Something I wrote up after tonights game:

[Etrius24]

I know it is late and there might be a typo here or there... So please excuse me... I felt compelled to write this after the game tonight.

So for your consideration:


Now that we are officially past the quarter way mark of the 2013 MLB season. Quickly, off the top of your head list the top 5 teams in MLB. No peaking over at your favourite sports site or local newspaper. Some of you might have gotten the Yankees or the Red Sox ( both are in the top 5) But how many people out there knew that after fridays games that the Pittsburgh Pirates had the 5th best record in all of MLB?

No this is not a typo, and you are not hallucinating. Despite having to play tough divisional opponents and a lot of road games early on, The Pirates are second in their division and in line for the wild card in the NL ( actually a tie with the Reds )

But wait, some of you might say that we have seen this before from the lowly Pirates. You might remember just last season when the Pirates were above the .500 mark and playing great baseball. We later saw them fade tragically in the second half and slip below the .500 mark for the season. Is this to be the path for the 2013 Pirates as well?

Truth of the matter is that this is a much better, and different team than the one that flirted with the post season until August of the 2012 season. For starters the Pirates were winning a lot of 1 run games, depending entirely too much on their bullpen and their offense aside from Andrew McCutchen was embarrassingly anemic. For a good part of the 2012 season the Pirates offense was dead last in all of baseball. This year the Pirates are 7th in the NL in runs scored... Compare the offense after 42 games last year with the offense this year:

......................Runs scored...........Runs allowed...........Differential
2012: ...............123.........................154...................... - 31

2013.................173.........................153..................... + 20!

It is worth noting that the Pirates are getting strong starting pitching early on and their bullpen looks almost identical to the pen of 2012 early on. Sure the names in the 8th and 9th inning have changed.. but the rate of success and the patterns are identical. So far this season the Pirates are Third over all in runs allowed!

So what makes this team so special that Pirate fans should believe this is the year the 20+ year streak of losing seasons will end? We have briefly touched on the offense and defense. But there are other factors. Let's go through them all.

1. Play against divisional rivals: So far this season the Bucs are 11 and 7 ( .611 winning % ) against teams in their division. More importantly they have winning records against the Reds ( 3- 0 ) Cardinals ( 3 - 2) and the Brewers (4 - 3 ) Not counting the Astros which are not in the Pirates division this year the Bucs went 27 and 37 ( .422 winning % ) against the Cubs Reds, Brewers and Cardinals in 2012. In a tight race in a good division It is absolutely essential that the Pirates find a way to beat their divisional rivals; So far this season they have!

2. Different offense: Starling Marte has been a nice surprise for the Bucs and is one of the better young players in all of baseball. Batting leadoff he is getting on base 38% of the time and has an OPS of .859! The fact that he steals bases and plays great defense does not hurt either. Marte is on pace for 20 homeruns 40 stolen bases and 200+ hits. The Bucs did not have enough men getting on base for McCutchen and Jones. Marte helps solve this problem. In addition to Marte the Pirates signed Russel Martin to be their #1 catcher. So far Martin has hit! Martin has an OPS of .902 and is on pace to hit 20+ homeruns behind the plate. With the development of Marte and the resurgence of Martin, the Bucs are more offensively than the superstar McCutchen, the above average Jones, and the passable Alvarez.


3. Deeper rotation and bullpen: The 2012 Rotation was solid! Down the Stretch the Pirates added a quality starter from the Astros in Wandy Rodriguez. Then in the offseason they brought in Francisco Liriano as a free agent. Lirano broke his non pitching arm in the offseason and needed an additional month to get ready. But in his 2 starts since coming up he has been terrific! He is currently striking out 13 batters per 9 innings pitched and has an era of 1.64! In 8 starts this season Rodriguez is 4 and 2 with an era of 3.25!

In the minors the Bucs have Charlie Morton who missed the 2012 season needing elbow replacement surgery. Morton has worked his way back to AAA and he is throwing mid to high 90's... He will be ready to come up and help out Should the Pirates need another starter. Down on the farm, Let's not forget the Pirates have one of the best pitching prospects in all of baseball Gerrit Cole. Cole projects to be a front of the rotation pitcher. He is pitching well in AAA and is Possibly a late June Call up


The 2012 bullpen's plan of attack was to get as much mileage out of the arms of John Hanrahan and Jason Grilli as possible. The bullpen performance started to fade in the second half (possibly from a heavy workload? ) Hanrahan was traded to the Red Sox last season at the deadline and Grilli has stepped up from set up man to closer. So far in 2013 Grilli has been arguably the best closer in baseball! and there is a strong case to make for Mark Melancon being one of the best set up men. So while we could say that the bullpen is about the same as this time last year, ( that would be a fair assessment ) there are reasons this year's pen does not have to suffer the second half demise like that of the 2012 Pirates. Vic Black is one such example. Black as a lively arm that throws hard and is suited to closing out games. Black currently is the lights out closer for the Bucs AAA team in Indianapolis and a probable second half call up. In addition to Black, the Bucs will have the option of Moving current spot starter Jeanmar Gomez to the bullpen when Morton and or Cole get called up to pitch for the Bucs. The amount of talent and depth in the rotation and down on the farm will give the Pirates several quality options should the bullpen tire this season and need help.

Looking at it all together it seems like a simple enough formula for success: Score more runs, allow less runs to score and win more games. That is exactly what the Bucs have been doing. Because they have more talent and depth overall and they are beating tough divisional opponents early on ( not to mention they have a winning record on the road ) There is ample evidence to believe this team is deigned not to burn out so easily and fade away like they did in 2012.

 

[sychmd]

nice report:
3 other major differences

1. we have more valuable chips and depth for a trading deadline move depending on what our needs are
2. a much better bench that is producing. sanchez, tabata, mcK, inge. only weak one was mcD and he at least brought some veteran stability.
3. better D. a catcher to throw some runners out(escept when aj pitches) great speed and arms in the OF and up the middle D. sanchez at first also helps.

 

[Etrius24]

Sychmd

I had thought about talking on Gabby in particular regarding the bench..Snider and Tabata have just been okay, neither have been noteworthy. And Aside from the low, low % in which the bucs threw out baserunners last season... The defense was pretty solid in 2012... It might be just a little better this year.. but the overall defense was a strong point of both teams,... again not a huge difference.

I hope that both Tabata and Snider pick up their game a little.. But right now both of them have OPS totals in the low to mid .700 range... Okay, but nothing special by any means.

 

[HammerDown]

Excellent stuff, I read every word. Yeah, you gotta keep winning against the NL Central, especially the Cardinals!

 

[Darkstone42]

Sychmd

I had thought about talking on Gabby in particular regarding the bench..Snider and Tabata have just been okay, neither have been noteworthy. And Aside from the low, low % in which the bucs threw out baserunners last season... The defense was pretty solid in 2012... It might be just a little better this year.. but the overall defense was a strong point of both teams,... again not a huge difference.

I hope that both Tabata and Snider pick up their game a little.. But right now both of them have OPS totals in the low to mid .700 range... Okay, but nothing special by any means.

I think Tabata's numbers are negatively skewed by a slow start to the season when he wasn't getting very many at bats, and Sniders are from a slump he had right after coming back from his injury. To me, both have been better than their numbers so far this season.

I also think the defense is fairly significantly upgraded this year. The obvious place is behind the dish and throwing out runners (which is a big deal), but Marte in left provides so much more coverage defensively than the Bucs had last year, and Gaby is a good defensive first baseman, which allows us to make defensive substitutions late in games. Tabata and Snider are also both capable outfield defenders.

I would also like to call attention to Clint Barmes, who is having a much better season this year than he did last year. His stats are skewed by a really bad slump to start the season (what was it, 0-18 or something?), but he's been hitting pretty well since then, and now we can still score runs when we get to the bottom of the order.

Overall, that was a good read, Etrius. Thanks!

 

[sychmd]

our defense last year had a bunch of holes.
we played harrison, darnaud, and even mercer a lot because barmes couldnt hit till late august.
jones was in right a bunch along with all the AAA and marginal guys we tried like sutton.
alvarez seems better this year.
marte is an upgrade and is pushing cutch to be better this year as last year he was reputation but daily was a lot of lapses.

i like snider and tabata, and no they arent stars, but are doing the little things and are averageall around and they are only 24/25. we are getting better production in RF and the OF bench spot than we got last year. with potential for more in the upcoming years given their age or as trade bait.
agree that barmes is giving us really good D and hitting 288 in last 30 games.
sanchez is hitting 295 and obp 431 in last 40 games and great D helping alvarez by making the plays a real 1B makes.

 

[Etrius24]

I agree that teams need role players like Snider, Tabata and Sanchez. But Sanchez, and Tabata are little more than platoon players that swing from the wrong side of the plate...So I am glad that we have a strong bench...But I think that Marte and Martin's impact have been significant enough to be the major impact on this offense.

One thing that cannot be calculated or quantified that is interesting early this season is the timely hitting. We have had stretches where role players like Gabby or Tabata have a big game where a timely hit results in the Pirates winning the game. I guess sometimes it is better to be lucky than it is to be good...