Pittsburgh Pirates: Pitching, Not Offense, Holding Bucs Back
By Matt Shetler
One thing that drives me nuts is the amount of people still complaining that Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington screwed up by not acquiring a “big bat,” at the trade deadline. It drives me even crazier when I hear the same people insinuate that the Bucs front office weren’t “all-in” at the deadline in an attempt to win now.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, there is nothing wrong with the Pirates offense at all, so the need to add a big bat just wasn’t there. Do you think if Huntington could have added another bat at a cheap cost he would have said no?
Since the trade deadline, the Bucs rank third in the National League in homers, third in the NL in runs (4.9), fifth in the NL in batting average and fourth in the NL in OPS. Take that back to the beginning of June and the Pirates offense looks even better.
No, there is nothing wrong with the Bucs offense at all, but for some reason it is a sore subject among Pirates fans.
I agree that the offense could use a legitimate leadoff hitter, but even the likes of Shane Victorino, Juan Pierre or Denard Span wouldn’t be able to fix the main problem with the Bucs right now: pitching.
Unless the hitter that everyone wants so badly can also pitch a few scoreless innings, then there’s no need for Huntington to make a deal before the waiver deadline comes and goes.
Again, the Pirates offense is fine and has been fine since the end of May.
I can’t say the same for the pitching staff though.
In 30 games since the All-Star break, the Pirates have allowed four runs or more 16 times and even more recently have done so in nine of their last 12 games.
Any hitter you wanted the Bucs to get won’t fix that problem.
I always say that in a 162-game season, things have a way of evening out and that’s the case with the Pirates pitching right now. They pitched way over their heads for the first half of the season and now things are starting to even out.
Give guys like Jeff Karstens, Erik Bedard and Kevin Correia credit for getting the team to this point, but the reality is they are nothing more than average MLB pitchers who have performed better than that at times during the season.
For the Pirates to have a chance of making the playoffs, and they do, it’s going to come down to them pitching better.
In case you haven’t noticed, the Pirates offense is just fine.