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The State of the Pittsburgh Pirates Address
By Joe Smeltzer
Bullpen
Yuck. That’s one way to describe things. What is usually the strength of this ball club has turned into it’s biggest weakness. The biggest problem with the Pirates bullpen has been lack of depth. The back end of the Pirates bullpen (Neftali Feliz, Tony Watson, and Mark Melancon) has been pretty good, but it’s the other guys who spoil the party. Guys like Kyle Lobstein, Arquimedes Caminero, and A.J. Schugel wouldn’t really give Pirates fans a great deal of confidence in your typical ”battle of the bullpens” type of game. The pen was expected to receive a huge boost when Jared Hughes returned from injury, but Hughes just hasn’t looked like himself since coming back. I think that the Pirates bullpen still has a chance to be pretty good, but as of right now, it lacks the Jeanmar Gomez, Vin Mazzaro type depth guys that the Bucs have been fortunate to develop over the past 5 years. Is help on the way in the form of a trade? Maybe. Time will tell.
Overall Grade: C-