24-year old righty swinging CF Andrew McCutchen turned in another solid year for the Pirates in 2011. He has played in 156 games for the Pirates so far this year and he is 148 for 564 (.262 avg, .831 OPS) with 87 runs scored, 23 homers, 89 RBIs and 23 stolen bases. McCutchen has now played in 418 games in his first three years with the Pirates and he is 435 for 1,567 (.278 avg, .826 OPS) with 255 runs scored, 51 homers, 199 RBIs and 78 stolen bases. The best is likely yet to come out of him.

26-year old lefty swinging outfielder Alex Presley came into this season as the Pirates’ #20 ranked prospect according to Baseball America. He then went on to play in 89 games in A+AAA-ball this year in which he was 115 for 348 (.330 avg, .866 OPS) with 60 runs scored, 8 homers, 41 RBIs and 22 stolen bases. Presley earned a promotion to Pittsburgh and he has played well. Presley has played in 47 games for the Pirates so far this year and he is 57 for 193 (.295 avg, .799 OPS) with 26 runs scored, 3 homers, 16 RBIs and 8 stolen bases. Presley really hustles on the field and when he got hurt, that’s about exactly when the Pirates’ season went down the toilet.

It’s too bad that veteran 1B Derrek Lee got hurt shortly after the Pirates dealt for him, because he has been ripping the ball. Lee has played in 13 games for the Pirates so far this year and he is 17 for 49 (.347 avg, 1.005 OPS) with 6 runs scored, 4 homers and 11 RBIs. He has now played in 98 games overall this year with the Cubs & Pirates and he is 99 for 383 (.258 avg, .744 OPS) with 45 runs scored, 16 homers, 52 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. I think the Pirates should try to re-sign Lee for 2012, as they are going to have a huge hole there if they don’t.

30-year old switch-hitting catcher Ryan Doumit has been really swinging a good bat for the Pirates since coming off the D.L. Doumit has played in 12 games so far in August and he is 13 for 40 (.325 avg, .861 OPS) with 3 runs scored, 2 homers and 4 RBIs. He has now played in 46 games this year for the Pirates and he is 38 for 133 (.286 avg, .800 OPS) with 10 runs scored, 6 homers and 19 RBIs. Doumit’s bat has been a nice asset to the Pirates since he has returned to action, as catcher has been a black hole since he and Chris Snyder got injured.

24-year old righty swinging CF Andrew McCutchen has been added to the N.L. All-Star team to replace the injured Ryan Braun (calf) who is skipping the game. McCutchen has played in 86 games for the Pirates so far this year and he is 94 for 322 (.292 avg, .893 OPS) with 53 runs scored, 13 homers, 49 RBIs and 15 stolen bases. If he stays healthy, he will likely set new career highs in runs scored (94), homers (16), RBIs (56) and maybe stolen bases (33). He deserved to be picked on the team before Braun was injured, but at least he made the team….which is likely the first of many for McCutchen in his career.