Comparing The 2021 Pirates to 2020 through 60 Games
The 2020 season was not a fun year for the Pittsburgh Pirates as they finished as the worst team in baseball at 19-41. There wasn't much excitement on any aspect of the game, as Ben Cherrington and his staff admitted the Pirates were going into another rebuild. The positive was that the Pirates would get the number one overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft. With rumors of guys like Joe Musgrove, Josh Bell, and even Jameson Taillon all on the trade block, there wasn't much optimism for the team. The only real positive for the Pirates heading into 2021 was the emergence of their rookie third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, who was the early favorite to be the National League's Rookie of the Year.
Well, it is one calendar year later, and all three of the aforementioned trade block guys were gone, and in their place are guys like Wil Crowe, David Bednar, and Roansy Contreras in the Minor Leagues. The Pirates were also bombarded with injuries, including losing Ke'Bryan Hayes for the first two months of the season. Despite all of this, the Pirates over-achieved in April and are sitting better than many Pirates' fans thought they would be at 23-37. However, the record can be deceiving if you take a look further into the stat line. There is more excitement surrounding this team moving forward, with promising young prospects in the Minor Leagues, and some core players here in Pittsburgh now. Today, we compare all three aspects of the game to see if the Pirates are truly improving from last year.
Offensive Struggles
One of the biggest keys to a team's success is its ability to score runs and give its pitchers support. Over the last two seasons, the Pirates really haven't had a lot to be excited about on the offensive side. Much like their record, the batting averages differ slightly from 2020 to 2021. In 2020, the Pirates had a team batting average of .220 with 59 home runs and 210 RBI in 60 games. In 2021, they have seen that batting average go up slightly to .227 with 41 home runs and 198 RBI. While the batting average has gone up, the run production has gone down significantly. It isn't much of a surprise as they lost their biggest power threat from last season in Josh Bell.
The man really keeping this offense afloat is the Major League Baseball hit leader Adam Frazier. Frazier currently leads the Pirates with his .330 batting average and has firmly planted himself as the leadoff hitter. Last season Frazier had the worst season of his professional career, hitting just .230. He has raised his average by over 100 points and has been a leader on offense. Another bounce-back player for the Pirates has been Bryan Reynolds. Reynolds hit under .300 for the first time in his professional career in 2020, hitting .189, and was hit hard by the pandemic. However, he is back in 2021 hitting .284 with nine home runs and a team-high 28 RBI. It is Frazier and Reynolds powering the offense this year, with a healthy Hayes in the wings, and has led to the bounce back from the offense.
Pitching Gets Younger
The biggest difference between the 2020 pitching staff and the 2021 pitching staff is the age. Veterans Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon have been replaced by JT Brubaker and Wil Crowe. The Pirates also worked to add free-agent veterans Tyler Anderson and Trevor Cahill as guiding lights for the young staff. However, the results have been similar with the 2020 Pirates posting a 4.68 ERA and the 2021 team posting a 4.67 ERA in their first 60 games of the season. Where the big difference lies is in the control the teams showed. In 2020, the Pirates walked the third-most batters in all of baseball with 249 walks. However, they have greatly improved in that aspect in 2021, walking 201 to rank right in the middle of the league.
The leader of the Pirates 2020 staff was left-hander Steven Brault, who hasn't pitched in 2021 due to injury. He posted a 3.38 ERA and promptly earned himself a spot in the Pirates rotation at the start of August. Brault is not a big strikeout guy, but he got hitters out by generating a lot of soft contact and getting the opposition to ground out. By contrast, the Pirates staff leader this year has been JT Brubaker, who has been much more of a power pitcher on the hill Brubaker's ERA currently sits at 3.90 on the season, after he gave up five earned runs against the Dodgers last time out. The Pirates should get Brault back at some point in 2021, and it will help add another arm with JT Brubaker to strengthen this rotation. Both staffs have had just about equal production, but the walk numbers give this year's club a slight advantage.
Defense Restoration
While the pitching and offensive numbers are about the same, the biggest difference between the 2020 Pirates and the 2021 Pirates is DEFENSE. In 2020, the Pittsburgh Pirates were quite literally one of the worst defensive teams in all of Major League Baseball. They had the second-worst fielding percentage, .978, and committed the second-most errors as a team, 47, behind just the New York Yankees. Defense is one of the big things that Cherington has said he was going to fix this season, and that is a promise he has followed through on. In 2021, the Pirates are tied for sixth-best fielding percentage in the MLB, .984, and our 21st in the league in errors committed with 34. A lot of the defensive improvement has been addition by subtraction, with the loss of error-prone Josh Bell, as the Pirates are much more solid around the diamond.
Leading the way still is two-time Gold Glove nominee Adam Frazier, who is once again one of the top defensive second basemen in the league. He has a .978 fielding percentage after committing an error earlier in the season that had his fielding percentage up. Since that rough start, he has been here perfect on the field not committing an error in the end of May or in early June and is re-establishing himself as one of the top second basemen in the game. However, the biggest defensive improvement for the Pirates has come at first base. After Josh Bell posted a .984 fielding percentage in 2021, Colin Moran has replaced him and showed much more defensive prowess. In 257.2 innings played at first base this season, Moran has a .992 fielding percentage. The Pirates are getting similarly strong performances from Kevin Newman, Ke'Bryan Hayes, and Bryan Reynolds who have all been great defenders in their careers. It all starts with good defense and good pitching, and right now the Pirates are building a winner from the basics.
The Pittsburgh Pirates (23-37) wrap up their three-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers (36-25) at 12:35 pm. Mitch Keller (3-6, 6.65) is on the hill for the Pirates after lasting just two innings his last time out, going against Julio Urias (8-2, 3.48) for the Dodgers. You can watch the game live on AT&T Sportsnet or listen live on 93.7 The Fan.
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