The Pittsburgh Pirates Don't Find Much Treasure Buried on Their Bench

Forget for a moment that the Pirates' everyday team is below league average. The Pirates' replacement players are below the average for the league. And that may be at the core of the team's problems.

Well-financed teams like the New York Yankees have respectable strength even on the bench. Cody Ransom is no Alex Rodriguez, but he did his team no harm as a "sub" while the latter was out for a month due to injuries.

Not so for the low-budget Pirates

Neil Walker, Steve Pearce, Brian Bixler, Ramon Vazquez, Virgil Vazquez, Craig Monroe, Luiz Cruz, Jason Jaramillo? Who outside of Pittsburgh has heard of them?

To say that they are typical replacement players who (collectively) can win 40 games a season is probably being kind. After a respectable (if losing) 36-41 start to June 30, a team composed largely of those players is 20-54 thereafter, because of injuries to better starters.

And that includes one notable 7-2 stretch at home, with the Pirates at basically full strength, with all their best players on the field.

On the other hand, a number of Yankee rejects find their way to the Pirates, one team where they are plausible players. Take Shawn Chacon, Josh Phelps, Doug Mientkiewicz, Jeff Karstens, Ross Ohlendorf, Dan McCutchen, and most lately, Anthony Claggett (although many Yankees now have sellers' remorse with Ohlendorf).

And with such a weak pool to choose from, it follows that a number of "everyday" Pirate players are basically replacement level.

On what other team would Brandon Moss be anything other than a replacement? Yet he has played in 124 games, making him an everyday player.

And Andy LaRoche is a replacement-level hitter (although his superior fielding moves him part of the way toward league-average). Ditto, during his 2009 tenure with the Pirates, for his brother Adam (whose strong second half pulls up his replacement level first half to something approaching league average for the whole year).

Delwyn Young is an adequate, though not superlative, replacement for Freddy Sanchez. But what happens if he is benched?

All this cancels out the fact that the Pirates have genuinely strong players in Andy McCutchen, Garrett Jones, and probably Lastings Milledge, as well as a now-respectable rotation.

The Pirates apparently had a good draft in 2009, and to a lesser extent, in 2008. But the effects of the former won't show up until 2011 at the earliest. This predicament is the fault of Dave Littlefield, not current management.

Maybe Pedro Alvarez will be available sometime in 2010, allowing Andy LaRoche to "platoon" with Delwyn Young at second. And at some point, Jose Tabata should be available to play right field, meaning that we'll have a better alternative there than Brandon Moss.

But for the time being, the Pirates have a team that looks more like an AAA team. "Replacement level" is on the FIELD. Meaning that when there are injuries, what's on the BENCH is less than replacement level.