Pittsburgh Pirates: Can They Be Like The Oakland A's?

The Pittsburgh Pirates are the epitome of a low budget team. So are the Oakland A's. But the A's have gone to the playoffs four times in the past ten years, the Pirates none. The A's were below .500 for only three of the past ten years, the Pirates ALL. (Plus seven more before that for a record seventeen straight losing years.)

Last year, the Pirates were the best defensive team in the majors. That's when we had the elite Wilson-Sanchez combo in the middle infield, and the "pretty good" LaRoche brothers at the corners. But three of those four parts have been traded away.

The post-2007 Pirates like to trade good players at their top for cheaper prospects with a better chance to improve. That is the A's formula as well.

Similarly, the A's earlier had a strong infield with the likes of Mark Ellis at second, Marco Scutaro at shortstop, and Eric Chavez (when healthy) at third.  But only Ellis now remains.

Early in the decade the A's had three top starters, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, filling their "backend" with more like average pitchers. After they left, one by one, the As went to the playoffs only once, in 2006.

Imagine a Pirates' pitching staff with likes of the 2007 Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny, and Paul Maholm and Zach Duke at the top of their (2009) game. That's what we might have in 2010 with the emergence of Ross Ohlendorf and Charlie Morton, plus Maholm and Duke.

The Pirates gave up 768 runs in 2009. That's still too many, but it is an improvement over most previous years. And it's close to the 761 runs that the A's gave up last year.

Both teams will have to do better to be contenders. Assuming that the pitchers pitch well, and the defense doesn't suffer too much from the above-mentioned trades, the Pirates should push the runs allowed closer to 700. It's hard to see them pushing runs allowed down to 650, the base from which Oakland was a contender.

The "Achilles heel" of the Pirates and the As has been hitting. But Oakland drafted Jason Giambi in the mid-1990s,  who, at his prime, was worth something like eight or nine games over replacement. We now know why, and know that this is not "repeatable."

The Pirates have done a decent job of trading outfielders for the pitching they need, specifically Ohlendorf and Morton. The A's Billy Beane would have done the same in their shoes.

But with the possible exception of the 2009 draft, the Pirates  really don't have any high impact hitters in the pipeline. This suggests that the Pirates should focus less on drafting pitching, and more on hitting.

In sum, the Pirates can get back to "respectability"  (75-85 wins per season) by following the A's recent formula. But they will need to do more to be contenders.

Without the money to hire such a person, they need a blockbuster choice like Jason Giambi. The recent losses, and resulting priority in the draft, could help.