Pirates Q&A: Can Offense Improve? Will They Lose 100? Shelton’s Fate
Things are still spiraling for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who have lost five in a row and eight of their last nine after falling in St. Louis on Monday night.
It’s only May 6, but it already feels like it’s time to press the panic button. Only two teams have a worse record than the Pirates so far. The Colorado Rockies are an abysmal 6-28. The Chicago White Sox, thanks to somewhat better play of late, are only 1.5 games behind Pittsburgh with a 10-25 record.
Yikes.
Let’s get into your questions.
Are the Pirates as bad as their record? Will they lose 100 games? – @1992Pirates
Based off run differential, yes, the Pirates are currently as bad as their record indicates. Based off how they’ve played so far, I’d also say yes to that.
Will they lose 100 games? Through 34 games to start the season, the Pirates are on pace for a 54-108 record, which would be their worst finish since the schedule was upped to 162 games.
Losing 100 games is hard. Only three teams lost 100+ games last season — the White Sox, Rockies and Marlins. In order to finish with fewer than 100 losses, the pirates need to go 51-75 the rest of the way. That’s attainable, even with what they’ve done so far.
I’ll say they avoid 100-plus losses, but it might not be by much.
What is the answer to left field? Can we just not play Cutch a little more in right, move BR back to left and use Bart as DH on any day he isn’t catching? That could happen twice a week at least. Do you think they are regretting moving on from Josh P. He would have given a little more help than this current group. – Tim
The answer to your question is that the answer to left field is not currently on the roster, and might not even be in the organization.
The Pirates clearly should have made a bigger splash than signing 37-year-old Tommy Pham to a modest one-year free agent contract this offseason. Left field was a huge need and there were better options, but again, it all comes down to money.
The decision to move to Reynolds to right field was partially because he doesn’t have the range to handle the spacious left field at PNC Park. Moving him back there — even on a part-time basis — doesn’t seem very likely.
This is speculation, but I feel like the Pirates were putting too much hope into a Jack Suwinski bounce-back this season. It hasn’t happened. It doesn’t look like it’s going to either.
One potential option is Nick Yorke, who is heating up with Indianapolis. He doesn’t have much experience out there, but he has some. And the Pirates need to do SOMETHING, given that their left fielders have a .417 OPS this season. For context, former Pirates’ starting pitcher Kip Wells had a career .468 OPS.
Is there anything that would even remotely suggest that this offense can improve? -Tom Seidler
There are a couple reasons for some optimism. For starters, Spencer Horwitz and Nick Gonzales are both getting closer to returning to the team after combining for one game so far this season. Neither player is a true difference-maker, but both should help in lengthening the lineup.
Secondly, I’m a believer in the law of averages. Bryan Reynolds is having a down year so far, but he’ll hit a hot stretch to make his numbers look more what we’ve expected to see from him. Maybe promoting Nick Yorke could provide somewhat of a boost too.
But the Pirates are six-plus weeks into the season and the offense has been abysmal. Even if it marginally improves, it’s probably too late to make much of a difference anyway.
My question is why is Derek Shelton still the manager? – Jay Culp
When will they fire the manager? – Todd Andrews
Let me start by saying this. Do I believe Shelton is the biggest reason for the Pirates’ flaws? Absolutely not, but he’s not absolved either.
The Pirates make far too many mental mistakes and miscues. Sure, that’s on the players, but it’s also on the coaches. This team is not good fundamentally.
It’s year six. How much better are the Pirates right now than they were when Shelton took over as manager? The hockey team in the same city fired their coach despite winning two Stanley Cups. The Pirates have done nothing over the last six years and have yet to make any real changes.
It’s probably time for the Pirates to make a move. It’s probably time for them to make a couple moves. In all honesty, these moves should have been done after last season ended.
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