There is no one fact that the Pirates are a bad baseball team. They entered their seventh consecutive defeat season with a 54-74 record, ranking 9th in the last 10. However, it turns out that pirates are chasing history, albeit in a low-key and self-evident way. Since completing this season in the early 20th century, they are in danger of becoming the first AL or NL team, without a single batsman producing at the league average or higher.
I don’t mean “no single routine”, although it depends on how we define the term, but it’s on the table too. I mean Anyone Who wears the Pirates’ black and gold this season when he puts on the plate. WRC+’s top Pirates bats are infielders Nick Gonzales and Liover Peguero, both of whom have a WRC+ of 98. Pittsburgh’s 26-year-old regular second baseman hit the .278/.322/.392/.392/.392/.392/.392/.392/.392/.392/.392 plates appeared. His game was limited to 62 games due to a ball fractured from his left ankle caused by a foul during spring training, even from Lake Bachar in Lake Mariins. After wandering around the base, he was on the injured list and did not return to the roster until June 3. Infielder Peguero, 24, has been playing some regular matches with him since late July, bounced between Triple-A Indianapolis and the Grand Slam. In 58 PA, he hit .208/.276/.453.
Another six pirates had WRC+ in the 90s:
Pirates’ main batsman WRC+
*Currently on the injured list
So close…but so far. This is a team with four regulars and a coffee cup that finished 100 or higher last season and has five above average producers in Horwitz (119), Cruz (115), Reynolds, Reynolds (114), Jack Suwinski (115), Jack Suwinski (105) (105) and Gredzales (104) (104) (104) (104). Peguero actually has the lowest mark in the 76-year-old Pirates’ projections, but he is on the rankings due to the small sample. None of the other 16 Pirates who’ve taken at least one plate appearance for the team this season have a wRC+ higher than 85, and five have at least 100 plate appearances and a wRC+ of 65 or lower, named Jared Triolo (65), the since-traded Ke’Bryan Hayes (57), Suwinski (56), Alexander Canario (54), and Henry Davis (47). This is very serious.
Apart from Cruz knocking Cruz down, some of them may be attributed solely to luck due to a collision with Suwinski and are returning back. The comparison between the Pirates’ actual and expected Waubas shows that 15 of their 24 batsmen were less than their expected number to reach at least 30 points, while all bats except four (including Adam Frazier since then) had at least a little 1 point. The three players who ended up with the 502 sets needed to get the batting championship (stumbled by chance with three lowest WRC+ marks in the table above), each WOBA’s 35 to 40 points exceeded the pace. Peguero is an outlier in the other direction, and the team’s 26-point shortage is the largest in the major:
At the time, one of our readers caught my attention during this week’s chat with odd numbers on this team-wide statistics, and according to baseball reference, Pegro’s OPS+ was 100. After I tried to dig deeper to determine if this was the first time that the major leagues hit a dead end with B-REF’s Stathead, I turned to developer Sean Dolinar to run WRC+’s favorite queries on our own database. I chose to limit the choice to AL and NL teams in the 20th and 21st century, which makes an 11-team team with two or fewer players, with 100 WRC+ or higher players, regardless of game time:
There are few batsmen on AL/NL teams, with WRC+ at least 100
| team | season | WRC+≥100 @ 1 PA | WRC+≥100 @ Qual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pirates in Pittsburgh | 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Brooklyn Super Bath | 1908 | 1 | 1 |
| Seattle sailors | 1980 | 1 | 1 |
| Minnesota twins | 1981* | 1 | 0 |
| Colorado Rockies | 2020* | 1 | 1 |
| Boston bean plant | 1901 | 2 | 0 |
| Philadelphia Track and Field | 1921 | 2 | 2 |
| Chicago White Sox | 1942 | 2 | 1 |
| Auckland Track and Field | 1979 | 2 | 1 |
| Boston Red Socks | 1994* | 2 | 1 |
| Chicago White Sox | 2024 | 2 | 0 |
Since 1901. Qualification based on modern definition (3.1 sets per team play).
* = Shorten the season
Two of the teams came from a shortened season with strikes and the other from a poor season with pandemics, so the sample size is not surprising. Nevertheless, this proves the rareness of pirate failure. To minimize some confusion, here are the batsmen of the team in question:
Batters with the team with the least hitters of this type + 100 WRC+
* = Qualify for the league batting championship (3.1 sets per team).
Worth it’s a quick and easy job on these other teams. To make the changes I will work backwards in chronological order.
2024 White Socks
The team that set a modern single-season record (121), had two non-Qualifiers cleared the 100 WRC+ bar, namely Pham, or Pham, who sold to the Cardinal in the Tommy Edman/Erick Fedde Triew-the-way exchange, before being exempted by Royals on August 31 and putting pressure on August 31 by Moncada and Moncada and 12 Games Weart to the Moncada. Three other players came close: Zach Remillard (.242/.342/.333, 98 wRC+ in 39 PA), Andrew Vaughn (.246/.297/.402, 97 wRC+ in 619 PA), and Paul DeJong (.228/.275/.430, 97 wRC+ in 363 PA), the last of whom who was dealt to the Royals near the Deadline. The team-wide WRC+ is 75, which is the lowest virtual tie in this group.
2020 Rocky Mountains
The story played 60 games for the Rockies (26-34) in 59 games, which is still his last season away from the IL. Two of the three regulars approached 100 WRC+ – Raimel Tapia (96 WRC+ in 206 PA) and Charlie Blackmon (97 WRC+ in 247 PA) – kept it the same busyness. The mid-season acquisition was missed after the Aug. 31 deadline from the Red Sox, Kevin Pillar single point (99 WRC+ in 97 PA).
1994 Red Socks
In the year when the players who canceled the World Series strike, the Red Sox’s Roger Clemens, Mo Vaughn (their first baseman), Valentin (their shortstop), there was nothing else worth noting. They succeeded 54-61 under manager Butch Hobson. Left fielder Mike Greenwell ended with 99 WRC+, with third baseman Scott Cooper (their only All-Star) and second baseman Tim Naehring both at 95 points.
1981 Twins
In the year of the season strike, the twins were eventually known for their second win (41-68) and “unparalleled”. Smalley, a former All-Star shortstop, was excellent when available but plagued by back problems, sent him on the disabled roster these two times and limited him to 56 games. Four other twins – Dave Engle, Ron Jackson (traded to the Tigers in August), John Castino (formerly the best rookie of the year, who would be restricted by back problems himself) and Gary Ward, though it ended in the 92-97 WRC+ series, although only the 92-97 WRC+ series, although only Castino and Mickey Hatcher (77 WRC+) can get enough box office to get enough box office to get enough titles to get the game.
Sailor of 1980
In its fourth year of survival, the Mariners remained a cruel and bad baseball club with a 59-103 record as the second worst inning in the team history. Their first baseman Bochte was their All-Star Game in 1979. His work dropped out for a while in 1980, but he still led several miles above Seattle’s other batsmen, including regular outfielders Tom Paciorek and Leon Roberts and Reggie Walton, both of whom finished with a 95 WRC+.
Track and Field Sports in 1979
This version of the A game was so ugly with a 54-108 record that it attracted only 306,763 fans to the gym throughout the season, the least in any non-pandemic period in Auckland. On April 17, the official attendance rate against the Mariners was only 653, while on September 18, there were only 750 people. While A did call rookie Rickey Henderson in late June, he hit only with 91 WRC+. Murphy, their midfielder fielder and their first baseman Revering are the only batsmen, among third baseman Wayne Gross’s WRC+ batsmen over 94.
1942 White Sox
Jimmy Dykes played for the 1921 A (see below), and the White Sox scored a 66-82 record. Wright, their left fielder and right fielder Moses have had decent seasons. The former even received a lot of support in the MVP vote, although it only participated in 85 games before being elected as the military in August. Hall of Fame shortstop Luke Appling has an unusually low season at .262/.342/.341 (95 WRC+); he will win the AL batting championship at 36 next year while helping the White Sox win the game with an 82-72 record.
Track and Field Sports in 1921
From 1910-14, A won three World Series and an extra colored flag, but finance lead manager/owner Connie Mack removed its famous “$100,000 infield” which included first baseman Plush McInnis, second baseman Eddie Collins, second baseman Eddie Collins (Hall of Fame), Jack Barry and third baseman Frank Frank, also Home Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run. For that sin, A finished the final match in the league of eight teams for seven consecutive seasons, the last. They had a 53-100 record, with Walker, left fielder and right fielder Witt having very good seasons. Dykes, who led the league as a second baseman (including tie) (including tie), just missed the bar that cleared the league average, ended with a 99 WRC+ in 701 sets.
1908 Superbas
The team that later became the Dodgers was taller than Super Bud (53-101). Jordan led the NL with 12 home runs that year (his second such title in three seasons) and was by far the best player in Brooklyn. Superbas is in WRC+ in the 92-96 range, with outfielder/second baseman John Hummel (96 WRC+ in 642 PA) getting three regulars in the closest near turnovers.
Beans from 1901
The team (later known as the Warriors) somehow ended with a best record in any of 11 (69-69) and scored the lowest WRC+ in the group (75) with last year’s White Sox’s virtual tie. Two batsmen above average are the Hall of Fame, Slidin’Billy Hamilton, who currently has 914 steals, the third steal (Ty Cobb was considered a record holder when Lou Brock surpassed him in 1977) and Nichols – a pitcher! Hamilton is the final year of his 14-year Major League Baseball career, qualifying for a batting championship based on the rules of the day, which requires players to appear in 60% of the team’s games (140 in this case). Nichols’ 12th and final season in Boston (during which he had a slight statistical advantage over Cy Young himself), sometimes used as a pinch, outfielder or first baseman of the year, in addition to performing his duties. The other four players have a WRC+ between 92 and 99, although the player who missed a single point only made 59 sets, namely Rookie outfielder Pat Carney.
Woof, that’s some bad companies. Can pirates avoid joining or surpassing them? Our predictions still give them a shot. According to our season depth ranking forecast, Hovetz is expected to earn 113 WRC+, Cruz (108), Renault (107) and Gonzalez (103) (103) to join him on the above-average group. This should give Pittsburgh a chance to fight, but if none of these four players did that, then the team could be remembered besides wasting Paul Skenes’ season-season season.
