Pittsburgh Pirates Spring: Uptick in Home Run Production

The Pittsburgh Pirates are a team that is built on pitching and getting on base.  So far this spring they have shown a good bit of power.

John Jaso is a player that most Pittsburgh Pirates fans can remember from a few years ago.  He was the poster boy for how the team wanted their offense to perform.  Jaso was known for getting on base, working walks, and putting the ball in play.  However, he was not known for his ability to hit with power.

In fact, the Pittsburgh Pirates over the last five years or so have tried to build their whole offense like that.  The team has brought in a lot of players who are not power hitters, but rather players who work the count, do not strike out a lot and get on base.  While it is a very good concept for a team, there is one glaring issue with it, the team has lacked the power to drive in runners.

Even last year, the Pittsburgh Pirates brought in a power hitter in Corey Dickerson.  He should have been a 20 plus home run player.  While he hit for a higher average and was a more consistent player, he did not provide the power many would have hoped.  Dickerson ended up only hitting 13 home runs, his lowest output since 2015 when he hit 10 home runs in just 65 games.  The same could be said for Colin Moran, who should project for a lot more power than he hit for last year.

In the end, getting runners on base is obviously a great concept, however, the team needs to find more of a balance between high OBP and power.  This is one of the main reasons the team let go of their previous hitting coach and assistant hitting coach.  The former coaches tried to make the whole lineup have a similar philosophy.  This led to the Pittsburgh Pirates being ranked 25th in home runs last year and 16th in overall slugging.

Now the team has brought in Rick Eckstein and Jacob Cruz.  These two coaches are preaching to let hitters be themselves and focusing on attack angles to have the most optimal point of contact. By doing so, players with more power such as Corey Dickerson, Jung Ho Kang, and potentially Josh Bell should hit for more home runs this year.  Meanwhile, players like Francisco Cervelli, Lonnie Chisenhall, and Adam Frazier can continue to focus on getting base knocks and extra-base hits.

They have already shown this new approach off this spring training.  The Pittsburgh Pirates currently have the sixth most home runs out of all the baseball teams, hitting 35 home runs in 23 games, or an average of 1.5 home runs per game played.  Last year the team averaged 0.97 home runs per game.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a lot of hitters with a good bit of raw power.  Players like Starling Marte, Jung Ho Kang, Corey Dickerson, and potentially Colin Moran all have more power that can be tapped into with a change in their launch angle.  The new hitting coaches seem to be stressing this concept and thus it has led to an uptick in production already.