Tag: All is not lost

It’s time to look at these Pittsburgh Pirates at the 90 game mark, which just coincidently comes at the All Star break. Even though this has been an erratic year, the end point is very consistent. There is not one part of the Pirate game that is really bringing the team down or a part that is keeping them from being worse. In fact, it is rather freaky how the whole team is exactly where they belong. I don’t know if that is good or bad, but no one at least can point any fingers. The team is 23rd in baseball in the loss column. The Pirate offense is 22nd in runs scored, 21st in on base percentage, and 24th in OPS+. The Pirate pitching is 21st in giving up runs, 20th in Fielding Independent Pitching, and 17th in ERA+. Their Defense Efficiency Rating is 23rd. Overall, you could say that the pitching is the best part of the Pirate team, but they are still below league average. The concerning part of all this at the present moment is, the pitching seems to be in disarray. The next blog will cover this when I discuss what to expect the rest of the season. The Pirate team for the moment seems to be right where they belong in 23rd place out of a 30 team league.

Looking at the Pirates on a position by position basis shows a completely different story. You can see exactly where the problem is with this team and who the culprits are. In order to evaluate the Pirates position players, we will use Wins Above Replacement or WAR. Now I know WAR is not infallible, but it does a good job of evaluating the overall play of any player. It is a great comparison stat. It takes in all aspects of his game, hitting fielding, and running the bases. It is also adjusted for the ballpark he is playing in, the competition, and the amount of time he is on the field. When you compare the Pirates players with other teams the worst positions are catcher(29th), Right Field(26th), 2nd base and shortstop(25th). The Pirates best positions are 1st base(9th), DH(13th), 3rd base(14th) and Left Field(15th). None of this is surprising. Despite managements propaganda on pitch framing, pitcher handling and clubhouse presence, the Pirate catchers stink. Jason Delay since June 1 has had 4 hits in 31 at bats to go along with 3 walks. Austin Hedges has not hit all year but what is a bigger mystery to me is where did all his power go. In 2017 and 2018 he hit 32 home runs in 211 games in San Diego, in a ballpark that was not considered a hitter’s park. He has hit 1 home run this year with the Pirates. The sad thing is that the Pirates have two young catchers that could infuse a lot of offense into this team, and they refuse to use them. Henry Davis is up now, but he is not allowed to catch. With the two present catchers in the lineup, the Pirates may as well not even have a DH, because they hit worse than pitchers. The other big problem for the Pirates is 2nd base and shortstop. These positions have been manned mostly by Rodolfo Castro, Ji Hwan Bae and Tucupita Marcano. Marcano is the only above average fielder and all of them are all well below average hitters. The mystery man here is Bae. In the minors this man was a walking machine. In 315 minor league games he walked 144 times for an on base percentage of .373. In 86 major league games he has walked only 20 times for an on base percentage of .315. What the hell is going on? Does he need glasses? He swings at a lot of pitches outside the strike zone but unfortunately does not get the results that Yogi Berra did. The bottom line is none of these players can hit and hopefully they will be playing for Indianapolis by the end of the month. They are all young, so it is way too early to give up on them, but they need to work on their games at the AAA level, especially Bae.

So, is all lost for the Pirates? Well, maybe, maybe not. Here is one interesting stat that has nothing to do with the Pirates. The division leading Cincinnati Reds pitching, and defense are ranked 27th and 25th respectively. There is no question why the Reds are leading the division, hitting, pure and simple. As we all know, hitting can be a sometime thing. Will the Reds make a big move to improve their pitching at the trade deadline. I would hope so, but you never know about management teams. Speaking of management teams, the Pirates’ management could do a lot of things to help this team. That will be subject of the next blog, as we head to the final 72 games. The Pirates have a lot of good parts but are they going to get rid of the very bad parts? Only time will tell.