Position Report Card: Relif Pitcher

Today I am going to focus on relif pitchers, but not the closer, stay tuned for my take on the Pirates 9th inning situation in my next post. Middle relievers, or 'bridge' guys are very important to have as a ball club. I have a little bit of experience with this position myself as well. This summer I was the 8th inning guy for the Mat-Su Miners of Palmer, Alaska in the Alaska Baseball League.

This year's bridge or set-up guys for the Buccos were lefties Tony Watson and Justin Wilson as well as righty ground ball specialist Jared Hughes. It was a new thing in 2014 for these guys becuase Mark Melancon (the current closer) had that role last year while former Pirate and current Angel Jason Grilli was in charge of the 9th inning.

Tony Watson had an incredible career year in 2014. He was selected to represent the Pirates in the All-Star Game which is extremly rare for a middle reliever. Watson racked up 77 1/3 innings pitched while holding a 1.63 era. He also only surrendered 64 hits in those innings while striking out 81 batters. A very, very soild 8th inning guy.

Pirates pitcher Tony Watson
photo courtsey:  mlb.com

Justin Wilson came back down to earth this year after a great 2013 season. Although he will not get a chance to retain form with the Pirates, as he was traded to the Yankees this offseason. The Yankess are going to be very pleased with the young flamethrowing lefty. I think he will definitley succeed in the AL East. Wilson ended the year with a 4.20 era. His problem was with the strike zone. He walked 30 batters in 60 innings pitched, which is not good.

Lastly is Jared Hughes. I have always liked Hughes, he is a ground ball pitcher like myself. He pitches with a lot of passion and it was great to see him really come into his own and succeed this year. Hughes had an impressive 1.96 era in 64 1/3 innings pitched this year.

***Overall Grade B+

Position Report Card: Starting Pitcher

Starting Pitching is very, very important for any club if they hope to be successful over the course of a 162 game season. For this post, I am going to focus on three of the Pirates starting pitchers this year, but factor all of the starters throughout the course of the year for the final grade.

Gerrit Cole, Edison Volquez, and Charlie Morton will be the three pitchers that I will breakdown for this post. This is a good variety because this year Cole was dominant, Volquez surprised us all, and Morton was inconsistent.

Gerrit Cole is a solidified ace, and the undoubted #1 of the Pirates pitching staff. He has electric stuff with a 95+ mph fastball, a good slider, and a nast change-up. This year, Cole went 11-5 with a 3.65 era, averaging 1 strikeout/inning with 138 in 138 innings pitched. Cole suffered from the injury bug a bit this year, otherwise he would have had more innings pitched.

Edison Volquez was the surprise of the Pirates staff this year. Arguably the Bucs most consistent arm, Volquez went 13-7 with a team leading 3.04 era in a team leading 192.2 innings pitched. In my opinion Volquez should have won comeback player of the year this season, but the voters must have thought otherwise.

Lastly is Charlie Morton. I 've said for the past few years the Morton has the best pitches on the team, and I still firmly believe that. He just suffers from wildness and bad fielding with all the ground balls he gets at times. Morton went 6-12 this season despite having a respectable 3.72 era. This just shows the lack of run support Morton recieves. Morton also suffered from the injury bug this year, spending some time on the disabled list with a hip injury. He was still able to compile 157.1 innings pitched though.

Overall, I give the Pirates starting pitching an ***A. Thier pitching coach Ray Searage is a mastermind and he continues to get the most out of lackluster names. The Pirates had quite a number of injuries this year and they were able to mange that as well. I t will be interesitng to see if they can once angain do it next year.

Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage (left) with Pirates picher Edison Volquez (right)
photo courtsey of the Bradeton Herald

Position Report Card: Right Field

Right field was another position that the Pittsburgh Pirates were a let down in 2014. You are never going to have a great deal of success when a position's playing time is split between 2 or even 3 people, yet that is what the Pirates did in this situation.

Travis Snider, Gregory Polanco, and even a little bit of Josh Harrison sprinkled in was what the Buccos right field was made up of this past season.

Snider began the season in extremly underwhelming fashion. There was even speculation that he would be designated for assignment when they were thinking about calling up Polanco, but that was not the case. Maybe that was what lit a fire under Snider, but whatever it was he actully ended up putting up some fairly respectable numbers across the board. Snider hit 13 homes runs, had 38 runs batted in, and hit at an avergae of .264 in 140 games played. He also excelled as a pinch-hitter.

Travis Snider pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates
phot courtsey of Snider's twitter account

Polanco was supposed to be a savior for the Pirates. A highly talented rookie this year with still an enermous amount of potential, but it just didn't all click for him this year. We all saw flashes of his talent, but overall he was just a little too inconsistent at the plate going on long stretches without recording a hit. Polanco ended the year with a line of 7 home runs, 33 runs batted in, and a very low .235 batting average.

Gregory Polanco
photo courtsey of pittsburghpirates.com

Combining those numbers, the 2 primary right fielders for the Bucs hit 20 homes runs and batted 71 runs, while not hitting for any kind of average. Not horrible numbers, but definitley not great by any stretch of the word. This is defintiley and area that needs improvement for continued success for the Pirates in 2015.

Overall Grade:  C+

Position Report Card: Center Field

Well this one should be easy. As any and all Pittsburgh Pirates fans know, they have one of the best not only center fielders in the game, but players in general in Andrew McCutchen.

McCutchen won the 2013 National League Most Valuable Player Award, and after finsishing 3rd in the race this past year, that gives him 3 straight top 3 finishes dating back to 2012. McCutchen's impressive numbers this year were as follows:  25 home runs, 83 runs batted in, .314 batting average, and an incredible .410 on-base percentage in a total of 146 games played.

It can be argued that Andrew McCutchen is the heart, soul, and reason that the Pittsburgh Pirates are now a respectable franchise around Major League Baseball. If not for McCutchen, I think that the Pirates would not only have not made the playoffs, but they would still be continuting to their North American Professional Sports record of 20+ consecutive losing seasons.

Along with being an incredible offensive player, McCutchen is way above average patrolling center field for the Pirates, with a gold glove award already added to his resume.

Overall Grade:  A+
 

Photo courtsey of stellcitybuzz.com

Position Report Card: Left Field

Starling Marte was not the only person to play left field for the Pittsburgh Pirates this season, but he was their primary left fielder, so we're going to focus on him for this position report card.

Starling Marte, who now has 2 full seasons under his belt for the Pirates, enjoyed his best year to date this season, having career best numbers in many offensive categories. Marte set career marks for hits (144), doubles (29), home runs (13), runs batted in (56), walks (33), batting average (.291), on-base percentage (.356), slugging percentage (.453), and OPS (.808). Marte also improved slightly in areas of his game that need some work. He decreased his strikeouts and caught stealings in 2014.

Overall, Marte's talent is still very raw. He is only 25 years old and his game is only going to keep improving. Marte has the ability to become a 30 home run and 30 stolen base kind of player in the near future. If that is indeed the case, the Buccos are going to be in great shape at one of the most important positions on the diamond.

***Overall Grade:  B

Position Report Card: First Base

Next on the list of position report cards for the Pittsburgh Pirates is the first base position, where time was split primarily between Gaby Sanchez and Ike Davis this year. For the past couple of seasons, the Pirates have played the match-up game when deciding who to run out their to first base. So this year if their opponent was throwing a left-handed pitcher, the Pirates would use Sanchez, a right-handed batter, and if they faced a right-handed pitcher, Davis would get the start, being a left-handed batter.

This worked out as well as you would think giving two guys limited reps, and never letting a single guy find his rhythm at the plate.... Not very well.

Gaby Sanchez, who has been with the Bucs for the past 2 1/2 years now, struggled this year at the plate. He hit only .229 with 7 home runs and 33 runs batted in. These are very wea numbers all around for a player that appeared in 123 games this season.

Ike Davis performed better than Sanchez, although still no where near great. Davis, who was traded over from the New York Mets this season, hit .235 with 10 home runs and 46 runs batted in. Davis had a very good eye at the plate. He worked 57 base on balls to bring his on-base percentage to a solid .343

Gaby Sanchez (left) and Ike Davis (middle)
photo cred: cityofchampionssports.com
 

It will be interesting to see if the Pirates make any additions to the first base position this off season, or if they decide to again go with the matchup game.

***Overall Grade:  C-

Position Report Card: Second Base

Neil Walker at his alma malter, Pine Richland
photo cred: pinerichland.org

Every Pittsburgh Pirate fan knows who the team's starting 2nd baseman is. It is Neil Walker the Pittsburgh Kid out of Pine Richland high school, and up until this year being the "Pittsburgh Kid" was probably the best part of his game, but not anymore.

Although he battled injuries for a part of the 2014 season, Walker enjoyed his best season of his career both offensively and defensively. If it wasn't for getting hurt, Walker would have been an All-Star selection this season. Walker hit a solid .271 with an impressive 23 home runs and 76 runs batted in. Along with the great offensive output, Walker made only 5 errors in a whopping 630 chances, giving him a .992 fielding percentage. Walker also showed a great improvement with his range this year, surprising us as fans time-after-time with some great game changing plays.

photo cred:  espn.com

Walker definitely surprised me with his great 2014 season, and as a Pittsburgh Pirates fan and Pittsburgh native, I am really looking forward to seeing what he can do as an encore in 2015. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Walker representing the National League at 2nd base next year at the Mid-Summer Classic.

***Overall Grade:  B+