The Pittsburgh Pirates are still a bad baserunning team.
Sitting at PNC park the past few days watching Starling Marte run into an out at third base and David Freese run into a game-ending out at second base reminded about a column I wrote prior to the season. In that column I examined the Pittsburgh Pirates base running woes from 2015 and said it would be vital to their potential success in 2016 to improve drastically on the base paths.
Has that happened?Not even close. In fact, the Pirates are on pace to run into more outs on the base paths than they did a season ago.
A slight area of improvement has been the stolen base.
In 2015 the Pirates stole 98 bases. However they were caught stealing 45 times. Their 69 percent stolen base percentage ranked just No. 19 in the majors and were slightly below the MLB average.
This season, led by Marte, the Bucs have already stolen 91 bases compared to being caught 36 times. Their current 72 percent success rate has them ranked No.13 in MLB and right at the MLB average.
The Pittsburgh Pirates were picked off 14 times last season. The seventh highest mark in the game, which was way above the league average. This year they have already been picked off 11 times, which has them right about the same pace as last season.
However the disturbing aspect has come with simply running into outs.
TOOTBLANs For All
The PIttsburgh Pirates gave up 61 outs last season running the bases, the seventh highest total in the majors. This year they have run into 48 outs on the bags already, which is the sixth highest mark in the game.
It is also where and when the Pirates are running into outs which shows the bigger problem.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”#000000″ class=”” size=””]In 2015 the Pirates stole 98 bases. However they were caught stealing 45 times[/perfectpullquote]Twelve of those outs have come at third base while 17 have come at home plate. Marte is actually tied for the league lead by getting thrown out at third base five times on the season as of Tuesday. The Bucs are on pace to top the numbers of 2015, when they had runners thrown out at third 15 times and had 21 potential runs wiped away at the plate.
For a team lacking elite power, the Pirates can’t give up 84 outs like they have on the season running the bases.
For a team looking to make the postseason, base running has cost a handful of games, which ultimately could result in the Pirates staying at home in October. Another big issue is the aggressiveness.
For a team that appears to be very aggressive running the bases, the Pirates have had issues being able to take the extra base on singles or scoring a guy from first on doubles.
Pirates Must Pick Their Spots
Their XBT%, which measures the amount of times a runner advance more than one base on a single and more than two bases on a double is at only 35 percent. That is the next to worst mark in all of baseball.
That number was at 42 percent a year ago.
What that tells me, along with all of the base running miscues, is that the players have to do a better job of understanding game situations. This team doesn’t do a good job of knowing when it is ok to be aggressive and when the game dictates putting the brakes on.
With all of the talent the Pirates have, you would hope they would be a better base running team by now, but that simply hasn’t happened.
Until it does, expect base running miscues to continue to cost the Pittsburgh Pirates games.
Featured Photo Credit – Daniel Decker Photography
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