The Pittsburgh Pirates just keep winning.

They don’t care what you think about it either. They just want to win and prove themselves right. The hitting has been much improved and anchored by newly-acquired Corey Dickerson and the Pirates core of Starling Marte, Francisco Cervelli and others.

What hasn’t quite matched the team’s record is the pitching staff. The bullpen looked very shaky in the first two weeks but has been almost lights out since outside of former eighth inning guy George Kontos who has since been removed from that role. Since ridding of Dovydas Neverauskas and Josh Smoker, the bullpen has also improved.

The starting pitching is of main concern.

So far, Trevor Williams has been the best and most consistent pitcher of those that have taken the mound in 2018 and started a game for the Pirates. Jameson Taillon, the newly considered ace after the Gerrit Cole trade, has been good but not great to this point.

Chad Kuhl has actually been steady to this point and hasn’t gotten lit up but hasn’t quite been lights out either. He’s the perfect middle of the rotation guy.

These guys seem like safe bets to stay in their role.

Ivan Nova has been something of a hot mess this season. He is getting paid $8 million so the Pirates are paying him like their ace with the clear intention of hopefully giving Taillon that distinction. Nova has pitched to a 2-3 record with a 5.01 ERA through his first nine starts.

That is the worst in the rotation currently.

He has not been effective and was hoping the weight loss in the offseason was going to help his performance after a bad 2017 campaign but that so far hasn’t come to fruition.

The “fifth starter” still has yet to really be determined. Steven Brault started the season there. He had not done very well in the five starts he was given but has been at least formidable in the bullpen. Nick Kingham is the de facto number five guy after his first two starts went pretty well but he is likely to only get one more chance.

Joe Musgrove, acquired in the Cole trade, is slated to join the rotation upon his return from shoulder fatigue that has held him out since the beginning of spring training. Musgrove will have the opportunity to stay there despite pitching his best when coming out of the bullpen for the Astros. If he does falter, the likely permanent replacement would be Kingham.

Of course, if all else fails, the Pirates could look to Tyler Glasnow but that seems unlikely at this stage.

The Pirates are loaded with some options they could use in their rotation. They need a lot of things to keep going their way if they want to continue to hang around until “Buctober.”

If Nova continues to falter and Kingham continues to develop, could we see Nova removed from the rotation?

They could also opt to add from the trade block come July if they deem that their current perceived depth isn’t likely to hold up into the late season push.

It’s very early but it will be interesting to revisit the rotation in about two months because things could begin to significantly change.

The post Flavell: Pirates Starting Pitching not quite ironed out yet appeared first on Pittsburgh Sports Castle.