Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Statistical Anomalies in Franchise History

There are plenty of stats in baseball, and the Pittsburgh Pirates have been around for a long time. So what are some strange stats in the franchise’s history?

Statistics have been a big part of baseball’s history. Branch Rickey developed what might be considered the first advanced stat with on-base percentage in the 1940s. Heck, the first version of slugging percentage dates back to 1867, when total bases were divided by games. Today, its total bases are divided by at-bats rather than games played.

Whether you look at old school statistics or new metrics, every stat will show some strange outliers for one reason or another. The Pittsburgh Pirates have been around for a very long time, and there have been plenty of these statistical outliers that stand out. Today, I want to take a look at a few of these strange statistics.

We’re currently looking at single-season stats rather than career numbers. So without further ado, let’s look at our first strange statistic.