J-hay. Ya know what prevents homeruns? Bunting. Usually Josh Harrison at the plate does too, but ya never know. Josh Harrison is a horrid bunter anyway. I’d never let that guy bunt.
It only took until the 16th game of the season but a starting pitcher not named Gerrit Cole finally picked up a win. Kudos Edinson Volquez. Hopefully you aren’t relying on any Pirates starters in fantasy baseball. I have a feeling you’ll be getting few innings, lots of hits, and very few wins.
I have a fantasy. Well I have a few fantasies but this isn’t an “Asian Secretary” blog so I’ll try to keep it to baseball.
My fantasy is a consistent, balanced offense. It’s weird to watch this team struggle for seven and then destroy a bullpen. It’s weird to watch this team struggle for full games and then just destroy baseballs out of nowhere. It’s weird that 16 of the Pirates 23 homers have come with the bases empty.
That last part is the key. Can they even keep that pace up? 73% of homers as solo shots. Sadly it probably can. Last year the Pirates hit 67% of their homers with the bases empty. That kind of points out that they can in fact win hitting a ton of solo homers. They won 94 games doing just that last year. The difference is how much of the offense it accounts for. Right now the Pirates are scoring 2.95 runs for every homer they’ve hit, last year they scored 3.93 runs for every homer they hit. That means homers are a bigger part of the offense this year. It’s not because they’re hitting less homers, they’re actually hitting substantially more. They are on pace to hit 232 homers this season. Unlikely of course, but substantially more than the 161 they hit last year.
No surprise they rank second in the league in homers, just one shy of the Dodgers.
If they could just get on base a little bit more they’d be one of the best offenses in the league up until this point, they already rank ninth in runs despite being 25th in average and 22nd in OBP.
What does all that mean? Not much. It’s 16 games but it does show that the team has potential at the plate. Potential to be a great offense? I doubt it. But definitely potential to improve on last season, when they ranked 20th in runs.
If the Pirates decide that Gregory Polanco should come up soon that will help. Regardless he’ll be up in June. A boost. Andrew McCutchen is hitting a paltry .262 and Pedro Alvarez is hitting .186. Both numbers should rise.
It might be hard to swallow (fetish creeping back in) but this team isn’t “that” far off offensively. They need to add a few pieces and they need to have a better two strike approach, but the offense can be much
better than it is right now.
Charlie Morton is one of the pitchers we can haz worries about. I like Morton, the pitcher a
nd the kosher salt, but I think a whole lot of people projected a whole lot of wants onto the guy.
There are a lot of things Morton has never done. Pitched more than 30 games is one of them. Log more than 175 innings is another. Go deep into games (5.4 IP per start) Stay healthy is on the list somewhere too.
But he gets groundballs. He doesn’t blow you away with strikeouts but he doesn’t walk a ton of batters.
He’s also a talented musician.
I’m not going to lie. I project my wants on to Morton too. He’s a pretty good pitcher and a really good dude. He’s battled injuries and adversity and has worked his ass off to get where he is. I never understand when people seemingly root against this guy.
Likely, it’s the same people that were crying in their fuckin’ Iron City Lights when the Pirates traded the great Nate McLouth.
Two out of three outings were quality starts. That includes the Tony Sanchez abortion-fest in Milwaukee.
This fucking thing.
And what Brewers series would be complete without the most boring pitcher ever?
Kyle Lohse was the beneficiary of the Tony Sanchez abortion-fest in Milwaukee. He picked up the win and puzzling enough almost a complete game.
I bet he was pissed. I remember being pretty pissed when John Russell did it to Zach Duke and I can’t stand Zach Duke.
Lohse has two quality starts but he also has two wins. Something Pirates pitchers probably salivate thinking about.
You know all about Lohse, he’s beaten the Pirates more than any team but the Astros (tied at ten though!!!!!) and generally pitches well against them.
He’s also snagged a cool half of his wins and losses against the Bucs at PNC Park.
Jose Tabata hits him hard, too bad he is currently seeing stars.
Poor guy.
First Pitch: 7:05 PM EST
Where To Watch: Root Sports, MLB.TV, FS-WI
