Buccos Cove

Last night, the Pirates lost their 24th game of the season to the Chicago Cubs falling 8-2 at PNC Park. Derek Holland was supposed to start for the Pirates, but Joe Musgrove took his place calling into question Holland's role the rest of the year. When Ben Cherrington took over as the General Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, one of his first jobs was to address a lack of starting pitching depth on the Major League club. Obviously, he didn't go out and sign any of the big names on the market because he simply couldn't, but he was looking for low-risk high-reward pitchers to fill out the Pirates starting rotation. One of those pitchers that he was able to find was 11-year Major League veteran Derek Holland. When Holland was brought in, he was the front-runner for the fifth-starter spot, even as a non-roster invitee, and ended up winning the job after Spring Training 2.0. The starting pitching experience hasn't really worked out for the 33-year old as he is s...

Spring Training 2.0 starts today, and with it comes the optimism of a long-awaited 2020 Pittsburgh Pirates season. With Opening Day just 23 or 24 days away, it's time to start predicting what the 2020 Pirates starting rotation will look like as the team heads into the season. Last year, the Pittsburgh Pirates starting rotation looked to be a strength of the team heading into the season. They had five starting pitchers who had all had experience and at least some track record of success in the Major Leagues. However, injuries around the field destroyed any hope of a good starting rotation and as they say, the rest was history. Entering the 2020 season, the optimism surrounding the starting rotation couldn't be any different. The Pirates are already without Jameson Taillon and Chris Archer this season leaving them with two big holes in their starting five. This season, the team will be counting on young guys to step in and fill those very big shoes. We continue our se...

As we await the start of the 2020 MLB season due to Corona Virus concerns, we will take a look at every player on the Pirates roster and outline what they will bring to the table and projections for the 2020 season. I hope this brings some positive reading to the current situation and helps us all as we wait for baseball. Taking a look at the projected 2020 starting rotation, you will see a lot of guys with good talent. Guys like Chris Archer , Joe Musgrove , and Trevor Williams have all had success in the Major Leagues and have shown they can compete night in and night out. However, many of these pitchers don't have a lot of MLB experience and are being thrust into the leadership role. The most experienced returner to the starting rotation is Archer with eight seasons of service time, but he is coming off a year that saw his stats take a turn for the worse. The Pirate's goal going into the off-season was to sign a veteran starting pitcher who could not only help w...

The Pirates offense jumped on the Tigers early in split squad action but it wasn't enough as they fell 8-4. Many of the regulars played well on offense showing promise for the upcoming week. After dropping their Grapefruit League Opener on Saturday, The Pittsburgh Pirates split it up on Saturday when they took on the Detroit Tigers at LECOM Park. Many of the regulars were in the starting lineup and they performed well on the offensive side. After the Tigers scored the first run of the game, JT Riddle drew a leadoff walk and Gregory Polanco followed suit one batter later to put runners at first and third with one out. Will Craig would hit a sacrifice fly tying the game at 1-1. The Tigers would answer with a run in the top of the second and the Pirates offense would go to work again. Socrates Brito started the second inning with a leadoff double and O'Neil Cruz would drive him in with a double of his own off the left field wall that tied the game at 2-2. Charlie Tilso...