The Pittsburgh Pirates have completed half of their season and to say it has not gone as it was drawn up in spring training would be an understatement.
With their 81st game in the books, the Pittsburgh Pirates have now played half of their season. While 2017 hasn’t gone the way that fans and management had hoped it would before the season started, there have been some bright spots along the way. But there have also been some disappointments during this quarter of the season, so let’s take a look at some of the highlights, lowlights and what the team could look like after the July 31st trade deadline.
Record: 37-44
Games back in NL Central: 6
Games back for last WC: 10
The Good
Josh Harrison has easily been the most consistent player for the Pittsburgh Pirates so far this season, and he along with Adam Frazier have become a force at the top of the lineup. The performance of Harrison has been especially encouraging given that the last two seasons saw a fairly significant drop in production after his breakout in 2014. Frazier has also taken advantage of the absence of Starling Marte, receiving the lion’s share of innings in left field. These two have become an integral part of the everyday lineup and Frazier especially will present the organization with a tough decision when Marte returns from his suspension in the middle of July.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The Pittsburgh Pirates in an odd situation as the season rumbles towards the trading deadline.[/perfectpullquote]After the first two months of the season, it looked like last year’s decline by Andrew McCutchen was indeed very real. He hit just .244 in April and followed that up with an even worse .206 in May. He was moved down in the lineup to the sixth spot, brand new territory for a player who was used to occupying one of the top spots in the everyday lineup. But the move has paid off well and McCutchen had a resurgence at the plate, hitting .380 and slugging six home runs while in the sixth spot before getting moved back to third. The bounceback by McCutchen is a win-win for the Pirates: if the team decides that they want to move him, teams may be more inclined to overpay now that he has returned to form. However, the team could also decide that they are close enough in the division race to hold onto him and exercise his option this offseason.
The Pirates have hit 77 home runs this season, good for 14th among the 15 National League clubs, so no one is going to mistake this lineup for Murderers’ Row. But 15 of those longballs have come off the bat of Josh Bell, who has added some much needed power to the lineup. While his batting average sits at .233, the team should be encouraged that the young first baseman has hit four of his home runs from the right side, showing that he is capable of hitting for power from both sides of the plate. If Cody Bellinger was not seemingly hitting a home run every time he went to the plate, Bell would definitely be in the mix for Rookie of the Year.
The Bad
After his monster 2016 when he slugged 22 home runs and drove in 86 runs, Gregory Polanco appeared to be shaping up as one of the league’s premier power outfielders. So far this season, he has been anything but that. while he has missed some time due to injury this season, Polanco’s numbers through 232 at-bats are both concerning and alarming. While he did hit a home run in Thursday’s contest against Tampa Bay, that was just his sixth of the season. His 19 RBI are well below what was expected and even though that is a statistic that is based on what the players in front of you do, it’s even more troubling. As someone who has resided in the three and four spots in the Pittsburgh lineup, he has certainly had opportunities to drive in runs with players such as Adam Frazier and Josh Harrison hitting in front of him. Polanco has amassed a total of 1,629 at-bats so far in his young career with a slash line of .252/.317/.401, so perhaps this is what to expect out of Polanco going forward.
Chad Kuhl has been given every opportunity to lock down a rotation spot this season and with his performance so far, the team may want to give those starts to someone else, perhaps Steven Brault. Kuhl’s ERA this season sits at a bloated 5.26 and to make matters even worse, most of his outings are fairly short. Kuhl had not completed six innings in a start since April 18th until he did so against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday. He is routinely taxing the bullpen by leaving games in the fifth inning or earlier. He has been gradually bringing his ERA down by only giving up a few runs in each start, but due to the abbreviated nature of most of his outings, he never has the chance to register a quality start. Brault most recently pitched eight shutout innings on June 29th to bring his season ERA down to a sparkling 2.04, so if he keeps this up and Kuhl continues to exit games before the sixth inning, management will have to consider a different role for Kuhl.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The Pirates have hit 77 home runs this season, good for 14th among the 15 National League clubs[/perfectpullquote]The bullpen for the Pirates has a collective ERA of 4.05, good for fourth in the National League. On the face of it, this seems to be good, but not great. But the reason the bullpen’s ERA is close to four is because of the performances of Felipe Rivero, Juan Nicasio, the recently acquired Jhan Marinez and the recently promoted Edgar Santana. Tony Watson lost his job as the team’s closer after a string of disastrous appearances and has been relegated to the middle innings (and also most likely knocked off some of his potential trade value in the process). Players such as Wade LeBlanc and Daniel Hudson, who have received their fair share of innings have struggled this season, especially as of late.
What to expect in the next 40 games
The Pittsburgh Pirates in an odd situation as the season rumbles towards the trading deadline. They play in somewhat surprisingly the worst division in baseball, and with all the teams mostly bunched together, a hot streak at the right time could potentially result in a division championship. But management will have to make a decision on a number of players in the coming weeks. Left handed relievers are always in demand, so there is still a chance that someone will be interested in a player like Watson. McCutchen is probably the most interesting player on the roster. Given that he has been playing much better as of late, Neal Huntington and company will have to decide to move him if they receive the right offer, or hold on to him and hope things fall in the team’s favor. No matter what, it should be interesting to see how the team looks and where they stand in the division when we reconvene at the 120 game mark.
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