Are the Pirates becoming a more aggressive team on the bases?

The Pittsburgh Pirates enter Friday night’s game against the Cincinnati Reds with a surprising 5-1 record, but they have been far from playing clean baseball.

The bullpen has struggled at times, although the combination of Edgar Santana, Michael Feliz, George Kontos and Felipe Rivero were pretty good in Thursday night’s 5-2 win over the Reds.

One aspect that hasn’t been very good is the base running as the Bucs have already had eight runners thrown out on the bases in six games.

Base running has always been an issue for Clint Hurdle’s teams, but with what we’ve seen so far, you have to wonder if the Pirates are going to be more aggressive on the bases in 2017 than they were last season.

Stolen Bases

So far this season, it looks like the Pirates are willing to run.

They’ve attempted seven steals so far through six games, but have been gunned down four times. That actual number should be five as Corey Dickerson was called safe on Wednesday night when he shouldn’t have been.

The percentage of successful stolen bases is low at 43 percent, but it’s a small sample size.

The key thing is the Pirates are looking to run.

For example they attempted just 103 total steals last season. They were successful only 67 times, getting caught 36 for a stolen base percentage of 65 percent.

That number is also very low, but Starling Marte was lost for 80 games so that had to play a role.

By comparison, with Marte in uniform for a full season in 2016, they attempted 155 total steals.

I would expect this year’s number to be closer to that.

However it doesn’t matter how much you run if you are getting thrown out at a high clip.

In 2016 the Bucs were caught stealing 45 times, which was the third highest mark in baseball. Last season they were caught the sixth most times and they attempted 52 less steals.

So far this season only the Texas Rangers (five times) have been thrown out more attempting to steal than the Pirates.

One good sign through six games though is that the Pirates haven’t been picked off. That number has been high the past couple of seasons. In 2016 they were picked off 17 times (third most in MLB) and last season they lead the majors by getting picked off 19 times.

I have a feeling the Pirates are going to try and push the envelope this season when it comes to the stolen base. It would be nice to see the percentage of successful steals increase into the top 10 of the league which is generally around 73-74 percent.

Running the Bases

General base running has been a problem for the Pirates as they get thrown out a lot.

Last season the Pirates made the switch from the “The Windmill” Rick Soefield to Joey Cora as the third base coach and there was a big drop in the amount of outs recorded on the bases.

In 2016 the Bucs ran into 65 outs compared to just 45 last year.

Two years ago the Bucs were thrown out 20 times at second (fifth most in MLB), 16 times at third (fifth) and 21 times at home (third). Last season those numbers dropped to 12 times at second, 13 at third and 15 at home, which ranked near the bottom of the league?

Was the drop a case of the Pirates becoming a better base running team or just being a tad bit more conservative?

This year, the Pirates have already recorded four outs on the bases, three at third and one at home. The out at home on Wednesday, Gregory Polanco took a terrible wide turn around third base. He’s not a rookie or second-year player. He needs to know better.

That leads me to believe the Pirates have just been less aggressive running the bases.

Little things like extra bases taken on fly balls, wild pitches, etc. saw the numbers drop considerably from 2016 to 2017. In 2016 the Bucs were one of the more aggressive teams, taking 152 extra bases. Last year that number was down to 109, which was the second-lowest total in baseball.

This year the Pirates have already been way more aggressive taking the extra base, doing so 11 times.

One area though that the Pirates made a big jump last season was the ability to get from first to third on a single. They did so 94 times last year, which was the second most times in baseball, compared to just 63 times in 2016, which ranked next to last.

That shows guys are getting better leads and reading the ball of the bat. Cora is doing a good job of reading the play as well.

The Pirates have already made it first to third on a single five times this year.

Overall, the Pirates are trending to becoming a more aggressive team on the base paths, which given the make up their roster is probably a wise decision.

The one thing to pay attention to is if the number of outs the Bucs run to on the bases.  If that number drops for the second consecutive year, it would be a big bonus.