Pittsburgh Pirates: Team Stat Rankings Update 2

The Pittsburgh Pirates started off the year playing really good baseball.  Because of this, they were toward the top in most statistical categories, however they have fallen off.

The Pittsburgh Pirates were off to one of their best starts in franchise history.  A large part of this was because they were getting quality starting performances, but also were tearing the cover off the ball.  However, the Pittsburgh Pirates have really regressed over the last week.  They have seen their starting pitching become shaky at times, but have really seen their offense take a big step back.  They went from first in the NL Central to third in a matter of a week.  Many expected this to be what the team looked like entering the season.  So where are they ranking wise in the team statistics?

Pittsburgh Pirates Offense

Batting Average: The first update had the Pittsburgh Pirates batting .283 on the season, which was good enough for second in the majors.  However, as they have struggled their batting average really dropped down.  In fact, it went down almost 40 whole points.  The Pittsburgh Pirates as a whole are now batting just .248, and they are hitting .195 over the last three games.  This places them 11th in the league now.

Hits Per Game: With a low batting average comes a low amount of hits.  The Bucs ranked second in hits during the first stat update, averaging nearly 10 per game.  However, they now have seen their hits per game total sink to 4.73, including a meager 1.67 over the last three games.  This now gives them a ranking of 12th in baseball.

Runs Per Game: When you do not hit, it is hard to score runs.  The Pittsburgh Pirates offense was scoring more runs than 28 other teams in baseball.  The only team in front of them was the Atlanta Braves.  After this past week, they now have 11 teams in front of them as they rank 12th in the league in runs per game.  The Pittsburgh Pirates went from 6.44 runs per game to 4.73 runs per game.  Over their last three, they have only averaged 1.67 runs.

Pittsburgh Pirates Pitching

Earn Run Average:  As much as their hitting has regressed, their pitching has remained consistent.  The team ranked 17th in ERA through the first couple weeks of the season.  They have dropped down to 19th over their recent stretch sitting at 4.27.  They have posted a 3.42 ERA over the last few games.  The lower ranking is mainly because their bullpen has struggled, but they are not in as bad as shape as the ranking may suggest in terms of their starters.

Strikeouts Per Walk: This is the one area that the Pittsburgh Pirates have actually seen an improvement.  The Bucs initially ranked 26th in baseball at a low 1.86 strikeouts per walk.  However, they have improved this number to 2.29 and have risen up 20th in baseball.

Next: Who Should Bat Leadoff?

The Pittsburgh Pirates saw a lot of their offensive categories fall dramatically over the last week.  The team had a couple of tough matchups against the Colorado Rockies and the Philadelphia Phillies.  They need to get back on track, specifically the offense. The team has decent pitching, but the wins will come as the offense does, something we have already seen this season.