Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle (13) in the dugout: Joy R. Absalon-US PRESSWIRE

The Pittsburgh Pirates moved Alex Presley to Triple-A Indianapolis to make room for left hander Jeff Locke.  Pittsburgh Pirates skipper Clint Hurdle explained the move as we furiously drove back into radio range last night.  The explanation was interesting to us.

Hurdle explained that if Jordy Mercer was sent down, that makes Josh Harrison the backup shortstop.  It would limit the ability for Harrison to be moved around the baseball diamond as the Bucs super utility player.

The Pirates bullpen was depleted.  Jason Grilli wasn’t going to go.  Hurdle muttered that Joel Hanrahan wouldn’t be used unless the team had a save situation, so the bullpen was light.  Chris Resop, Tony Watson, Chad Qualls….that was about all the Bucs had last night.

They needed every arm they had, but Locke didn’t see the field.  It will be interesting to see if he can see some action this afternoon.

But the exciting part of the night for us was after all of this Harrison talk, Jordy Mercer goes out and crushes his first homer of the season as Clint Barmes and Harrison watched from the dugout.  Think Mercer is in the lineup tomorrow?  Stop laughing.

Clint Hurdle described it best after the game.

“We were probably longer on guts tonight than we were execution.”  Clint Hurdle

The Pirates need some more help on the bench.  We don’t think the Bucs are done in that regard, but it’s just so damn frustrating watching the pinch hitting options that Hurdle has to select from on a nightly basis.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a problem.   The team needs production from the leadoff spot in the lineup.  It’s a problem that most of us have overlooked because the team has been winning at a ridiculous pace.

We went to take a look at how Alex Presley was really performing and what we saw just jumped off the page. Look at how the production of Presley matches up with what Jose Tabata has done this season.  Both have a similar number of at bats, both have scored 32 runs, Presley has two fewer hits in nine fewer at-bats than Tabata.

Jose has  four more doubles, both players have three triples, Presley has three more homers.  Both have struckout at a high rate with Presley getting punched out 51 times in his 243 ABs.

The bottom line is that Presley and Tabata are both hitting .230 and their OPS is identical at a putrid .636.

Presley, 26, began the season with the Pirates and was their Opening Day starter in left field.  He hit .220 (26-for-118) with two homers and seven RBI in 34 big league games before being optioned to Indianapolis on May 16.

It was baffling to watch Presley struggle.  He was slapping the ball and not putting the barrel to the baseball as he had last season when he hit well for numerous periods of the season.

But unlike Tabata who is struggling mightily in Triple-A, Presley was sent down and caught fire.  In 18 AAA games, Presley found that stroke.  He mashed.  He collected 18 hits with seven of those going for extra bases—two doubles, three triples, five home runs, 14 RBI and 14 runs scored.  He had a .303 average (10-for-33), four homers and 10 RBI over his last ten games for Indianapolis.

Since he has returned on June 5th, he hasn’t matched those numbers.  Not even close.  In the last ten games, he has struck out eleven times, walked three, and is hitting .200.  He has spread his hits around and actually has 11 hits in his last 16 starts while hitting lefties to the tune of a .283 average.

July 3, 2012; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates left fielder Alex Presley (7) fails to catch a ball hit by Houston Astros shortstop Jed Lowrie (not pictured) during the first inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-US PRESSWIRE

But his struggles against right handers are well known, he’s hitting under .220 after last nights 0hhhh-fer.  A crazy stat that shows the value of Presley scoring runs for the Bucs is that the team is 21-4 when he scores.

The disappearance of Presley has come from a few sources–his battting average on balls in play has taken an .80 point nosedive. Last season his BABIP was .349, this season it’s at .269. Presley is walking slightly less, striking out more, and his isolated slugging numbers are also down .31 points from .167 to .136.

Looking deeper thanks to FanGraphs, Presley is hitting five percent less line drives, a really scary ten percent more groundballs, and is popping up for more infield flyouts.  We were curious as to the reason why that could be happening.

The most telling stat, if you buy into those type of things, is the fact that Presley is seeing a first pitch strike at a much higher rate than he did last season.

In 2011, when Presley performed at a much more respectable .298/.339/.465 clip with a wOBA of .350 his F-strike percentage was 57.1.  Looking at the performance of Presley in 2012, the Bucs left fielder has seen a first pitch strike 69.9 percent of the time.

It’s been a hole he hasn’t been able to dig himself out of to this point, and with the trade deadline looming, his opportunities to turn around seem all but over.  The Pirates have the third worst on-base percentage from their leadoff spot.

We have to think that is going to be changed very soon by the Pirates leadership.

A quick look at how the key players for the 2012 Pirates came together:

SP James McDonald – On July 31, 2010 the Pirates traded their closer, Octavio Dotel, to the Los Angeles Dodgers for McDonald and minor league OF Andrew Lambo.  Dotel pitched exactly 18.2 innings for the Dodgers, who finished 80-82.  Lambo is still just 23-years old, but has struggled with injuries and inconsistency.  McDonald has become an ace starter, and is under team control until 2016.  This is a trade that the Dodgers wish they could un-do, a candidate for the best move made by Neil Huntington.

SP A.J. Burnett – Burnett had never lived up to the expectations of a massive contract he signed with the New York Yankees in 2008.  In February of this year, the Yankees were trying to unload their veteran hurler to any team that would take him.  The Pirates swooped in and acquired Burnett for a pair of minor leaguers, neither a legit prospect.  To facilitate the deal, New York agreed to pick up $20 million of the $33 million owed to Burnett over the next two seasons.  Ultimately, Burnett has proven that getting out of New York was the best thing that could have happened to him.  He has become the veteran leader of the Bucs, and has been integral to the success of 2012.

SP Kevin Correia – Correia was coming off a down year in San Diego when the Pirates signed him to a two-year, $7 million contract in December of 2010.  His workhorse mentality and veteran presence has been a great value at that price.  Correia will never be a Cy Young winner, but he is the type of pitcher that every contending team needs to have – a reliable, inning-eating starter who rarely has a dud outing.  By comparison, St. Louis is paying SP Jake Westbrook $8.5 million this year for essentially the same type of production.

SP Jeff Karstens – The Pirates trade OF Xavier Nady and RP Damaso Marte to the Yankees for Karstens, OF Jose Tabata, SP Ross Ohlendorf, and RP Daniel McCutchen at the 2008 trade deadline.  While Ohlendorf fizzled out after showing promise, Karstens has continued to develop into a solid starting pitcher.  Tabata is a work in progress, but has started 265 ballgames for the Pirates since being promoted in 2010.  McCutchen represents depth for the Pirates in the bullpen, unable to find a job in the 2012 relief corps despite showing reliability last season.  He will be one of the first calls if the Bucs need reinforcements for the stretch run.  Nady played in 66 games for the Yankees, batting .270 before injuries derailed his career.  Marte stayed in New York for a few more years, but never regained form as a dominant left-handed reliever.

SP Eric Bedard – Bedard has had a very up and down career, but it was his 2011 season that convinced the Pirates that he could fit into their 2012 plans.  The Bucs were able to agree with Bedard on a suitable contract, $4.5 million for one year.  While it was unknown how much could be expected of Bedard, given his past injuries, it was a chance worth taking.  Thus far he has been inconsistent, a few good starts, a few bad, and most recently a decent one against Colorado.  How much further Bedard goes as part of this rotation will depend on what the Pirates do at the trade deadline, and on his production over his next two starts.  Either way, it was a bargain deal for the Bucs.

CL Joel Hanrahan – “The Hammer” was acquired on June 30, 2009 from Washington in the deal that sent RP Sean Burnett and OF Nyjer Morgan to the Nationals.  The Pirates also received OF Lastings Milledge, who is no longer with the organization.  Hanrahan has only developed into one of the top closers in baseball, saving 71 saves as a Pirate.  Burnett has been a reliable lefty reliever for Washington, and Morgan is in Milwaukee after Washington gave up on him.  Advantage – Pirates.

RP Jason Grilli – Grilli had floundered around the major leagues for 10 years before the Pirates bought his contract off of the AAA-Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs on July 20 last summer.  Grilli was on a minor league deal that had an opt-out clause if any major league team offered him a contract, and after he dominated at AAA for a few months, the Pirates came calling.  Since then, he has morphed into the best 8th inning set-up man in the National League, posting amazing numbers and building a bridge to Hanrahan in the 9th.  Grilli has the stuff to be a closer, and in time he will probably get the chance.  For 2012, the Pirates will continue to revile in their undefeated streak when winning after the 7th inning, made possible by the “Grilli Cheese Hammer” combo.

RP Chris Resop – Resop was another scrapheap acquisition by the Pirates, who found him on the waiver wire from Atlanta in August 2010.  Resop has turned into a reliable relief pitcher who has the flexibility to pitch long relief or short, and has the stuff to shut down teams one inning at a time.  He has been a great pickup that cost the Pirates a total of $1.25 million and is signed through 2015.

RP Jared Hughes – Hughes is a product of the Pirates minor league system, and has become a suitable reliever in just his second major league season.  His 2.06 ERA and 1.145 WHIP are great numbers for a middle reliever making a cool $481,000 this year.  He is also under team control through 2018.

RP Tony Watson – Watson was drafted three times (2003 by Florida, 2006 by Baltimore, and 2007 by the Pirates) and found a home in Pittsburgh this year.  He is a homegrown product that makes $484,000 and is under team control through 2018.

As for the position players, a quick rundown on the “homegrown” products that are playing a huge part in this incredible 2012 campaign:

CF Andrew McCutchen – former 1st round pick by the Pirates in the 2005 Amateur Draft.  Has become one of the top overall players in baseball in 2012 and signed a 6-year extension that keeps him in Black and Gold through 2018.

2B Neil Walker – former 1st round pick by the Pirates in the 2004 Amateur Draft.  Has become a fantastic second baseman who can hit .300 and drive in 60-75 RBI per season.  Walker is a Pine-Richland native who is signed through 2017.

3B Pedro Alvarez – El Toro has found his stroke in 2012.  The former 1st round pick (2008) is here to stay, another in a line of great 1st round picks that have helped form this team.  He is on his way to being a .250/40/100 player and is signed through 2017, with an extension probably coming this winter.

OF Alex Presley – Presley has been inconsistent but has the makings of a future starting outfielder who can hit at the top of the lineup.  He was drafted by the Pirates in the 8th round of the 2006 Draft.  Presley is under team control through 2018.

These players were all acquired through trades or free agent signings and have become major contributors to the 2012 Pirates:

1B/OF Garrett Jones – The Pirates signed Jones as a minor-league free agent in December 2008.  He exploded onto the Pirates scene in 2009 with a 21 HR campaign in just 314 at-bats.  Since then, he has become part of Clint Hurdle’s mix-and-match bench, providing solid production when called upon.  Jones is making $2.25 million and can not be a free agent until 2016.

UTIL Josh Harrison – Harrison was the forgotten man in the July 2009 deal that sent SP Tom Gorzelanny  and RP John Grabow to Chicago.  He has emerged as a dynamic little player whose value lies in his ability to play just about any position on the field.  He is an energetic player who seems to live for dramatic moments.  Harrison is making $484,000 and is under team control until 2018.

C Michael McKenry – Talk about a steal!  “The Fort” came to Pittsburgh last summer in a deal with Boston and immediately become the backup catcher due to his defensive skills.  He has learned to use the bat in 2012, developing power and becoming a very clutch hitter.  He has also been praised for how he handles the pitching staff.  A player like McKenry is hard to find for so cheap, and the Pirates have him locked down through 2018 at the earliest.  McKenry could very well be the heir apparent to Rod Barajas as the starting catcher in 2013.

1B/3B Casey McGehee – Acquired in a trade with Milwaukee over the winter, McGehee is a versatile player with major pop in his bat.  He has helped the Pirates develop Pedro Alvarez by playing early in the season against the tough lefties and has recently began to find the stroke that made him a feared hitter with the Brewers.  The cost for McGehee?  The Pirates sent RP Jose Veras to Milwaukee.  McGehee is signed to a very cost-efficient contract through 2015.

OF Gorkys Hernandez – Hernandez is a defensive whiz who should be inserted into a corner outfield slot late in each game to improve team defense.  His bat is a work in progress, but his speed and defense are as real as it gets.  He was part of the original Nate McLouth deal with Atlanta in 2009 and has spent years honing his craft in Altoona and Indianapolis.  He is ready to contribute for the Bucs this summer, and is under team control until 2017.

As the trade deadline approaches, remember how this team was built.  It doesn’t always take a headline-stealing deal to help a contending team down the stretch.  These Pirates love each other and fight for one another, so management must be careful to not mess around with the chemistry if the team.  A small deal or two, yes.  But a gut-busting deal for Justin Upton or Cole Hamels……maybe that isn’t what these Pirates need.

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