Pirates pitching future looks very bright

[Calzone Lord]

The Pirates have had a losing season every single year since 1992. Rooting against them is like rooting against a handicapped child...only Justin Dew would do that.

Obviously, that futility will end this year. Despite being a money-line underdog on the strong majority of nights so far, they're 14 games over .500

In all of baseball, only the St. Louis Cardinals have a better record. The Pirates .595 win percentage even tops the AL best Boston Red Sox.

Jeff Locke (Age 25) is the only Pirates starting pitcher who has stayed healthy this year, in his 15 starts, he has a National League best ERA of 2.01 among all starting pitchers.

Gerrit Cole (Age 22) was a recent #1 overall pick in the draft. He's made just 3 career starts, and he's got the winning decision in all of them, over former Cy Young winners Tim Lincecum and Zack Greinke ...and Friday night he beat Angels ace Jared Weaver in a game where his fastball repeatedly hit 100 MPH.

Locke doesn't have the overpowering stuff Cole has...but he paints the corners and pounds his fastball down in the strike zone. He hasn't always got the respect from the home plate ump that he deserves.

In one outing against the Cubs at Wrigley, he gave up just one-hit in 5.2 innings...But allowed 7 walks. K-Zone graphics had him painting the edge of the corners on pitches called balls all game long.

Gerrit Cole has electric stuff, but is far from a savvy and artful pitcher like Locke. 3-0 record or not, he belongs in the minors and needs more time to develop. He simply bears down with his fastball and throws it right over the heart of the plate. He has a very good slider, but he hasn't used it often enough on 2 strike counts.

The Pirates bullpen is sensational.

Grilli is 26-for-27 in save opportunities, with an ERA of 1.07 and a WHIP of 0.74

Melancon (Age 28) in 37 appearances, has an ERA of 0.99 and WHIP of 0.88

Justin Wilson (Lefty, Age 25) has pitched 41.2 innings, with an ERA of 2.16 and a WHIP of 1.01 -- his fastball has reached 100 MPH on several occasions and his oppositions batting average is .176

Bryan Morris (Righty, Age 26) has pitched 32.2 innings with an ERA of 2.48 and a WHIP of 0.95

Even the best hitters from the Pirates are very young. The great Andrew McCutchen is 26 years old. Marte is 24 years old. Neil Walker is 27 years old. Pedro Alverez is 26 years old. Jordy Mercer is hitting .290 with power at shortstop, and playing great defense, he's only 26 years old.

The last time the Pirates had a winning record, George H. W. Bush was president and Ron McAnally won his his 2nd straight Eclipse Award for outstanding trainer.

The Pirates are 0-for-8 with Clinton, 0-for-8 with Dubya, and 0-for-4 with Obama, so far. A losing record all the time.

An overabundance of talented young players is changing that.