Pittsburgh Pirates 2009 Preview: Center field

Written by: Pat Lackey on 3rd March 2009

Pittsburgh Pirates 2009 Preview: Center field | read this item

Center field for the Pirates in 2009 is pretty cut and dried. It’s Nate McLouth’s job to open the season and the only thing that can take that job away from him is the emergence of top prospect Andrew McCutchen, at which time McLouth will presumably slide over to left field.

If it seems weird to be planning on moving a defending Gold Glover, you probably didn’t pay much attention to the Pirates in 2008. For most of the season there was a lenghty debate over McLouth’s defense and whether his low error total (he only made one and it came at the very end of the season) or his poor range factor correctly assessed his defensive ability. Given his high number of out of zone plays, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. McLouth’s not a Gold Glover in center but he’s good enough to keep there until McCutchen’s ready.

The question everyone seems to have about McLouth is whether or not he can repeat his breakout 2008 year. Given that he played most of the second half of 2007 at a similar level, I think he can. He does a nice job taking advantage of the short right field wall at PNC Park and gets some of his homers that way and he was generally consistent, putting up an .885 OPS in September after a down month in August. The real question with McLouth is whether or not he can be productive enough to remain a useful player once he’s shifted out of center field. As it stands right now his exceptional base running (57 career steals in 62 attempts) to go with decent power mean that he should be at least passable as a corner outfield for the next few years.

The other question is McCutchen. His defense is already impressing in Bradenton, but the main question about him in 2009 is his bat. He put up pretty decent numbers in his first full season at AAA as a 21-year-old in 2008, but his power didn’t come along as quickly as the team hoped and he only slugged .398 for the season. He’ll start out 2009 with Indianapolis again, but the Pirates are hoping he shows that he doesn’t have much left to prove there and finds his way to Pittsburgh by mid-season. Having seen him play once last year, he does have a nice, quick, compact swing that generates surprising pop for a guy his size, but whether that translates into more than 15-20 homers in a big league season remains to be seen. He’s still a great prospect either way and every Pirate fan (myself included) is hoping to see him in the bigs for at least a trial run this summer.

Topics: Andrew McCutchen, Nate McLouth