Early 2009 Power Rankings #28

Time for another installment of The Baseball Gods' early Power Rankings. You can find #29 (Seattle) and #30 (San Diego) lower on the page.

Note: I will have a "final" pre-season set of power rankings ready on Opening Day (along with all of my other predictions), so this is not my "final word" on how things will shake out.

And away we go...

28. Pittsburgh Pirates

I'm always pretty hard on the Pirates because they've been so horribly mismanaged over the last 10-12 season but I'm willing to give GM Neal Huntington some time to turn things around before I start blasting his decisions.

That said, there really isn't a lot to like about the Buccos in 2009.

Too much payroll wasted on players who aren't productive enough and too little emphasis on the big picture. Some of their higher-end salary players are good big leaguers but they're just not going to be around when the Pirates can compete again. So why keep them?

Again, I'll give Huntington and his staff the benefit of the doubt because they're still relatively new to all this but they have a chance to show some guts this season by getting rid of their big contracts, adding more prospects, and building long-term.

LINEUP

According to the Pirates' official website, here are their projected starters:

C. Ryan Doumit
1B. Adam LaRoche
2B. Freddy Sanchez
3B. Andy LaRoche
SS. Jack Wilson
LF. Brandon Moss
CF. Nate McLouth
RF. Steve Pearce

Okay, here's the problem with the Pirates - they have $20 million tied up in Jack Wilson, Adam LaRoche and Freddy Sanchez in '09, which will be 40-45% of their payroll if my math is correct. Those three guys combined for a .727 OPS last season w/ a .271 average, 35 HR and 159 RBI in 1,366 AB.

At those rates in a 550 at-bat season a player would hit .271 with 14 HR, 64 RBI and that same .727 OPS - all that for an average of nearly $7 million a year.

And you wonder why the Pirates finish at the bottom each year. Their three highest paid players combined average out to a mediocre middle infielder offensively. I'd trade all three of them for a big bag of nothing just to save the money.

Seriously.

They're all solid players but not in this situation for the salaries they make. They're role players, not core players.

Doumit is a really good hitting catcher and a valuable asset, so I like him. Andy LaRoche has lots of power potential and he's cheap, so I'd have no problem giving him 500 AB's to see what he can do until Pedro Alvarez is ready. I'm intrigued by Moss as well and think he could be a decent contributor as a 6th/7th hitter in the lineup, plus he's cheap. Pearce has power and deserves a chance to get some regular at-bats.

McLouth is the interesting guy in the bunch. He's getting closer to where he's gonna get some big bucks based on what he did in '08 but he's also the team's best all-around player entering '09. Hard to say they should trade him sometime this season but that depends on what he brings in return I suppose. For now it's probably wise to see if he can duplicate what he did last season.

Neil Walker is a guy I'd like to see get an opportunity as well, perhaps by trading off Adam LaRoche and putting the young switch-hitter there.

With Pedro Alvarez, Andrew McCutchen and maybe Jose Tabata waiting in the wings the Buccos could get a nice boost in talent here soon. I'd be planning on building around those guys, Doumit and McLouth with everyone else on the trade block.

PITCHING

Once again, deferring to the Pirates' official website for the rotation and closer...

1. Paul Maholm
2. Ian Snell
3. Ross Ohelndorf
4. Tom Gorzelanny
5. Zach Duke

There is a chance, hard as it may be to believe, that this rotation will be better than it was in '08. I think Snell, Gorzelanny and Duke are all better than their '08 numbers indicate. Snell is very talented but needs to find consistency if he's going to live up to his contract.

I like Maholm, who seems to get better each season. He's not a #1 starter - nobody on this team is - but he's solid. Gorzelanny and Duke were awful last season but there is hope - Gorzelanny went 14-10 w/ a 3.89 ERA in '07 and Duke was 10-15 w/ a 4.48 ERA in 200+ innings in '06. If they combine for a 4.50 ERA or lower this season and give the team 180-200 innings each then they'll be solid 4th/5th starters.

The strange one here is Ohlendorf. Why is he listed as the #3 starter? Weird. Guy posts a 6.00+ ERA as a starter AND as a reliever last season and the Pirates' website projects him as the 3rd starter? M'kay. Not buying that.

Jeff Karstens and Phil Dumatrait are filler guys, nothing more, and I'm not sure what prospect Brad Lincoln is at this point.

CL. Matt Capps

He's solid and if healthy will do a fine job of closing games. The Pirates actually have some intriguing guys in the bullpen - John Grabow, Denny Bautista, Craig Hansen, Sean Burnett, etc. - but if the lineup doesn't produce and the rotation isn't way better than it was last season then none of it will matter.

OVERVIEW

Neal Huntington has his work cut out for him and with the right moves he just might be able to set this team up to be more competitive in 2010. The money they're spending on the infielders (not counting Andy LaRoche) would be better served if it were consolidated into one impact player. Someone like, oh I don't know, Jason Bay.

There are some talented hitters on the way so if they play their cards right, and those young players live up to expectations, then the Pirates just might be able to start thinking about moving up in the standings in a year.

Just not this year.

KW