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.

All numbers that point to this being the darkest day in recent Pirates history. A record-breaking shutout loss, eclipsing a standard that stood for a century. A three-game series of absolutely one-sided baseball. A Pythagorean expectation so pessimistic that it’s quite literally unbelievable.

Opening Day is less than three weeks away, and hosts Cory Humes and Alan Smodic begin to wonder who’ll take the hill for the Pirates against the Dodgers on April 5. In this episode of Pirate Revolution, starting pitchers at the major and minor-league levels are reviewed.