21-year old righty swinging outfielder Jose Tabata is looking good so far for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Tabata has played in 68 games for the Pirates this year and he is 84 of 268 (.313 avg, .780 OPS) with 41 runs scored, 3 homers, 19 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. Tabata came over from the Yankees along with Daniel McCutchen, Jeff Karstens and Ross Ohlendorf for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte. That trade is looking really good for the Pirates right about now.

23-year old lefty swinging 3B Pedro Alvarez looked overmatched in his first month in the majors. In June, he was 7 of 46 (.152 avg, .411 OPS) with 3 runs scored, 5 RBIs and an amazing 22 whiffs. But in July and August, Alvarez has been on fire with the bat. He is 42 of 150 (.280 avg) with 19 runs scored, 10 homers, 30 RBIs and 50 whiffs. Until the whiffs come down his batting average will likely peak at .270-.280 but the Pirates would be more than happy with that because of his big time power.

The Pirates gave 29-year old lefty swinging OF/1B his first real shot at playing the majors after 11 seasons in the minors and he looked good. Jones has followed up his solid 2009 with a good year showing that his success wasn’t a fluke. Jones has played in 107 games for the Pirates this season and he is 108 of 405 (.267 avg, .762 OPS) with 44 runs scored, 15 homers, 62 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. A lot of teams wanted to trade for Jones at the deadline last week but it would have been dumb for the Pirates to have done so because he’s cheap right now. Look for Jones to be a fixture in the Pirates for the next few years due to his production and contract status.

23-year old CF Andrew McCutchen burst on the scene last season for the Pirates playing in 108 games in which he was 124 of 433 (.286 avg, .836 OPS) with 74 runs scored, 12 homers, 54 RBIs and 22 stolen bases. He has even been better this season for the Pirates and the sky is literally the limit with him. McCutchen has played in 68 games this season for the Pirates and he is 81 of 257 (.315 avg, .870 OPS) with 45 runs scored, 7 homers, 22 RBIs and 18 stolen bases. I see McCutchen possibly being a 30/30 man in the near future for the Pirates as he is the real deal.

29-year old lefty swinging RF/1B Garrett Jones is a very streaky hitter for the Pirates and he is hot right now. Jones has played in 39 games for the Pirates this season and he is 39 of 142 (.275 avg, .810 OPS) with 17 runs scored, 5 homers and 29 RBIs. The Pirates are glad that Jones can play more than one position as they will likely have to keep moving him around especially if they start calling guys up from the minors. The hope is that Jones will give them 30+ homers and 100+ RBIs this season.