Reason for optimism: It's a team with a wealth of under-30-year-old talent coming off of a 98-win season -- how bad can regression possibly be?
Reason for pessimism: The window closes quickly for teams with three straight years of playoff failures.
As noted in last year's preview, Vegas consistently shows little preseason respect for the Pirates, who then go out and make a regular-season mockery of their wins market. Last year was no exception, as Pittsburgh blew past its projection of 85.5 on the way to 98 wins. It was the fifth straight year that the team's "over" cashed, all with relative ease. Not only are the Pirates the only team with five straight "overs," they manage to beat those totals by an average of 8.6 wins each year over that span.