Jason Mackey is reporting that, according to multiple sources, the Pirates expect to keep all their coaches for next season. It’s undoubtedly thrilling news, knowing that the Pirates will be able to continue their smashingly successful evaluation process into next season and build on their 19-win campaign.
Well, seriously, I thought they did pretty well on the pitching end, or at least the season ended well enough. I’m still not sure what to make of Mitch Keller’s odd, and very brief, season. I think I DO know what to make of Trevor Williams’ season, and I don’t think coaching is going to help. Otherwise, I think they did reasonably well considering the injuries, the guys returning from injury, and the absence of any major-league quality additions in the off-season. There’s only so much you can do with waiver pickups.
I know a lot of fans find the team’s baserunning . . . uh . . . irritating, but I’m not sure it’s that bad. The team had very little speed and was close to the worst base-stealing team in MLB, but FanGraphs grades them only a little below average in BsR, -2.3 specifically. (Interestingly, FG thinks Gregory Polanco was very good and Bryan Reynolds was awful.)
Then there’s the hitting. All I can say here is, if you go through the strike zone and batted ball data, the Pirates as a team have an atrocious approach at the plate across the board. Something is seriously wrong there.
