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Today we finish our look at the NL Central with the team that deserves to be last, those lovable Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Pittsburgh Pirates

Last Season’s Result: 67-95

Major Offseason Changes

• Added 3B Ramon Vazquez (Signed from Texas)
• Added RF Eric Hinske (Signed from Tampa)
• Lost RF Jason Michaels (Signed with Houston)

Letter Grades

• Offseason Moves: D- The Pirates didn’t do anything to establish any real hope for 2009, but I didn’t want to five them an F because they did improve the roster. Eric Hinske is a lot better than Jason Michaels and give the Pirates some offense. Hinske also was the final out of the World Series so he and Willie Wilson have their own wing in the Phillies hall of fame.

• Rotation Grade: D+ Paul Maholm is a good young pitcher. I think Snell and Duke could one day be average. This group is very bad, and only Maholm has a good chance to be above .500 by year’s end.

• Bullpen Grade: D+ Again, not a very good group. I feel like I’m glossing over the Pirates, but there’s nothing much to say. John Grabow is a quality reliever, so they should try to keep closer Matt Capps from eating him.

• Lineup Grade: C+ The Pirates have a decent lineup, and they’re mostly young. Hinske will provide power while playing at the corner infield and outfield positions. The Pirates are relying a lot on young players to fill out their lineup so this group could surprise, but probably falls short of last season.

Player most closely linked to team’s 2009 hopes: Ian Snell. If Snell has a solid season the Pirates will have a chance to crack .500. If Snell turns in another season in 2009 like his 2008 campaign, then the Pirates will finish last, no question about it.

Biggest Breakout Star Potential: Ryan Doumit. Doumit became the Pirates starter behind the plate in 2008 and came through with a great offensive year. If he starts off 2008 with another great offensive year, then he’ll have a good chance of being picked to the all-star game in July.

Best Case Scenario: Snell and Duke pitch well enough to get close to 200 innings each, and the Pirates hover around the .500 mark. Since, team success is fairly unlikely, I think the best case scenario for the Pirates is to continue to develop their farm system and young talent, and discover a potential star a two among the kids.

Worst Case Scenario: The worst case would be for the younger talent to fail to develop. The Pirates need to follow the blueprint Tampa has laid out, make smart draft picks, develop their young talent, and make smart trades with pieces like John Grabow when the opportunity arises.

Prediction for 2009: 58-104. Worst record in the NL. Sorry Pirate fans, but the facts are pretty clear.

Local Thoughts

By: Pat Lackey from Where Have You Gone Andy Van Slyke? and MLB Fanhouse

• Letter Grade for Offseason Moves: The Pirates didn't do a whole lot to upgrade their big-league roster in the off-season, but that's mostly because there just isn't a whole lot they can do right now. The front office is more concerned with rebuilding the farm system, and that's where their focus needs to be right now. They did fill in some bench holes with Eric Hinske and Ramon Vazquez, who are nice role players but little more. For now, I guess, the grade is an Incomplete, because if the work the front office has done to rebuild the club comes to fruition in 2011, then it doesn't much matter that they wrote off the 2009 season.

• Most Essential: Again, there's not a whole lot essential to "success" in 2009, because the Pirates are unlikely to have much. For the future, though, it's important that Andy LaRoche begins to show at a big league level some of the potential that's had him at the top of most prospect lists for the past few years, that Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny bounce back from miserable years in 2008, and that prospects like Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez continue to improve and climb the organizational ladder.

• Breakout Potential: The stock answer the team gives here is Brandon Moss, because they see a lot of similarities between him and Nate McLouth. I guess he's a good guess, but I'm not sure he's ready to make the leap this year that McLouth made last year. Ian Snell, I guess, kind of counts since he's always had good stuff, but Joe Kerrigan may be able to actually get in his head and teach him how to really pitch, which no pitching coach has really had success with in the past. If that happens, Snell could really take the huge step forward this year that Pirate fans have been hoping to see for a couple of years.

• Prediction for 2009: In the past four years, the Pirates have won 67 games three times and 68 games once. They might be a little worse than that this year, given some of the offense they dropped at the trade deadline last year without replacing, but I'd guess they're going to end up somewhere right around 66-68 wins again with the assumption that their pitching staff has to improve over last year's debacle. That should be good for last in the NL Central again, though the Astros could provide some competition for that spot.