Mike LaValliere Compares 1992 And 2015 Pirates Teams
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) – Former Pirates catcher Mike LaValliere saw the Pirates accomplish a familiar feat this week.
The Pirates clinched their third consecutive playoff berth on Wednesday night, doing so for the first time since LaValliere's Bucs teams of the early '90s won three straight National League East division titles from 1990 to 1992.
With that in mind, LaValliere joined Chris Mack, Josh Miller and Jim Colony on The Fan Morning Show on Thursday to talk about this Pirates squad, and how it compares to the group of guys he played with back then.
"I think the No. 1 key is they're both very talented teams," LaValliere said. "The club that they have right now, extremely talented in the outfield with Cutch and Marte, and of course we had Barry [Bonds] and Andy Van Slyke. I think both teams had very good pitching. I think we played a little better defense back in the '90s, but these guys here probably have a little bit more team speed and a little bit more pop."
LaValliere also talked about one other key similarity he noticed.
"It's two groups that were similar ability-wise," LaValliere said. "But I think that what really, to me, really ties them together is how much these guys care about each other, and how much we cared about each other back in the day."
At the end of the interview, LaValliere expressed his well wishes for this year's team.
"Looking forward to another postseason for Bucco baseball, and hopefully it lasts just a little bit longer," LaValliere said.
The interview can be heard here:
