Last year, The Pittsburgh Pirates finished 67-95, over 30 games out of first place in the NL Central.  Coming into this season, most projections had them doing little better than that 2008 team.  PECOTA, just to give one example, projected the 2009 Pirates to finish with 70 wins.  So far the 2009 Pirates played mostly to those projections, however there are some peripheral statistics to indicate they should be better.  The Pirates currently have a win percentage of .432, which over a 162 game season should translate to a record of 70-92.  Their Pythagorean projection, based on run differential, has them at a record of 43-45.  This comes despite 2 trades designed to help restock the farm system and help the team in the future.  I’ll dive into some statistics and look ahead to the second half in part two (currently slated for tomorrow, depending on how much time I have to write today), but for today, let’s look back at some the key moments of the first half.

April 13th Zach Duke pitches a complete game 4 hitter as part of 7-0 blanking of the Astros that moves the Pirates to an early 4-3 record.  Duke’s re-emergence as a solid starting pitcher has been one of the biggest surprises of the season so far.  A few weeks ago, I wrote that I don’t think Duke will ever return to the pitcher he was in 2005, basing this on his BABIP and other peripheral numbers.  While some regression seems to be due, he has pitched very well this year.  The fact that he was named as an all-star alternate just shows how far he has come this season, lets hope he can keep that up in the second half and beyond.

April 21st It is announced that Ryan Doumit will need surgery to heal his ailing wrist and will be out 8-10 weeks.  Doumit, The Pirates starting catcher and cleanup hitter, finally returned this past Friday.  His shoes have been filled quite admirably by backups Jason Jaramillo and Robinzon Diaz.  So well, in fact, that moving Doumit to right field in order to keep his bat in the lineup and save him from some wear and tear has to at least be considered.  Neil Huntington is adamant that Doumit is the Pirates catcher, so in the near term at least, don’t expect it to happen.  But the emergence of Diaz and JJ has created a bit of a logjam at catcher.  Certainly, its a nice problem to have.

May 10th The Pirates lose to The Mets 8-4, the last loss in an 8 game losing streak and a 1-12 stretch that began in late April.  To me, this was unquestionably the low point of the season.  Not that I had expectations of greatness coming in, but this was the point where I realized this was not the year.  Less than a month later, Neil Huntington would make that more or less official.

June 4th The Pirates send Nate McLouth to the Atlanta Braves for AAA starter Charlie Morton and 2 lower level prospects, Jeff Locke and Gorkys Hernandez.  In a related move, they call up CF Andrew McCutchen.  This trade has been dissected to no end now, but looking back, one thing seems clear.  If McCutchen and Morton continue to develop (I’m ignoring Locke and Hernandez due to their youth), this deal made the Pirates a better team not only next year and beyond, but this year as well.

June 25th Ian Snell, in the midst of a very frustrating up and down season is optioned to AAA Indianapolis.  Making it even more frustrating, Snell strikes out 17 Toledo Mud Hens just a few days later.  You hate to say never, but given some of Neil Huntington’s comments following the demotion, I don’t expect to see Snell in a Pirates uniform ever again.

June 30th After trading Nate McLouth to begin the month, the Pirates bookend it by consummating two deals on this day.  The second (and more compelling) of the two trades sends Nyjer Morgran and Sean Burnett to the Nationals for Lastings Milledge and Joel Hanrahan.  We can’t really begin to analyze this trade until Milledge makes an appearance in a Pirates uniform, but what we can say is that the Pirates will miss Tony Plush defensively.  The sample size since the trade is too small to make any conclusions, but one of the ongoing positive story lines of this years team has been the defense and run prevention, and Morgan was clearly a part of that.

July 3rd and 8th On the 3rd Charlie Morton tosses 6 strong shutout innings in Miami in a 7-4 win.  5 days later Morton only lasts 4 innings in a 5-0 loss at Houston.  These 2 starts show the good and the bad of Charlie Morton.  The start on the 3rd was Morton’s first win in a Pirates uniform and displayed to everyone just how strong his stuff can be.  Against Houston though, bad doesn’t begin to describe it, as he was hit hard seemingly from the get go.  Clearly Morton has the stuff to get big league hitters out, but clearly he needs to be more consistent.  As I mentioned earlier, his development is one of the keys to the success of the McLouth trade and something to keep an eye on in the second half.

July 11th In the 2nd to last game of the first half, the Pirates lose 8-7 in Philadelphia.  Heading into the bottom of the 9th, they hold a 7-3 lead, with a 98% chance of winning the game.  Closer Matt Capps gives up a lead-off HR en route to 6 hits, 2 walks and 5 earned runs against only one out.  The pirates would also lose the next day to conclude the first half on a 3-11 stretch, leaving just about the worst taste possible in your mouth as we go into the break.

So that’s it, The Pirates first half in a nutshell.  Two trades, two losing streaks, the Ian Snell saga, the catching situation, the return of Zach Duke, and the team defense.  Rest assured there was winning too, but there really weren’t any winning streaks of note.  Feel free to leave it in the comments if you think there’s any major dates or story lines I missed.  As I said at the top, look for the second part of my first half review tomorrow or the next day.  Its sure to include lots of statistics, and also a bit of a look ahead at what I expect to see from now until October 4th in Cincinnatti.

Tags: Charlie Morton, Ian Snell, Neal Huntington, Nyjer Morgan, Zach Duke