I'm impressed so far with the Pirates' ability to hang in there so far, but I still don't see them being a .500 team.  Here's why, and feel free to disagree:

-P- The bullpen will not continue to pitch at this level.  There just isn't that much talent there.  While it's nice we appear to have fleeced the Braves for once -- IMO,  Neal Huntington hasn't gotten enough widespread praise for this move yet, because nobody out-talent-evaluates the Braves -- there's just not enough depth (with Evan Meek and Phil Dumatrait at the back of the pen) when someone slumps or gets hurt.  Really, there's not enough depth anywhere on this team.

Players are overachieving and will return to normal.  Xavier Nady's fast start will end. It always does. Nate McLouth can't hit this well forever, though I'll be rooting against this prediction.  He can go a lot of ways from here - he could be this year's Freddy-Sanchez-out-of-nowhere breakout and hit .340 with 50 doubles, or pitchers could figure him out and he ends up hitting .260 with 15 hrs, which certainly isn't bad for a CF, but our expectations are sky high for him.  Jason Bay's hitting is very encouraging, particularly his k/bb of 10/11, but it's too early to say he's back Through six games he was hitting .182/.357/.227, though in the last five games he's pulled his average up 100 points and three homers have remedied his Abe-Nunez-like slugging percentage. Still, it's too small of a sample size to say he'll continue to hit this well all year.  I love seeing Zach Duke pitching the way he is - man, did he look good blowing a fastball by Derrek Lee in his last start - but there's no way he's this good.  His ERA is 2.13 but his WHIP is 1.58.  He's given up 18 hits in 12 innings.  His ERA will at least double by the end of this month.

Lingering injuries.  There's no way Tom Gorzelanny doesn't end up on the DL in the next few months.  Then who starts?  Dumatrait? JVB? Bullington? Freddy's shoulder isn't going anywhere.  I was at that 15 inning marathon against the Cubbies and every throw he made to first, including double play turns, was a rainbow.  There's no way he avoids the DL for an extended period of time.  at least Chris Gomez can cover second adequately and his hitting has been better than expected.  Jack Wilson hasn't even been cleared for a rehab outing yet and will do another turn on the 15 day DL. The Rivas/Bambi platoon continues at SS for another two weeks, and it's going to get really ugly. They both look like amateurs both in the field and at the plate. Who, between Nady and Ryan Doumit, will tweak a hamstring first? My money is on Doumit.  Again, just not enough depth, particularly in the middle infield, and any injury to an outfielder not named Nady will result in Nyjer Morgan having a starting role. 

Who's going to step up to keep this pace when others slump?  who's underperforming?  Adam LaRoche?  Jose Bautista?  Does anyone expect them to carry the team and keep us out of the annual late May / early June season-killing slump?

Matt Morris gets to start every five days. I want to believe that this is a competitive major league team (really I do!) but I think this is as good as this team gets right now, so let's enjoy our bout with relevance while we can.  First pitch is at 10:05 tonight.