – sweep Cincinnati, they could be looking at a second place standing and a 1.0 game deficit in the division.  A follow-up series in Cincy June 5-7 could be the series that propels the Pirates over .500 and into first place if all falls right.

Hey, I know this is all very optimistic information.  But this is “Chicken Soup for the 2012 Pirates Fan’s Soul” and I think we all need to think positively and get out to the ballpark to support this team.  The Pirates have a very interesting few months ahead of them, and when the smoke clears, there is a very real chance they could be zeroing in on one of those TWO Wild Card sports in the National League.

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The 1990 Major League Baseball season started out like every other season I had experienced in my brief career as a super fan.  The Pirates were projected to be average, at best.  Evidently, the offseason signings of such powerhouse stars as Walt Terrell, Ted Power, Don Slaught, and Wally Backman did little to convince the experts that our Buccos could take the next step in their slow development as a National League contender.  On paper, the Pirates were more or less the same team that had disappointed fans a year earlier.   When the Pirates opened up the season by wiping the field with the hated New York Mets as Shea Stadium 12-3, it marked the beginning of a remarkable baseball renaissance in the Steel City.  The roster that the Bucs had been building over the past five years came together all at once, with virtually everyone contributing to the success.  Barry Bonds was beginning to carve out his name among the baseball elite, Bobby Bonilla became a certified masher in the middle of the lineup, Doug Drabek crafted a Cy Young-level season, and unsung heroes were coming up big every single game.  Journeyman pitcher Neal Heaton started the season on a tear, and ended up in the All Star Game for the only time in his 12-year career.  Veteran pitcher Bob Walk was a steady source of leadership and young players such as Jay Bell and Jeff King became household names in the city.  One of the best benches in modern-day baseball history kept the Pirates rolling during the long dogs days of summer.

It was the real life version of the the movie “Major League”.  A team of has-beens and never-will be’s turned the baseball world upside down.  By the time the dust had settled, a team that many had predicted would finish dead last in the N.L. East was celebrating on the sun-drenched green carpet infield of old Busch Stadium in St. Louis, on their way to the first Pirates NLCS appearance since 1979.  The feeling of seeing my players jumping all over each other with Lanny Frattare yelling “The Bucs have won the National League East!” was like nothing I had ever experienced.  I taped the game that day on our family VCR, complete with commercials and KBL (the old Pittsburgh sports channel) adverts.  That video tape would be replayed so many time by me that by the time I reached high school, it was no longer watchable.  My boys had done it, they were heading to the playoffs.

While the 1990 Pirates were contenders from day one, they did need a little bit of help along the way.  In one of the best Pirates mid-season trades of all time, the Bucs sent RP Scott Ruskin (owner of the best curveball I had ever seen at the time), IF Willie Greene, and a player to be named later – yep, Moises Alou – to the Montreal Expos for a grizzled veteran starting pitcher.  That pitcher was Zane Smith, a talented left-handed pitcher with a face that could scare the gills off a trout.  Zane Smith was amazing for the Pirates, but let’s just say that the teenage girls of Pittsburgh weren’t hanging his poster up on their wall next to the New Kids on the Block.  In one of the best single-game pitching performances you will ever see, Smith helped the Pirates sweep the Mets in a doubleheader at Three Rivers Stadium by throwing a one-hit shutout in game one.  The Pirates started that day up a 1/2 game on the Mets in the division, and went home that night up 2 1/2 games, a humbling experience for the Mets – who had always seemed to get the upper hand on the Pirates before that season.  While many fans remember the Bonds, Bonilla, and Drabeks of those early ’90s Pirates teams, I will always remember Zane Smith – the bucktoothed, mullet haired southpaw who led us to the promise land.

Over the next three seasons, Pirates baseball hit its highest level of success in over a decade.  The Bucs won three straight N.L. East titles – one of them in 1991 with me in the stands – and were arguably the best team in baseball from 1990-1992.  Many players came and went over that time span, but it always came back to Andy Van Slyke.  Besides his unbelievable skills in the outfield, Van Slyke had another fantastic offensive season in 1992, hitting .324 and driving in 89 runs.  He finished fourth in the NL MVP voting, and took home his fifth straight Golden Glove and second Silver Slugger award.  Van Slyke was the most popular player in Pittsburgh, and I was his biggest fan.  With all of the star power the Pirates had,. it was easy to overlook the role players who once again were pivotal in the Bucs three-season run.  Players like Cecil Espy, Gary Varsho, Gary Redus, and Lloyd McClendon all had magical moments in the black and gold over their time here and each carved out a cult following.  The Pirates were truly a team for the “every man”, and in a city with more “every men” than most, the team was adored and fans packed Three Rivers Stadium to watch them play.  For me, the entire 1990-1992 run was like a dream.  Although the Pirates were defeated by the “Nasty Boys” Cincinnati Reds in the 1990 NLCS and the upstart Atlanta Braves in the 1991 NLCS, it felt like just a matter of time until this team broke the glass ceiling and won the World Series.

It never happened.

We all remember the name Francisco Cabrera, and we all remember Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS.  It was that game that broke the hearts of millions of fans just like me.  After Sid Bream crossed the plate that night, I broke down to my mother and cried as she consoled me.  I knew it was over, that this was the final chance my team would have at the World Series they so deserved.  I’ll never forget that night, laying in my bed, tears in my eyes, as I finally accepted the reality of what had occurred.  The Pirates were about to embark on some lean years – that we knew for sure.  Barry Bonds and Doug Drabek would be gone this winter, pulled away from Pittsburgh by promises of riches in San Francisco and Houston.  The Bucs had a trio of young players that they would be counting on to keep the team afloat in 1993.  Al Martin, Carlos Garcia, and Kevin Young were supposed to be the future of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The team would also still have long-time Buccos Jeff King, Jay Bell, Orlando Merced, and of course Andy Van Slyke.  On paper, it seemed like the Pirates may still have a shot at a fourth N.L. East title in 1993 if everything came together just right.

Unfortunately, things didn’t come together.  The pitching staff, decimated by the losses of Doug Drabek and John Smiley, was no longer able to keep the Bucs in games while the younger players figured out the major leagues.  The breakout star of 1992, knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, came crashing back down to Earth in 1993.  Young starters Steve Cooke and Paul Wagner were simply not ready to fill the void left by Drabek and Smiley.  Denny Neagle, acquired in the Smiley trade, was on the verge of becoming a good major league pitcher, but in 1993 he was awful in limited duty.  The bottom fell out on many of the stars of the 1990-1992 run, including catcher Mike LaValliere, who was injured early in the season and never played another game for the Pirates.  It was the end of an era, and looking back I don’t think any of us could have imagined the perils that lay ahead for one of baseballs longest tenured franchises.  The Pittsburgh Pirates were about to embark on a dark journey that would almost take them from the city they had called home for over 100 years.

By the time the 1993 season had ended, the Bucs finished 75-87, and their reign of terror in the National League East was officially over.  For me, the Pirates were a part of my childhood that I could never let go of, no matter how hard I tried.  The black and gold was in my blood for good, and as I headed into my formative high school years, baseball may not have been my top priority – but it was always in my heart.  The players from those teams would continue to be my heroes everytime I took the baseball field in my high school career, a constant reminder that reality always trumps reputation, and sometimes the magical baseball gods are fickle beings, making you feel the agony of defeat many times before you were to have a small taste of victory.  I had learned many life lessons from the Pittsburgh Pirates, and as I got older and the team begin their downward spiral into obscurity, I continued to be the fan that I learned to be from my grandfather and my father.  Real fans don’t abandon their teams when the going gets tough.  They persevere, they honor their commitment to the organization they love.

Baseball is a game that teaches many life lessons, and the ones I learned while growing up as a Pirates fan will be with me until the day I die.  My loyalty is never in question, and I always remember that even if today is a bad day, tomorrow always brings the promise of a 0-0 score.  It is up to me to make sure I win the game.

As I sit here today, a 34-year old lifetime fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates, I now have the opportunity to use my skills to enhance the baseball experience for younger fans through the art of writing.  That is the difference between myself and the folks that write here at Rum Bunter, and the main stream media outlets you find across the internet or in your local papers.  We are fans, FIRST.  We may pride ourselves as journalists, but deep down we all have the same story.  We love the Pittsburgh Pirates.

We all spent our childhoods “Growing Up Buccos”.

The End

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You can read the full three-part series of “Growing Up Buccos: Memories of a Pirated Childhood” exclusively here at rumbunter.com by using the links below!

“Growing up Buccos” – Memories of a Pirated Childhood Part One

“Growing up Buccos” – Memories of a Pirated Childhood Part Two

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You can follow Jeff Snedden all season here at www.rumbunter.com.

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