After last night’s little offensive explosion, Garrett Jones is now slugging over .500 on the season (.505). Like last year, Hurdle is keeping him away from left-handed pitching and by keeping him out of the way of his own personal Kryptonite, he’s again proving himself to be a pretty useful player.
Of course, he’s only getting on base at a .292 clip, which is pretty unacceptable for pretty much anyone that gets regular at-bats. He and Pedro Alvarez provide a nice non-Andrew McCutchen microcosm of the Pirate offense right now. They’re still absolutely awful at getting on base (the team’s .297 OBP is still the worst in the National League) but when they do get on base, there’s someone waiting to just crush a ball into a gap or over the fence to bring runs in. Their .393 slugging percentage is ninth in the NL and their 80 homers are sixth.
This is, of course, a direct refutation of the insane bunting/base stealing tactics that periodically plague the Pirates. Since mid-June*, the Pirates have essentially been playing like a fully realized Earl Weaver dream. Wasting outs to move runners over or giving up base runners just diminishes the impact of the home run that never seems to be more than a few hitters away.
*Look at this. Since June 16, the Pirates have scored 95 runs in 15 games. No one else in the NL has more than 78 runs (the Cardinals) and four other teams (the Cards, Mets, Diamondbacks, and Nats. In the AL, the Blue Jays have 92 and the Angels and Red Sox have 80+. The Pittsburgh Pirates are outscoring every other team in baseball, including the American League teams, since June 16.
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