The Pittsburgh Pirates are on track to score 324 runs this season — and give up just 324 runs.

St. Louis third baseman David Freese is on pace to hit 81 home runs and drive in 270 this season. Omar Infante has him beat, though, with a pace that would give him 97 big flies by season’s end.

If the Tigers and Mets keep this going, they will both finish 162-0. The Phillies? Try 40-122. The Astros? Try 122-40.

What can be gleaned from the first week of the Major League Baseball season? Well, not a whole lot.

Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint. One week is not nearly enough time to identify season-long trends.

Take the Pirates. Going into the season, there were many question marks about the offense. Still, no one expects the Bucs to average two runs per game all season. The pitching staff was clearly the strength of the team, but, again, no one thinks the Pirates’ ERA will hover around 2.00 all season.

Look at the pitchers the Buccos have squared off against so far this season: Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Clayton Kershaw — three Cy Young winners — and a second-year starter in Vance Worley who won 12 games and posted a 2.81 ERA as a rookie.

Things have a way of evening out over the long haul.

However, some things can be ascertained after just seven days:

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Yoenis Cespedes has some serious holes in his swing.The Cuban defector received a lot of hype when he signed with the Oakland A’s and has mostly delivered with three home runs in just 16 at-bats. However, he also had whiffed nine times in those 16 hacks at the plate.That’s a telling stat that spells doom in the future for Cespedes if he can’t make adjustments and fast.•

Yu Darvish is the real deal.The Japanese import also made news when he signed with the Rangers. Like Cespedes, he came with a lot of hype.His first MLB start nearly ended in the first inning Monday, but Darvish showed poise, settled down and tossed 4.2 scoreless innings before leaving with a lead to earn the win.His stats may look ugly now, but the fact that Darvish didn’t completely implode shows that despite his age (25) and inexperience, the dude knows how to pitch.•

Ozzie Guillen is crazy.We sort of all knew that long before this week. But taking the job as manager in Miami and then saying you love Fidel Castro is downright bonkers.It’s like walking into Conan O’Brien’s house and saying you love Jay Leno. Not a good idea.•

Relievers are not starters.It rarely works. For every Derek Lowe, you get a bunch of Joba Chamberlains.Boston, which is turning Daniel Bard into a starter, and Texas, which is trying to make Neftali Feliz part of its rotation, are playing with fire.And they will get burned.Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.