At 10-13 the mood in Pittsburgh is the same as it always is. When does football season start? But with hockey season over and the Steelers season a few months away we are left with a few months of Pirate baseball to digest. After FSN flashed a few recent stats of Walker, Tabata and Alvarez, I figured I'd take a look for myself. So with roughly 1/7 of the season in the books, here's an inside look on the numbers on Pirates hitting.
Pedro Alvarez (.222 Avg 6 HR 12 RBI) Last 9 games 12-33 .363 Avg 4 HR 10 RBI..... vs. Left hand Pitcher 4-11 .363 Avg 1 HR 3RBI..... While the last 2 sets of numbers are a step in the right direction, Alvarez has still struck out 25 times in 66 ABs at a rate of 38% of the time. However I am an advocate of power over contact and as long as Alvarez can continue to drive in runs and put the ball in stands he is very dangerous. He has shown ability to make contact against lefties, and even though it has been a small sample size Alvarez will be the everyday starter now and will not sit against lefties much more. The only way to find out if he can hit them is to face them. It's about time Pirate fans stop booing him at home and giving the guy a shot. He's going to be special.
Andrew McCutchen (.303 Avg 0 HR 7 RBI) Avg w/ runners in scoring position .294 with .381 OBP..... Avg vs. lefties .320 vs. righties .298... Mccutchen is not off to the great start as he was we all expected. The home runs will come, but you can not blame Cutch for not driving in runs. He has only had 21 at bats with RISP and he is batting .294 with 4 walks in those spots. The fact that Tabata was struggling early in the year played a major factor in the low numbers so expect Cutch to hit 15-20 HRs and still drive in 80 runs this season.
Jose Tabata (.233 Avg 1 HR 5 RBI) Last 9 games 13-37 .351 Avg 1 HR 5 RBI.... Tabata started the season off slow as did most of the team. He has come on as of late showing he can go to both sides of the field. He needs to show a little more aggression on the base pads because the speed is there. He is still very young and there is potential for him to be a very great player.
Neil Walker (.293 Avg 0 HR 6 RBI) Last 9 games 12-32 .375 Avg 0 HR 1 RBI.... Walker has picked up right where he left off last season. Like Mccutchen though he has had very few chances to drive in runs and it has reflected in his numbers. Walker will continue to hit for good average and if we can runners on base he will drive them in.
Alex Presley (.271 Avg 1 HR 5 RBI) Avg w/ runners in scoring position .357.... Presley has been everything we thought he would to start the season. However he isn't taking many walks and his own base percentage (.295) isn't where you want your leadoff hitter to be. Presley has probably reached his ceiling and doesn't figure to be involved in the big plans for this team. Starling Marte will be the left fielder of the future and I can see Presley being part of a mid-season deal possibly.
Garrett Jones (.264 3 HR 10 RBI) vs RHP .280 3HR 10RBI.... Garrett Jones has been a splendid surprise for the Buccos this season. On pace for 21 Homers and 70 RBI Jones has been above average against right handers this season. Tallying only 3 at bats vs. lefties (0 hits), the addition of McGehee to the roster makes the Jones/McGehee platoon pretty solid.
Casey McGehee (.242 Avg 0 HR 3 RBI) vs LHP .316 0HR 0RBI.... We were all hoping that McGehee would put up the big power numbers that he had in years before. This has not been the case. But he is still getting on base against lefties and with Garrett Jones playing well against RHP McGehee will platoon for the time being.
Clint Barmes (.145 Avg 2 HR 2 RBI) vs RHP .151 Avg... vs LHP .125 Avg.... There's no easy way to say it. Barmes blows this season. He's a career .250 hitter so we knew what we were getting in him. He's made a few errors as well but he is Clint Hurdle's guy so he won't be seeing the bench anytime soon.
Rod Barajas (.151 Avg 0 HR 0 RBI) vs. LHP .143... vs. RHP .154.... Another Pirate that has done nothing but disappoint. We knew he wouldn't hit for average but he has hit double digit home runs in 7 of his last 8 seasons. With Mckenry producing in limited playing time, I am not sure how much longer Hurdle can wait.
Fort Mckenry - The Fort is 6-20 (.300 Avg) with 1 HR and 1 RBI. A very small sample size but Barajas is struggling so much that the Fort will get some playing time. I mean he did hit the biggest home run of the season last year and the fans seem to love him....
With a lot of baseball to play these numbers will change dramatically throughout the season. It's too early to get excited and too early to give up. So why not be excited?
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