Pittsburgh Pirates Wake Up Call – How Important is a Good April?

In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been a hard team to gauge out of the gate over the past few years.

In the season’s opening month of April, the team has been very up and down over the past few seasons. Each year is unique of course, making it hard to identify any underlying trends.

Here is a look at how the team has fared in the opening stanza of each of the last four seasons, with runs scored, allowed and differential thrown in.

Again, very hard to identify a trend, and doubly difficult to gauge how these starts affected each year’s club. 2013 and 2015 saw middling starts from the team, but each won 90+ games. Last season’s version of the Pittsburgh Pirates had a terrific April, but swooned in the summer en route to a losing campaign.

Of these years, only 2014 was indicative of what the team might look like going forward. That year was a struggle from start to finish, and though the club scraped into the playoffs with 88 wins, it was a dogfight to get there. That fight started immediately

If we turn our eyes towards the Pirates’ opening month of 2017, we see a pretty fair schedule, albeit with some tests. Ten of the team’s first 23 games will come against the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals. Six of those contests feature AL East opponents in the Boston Reds Sox and New York Yankees., and the remainder are comprised of very winnable games against the Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves and Florida Marlins.

It all amounts to a substantial measuring stick for the Pittsburgh Pirates, With three weeks and change to go before Opening Day, the club has time to figure out what type of team they truly have. Regardless of their findings, coming out of the gate will be of utmost importance for a club looking to affirm its place among a tight National League playoff contender crowd.

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