Money for Nothing, and Chicks For Free

With the NHL playoffs on FSN, I have not been able to actually watch the Pirates in sometime. I think that is good for me as from all I have read, in articles and in box scores, it might just make my blood pressure shoot up. Things are not going good for the club and it starts with the pitching. They have been giving away just far too much and not doing a good enough job executing.

Joe Kerrigan emphasizes the first pitch strike and with the rate at which these pitchers are throwing first pitch strikes, he might as well be talking to the wall. They say that a good rate to have to be a successful pitcher is around 60%, my guess is at least something that is in the upper ranges of being rounded to 60% would suffice. Here is what the Pirates pitching staff has been doing:

Name	F-Strike%
D.J. Carrasco	62.90%
Jack Taschner	62.50%
Paul Maholm	59.10%
Evan Meek	58.10%
Ross Ohlendorf	56.50%
Javier Lopez	53.90%
Daniel McCutchen	50.80%
Chris Jakubauskas	50.00%
Octavio Dotel	50.00%
Brian Burres	50.00%
Charlie Morton	49.20%
Zach Duke	49.00%
Brendan Donnelly	48.60%
Joel Hanrahan	39.10%
Hayden Penn	31.30%

Those just are not very good numbers.The vast majority of the staff, including the whole starting rotation outside of Maholm, have been giving away a free pitch, thus giving the hitters a distinct advantage. And take that advantage they have been. The Pirates have walked 68 batters, 6th worst in the league. They have only struck out 101 batters, worst in the National League. They are also dead last in Whip with a 1.68 average. Every batter thus far this season has looked like a Hall of Famer aginst the staff, as opponents are hitting .302 against them.

The free stuff does not just end, no just like how fans flock for bobbleheads, the Pirates staff has been allowing opposing teams to all the bases that they would. It is almost like the Kentucky Derby out there. Coming into the game Sunday, the Pirates had allowed 12 stolen bases. In Sunday's tilt, the Astros took 6 more running it to 18. Now as I write this I don't have the complete numbers, but that number will probably be 'good' enough for second place in the majors. Only the Red Sox would have allowed more, but that is skewed due to knuckleballer Tim Wakefield out there.

Granted the blame for stolen bases goes to the catcher, and surely Doumit is no Gold Glover with some cannon that will scare pitchers, but the stolen bases as go against the pitcher and they have not been doing a good job of holding runners.

There are plenty of problems with the Pirates offensive, but no matter how much or little they hit, it won't matter until the pitching staff stops giving up to much to the opponents. I don't think there was ever an offensive in baseball history that could score enough runs to keep up with the amount of offensive the pitchers are giving opposing teams.