Is this the best lineup of the Clint Hurdle era?

Has Hurdle arranged the best Pittsburgh Pirates lineup possible during this season?

Clint Hurdle’s 2016 Pirates lineup is enjoying stellar hitting performances from top to bottom of the order.  As a team, the Pirates are leading the National League in batting average (.284) and on base percentage (.361) through May 26.  The starters are even better at .296 and .367 respectively.  But is this the best the lineup has been since Hurdle arrived in 2011?  Let’s take a look.

This season the Pirates have moved players in and out of first base and third base, but the rest of the positions have been fairly constant.  For purposes of comparison, we will assume that John Jaso is the starting first baseman and Jung Ho Kang is the starting third baseman.  This is no slight to David Freese and the other bench players, who together hit just as well as the starters.

The eight starters are hitting at a combined slash line of (.296/.367/.443).  Four of the eight have batting averages above .300.  There are no easy outs in this lineup.  Incredibly, the weakest links appear to be Andrew McCutchen and Fransisco Cervelli.

2016 Pirates Starting Lineup

*Stats through games played May 26, 2016

How does this lineup compare to other lineups of the Clint Hurdle era?  Believe it or not, when Hurdle joined the Bucs in 2011, his lineup was a lot more fluid than it is now.  Below is a comparison of the 2011 through 2015 lineups and how they stack up against today’s starters.

*Stats through games played May 26, 2016

The 2016 Pirates starters have the best batting average by almost 20 points.  The next closest is the 2014 lineup which featured two players in the mix for the NL batting title (Harrison and McCutchen).  The 2016 lineup’s on base percentage is also 13 points higher than the 2014 squad’s.  The only statistic that isn’t the best of the bunch is slugging percentage.  At .443 it is similar to past team’s performance and indicates that the 2016 team excels at getting hits and getting on base, but they are about the same as past teams when hitting for extra bases.

Probably the most important stat of them all is runs per game generated. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]In this case we looked at the runs generated by the entire roster, not just the starting eight.  In the runs per game category, the 2016 Pirates are in a league of their own at 5.1, almost a full run per game higher than the best of the previous lineups.[/pullquote]

It is interesting to note that Andrew McCutchen is the only name in the 2011 lineup that is still with the Pirates today.  The other two mainstays of the 2011-2015 lineups, Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez, were traded in the last offseason.

How does this lineup compare to other great lineups from past Pirates teams?  The 1990-1992 teams were incredibly good.  The 1991 team that featured Bobby Bonilla, Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke won 98 games.  The eight starters that year featured a slash line of .278 / .360 / .429 – a similar on base percentage to today’s lineup but still well below in batting average.  The 1979 World Series Champion Pirates also won 98 games.  Led by Willie Stargell, they hit at a .285 / .339 / .434 clip, much closer to the performance of the current lineup but still a little short.

It is still early in the season, but if the starting lineup keeps hitting at its current rate, it will go down as not only the best of the Clint Hurdle era, but one of the best in recent Pirates history.

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