Pittsburgh Pirates Are in First Place: Who Would Have Thought?

When Brandon Phillips crushed a Fernando Salas offering deep into the Cincinnati night, shocking the St. Louis Cardinals in the bottom of the ninth, the Pittsburgh Pirates moved into a tie for first place in the National League Central.

The Reds second baseman threw his arms into the air in celebration rounding first base, and the Pirates were similarly happy. The last time they won a division title was when I was two years old, in 1992.

Now, they are remarkably in the driver’s seat, trying to end such a painful drought.

On July 17th, 1997, they were in first place. They haven’t been in first that late in a season since. This very well could change, as the team looks to have the ability to stick in the race for the long haul.

Given this success, they have questions to answer as the trade deadline looms. Does general manager Neal Huntington look to bolster their team or stand pat?

Sports Illustrated‘s Joe Sheehan discusses their conundrum in profiling the team:

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Complicating Huntington's life is that the Pirates haven't finished over .500 since 1992, and dealing away the players who have performed well this year will reduce their chance to snap that losing streak. Pirates fans have turned out for this year's squad -- four straight sellouts in early July -- and it would be a PR nightmare for Huntington to clearly signal that he doesn't believe in the team's chances by dealing away Paul Maholm, Joel Hanrahan, Ryan Doumit, Garret Jones and other middling veterans having their best years (sic).

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Who knows how long their success will last, but as Sheehan points out, they certainly have a nice core to build around. There is the thought that to seriously contend throughout August and September, the offense needs to be bolstered. To do this, prospects would have to be parted with.

Is Huntington willing to make a splash? Or does he just stick with what is working now and see where it leads them?

Voting for the latter may be their best bet. The front office has seen the team improve drastically across the board, so there is no reason to believe their current group won’t only get better.

It isn’t the offense that stands out, however. Jeff Karstens, their ace who was acquired in 2008 from New York, exemplified how good their pitching staff has been. He needed only 83 pitches to toss a complete-game shutout against the Houston Astros this evening, an astoundingly low number.

Also amazingly low is his ERA, which sits at 2.34—better than that of Roy Halladay, Tommy Hanson and Cliff Lee. It is incredible and completely unexpected—terms that can be used to describe the Pirates success, not just his.

The maturity of Karstens, 28, and that of his team is astounding, given how poorly he and his Pirates fared in 2010 and for many years before. They had some very talented individual players, but could never put together a dangerous team. They now appear to have one, and in notching a tie for first place, the city of Pittsburgh is on cloud nine.

This sense of euphoria is all summed up by the brilliant Dejan Kovacevic, sports columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. It simply can’t be said better:

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You know, I remember writing last August, while the Pirates were pathetically pushing their way to 105 losses, that I had run out of adjectives. I had used just about every abysmal, awful, wretched, wickedly horrific adjective by that point, and my thesaurus was running on empty.

I’m that way now, too, but it’s for a wholly different reason…

Honestly, I’m not interested in projections anymore. Mine were wrong. Yours were wrong. Everyone’s were wrong. I’ve given up trying to figure out when Karstens is going to tire, when Hanrahan is going to go Washington wild again, when Neil Walker will stop coming up with big hits, when the Pirates are going to look in the mirror and see the glass crack again.

I’m just taking it in. I’m taking in the team’s enthusiasm, its pitching, its overall improvement in other areas, and I’m taking in that kid walking down Sixth Street this afternoon Downtown with a T-shirt that read: “I was a PIRATES fan before it was cool.”

Honestly, I’m not interested in projections anymore. Mine were wrong. Yours were wrong. Everyone’s were wrong. I’ve given up trying to figure out when Karstens is going to tire, when Hanrahan is going to go Washington wild again, when Neil Walker will stop coming up with big hits, when the Pirates are going to look in the mirror and see the glass crack again.

I’m just taking it in. I’m taking in the team’s enthusiasm, its pitching, its overall improvement in other areas, and I’m taking in that kid walking down Sixth Street this afternoon Downtown with a T-shirt that read: “I was a PIRATES fan before it was cool.”

Say it out loud, Pittsburgh. And enjoy it.

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They certainly are.

And hopefully that kid and many other die-hards can wear that shirt proudly for years to come. After all, the city, the fans and the team deserve to be this and even more successful.

No flash in the pan here. The Pirates are ready to contend.