A New Hope...

It's almost the start of June, and around these parts Memorial Day usually signals the premature end to another futile Pittsburgh Pirates season. For once, even with the recent long losing streak and inevitable debut of should-have-been-a-Pirate Matt Wieters, the usual Bucco pessimist like myself has a reason to keep an eye on the Bucs into June and possibly beyond. Just ask the boys over at Baseball Prospectus. The stat junkies over there still give your Pirates a 9.46% chance to make the playoffs this season. Now that may not seem like much, but that's better than the ranking they gave ten other big-league teams...

• Giants - 8.78%
• Mariners - 6.14%
• Rockies: 4.84%
• Athletics: 4.36%
• White Sox: 4.33%
• Marlins: 3.20%
• Orioles: 2.77%
• Diamondbacks: 2.58%
• Astros: 2.25%
• Nationals: 0.52%

So there are baseball people out there other than 6th Ward who see a glimmer of hope for these Bucs. I have to admit, if they can stay healthy, keep up the strong starting pitching and continue getting contributions from young guys such as Morgan, Moss and Little LaRoche, there might be something for sports fans in Pittsburgh to look forward to in July other than the return of the Steelers to Saint Vincent. Add to that the return of Ryan Doumit and the more-than-likely debut of Andrew McCutcheon and it's shaping up to be an interesting summer over at PNC Park (and that's without even including SkyBlast in the conversation.)