The Skinny:
On the surface 2009 might look like just another year, another 99 losses in Pittsburgh, but 2009 was the most encouraging season the 14 remaining Pirates fans have seen since Andy Van Slyke roamed the earth. This is because the front office finally -- finally! -- dropped all pretense of the Drive for 75 and traded a barrel full of merely-adequate veterans for a fistful of lottery tickets. The Pirates stayed quiet this offseason and are now prepared to strongly contend for the #1 pick in the 2011 draft. Yes, this is a good thing.

It's 15 years overdue, but the Pirates are finally rebuilding from scratch.

2009 Regular Season Record: 62-99
Rain saved the Pirates from 100 losses. I think that's the first mercy the baseball gods have shown them since Barry Bonds fell into their laps.

Rank: In these turbulent times, it's important to remember that some things are reliable. Like the Pirates finishing last in the NL Central.

Home Park: The incomparable PNC Park

McCutchen & Co give Pirates fans hope for the future.

Photo by Trev Stair, used under creative commons license.

You'll notice how all of those free agents combined cost less money than one year of Jeromy Burnitz did.

Jumped Ship:
Jesse Chavez (RHP) - Traded to Rays, who traded him to the Braves
Brian Bixler (SS) - Traded to the Indians for a bag of balls and something called 'Jesus Brito'
Matt Capps (RHP) - Amazingly, left the Pirates to sign with the only team presently worse than the Pirates, the Natinals

Let's face it: A team that's going to lose 105-110 games doesn't really have a strength. Paraphrasing the awesome John McKay, the Pirates' pitching is terrible, but they make up for it by not hitting. The Pirates' strength is in their willingness to finally clear out the pointless veterans and stock the organization with players who might one day be major league stars.

Inspecting the Pirates' personnel moves the past eight months reveals that the Pirates appear to be pursuing a plan of eventually fielding a very strong defensive team, especially up the middle. Witness the acquisitions of center fielder/track star Gorkys Hernandez, glove specialist shortstop Argenis Diaz, and Aspiring Honorary Molina Brother in Training catcher Tony Sanchez (drafted #4 overall last summer). This is an excellent idea if they continue to field a staff full of pitchers like Zach Duke and Paul Maholm and Russ Ohlendorf who don't strike anybody out. (And an even more totally excellent idea if they then take advantage of those pitchers' deflated ERAs and trade them for goodies.)

Weakness: Well, er... Everything
There's no need to sugar coat anything: The 2010 Pirates stand to be the worst team the Pirates have fielded since at least 1985 (57-104), possibly since the 1950s. That's really saying something, but there again, this is encouraging, because it means the Pirates are no longer wasting resources on pointless veterans in a year-to-year effort to try to avoid 90 losses. The 14 remaining Pirates fans will be, wisely, paying closer attention to the Lynchburg Hillcats and Altoona Curve.

Remember: The 2003 Tigers went 43-119. The 2006 Tigers won the American League.

Potential Lineup
CF Andrew McCutchen
2B Akinori Iwamura
RF Ryan Church
1B Garrett Jones
C  Ryan Doumit
LF Lastings Milledge/Delwyn Young
3B Andy LaRoche/Neil Walker
SS Bobby Crosby

Potential Rotation
LHP Paul Maholm
LHP Zach Duke
RHP Ross Ohlendorf
RHP Charlie Morton
RHP Daniel McCutchen

Bullpen
Dotel, Lopez and maybe Donnelly will supplement a shuttle of AAA guys. Dotel projects to be the closer, not that he's going to have much to close.

Questions that Need Answering:
Only one. Is {Andrew McCutchen, Pedro Alvarez, Jeff Clement, Lastings Milledge, Gorkys Hernandez, Tony Sanchez, Tim Alderson} going to be an important part of the next good Pirates team?

OK, another: will the Pirates successfully snag the #1 pick in the 2011 draft? Followup: If they do, will they actually draft and pay the best player available (as they did in 2008) or will they be cheapskates and draft a cheap player with no upside (as they did in 2009)?

Prediction:
54-108.

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