Pittsburgh Pirates: Team Stat Rankings for 2019 so far

The Pittsburgh Pirates currently have a winning record and are just a few games back in the National League Central.  How are their stats against other teams?

Right now, the Pittsburgh Pirates have won 24 games and have lost 21 games this year.  If the season ended right now, the Bucs would have the second Wild Card spot.  While they are finding ways to win games, the Pittsburgh Pirates have had lots of issues on offense as well as in the bullpen.  The starting rotation started off the season well but has suffered injuries at one point or another to three fifth of the members.  So how do the Pirates team stats match up against other teams in the league?

Right now, the Pittsburgh Pirates team batting average is .241, ranking 21st in the league.  This is 13 points lower than their batting average at the end of last season which was .254.  The Bucs are tied at with the Oakland A’s in batting average right now, with the Phillies right in front of them at .242.  The Baltimore Orioles are ranked right below them with a .236 average.

One thing that the Bucs have struggled to do is score runs this year.  This really shows in their rankings for runs scored per game.  Right now, the Pittsburgh Pirates are only posting an average of 3.76 runs scored per game.  They are ranked near the bottom of the league at 27th overall.  The only teams behind them are the Padres, the Tigers, and the Marlins.  Meanwhile, the Blue Jays, the Giants, and the Orioles are in front of the Bucs.

The reason the team struggles with scoring is that the team leaves a ton of runners in scoring position.  However, they may not be leaving as many runners are people think.  The team currently leaves an average of 3.44 runners per game in scoring position.  This actually ranks right in the middle of the MLB at 15th overall.

The top team is the Padres who leave just 2.49 runners per game, while Philly leaves the most amount of runners at just over 4.00.  However, this stat can be a little skewed.  A team like the Padres leave the least amount of runners on but only has a team batting average of .224, meaning they do not have a ton of opportunities to score.

The Bucs pitching staff has fared a little better than the offense.  The team currently ranks 15th overall in team ERA at 4.24.  The team ranks seventh overall in the National League with all their division rivals except the Cardinals in front of them.  Meanwhile, the Bucs do rank 10th overall in strikeouts per nine innings pitched.  They average 9.04 punch outs and rank fifth overall in the National League.

All in all, the Bucs seem to be outperforming their team rankings.  Their offense ranks below average in a lot of the standard categories as many would expect.  However, coming into the season many thought their pitching staff would be their strength.  Right now, the staff is right in the middle of the road for ERA, which is not what people expected.

*All Stats are Courtesy of TeamRankings.com