FanPost

Pirates' Struggling Offense: OBP and Runs Scored


Everyone knows that the Bucs' offense has been pretty bad. But checking out on-base-percentage for the team and individual players brings the problem into even sharper focus. After last night's loss to the Nats, the Pirates' team OBP stood at .271..... a full 40 points below the .311 posted by opposing teams against our pitchers..... and 46 points below the major league average of .317.

And here are the current OBP's for our position players:

.404 McCutchen
.309 Walker
.301 McGehee
.298 McKenry
.287 Tabata
.277 Alvarez
.274 Jones
.256 Navarro
.250 McLouth
.246 Presley
.244 Barajas
.243 Harrison
.183 Barmes

That is absolutely awful! .....One guy over .309 and 10 of 13 hitters under .300, many WELL below .300..... and how can Barmes be THAT bad?

No team, no matter how good the pitching, can be competitive with an OBP and an offense which are that bad.

Not only that, but the Pirates have wasted quite a few baserunners by getting thrown out on the bases with alarming frequency, including failed stolen base attempts. The team has been successful in only 18 of 33 steal attempts (55%)..... while our opponents have been successful in 24 of 28 attempts (86%).

It seems unprecedented that a major league team could be this bad..... in just about every aspect of offense, whether it be batting average, OBP, slugging, OPS, runs, baserunning, walks, strikeouts, whatever. If I were younger, I might be motivated to do some more extensive research. For now, I just looked at runs scored, with the following results:

- The Pirates have scored 106 runs in 37 games, an average of 2.865 runs per game.

- That puts them on a pace to score 464 runs for the season..... which is historically bad.

- In the "modern era" (since 1900), that ties the worst the team has ever done. In 1917, the last-place Pirates scored 464 runs, while going 51-103. In that 154-game season, the Pirates scored just over 3 runs per game..... which makes the 2012 offense worse.

It's gotta get better..... doesn't it???

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