Pittsburgh Pirates in April – Crock Pot or Microwave?

Will the Pittsburgh Pirates run production resemble a crock pot or a microwave during the first month of the 2016 season?

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle made the media rounds yesterday morning in Bradenton. Part of that entailed stopping by 93.7 The Fan’s Morning Show to join hosts Colin Dunlap, Josh Miller, and Jim Colony. It was a lively ten minutes, as the skipper covered a variety of subjects. Please click here to read about it and check down below for the full audio interview, courtesy of our friends at the Pirates Radio Flagship station 93.7 The Fan.

As usual, Hurdle was grizzled yet insightful. As only a wordsmith of his caliber can, he said something that immediately got my attention. When asked by Dunlap if such naturally gifted players as Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco are still learning to play the game of baseball, Hurdle let out an all time gem.

“At the major league level, it’s crock pot versus microwave,” Hurdle said.

In a way, Hurdle’s analogy can be hoisted upon the team itself. After consecutively stumbling out of the blocks the past two seasons, the Pirates have shown to be more of a crock pot. In slowly rounding into form until everything came together to reveal a 98-win regular season, the 2015 club in particular rode out some bad starts by major run production cogs, as seen below:

As the 2016 regular season is now less than a month away, let’s take a look at which Pirates can afford to be a crock pot, and who the team needs to be a microwave during the first month of the season.

First, the obvious answer is that Jung Ho Kang can be identified as a candidate whose slow start can easily be afforded. With the obvious caveat that his health may dictate this more than any other factor, Kang will also likely need time to regain his timing in facing major league hitting when he does return. In this way, don’t be surprised if the team proceeds with caution even if the second-year player comes back earlier than expected.

Conversely, the first base platoon of (presumably) John Jaso and Michael Morse need a hot start. The definition of a “hot start” in this case refers to good defense and on-base ability. Jaso’s inauspicious debut at first has many wondering if the team was too confident in his transition, while the question marks that swirl about Morse have not fully gone away. With a career strikeout rate of 25.8 percent, Morse will need to be more selective to maximize his part-time status.

Andrew McCutchen definitely took the crock-pot approach last April. A lingering knee issue was partly to blame, but I believe that dumb luck played a bigger role. McCutchen had the lowest BABIP (batting average on balls in play) of any Pirate regular in April, a beyond-paltry .211. Even a minimal progression back towards the MLB mean of .300 can do wonders for the perennial MVP candidate. However, if that storyline does not play out in the team’s favor, they can certainly weather a bad month from McCutchen, something they have shown to be quite comfortable with in the past.

It could be argued that Marte carried the team offensively during the 2015 season’s first month, but the one position player the Pittsburgh Pirates might need to heat up quickly is Josh Harrison. Harrison has a solid contact bat and can hit comfortably at multiple positions in the batting order. A right-handed hitter, Harrison can be used to piggy back off of left-handed bats such as Polanco or Jaso, or bat in front of them for more balanced lineups. Hurdle has some time to determine where he likes to hit Harrison, but for a player who puts the ball in play as much as he does, a good start to the season is warranted.

In the case of the 2016 Pittsburgh Pirates, overcoming their recent trends of sub-par starts will likely require a run production attack that is ready to, well, produce sooner rather than later.

Here is the full interview with Clint Hurdle courtesy of 93.7 The Fan:

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