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.

August 6, 2012; St. Louis, MO. USA; St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Brian Fuentes (40) throws to a San Francisco Giants batter in the ninth inning at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals won 8-2. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

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.

April 18, 2012; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Rafael Furcal (15) is congratulated by Cardinals manager Mike Matheny (22) after scoring a run against the Cincinnati Reds at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-US PRESSWIRE

When we look at the St. Louis Cardinals we get jealous.  Quickly.  An early look at this 2012 team shows a very well balanced team.  Hell, in the early going the team looks better than the Albert Pujols led champions from 2012.  A stud pitcher goes down, and he is replaced with the beast known as Lance Lynn.

We think that should change as the season goes along, but seriously… what the hell is going on in St. Louis?  We reached out to ask RedBird Rants.

What can you let us know about the Cardinals starters in this series?

1. The Bucs are going to face the three best pitchers of the rotation so far in this young season. Lance Lynn, Jake Westbrook and Kyle Lohse have been phenomenal. Lynn is the only power pitcher of the three. Westbrook has gotten himself into great shape and it has shown on the field where he continues to get ground ball outs at a two-to-one rate over fly ball outs. Lohse has been virtually untouchable in each of this three starts.

It seems like the Cards pitchers are pitching six innings per game, but their pitch counts are very low, have they been that effective?

2. Part of that is the Cardinals offense has been obliterating opposing pitchers. It is a long season, so why push them hard early on? When the team can generate big leads, Mike Matheny has taken the chance to keep the bullpen loose in non-pressure situations.

How much has Carlos Beltran’s hot start meant to this club?

3. It’s made it easier to forget they lost the former cog in the machine. Beltran has been everything the Cardinals had hoped so far. Getting off to a good start has allowed him to ease into the clubhouse atmosphere and prevented the media from asking the “Do the Cardinals miss Pujols?” questions.

Can the RedBirds offense keep producing and is it possible, forgive me for this, to think this is a better TEAM without Pujols?

4. They can definitely continue to produce. The best part of this offense is the balance and they have very good complimentary parts on the bench. The Redbirds do not need to rely on one player.

The Cardinals run differential continues to shine atop baseball, but the team seems to not get much respect. Why is that?

5. My guess is everyone is waiting for the ax to drop. There are still plenty of question marks on the team. There are some older veterans and each has had health issues in the past. They lost one of their top starters for the second year in a row (though we don’t know how long Chris Carpenter will be out) and if anything people may feel they can’t keep finding a way to win. The team seems to play well with a chip on its shoulder. If they had their way they would love to be considered underdogs instead of favorites.

April 18, 2012; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Tyler Greene (27) watches as Cardinals first baseman Lance Berkman (12) misses a foul ball against the Cincinnati Reds at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-US PRESSWIRE

Coming into this year we knew that the National League Central was not going to be nearly as good as it has been in the past. The departures of Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols were the main reasons for that.

The Pirates are through three series and the rest of the division is about right there with them. The best team in the division to this point is St. Louis Cardinals at 9-3. However, health is a huge issue for them with oldies but goodies like Lance Berkman and Carlos Beltran being counted on for production. Berkman is headed to the DL already, so he’ll miss the Pirates series. It certainly wouldn’t surprise anybody to see him miss a lot of time this year, and the same goes for Beltran. Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter are two more guys that aren’t young anymore that are being counted on in a big way for the Cardinals. Carpenter is also on the shelf right now and doesn’t even have a timetable for when he can start throwing again. Wainwright is off of a big time surgery and hasn’t performed well to this point this year. There are a ton of question marks on this team that make you think they might not win more than 85-90 games this year.

The Milwaukee Brewers and the Cincinnati Reds are supposed to compete for this division as well. The Brewers are off to a 6-6 start and are hitting just .231 as a team (before Thursday’s game) without Fielder in the middle of the order. The Reds are at an even worse .211 mark, although they have a lot of fire power on that offense and will more than likely turn that around in a hurry. Both teams also have poor ERA’s, the Brewers come in at 5.14 and the Reds are at 4.15.

All that is without even mentioning Houston and Chicago, who are both off to bad starts. The Cubs at 3-9 and the Astros are 4-8 and neither team looks good at all. Houston’s pitching rotation has had a decent start to the year with a 3.52 ERA, and their offense could be worse – they are hitting at a .244 clip. Chances are their team batting average will stay around there if not go down, they really don’t have any batters in that lineup that will scare you. Neither of those teams should be in contention at all past May.

If the Cardinals have to battle these injuries all year, the Brewers continue to struggle offensively without Prince, and the Reds battle inconsistency all year, all of which aren’t unlikely situations, a 87-90 win season could win this division this year. That’s a lot to ask from a Pirates team who is hitting a league worst .205 on the season, but at least we know it’s not going to take a bunch to compete here.