At the trade deadline, Neal Huntington made it relatively clear that 2011 will be another year for evaluation. If the Pirates are ever going to play competitive baseball, it likely won’t be until 2012. Here’s my take on an Opening Day lineup for next year.

Statistics are an important part of baseball, and so players are constantly being evaluated, judged, measured and scrutinized. In July, all the numbers are brought front and center by two events: the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and the trade deadline. Cory and Alan consider the Pirates’ roster in that context.

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ ship began to sink shortly after the last recording of Pirate Revolution, a Titletahn podcast. Hosts Cory Humes and Alan Smodic return to their microphones today, and in doing so, hope to bail out a team that’s struggled through their early schedule in 2010.

Hosts Cory Humes and Alan Smodic go around the diamond and discuss players’ performances and managerial tendencies through the Pirates’ opening series against the Dodgers. And, as is often the case, the focus turns toward the future, as the 2010 season will be spent as an extended tryout for what’s certain to be a competitive 2011 team.

There are reasons to be optimistic about the Pirates as currently constructed. Ron Cook, and other curmudgeons like him, just need to consider players in the proper perspective.