Game 55: Pirates at Cardinals

Maholm, Parisi, seven eastern time.

Game 54: Pirates at Cardinals

Duke and Wellemeyer at eight.

Game 53: Pirates at Reds

Dumatrait and Harang starting pretty soon.

Game 52: Pirates at Reds

Tom Gorzelanny and Bronson Arroyo at seven.

Game 51: Pirates at Reds

Snell and Cueto at seven tonight.

Pirates are 24-26, five and a half back of first.

The YTD stats are somewhat comical. Not in a good way. Bay is back with a 950 OPS. McLouth, a guy we called "Frodo" when he came up with Duffy ("Sam"), wants to be an All-Star with a 1025 OPS. He is proving something this season, but I'm pretty skeptical he'll keep that Vlad Guerrero-like pace all year long. Nady (900 OPS) and Doumit (950 OPS) have been solid. Cue the Benny Hill music for the rest of the numbers: Paulino (500), LaRoche (700), Sanchez (600), Bixler (440).

The only starting pitcher who has been league-average has been Dumatrait.

The bullpen has been great.

More than half that offense will be better, but that does not mean they will be good. Of the four sluggers, only Bay I think is likely to maintain that pace in something like everyday play. Doumit and Nady could too. Whatever happens, I don't expect the offense to dramatically improve.

The bullpen could stay the same. The starters should improve. The substitution of Dumatrait for Morris, alone, might be enough to pace the team to 26 wins in the next 50 games. Heck, if they can manage 24 of 50 with these numbers, I guess I expect -- assuming no major subtraction of players through trade or injury (big assumption) -- that this team will still be around .500 at the 100-game mark.

And this is falling in line with expectations I've had for a long time. When the Pirates finally finish a season at .500, we will be underwhelmed, on the whole, with both the record and the general range of individual performances. .500 is mediocre.

That said, we will enjoy all the victories. It is cool to watch, listen, or attend a game and see it end with a victory. I don't get tired of that.

Off day

The Pirates are not playing this Memorial Day, for some reason. Tomorrow they will start a stretch of twenty games in twenty days.

Game 50: Cubs at Pirates

Lilly and Maholm this afternoon.

Game 49: Cubs at Pirates

Marquis and Dumatrait this evening.

Game 48: Cubs at Pirates

Zambrano and Duke. Pirates have to do better than 1-8 against the division's frontrunner.

Game 47: Brewers at Pirates

Dave Bush and Tom Gorzelanny in half an hour.

Bucs in a bit of tailspin here. How low will they go before they get within a series of .500 again?

Game 46: Brewers at Pirates

Ben Sheets and Ian Snell in about an hour.

What are your expectations for Snell going forward? I see him settling down and clubbing the crap out of the league through the end of the summer. I'm not sure when he'll start all this though. Maybe tonight?

Game 45: Brewers at Pirates

At seven, Manny Parra and Paul Maholm at PNC Park.

Off day

Sober up.

Game 44: Pirates at Cubs

Phil Dumatrait and Jason Marquis at two.

Flyers at Penguins at three.

Game 43: Pirates at Cubs

Zach Duke and Carlos Zambrano this afternoon.

Game 42: Pirates at Cubs

The Pirates draw Chicago for six of the next nine games. The Bucs are 0-for-6 against the Cubs this year, so now would be a good time to figure them out.

Today they will play the second of four consecutive day games. The starting pitchers will be Tom Gorzelanny and Sean Gallagher.

Game 41: Pirates at Cardinals

Ian Snell and Joel Pineiro at one.

Game 40: Pirates at Cardinals

Pirates are 19-20. Tonight it's Paul Maholm and RHP Todd Wellemeyer.

The Pirates will call on Ronny Ballgame to step up and do some of the things Ryan Doumit was doing.

Game 39: Pirates at Cardinals

The Pirates move to the central time zone for some games. Tonight at eight, Phil Dumatrait and Kyle Lohse.

Games 37 and 38: Braves at Pirates

These guys will play two today, weather permitting. The scheduled starters are Jair Jurrjens and Zach Duke at 12:30, then Tim Hudson and JVB.