Know Your Victim Part 1: The Pirates

This is part one of a five part series previewing the rest of the NL Central. I'm calling it know your victim, because with any luck thats what the other five teams in the central will be this season. I will try and do this in projected order in the division, starting from the bottom and working up. This means we start with the Pirates.

There are no thoughts of contending in the minds of the Pirates, and this season will be used by them to develop some potential young talent. They do have some nice pieces to the puzzle, but they also need a lot of help both in the pitching staff and in the field.

Solid Players

Nate McLouth-OF

He had a breakout season last year hitting .276 with 26 homers and 94 RBI. He hit the Cubs pretty hard, getting 10 extra-base hits and a .384 OBP. He especially hits Carlos Marmol well, with a .714 BA and two homers in seven at-bats. I would say he is the current face of the franchise, but also that his numbers will come back to earth a bit.

Ryan Doumit- C

Doumit hit .318/15/69 last year. Pretty solid numbers from a catcher. Along with McLouth he is one of the few threats in the lineup.

Matt Capps- Closer

Capps is a solid young closer who had a 3.02 ERA last year with 21 saves. He did go through a bit of injury trouble, but when healthy he can definitely close out games.

Not much else to say about this team. They will probably get around 70 wins and finish either last or second to last in the Central. As the teams in the division get better, I'll write more about them.