While the four best teams in baseball currently reside in The East in places like Philly, Boston, the Bronx and Atlanta the most surprising teams of the 2011 season are in the Central Division.
After the Cleveland Indians surprised baseball fans and media by taking over the AL Central early in the season and starting with the best record in MLB, they continue to compete after All-Star break. As the overachievers on Lake Erie attempt to reclaim their division from the Detroit Tigers another central team has become even a bigger surprise.
To say the Pittsburgh Pirates have been struggling through recent years would be an understatement.
The team hasn’t had a winning season since the 1992 season when it finished first. Since winning three straight division 
titles, the Pirates organization had come apart at the seams following Sid Bream’s famous slide in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS.
Not having a winning season since ’92 sounds bad enough but here’s a worse stat; the Pirates haven’t finished higher than fourth since 1999 and finished the past four sitting dead last.
With the 4th lowest payroll in MLB, the team is currently tied for first place with the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers in the competitive NL Central but can they hang on?
Andrew McCutchen has been the only standout player on the team so far, producing 4.6 fWAR (no other player has 2) and has excelled both offensive and defensively. The pitching rotation has a number of solid starters but no real ace.
Going down the wire, the pitching staff who is 5th in ERA will likely regress in the second half. The plus-four run differential the Pirates have is third in the division, and they are currently playing above their Pythagorean record.
While the Pirates have been a terrific story so far, they will be hard pressed to hold off the Brewers and Cards and with the trade deadline just a week away, the team would be wise to hold onto all their top prospects.
The Pirates probably won’t win the division title and end their playoff drought this season but if they can finish over .500 it may trigger the start of a new era and help their fans forget Bream’s slide and Skip Carey’s voice bellowing “Braves win! Braves win! Braves win.”
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Used with permission of the author.
Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.
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