Right Field: 1974 Richie Zisk
Richie Zisk’s career is one of the more underrated ones in the Pirates’ history. Despite giving the Pittsburgh Pirates four excellent seasons of production, he isn’t one of the Pirates’ more popular outfielders. That means he has some really underrated seasons under his belt. His 1974 season is one of the most underrated seasons for an outfielder.
Zisk appeared in 149 games and stepped to the plate 604 times. In those 604 plate appearances, Zisk hit for a .313/.386/.476 slash line to go with 17 long balls. Zisk posted a solid 10.8% walk rate, but struck out only 15.1% of the time as well. All told, Zisk had a 145 OPS+ and 144 wRC+. Defense wasn’t one of Zisk’s strong suits, but this year he posted some solid numbers in right field. He had +5 total zone runs in right, and threw out nine batters.
All told, Zisk had a 4.9 fWAR. That places him in the top 20 seasons of all Pirate right fielders. His wRC+ marks as the 22nd highest wRC+ among Bucco peers at his position throughout a single season.