Unconventional lineup working for Pirates…so far
With the small-sample caveat of the season being barely more than three weeks old, the Pirates’ decision to use unconventional batting orders has been a success so far.
The Pirates entered Monday night’s game against the Colorado Rockies at Denver leading the major leagues in on-base percentage by a wide margin. The Pirates’ .381 mark was 25 points higher than the St. Louis’ Cardinals .356.
A large part of the reason has been because the Pirates have used a pair of non-traditional leadoff hitters with first baseman John Jaso at the top of the order against right-handed pitchers and shortstop Jordy Mercer against left-handers.
Neither player is a speedster as Jaso has 15 stolen bases in eight seasons and Mercer has 11 steals in five years. However, Jaso has a .369 career on-base percentage against righties and Mercer has a .383 mark against lefties.
Furthermore, the Pirates’ .294 batting average was also easily tops in the majors ahead of the Boston Red Sox’s .277. The Pirates were also tied for fourth in runs scored with an average of 5.0 a game.
Those are all impressive figures for an offense that lost a combined 43 home runs in the offseason when Pedro Alvarez was not tendered a contract and Neil Walker was traded to the New York Mets. The Pirates were next-to-last in the major leagues with 11 homers through 19 games but have compensated with the high OBP.
“What we did was we looked for creative ways, analytical ways, to rearrange the furniture,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “Take the players that we have, and use different ways to line them up, match them up.
“I don’t know if anyone had (Mercer leading off) before the season started. We didn’t have it until we started turning back the layers in the offseason. So far so good.”
However, the Pirates’ record was just 10-9 despite the gaudy numbers as the pitching staff was a disappointing 22nd among the 30 major league teams with an average of 4.58 runs allowed a game.
One downside to the new lineup is that center fielder Andrew McCutchen seems to be struggling with the adjustment of moving up one spot in the order to No. 2. He was hitting just .213 with a .684 OPS.
However, the Pirates are firm in their belief that McCutchen will eventual get back to his star-level production. They also feel having him bat second helps makes the lineup go because it enables second baseman Josh Harrison and right fielder Gregory Polanco to bat lower in order, where they can be more aggressive on the bases
“Now they are spots where they can run,” Hurdle said. “Before, when they were in front of McCutchen, there was a little hesitation to run. They didn’t want to risk getting thrown out with a guy like Cutch at the plate.”