The Pittsburgh Pirates are teeming with young, talented pitching. From Paul Skenes and Bubba Chandler to Braxton Ashcraft and Jared Jones, the Pirates are loaded with dynamic arms.
Pittsburgh ranked seventh in ERA last year, and it’s easy to see why. The team has more pitching than it knows what to do with.
Dan Plesac, a three-time All-Star who pitched two seasons for the Pirates in the mid-1990s, is particularly impressed by Pittsburgh’s starting rotation. He likes it so much that he recently compared it to a famous National League dynasty on MLB Network.
“It’s a very good rotation,” Plesac said on Tuesday’s episode of MLB Tonight. “It reminds me a little bit going back, and this might be a little bit of an overstatement, of some of those young pitching staffs of the Atlanta Braves before we knew who they were.”
Plesac is referring to the legendary Braves of the early 1990s with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Steve Avery.
That might be a bit of a reach, but Skenes is certainly on that level and Chandler has the potential to be.
Those iconic Atlanta teams ruled the 1990s and won a World Series, so that’s an exciting comparison for the Pirates, who haven’t won a playoff game since 2013 or a championship since 1979.
However, that could be about to change. Not only does Pittsburgh have excellent pitching, but it also dramatically improved its lineup over the offseason.
“It’s a team that’s built around their starting pitching, make no bones about it,” Plesac added. “If I’m a Pirates fan, this is the most enthusiastic I’ve felt going into a season in about four or five years.”
More Pirates: Former All-Star Pitcher Reveals What He Loves About Pirates’ Bubba Chandler
The post MLB Analyst Compares Pirates’ Loaded Pitching Staff To Recent Dynasty appeared first on SportsNet Pittsburgh.