Pittsburgh Pirates Wake-Up Call – Looking Ahead

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 are not only getting ready for the off-season right now, but they’re also looking at the teams currently in the playoffs at what they did right this past season to try to learn from them. I look at the American League teams and see offenses that put up a ton of runs this year. The Rangers, Indians, and Red Sox, each division winners, were the three highest scoring teams in the AL. The Dodgers, Nationals, and Cubs were in the top seven in the NL in runs scored. What does this mean for the Pirates? Well offense certainly is important, regardless of how good your pitching is. Maybe the Pirates will try to build their team to score more runs in 2017. Each of the teams in the NL playoffs also has a legitimate ace that could be the ace for any team in baseball and could steal a game at any time. Jon Lester, Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, Madison Bumgarner, and Noah Syndergaard are all phenomenal pitchers that could steal a one-game playoff or two games in any series. That alone can make up for deficiencies in the rest of your team. The Pirates don’t have that guy right now, and it will be vitally important to develop either Gerrit Cole or Jameson Taillon into that guy moving forward.

The Pirates fan in me doesn’t want the Cubs to win the World Series. But if they do, maybe the Pirates will take a different approach to building their team for 2017 and beyond. They know that the one-game playoff isn’t ideal every year, and in order to catch this incredible Cubs team in the future, maybe they’ll go outside their usual box to roster-building. Maybe they’ll spend a little more money, or call up prospects a little earlier than usual, or make different in-game decisions. So while it might not be fun to see the Cubs win it all as a Pirates fan, it could be a good wake-up call (no pun intended) for how this team operates in the future.

This will also be a year where the Pirates don’t give a qualifying offer to any player. The only free agent that could warrant it would be Ivan Nova, but since he was traded in the middle of the season, he is not eligible for one. This hurts the Pirates in that they won’t receive an additional draft pick at the end of the first round like they did when Russell Martin signed with the Blue Jays.

Baseball Talk Around the Web

• Daniel Murphy continues to be a force in October, this time with the Nationals. Danny Knobler of Bleacher Report talks about Murphy’s continuing postseason success.
• Could Gerrit Cole’s recent injury-plagued season put his long-term future in Pittsburgh in doubt? Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review breaks down the latest on this front.
• Is Madison Bumgarner the best postseason starter ever? Jonah Keri of CBS Sports debates Bumgarner’s resume among the greatest of all time.

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