The Most Important Pittsburgh Pirates in the Season’s Second Half

The Pittsburgh Pirates are currently 42-47 and 7 games out of first place in the National League Central

Major League Baseball is currently experiencing the 2017 All-Star Break. Due to this, the Pittsburgh Pirates have not played a game since Sunday and will not play again until Friday night at PNC Park.

When play resumes on Friday night, the Pirates will start a vital 7 game homestand. This homestand will begin with a 3 game series against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Pirates will enter this homestand 7 games out of first place in the National League Central.

While the Pittsburgh Pirates entered the All-Star Break 5 games below .500, they were still able to go into the break on a high note. The Pirates won 5 of their final 6 games before the break and are 5-4 so far in the month of July.

Thanks to the National League Central being insanely mediocre, the Pirates still have a chance at making a run at the division title after the All-Star Break. However, if that is going to happen, there are going to be a few key players to the rest of the 2017 season. So, who are these players for the remainder of the 2017 campaign for the Pittsburgh Baseball Club?

Starling Marte

Pirate left fielder Starling Marte has not played since April 18th. This is due to an 80 game PED suspension. However, this suspension is about to end.

Marte is eligible to return to the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday. When he returns he will take back his role as the team’s everyday left fielder. Additionally, he will also take on a vital role for the team throughout the rest of the season.

Getting Starling Marte back should be a huge boost to the Pirates both offensively and defensively. The two-time Gold Glove winner is the best defensive left fielder in baseball, and one of the best defensive outfielders period. He has led the National League in outfield assists each of the past two seasons. His defense in left field will be light years better than Adam Frazier, John Jaso, and Jose Osuna.

Starling Marte is also one of the team’s best hitters. Entering the 2017 season Starling Marte owned a lifetime .345 wOBA, 121 wRC+, 160 career stolen bases, and a 17.7 fWAR. Next to Andrew McCutchen, Marte has had the highest fWAR of any Pirate since his Major League debut. His fWAR is 13th best in the National League during this time.

There are very few players in all of baseball that can impact a game like Starling Marte can. Marte is a rare 5-tool player and one of the best two-way players in the Major Leagues. If the Pirates are going to make a run at the National League Central, they need Marte to be the impact player he can be.

Gregory Polanco

Very few Pirate hitters have the potential and ceiling that Gregory Polanco does. This is why he was one of the top-10 prospects in all of baseball before making his Major League debut in 2014. However, he has yet to reach this potential.

Additionally, 2017 has been the worst season of his career since his rookie season. There are reasons though to believe he is turning things around. If he does turn things around, it would be a massive boost to the Pirate lineup.

Gregory Polanco’s overall numbers this season are not pretty. In 285 plate appearances he owns a .308 wOBA, a wRC+ of 90, and a .317 on-base percentage. All of these numbers are the worst of his career, minus his rookie campaign of 2014. As was said above, though, there are reasons to believe he could turn things around.

First off, Polanco has been making more contact than ever this season. This is evident by his career-low 13.3 percent strikeout rate. Secondly, his power is starting to come around. His .146 ISO and .404 slugging percentage are both the second best of his career.

Finally, while it is a small sample size, Gregory Polanco has been hitting extremely well in recent weeks. In his last 44 plate appearances Polanco owns a .268 ISO, .386 on-base percentage, .634 slugging percentage, .422 wOBA, and a wRC+ of 164. Small sample size, yes, but still encouraging to see.

What is most encouraging about this is that Polanco has made an adjustment in his swing during this time. As Dave discussed here, Polanco’s swing was much different than it was when he had a great 4-month stretch to start the 2016 season. In recent weeks, his old swing has returned.

Gregory Polanco has drawn a lot of criticism from Pirate fans this year and it has been well deserved. However, there appear to be signs of him coming out of his season-long funk. And if the Pirates are going to make a run at the National League Central, they need Polanco to break out of this funk ASAP.

The bullpen

Anyone who has watched the Pittsburgh Pirates this season will tell you the biggest problem has been the team’s bullpen. Felipe Rivero might be the best relief pitcher in the National League and Juan Nicasio has had a dominant season. Otherwise, the bullpen has been, at best, inconsistent.

Tony Watson is having the worst season of his career and can no longer be trusted in high leverage situations. Daniel Hudson has been a colossal disappointment. Antonio Bastardo and Johnny Barbato were both flat out horrible. Wade LeBlanc has pitched well, but he’s the long man, and Jhan Marinez has yet to earn Clint Hurdle’s trust.

The Pittsburgh Pirates desperately need someone to step up in the bullpen. This could be Marinez who has pitched well since coming to Pittsburgh. Another option is A.J. Schugel who rejoined the team this past Saturday after a strong 2016 out of the Pirate bullpen.

If the Pirates can get a lead to Juan Nicasio and Felipe Rivero, the game is essentially over. With how a good a duo those two have become at the back of the Pirate bullpen handing them a lead is about as safe as it gets. However, often times, getting the lead to them from the starting pitchers is easier said than done.

It is in the bridge innings where the Pirate bullpen must be better. Getting Tony Watson back to his old self would help, but that seems extremely unlikely. Getting Daniel Hudson, who has allowed just 2 earned runs his past 13 1/3 innings pitched, back on track seems more likely but is still far from a given.

To be honest, for the Pirates to fix their middle relief they probably need to go a route they have not yet this season. That could be Clint Hurdle putting more trust in Jhan Marinez, that could be the return of A.J. Schugel to the bullpen, or that could be in the form of Neal Huntington swinging a trade for bullpen help.

However it happens, the bullpen must be better the rest of the season. If it is not, the Pittsburgh Pirates have absolutely zero chance of competing for a division championship after the All-Star Break.

To wrap things up

Somewhat miraculously, the Pittsburgh Pirates are still in the hunt for the National League Central division title at the All-Star Break. Jung Ho Kang has not played this season, Starling Marte has played in 13 games, Gerrit Cole is having the worst season of his career, the bullpen has been a train wreck, and Francisco Cervelli, David Freese, and Jameson Taillon have all had stints on the disabled list.

Additionally, Gregory Polanco has had a very poor season and Tyler Glasnow was an utter failure in the Pirate rotation. Nearly everything that can go wrong has for the 2017 Pittsburgh Baseball Club. Although, some blame does fall on Neal Huntington for not doing more to address the starting rotation in the offseason. That, however, is a discussion for another time.

Despite all of this, the Bucs are 7 games out of first place with a key 4 game series against the first place Milwaukee Brewers looming. If the Pirates can win 3/4 games in that series next week, they will be firmly in the division hunt entering late July.

Next: Pirates, Taillon need to start discussing an extension

No matter what, the next few weeks will be interesting for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Odds are, one of two things will happen. Either they will get Starling Marte back, continue their strong play of late, and remain in the hunt in the National League Central. Or, they will fall out of things and look to sell off pieces such as Andrew McCutchen and Juan Nicasio at the trade deadline at the end of the month.

Hopefully, it will be the former. For it to be the former, the four keys discussed in this article need to step up for the Pittsburgh Pirates.