The Pirates started the 2018 season 3-0, which is about three more wins than a lot of pre-season predictions had them at.
Yes, they played the Tigers — a team projected by Fangraphs to lose 93 games this year. Yes, it’s only a small sample size, and anything can happen in baseball in a three game series.
But watching those games reaffirmed my belief in what this team will be during the 2018 season. I don’t think they’re going to be top contenders. I think their best bet is a shot at the second Wild Card spot. I don’t think they’ll be anywhere near as bad as the most pessimistic predictions. And I think there will be a lot of exciting moments to watch for the future, like every big hit from Gregory Polanco, every solid outing from Tyler Glasnow, and all of the other promising performances from the younger players.
And that’s not even including what’s going on in the minors.
No matter what happens with the Pirates this year, we plan on covering it all. We’ve got a great team assembled, with the most in-depth coverage of the system that you can find.
We’re running a promotion for the first week of the season, giving you 10% off a new subscription. To get the deal, use the code OPENINGDAY for an Annual subscription, or OPENINGDAY3 for a three-year Top Prospect plan. The deal is also available for existing subscribers, with a limit of one extension to your current plan per person.
What You Get
The subscriptions only amount to pennies per day, but allow us to provide live coverage from all over the system, which is something that no other site offers. Here’s a look at what you’ll get just this week.
Alan Saunders and Matt Gajtka have already begun with their daily Pirates features, and they will be continuing giving you insight from inside the clubhouse starting today with the home opener.
In the minors, I’ll be writing up season previews this week. Next week starts our features from the minor league team, with Brian Peloza in Indianapolis, Sean McCool in Altoona, Tom Bragg in West Virginia, and myself in Bradenton, covering the Marauders and extended Spring Training.
John Dreker will be covering the draft and international news, while gearing up for the Prospect Watch each night when the minor league season begins on Thursday. John and I will be splitting duties on the Morning Report, each providing additional insight throughout each week, with the article going up every morning.
Also, leading up to the start of the minor league season, I’ll be doing some live chats this week on various social media platforms. Those will be free for all, and will lead up to our weekly Q&A on Friday.
Tell a Friend
If you’re already a subscriber, the best way you can help the site is by spreading the word and telling someone about our coverage and why you subscribe. Word of mouth is always our most effective way of getting new subscribers on board. We also welcome and encourage you to share links to articles you like on social media. We won’t even get mad if you include a few details from behind the paywall while explaining why you shared it.
If you want to buy a subscription for a friend or family member, we offer gift subscriptions in both one and three year increments.
We also have our Pay It Forward program, where you can purchase a discount subscription for a teacher, student, or someone else in a valued profession. Note that the Pay It Forward plan is a random act of kindness program. It’s not intended to purchase subscriptions for specific people.
The Prospect Guide is Running Low
We did a limited run of paperback versions of the 2018 Prospect Guide this year. Anyone who purchased a copy to date had their books shipped out at the end of last week (or today, if you ordered over the weekend). Those should arrive by Thursday or Friday.
As of this writing, we have less than 70 books remaining. There might be a few more, and that largely depends on how many get lost in the mail in the next week. If you want a paperback copy, now is the time to order it. We won’t be printing any more copies, and once the book is gone, it’s gone.
We do have the book available in eBook form for just $19.99, which is a great value to get information on everyone in the system, just in time for the start of the minor league season.
Clearance Sale
We’ve got a few items on clearance in the Pirates Prospects store. We have copies of the 2016 and 2017 Prospect Guides still remaining. We also have about a dozen Pirates Prospects logo shirts available in limited sizes for only $4.99. You can get all of those on the products page.
Site Updates
I’ve been doing a few behind the scenes updates over the weekend, getting the site prepared for the upcoming season. Part of that process involved updating our security settings, which created a few hiccups. The biggest one would be the app, which needs to be redirected to the new secure site. If your app isn’t working, this is a known issue. It should be fixed in the next day or two.
