Series Preview: Pirates at Cardinals

Hello Cardinals fans! I'm Brian from RaiseTheJollyRoger.com, your friendly Pirates blog way down there at the bottom of the standings. Since Daniel's away, he asked me to put together a quick series preview for this weekend's three-game set between the Bucs and Cards, so here goes:

Pirates' probable starters:

When Jeff Karstens is your team's most consistent, reliable starter, you know your rotation's got problems. Things are looking up around the rest of the team, but the starters are a mess at the moment.

Karstens, tonight's starter, has been decent of late, throwing strikes, being aggressive, and getting plenty of quick outs, but that aggressiveness, combined with average "stuff" and control usually yields a big homer or two per start.

The same goes for Zach Duke, Sunday's starter. To be fair, Duke's been better since the All-Star break, but he's a perennial league-leader in hits allowed for a reason.

Daniel McCutchen, Saturday's likely starter, will be called up to replace Brad Lincoln, a prospect who disappointed early on after good showing in the minor leagues.

D-Cutch is not quite as good as the team's other McCutchen, as he's sporting a 1-4, 8.58 mark for a reason. The Bucs were hopeful that he could be a serviceable fifth starter, and well, he isn't. If he gets out of the third inning tomorrow, I'll be surprised.

What to Watch:

The Pirates and Cards have only played three times so far this year, so you probably don't know much about the Bucs' young guns.

The top of the lineup should be around for many years to come; you'll remember Andrew McCutchen, of course, but Jose Tabata, Neil Walker, and most importantly Pedro Alvarez are all relatively new to the scene.
 
Tabata is a very young outfielder that was acquired via trade with the Yankees a few years ago, and he's looked very solid at the plate and seems to be a very encouraging leadoff or No. 2 hitter.

Walker, a Pittsburgh native, was a top draft pick many years ago but disappointed in the minors until this season. Since discovering he could play second base, the Pirates have been playing Neil every day and, well, he's been quite the improvement over Aki Iwamura. Walker's incredible line of .306/.341/.469 is sure to come down a bit, but he's established himself as a solid part of the club for the foreseeable future.

Lastly, Alvarez is the highly touted savior draft-choice that the Pirates have so desperately needed for the last 17 years. Since breaking into the majors in June, he's been OK--striking out a lot as expected and not getting on base as much as we'd like, but the power is most definitely there.

They may not be lighting the world on fire yet, but take a close look at these three youngsters (along with late-inning relievers Evan Meek and Joel Hanrahan) as they'll hopefully emerge into key pieces of a team that can contend with the Cards in a few years. Now if only we could get some starting pitching... 

Series outlook:

The Bucs have been playing better since the break, but they will face a really tough test this weekend keeping St. Louis off the scoreboard and dealing with Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright.

The Pirates are also absolutely miserable on the road, despite coming off a series win at Coors Field. I'd be happy if they manage to take one of the three games.