Diary of a long-suffering Pirates fan: Can Pirates' young guns carry them to championship glory like the '69 Mets?

While it doesn’t happen often, every decade or so, a team filled with middling hitters is propelled to a World Series championship by having a team full of extraordinary starting pitchers.  With Paul Skenes joining the Pirates, the starting rotation has the potential to be dynamic.  And optimistic Pirates’ fans, seeing that potential, are left to dream and wonder, “Can the Pirates' starting rotation similarly propel a current collection of middling hitters into champions, the way it did for, say, the 1969 Miracle Mets? Or the 2010 San Francisco Giants?

A look at the history of the aforementioned offensively challenged teams that achieved such greatness suggests that 2024 will not be the Pirates’ year.  But the same analysis of those teams that rode the coat tails of their starting pitchers to championship glory suggests that 2025 and beyond could be very good years for the Pirates.  Dare I say, maybe even a championship season.

Let’s take a look at those prior championship teams and see how the Pirates compare.