Pirate whiffs

[smokeyburgess]

On another thread, I wondered if Pirate hitters could set a new record for strikeouts this season, but upon investigating I've discovered that as bad as they've been in that regard, they're not even first in the National League in strikeouts this year.

So far the Bucs have averaged 7.87 Ks per 9 innings, which is slightly better than the Nats (8.01) and the Padres (8.36) and slightly worse than Arizona
(7.81) and the Braves (7.74). And as far as the all-time record is concerned, the 2001 Braves averaged 8.64 Ks and the 2010 Diamondbacks 9.44.

So as bad as the Pirates have fared in striking out this year, they've got a way to go to threaten the record set by the Diamondbacks last year. And some stat-heads claim that strikeouts aren't such a big deal after all. Some teams, for example, have had high whiff ratios but still scored a lot of runs because they had a lot of power hitters in the lineup. Still, it may be part of the reason the Buccos have struggled so much at the plate this season. That's a lot of balls not put in play for a lineup with so few power hitters. Perhaps the organization should put a higher premium on hitters who can make contact more often....

 

[element1286]

Strikeouts aren't huge deal in of themselves (much better than GIDP), but it is usually a symptom of a bigger problem; ie plate discipline/pitch recognition. But yea, the Pirates strike out too much for having zero true power hitters.

On that note, there was an interesting read on fangraphs related to this subject; fair warning it is kind of math intensive.

Defensive Independent Hitting, Or ShH | FanGraphs Baseball