Pittsburgh Pirates: Road Trip Report Card #1

Defense/Overall Grade

Defense: D-

The Pirates defense this year has been a disaster. Just a disaster. Starling Marte, when he was playing, was struggling in center field. Adam Frazier seems to make mistakes on defense wherever he plays. Even Josh Harrison made a crucial mistake on Monday in St. Louis that played a role in costing the Bucs that game.

Nothing has gone right the with Bucco defense. For people who are reading this that may be unaware of the struggles, just look up the highlights of the Pirates loss to Boston last Thursday, particularly in the 8th inning.

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Simply put, the Pittsburgh Pirates have no defense at the moment.  If you think back to 2015, it can be argued that the Pirates defensive mishaps (HI, Pedro!) were the main reason that they did not win the NL Central that year.

I’m not saying that a similar circumstance will happen this season, but the moral of the story is that it is always beneficial to be sound on defense, and right now, the Pirates are not. We don’t think about defense in baseball as much as we would in, say, football or basketball. But it is still an essential part of any team that wants to be successful. Simply put; the Pirates have no D at the moment.

Overall team grade for the week: C

It was average. The Pirates swept a great team, then got swept by a good team. The Pirates, right now, are a pretty average baseball team overall. They’ve gotten great pitching and sub-par pitching, for the most part, while the defense and bench have struggled. At the end of the day, there are still plenty of games left. So buckle up.