BEAVER TOWNSHIP – As the Pittsburgh Pirates prepare to report for spring training and their 145th baseball season, Greg Brown is anxiously getting ready for his 33rd season of calling all the play-by-play action from his familiar catbird seat.

For Brown, the 2026 roster is beginning to take shape and with the moves the team has made in the off-season, and what they have returning, he is cautiously optimistic that the team can challenge the best of the best this season.

“It doesn’t get any better when you have excitement and true hope,” Brown told the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s meeting at Avion Banquet Center. “Every year is great because the slate is wiped clean. When the team makes moves like it has this past off-season, when you have the best pitcher on the planet in Paul Skenes, who happens to be one of the best pitchers of our generation and you have what could be a generational talent from a position players’ standpoint in Konnor Griffin, the best prospect in baseball, knocking on the door, that combination gives you true, meaningful excitement. It gives me that true, meaningful excitement.

“It is interesting that a couple years ago, when Paul Skenes was making his debut in 2024, that spring he was listed as the top pitching prospect in baseball behind Jackson Holliday, who was the best overall prospect and here we are two years later and the Pirates have the best prospect in all of baseball, so they’ve really hit on quite possibly gold in just a short amount of time.”

The Pirates finished 71-91 a season ago but went 44-37 at home.

While they scored just 583 total runs, lowest in all of baseball, they gave up a mere 645 tallies which ranked fifth-lowest overall.

“You cannot necessarily rely on numbers from a previous year,” Brown added. “People make a big deal about the one-run games, when the Pirates scored four or more runs they were, I think, 25 games over 500. You can parse the numbers and you can dive deep and create a little bit of a narrative, depending on your point of view and where you are coming from. Oftentimes, the previous year doesn’t necessarily reflect what is going to happen the following year or it isn’t necessarily a harbinger of things to come. Every year is so different, but I think you don’t even need to look into the numbers, just observe personnel of the team and see that they’ve been building toward this.

“Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds had off years but you look at the numbers from a previous handful of seasons for those guys and know that they are much better hitters. For the Pirates to win more games from an offensive standpoint, they need those guys to contribute. When you add established all-stars like Ryan O’Hearn and Brandon Lowe, that’s what gives me hope for 2026. Knowing the track records of those guys, then adding a strong pitching staff and I am truly excited about our prospects. That is why a lot of people believe the Pirates are contenders this year. Going back to the part of being 25 games over .500 when scoring ‘just’ four runs or more, that’s kind of the magic number for them. When you have such a strong pitching staff and you score four or more runs, you are going to win a lot of ballgames.”

The roster, while still being tweaked, is far from being finalized.

“This is not the 2026 squad,” Brown said. “It is still weeks away from being finalized and so much can happen during the season, but in terms of our opening day roster we are still a couple of months away from knowing exactly what that roster will look like. I still believe they are going to add another bat, I think they will add another pitcher or two, maybe a starter, perhaps a reliever and that has me excited, too. Thinking about what might be added as we hit spring training and teams are reporting, I think there is more to come.”

While spring training helps get the team ready for the season, numbers don’t always equate to tell the entire story.

“What goes on in Bradenton, you have to really take everything with a grain of salt because there are a number of factors,” Brown said. “The wind is always a factor and that goes for both pitchers and hitters. If a pitcher’s earned run average is really high, that could be because he gave up a bunch of runs in one outing in Bradenton when the wind was blowing out. Same for the hitters as they might be facing a Class A ball pitcher. There are just so many different factors.”

To Brown, spring training is much more than just calling a game or watching practices.

“I look forward to going down to Bradenton and mingling with Pirates fans from all over the country,” he said. “They are fans that come down to see the team and you can see the excitement in their eyes. You listen to the anticipation of another baseball season but again, I am going to go back and say you cannot fool the fans. They know a legitimate contender as well as anybody. We saw this at PiratesFest on January 24. They are pumped because they know that this team is legit and I look forward to that as much as anything. I also want to see Brandon Lowe and his at-bats, Ryan O’Hearn and Jake Mangum. I love what Jake has said and how he hates to strike out.

“I am certainly looking forward to Konnor Griffin. We got a taste of him last spring, but now it sounds like he has an outside chance of breaking North with the team. Even if he doesn’t make the opening day roster, it won’t be long before he’s on the club and I am looking forward to watching him play a bunch, especially early on in the spring.

“You always look forward to seeing the prospects as they will get a lot of at-bats those first couple weeks. Then, toward the latter half of spring training, the roster starts becoming clearer. There will be a little bit of a disruption this spring because of the World Baseball Classic. That breaks things up a bit but it will be fun to watch those games on TV. Paul Skenes will be gone for a while with other rosters still being formulated so it is going to be a fun spring.”

Next week, Tracy Innocent, Youngstown State University travel specialist will serve as guest speaker.