That the Pirates would have a bad offense this year was a given. Only the Giants and Padres had a worse wOBA or scored fewer runs in 2011. The offseason saw the Pirates drop an unimpressive shortstop (forecast by ZIPS to be 108th in wOBA) for a light-hitting shortstop (forecast to be 42nd), drop a poor fielding, decent hitting catcher (forecast 26th in wOBA) and add a better fielding, worse hitting catcher (forecast 29th in wOBA). The other big addition was McGeehe, who was a clearly a gamble, with the hope that last year was an abberation not the start of a trend.
Improvement on offense would have to come from the players already on the team. And that's what has not happened. Here's a table with Marcel and ZIPS forecasts of wOBA and the actual to date. Alvarez and Barajas are within shouting distance of their forecasts, but Tabata, Walker, Jones only look good in comparison to Presley.
Lets close with some good news. Pressley had three hits in AAA last night, and most of these players could still get close to their projections, giving the Bucs an offense that's merely well below average, rather than legendary.
Name | ZIPS wOBA | Marcel wOBA | wOBA |
Andrew McCutchen | 0.359 | 0.360 | 0.395 |
Pedro Alvarez | 0.333 | 0.314 | 0.296 |
Jose Tabata | 0.331 | 0.336 | 0.257 |
Neil Walker | 0.328 | 0.329 | 0.282 |
Alex Presley | 0.328 | 0.339 | 0.233 |
Garrett Jones | 0.325 | 0.324 | 0.277 |
Starling Marte | 0.322 | ||
Rod Barajas | 0.313 | 0.294 | 0.279 |
Casey McGehee | 0.307 | 0.314 | 0.244 |
Matt Hague | 0.305 | ||
Josh Harrison | 0.301 | 0.313 | 0.340 |
Clint Barmes | 0.296 | 0.298 | 0.210 |
Yamaico Navarro | 0.296 | 0.303 | 0.215 |
Michael McKenry | 0.285 | 0.292 | 0.305 |