7 Surprising (and Weird) Facts About Pittsburgh Pirates SS Clint Barmes

When the Pittsburgh Pirates signed Clint Barmes last November, he was the team’s highest-paid player going into the season.  That obviously changed but thinking that Bob Nutting would stroke such a big check for a questionable shortstop was a bit puzzling,  The Pirates paid Barmes $5 million dollars for 2012 and will pay him $5.5 million in 2013.

Here was the company line:

"“His makeup fits our club and our city. He’s a blue-collar kid who has had to scratch and claw and fight for everything he’s got.”  Clint Hurdle"

The 32-year old shortstop has been the best defender according to some defensive metrics and in a recent interview with David Todd (linked in our Hub section if you missed it,) Neal Huntington sounded impressed with what Barmes has done this year.

We think it’s obvious Barmes hasn’t lived up to what he has been paid.   Heh, it’s not our cash, but maybe there is a way the Bucs could squeeze some more production from him this season?  Because let’s face it, should the Pirates make the postseason, like it or not, Barmes will be the guy playing short.

Having accepted that reality, we set out to dig some interesting facts based solely on his performance this season.

Clint Barmes is a frequent candidate for twitter frustration among Pirates fans.

We found some interesting things that you might enjoy.

1.  Let’s start in the present, Barmes has put up this line since the All-Star break:  .252/.290/.333/.624.  That surprised me a little bit, but we think it’s because in his last ten games he has hit just .212 with nine strikeouts, although he did walk twice on Wednesday.

2.  What is just mind fu## material is the fact he has ten walks and 93 strikeouts.

3.  Looking closer at the strikeouts, he has whiffed 25 % of the time against right handers, and 19 % against left handers.

4.  This might surprise you, it sure did me.  Against left handed pitching Barmes is .286/.348/.393 with a .741 OPS.  Pick yourself up off the floor now, we have more.

5.  With the bases empty, Barmes has 230 at-bats, his average is .183.  Practically an automatic out with 61 of those strikeouts (26.5% K rate)  coming in this situation.  How about a walk to get something going—hahahahahahaha!  He has three walks with nobody on base.

6.  When the Pirates load up the bases, who would you want to step to the plate based on what they have done this season?  Think before you answer.  Sure, #AlwaysSmooth banged a grand slam off the foul pole that one time for his first career granny, but certainly Barmes wouldn’t even be in your top five picks right?

With the bases drunk this season, Clint Barmes is batting .429 a remarkable 6-for-14 with 16 RBI!  In bases loaded situations, Barmes has an OPS over 1.000.  The guy has 41 RBI all season and 16 of them have come in huge situations with the bases full of Bucs??!

7.  In extra innings, Barmes is batting .500 with two doubles.

Looking at the offense, it’s apparent that 2012 is  just not where Barmes wants to be despite some small sample size “ice in his veins” situational numbers. We think it was obvious Barmes tried to impress early in the season, maybe as he tried to back up Clint Hurdle’s “Barmes is a guy who will bloody his nose for you,” quote that was heard about fifty times around town.

So, with a few left handers coming up this weekend,  perhaps Barmes will keep improving upon his numbers against lefties.  It’s all we can hope for really, that and hoping he gets a couple chances to improve upon those gaudy numbers he has delivered with the bases loaded.

We know the jump throw to first base will always be there.

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Clint Barmes offensive stats, when broken down month by month, are just ugly:

April:  .149/.186/.284-16K’s

May:  .189/.205/.257-23K’s

June:  .247/.274/.358-16K’s

July:  .233/.263/.274-10K’s

August:  .271/.295/.376-25K’s

Sept:  .250/.357/.250-3K’s