We talked a little bit about Justin Wilson the other day, when Clint Hurdle said he was going to transition to the bullpen for potential use in Pittsburgh down the stretch in 2012. Apparently he hasn’t moved to the bullpen quite yet, because last night he threw an 8-inning no-hitter against the Charlotte Knights that was shortened by a rain storm. He also contributed 7 1/3 no-hit innings against Durham in a combined no-hitter in April.
I’ve kind of kicked this idea around both on the blog and on Twitter over the last ten days, but I’ll come out and straight up say it this afternoon: the Pirates bullpen is struggling right now (David Manel tweeted out some alarming numbers this morning) and I think that there’s a pretty good chance it could be much better with Bryan Morris and Justin Wilson in it. I think both of those guys will get September call-ups and if we’re looking ahead, the Pirates have some maneuverability room for their playoff roster with Charlie Morton on the 60-day DL, but with Jared Hughes possibly faltering and two long-men (Locke and Correia) and Chad Qualls, well, there’s room to make some upgrades in the bullpen right now. Part of the reason I was OK with trading Brad Lincoln is that the Pirates have plenty of talented arms to cover for his absence. It’s kind of puzzling to me why some of those arms are currently in the minor leagues.
