Thursday, May 24, 2012

Pirates 'offense' making history

By Joe Starkey
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
May 24, 2012


PITTSBURGH, PA - MAY 23: Josh Harrison #5 of the Pittsburgh Pirates scores on an RBI single by Andrew McCutchen #22 (not pictured) against the New York Mets during the game on May 23, 2012 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Mets defeated the Pirates 3-1. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

First, a public service regarding speculation that the Pirates are the most anemic offensive team ever assembled.

They are not.

Not yet, anyway.

But they are on pace to become the second-lowest scoring team of the expansion era, which dates to 1961. After a lifeless 3-1 loss to the New York Mets on Wednesday, the Pirates are averaging a miniscule 2.863 runs per game. Elias Sports Bureau tells us that number would place them third among the worst offenses of the past 42 years.

The five lowest-scoring teams since ‘61 ...

5. The 1968 L.A. Dodgers (2.90)
4. The 1969 expansion San Diego Padres (2.89)
3. The 2012 Pirates (2.863)
2. The 1968 Chicago White Sox (2.858)
1. The 1963 Houston Colt .45s (2.858)

It gets worse. A college student sitting next to me at PNC Park feverishly looked up numbers on FanGraphs.com and discovered that the Pirates are on pace to post the SECOND-LOWEST ON-BASE PERCENTAGE OF ALL-TIME, behind only the Brooklyn Superbas of 1908.

What is a Superba?

The kid didn’t know. Neither did anyone else. Meanwhile, the Twittersphere kept spitting out mind-blowing Pirates numbers. ESPN Stats and Info fired off this one: “The Pirates have 14 games scoring one run or fewer. That matches the most for the team in first 44 games since 1918.”

The kid wanted to go deeper on the Pirates’ .269 on-base percentage.

“These numbers only go back to 1900,” he said. “Let’s go back before that.”

No, no, let’s not. Let’s stick with the obvious here: The Pirates have put together a historically horrendous lineup — so far wasting a top-five pitching staff — and the best answer they can think of is Gorkys Hernandez, who made his first major league start yesterday and failed to get a ball out of the infield.

You’ll notice a couple of the teams listed above were from 1968, known as “The Year of the Pitcher.” Bob Gibson had a 1.12 earned run average in 1968. Denny McLain won 31 games. Major League Baseball subsequently took the drastic measure of reducing the height of the mound from 15 inches to 10.

What will it do for the Pirates, bring out tees?

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