As any Pirates fan knows, Paul Maholm is in the midst of an absolute career year. The kid is pitching like a top of the rotation stud right now and is showing no signs of slowing down. But let’s get real for a second. All of the talk of Maholm being the key piece in our current playoff chase is incredibly premature and mildly absurd. Now, I won’t argue that the Pirates are in a great spot at the halfway point of the season. But we are talking about a 105 loss team a year ago making a playoff run and it is June.
No doubt we have a great draw playing in the Comedy Central, but the team leading that division is the Milwaukee Brewers and they never loses to the Pirates. I’m sure everyone will quickly point out the big time home stands against the Phillies (without Shane Victorino in the Phillies lineup) and the Red Sox (without Carl Crawford or Big Popi in their lineup) as proof that the Pirates can hang with the Brewers.
No doubt the Pirates are a scrappy team that can seemingly play with anyone right now. But it’s more than talent with this opponent. When someone beats you as often, and as convincing, as the Brewers have over the past few years it becomes psychological, especially on a young squad like the Pirates.
The pitching staff is going to regress. There is no arguing that. This staff is nowhere near as good as the numbers they put up at the beginning of the season. Kevin Corriea is already starting to regress back to the back of the rotation guy he actually is and Charlie Morton has seemingly decided he wants to be the Old Charlie over the “Electric Stuff” Charlie persona he created in Spring Training.The rest of the team is a veritable motley crew of gym class superstars. It’s only a matter of time before the Pirates start be a handing out copies of Baseball Prospectus so people can see who these kids are.
Enough bashing the team for now, let’s get back to Paul Maholm. His stats this year are blowing his career stats out of the water right now, to be sure. Believing he can continue at this level for the foreseeable future is absurd. Nobody makes a change this dramatic in one season. He is having what I like to refer to as a “McLouth Year”. The Pirates did the right thing with Nate when he was in his McLouth Year. They dealt him away at the height of his stock. They need to do the same with Maholm at the deadline this year.
Maholm is never going top of the rotation guy. He is a decent 3 very good 4 guy. The Pirates have him as their ace right now. A staff like that is not going very far. The Pirates are well on their way to being relevant once again, but not trading spare parts at the height of their value is no way of building on the limited success we have seen thus far. The team needs to continue building. There is almost no power in the organization and the legitimate arms are still a few years away. This is no time to be sitting on your hands hoping this is the right mix. Huntington has repeatedly stated that .500 is not the goal, a Championship caliber team is and I agree wholeheartedly. And this is the deal that will prove he means what he has said.
written by Geoff Kocis
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