For weeks the official Pirates Twitter has been hyping up spring training and today we finally have baseball action. The last two years the Buccos have been fortunate enough to sell some playoff merch and look to build on that success this season.

Last year the big questions going into spring training surrounded the losses of AJ Burnett, Marlon Byrd, and Justin Morneau. This time around we’re welcoming back AJ, have found our guy in right field, and are hoping another Yankee retread at catcher can fill the void Russell Martin created when he shipped up to Toronto.

This is big right here. Before his call up Polanco was tearing the cover off the ball at every level. He bulked up this offseason training with Starling Marte and I really think this is the year we have two outfielders with explosive production carrying the offense.

Time for some K-Pop in the Burgh? Korean star Jung-Ho Kang has already gone on the record saying he can outplay Jordy Mercer and this spring we’ll see what we’ve got. Last season in Korea Kang batted .356/.459/.739 and slugged 40 homers driving in 117. There’s a lot of eye balls in the outfield looking for offensive production, it would be huge to get those kinds of numbers in the show from a shortstop.

MLB Network counted down the top ten relief pitchers in baseball right now and not one but two Pirates made the list. Baseball’s numbers God Bill James named Mark Melancon number 10 while Dan Plesac considered Jason Grilli number 9. The Royals made their run to the World Series last season essentially playing 7 inning games with a dominant bullpen. The Phillies in 08 did the same thing with Madson and Lidge. If Mark and Cheese can play to their potential in 2015 the Pirates will have a lethal back end and sniff the playoffs yet again.

Third times a charm? Time will tell.