Pittsburgh Pirates: 30 greatest players in franchise history

Due to the era in which he played for the Pirates, many wouldn’t name Brian Giles as a franchise great. However, when you crunch what he did in his four and a half seasons in Pittsburgh, they measure up really well.

Giles joined the Pirates in 1999 and immediately became an impact in the middle of the order. He hit 39 home runs that first year and drove in 115 runs. He had an equally as impressive year in 2000 when Giles smacked 35 home runs and drove in 123.

Over the next few seasons, Giles quietly put together a tremendous baseball career in Pittsburgh. He hit 165 home runs in 3,114 plate appearances. He did so with an impressive .308/.426/.591 batting line and a pair of All-Star selections. Based on the numbers, he could have easily gone to the Midsummer Classic in each season.

The interesting thing about Giles in his time with the Pirates is that he managed to set a few franchise records. He currently holds the best lifetime slugging percentage at .591 and the greatest OPS at 1.018. I believe a big reason for this is that despite having some great sluggers in franchise history, many of their best hitters played in the early days of baseball.

Along with those power percentages, he’s second in OBP for a Pirates career by only three points. Another power statistic he ranks No. 2 in is at-bats per home run.

Giles is an outlier in Pirates history. He was with them during some very dark days. Wins were hard to find. Great seasons from him were not.