What is Going on With the Pirates?

Photo by Wally Gobetz.

Last month, I expressed my desire to make a concerted effort to get back into baseball, and I would do so following the Pittsburgh Pirates. At the time of that post, the Pirates were sitting at 3-0, and would make it to 5-0 before they experienced their first loss. At that point, I thought to myself: “Damn, I picked a good year to jump into the mix.”

Bucco fans were quick to warn me about getting too excited about the hot start, and I probably should’ve heeded their warning. Since that 5-0 start, the club has gone 6-11, losing each of their last six games, making them 11-11 heading into tonight's game against the Brewers. 

Since I’m new to this, the colossal falloff of the Pirates struck me as alarming. I watch or listen to as many games as I can, and I can see for myself that the offense is abysmal, but I wondered if there was something going on with this team that, maybe, I’m missing. I’m willing to concede to the folks that know what they’re talking about, so I can better understand the sport and this year’s team. So, I took to the r/buccos subreddit to pose the question to the longtime fans: What has gone wrong lately?

Many of the responses that I got pointed out that baseball season is extremely long, and that lulls like this are going to happen to even the best teams. Many of the responses I got also alluded to the fact that this is a very young team, which I knew subconsciously, but hadn’t really considered, as I’m a chronic catastrophizer. It’s true, however, that the team’s success is going to be largely predicated on the performance of guys like Oneil Cruz and Henry Davis. Guys like that are going to have some growing pains, but they will need to find some consistency as the season progresses if we want a shot at October baseball. 

Perhaps the most interesting response I got pointed to the idea that the Pirates’ approach on offense is to attempt to work pitch counts to try and squeeze as many pitches as possible each at bat. This leads to many of the batters taking the first pitch no matter how it looks, which often results in them falling behind early in the count. That is a really intelligent thought that I hadn’t considered, but if I think back to some of the games from this month, it makes perfect sense. That’s definitely a thought I’m going to keep in the back of my mind as we wrap up the month of April. 

Sticking to the offense, another response that made a ton of sense to me was that the power hitters are in a slump. When the Pirates are getting on base, it’s often via singles and walks, which makes it tough to rally, especially lately as we’ve been falling behind in games. There were also a ton of complaints about the hitting coach, Andy Haines, with many fans calling for his job in the responses to my post. I’m not very baseball-savvy, so I don’t want to speak on that matter, but I have witnessed some terrible offense these last few weeks, and it doesn’t seem like any adjustments are being made. As a die-hard Steelers fan, I’m quite used to fans calling for coaches' jobs, often prematurely, so I’ll give Haines the benefit of the doubt until I can’t anymore. 

I’d like to believe that the potential is there with this team, despite their recent struggles. Jared Jones, who has been awesome to watch, will get the start tonight against the 14-6 Milwaukee Brewers at 6:40 eastern. It’ll be a tough night, but hopefully they’re able to right the ship.

Let’s Go Bucs.

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