P2Daily: About Those Strikeouts…

The strikeouts in the Pirates’ farm system have generated a good deal of attention here, as they should have. It’s hard to miss. Seems like every day, at least one team in the system fans 14-15 times or more. Greensboro, for instance, had games of 19 and 20 strikeouts in about a two-week period in April.

It’s worth taking a look, though, at the context. How out of line are the Pirates’ affiliates with their leagues? Lessee . . .

Indianapolis: In the 20-team International League, the Indians have the 11th-most strikeouts. That’s partly because they’ve played one or two fewer games than most teams. On a per-game basis, they’re fifth. Indy’s hitters haven’t had a good year. They’re 16th in runs per game, next-to-last in home runs and 11th in OPS. They are, however, second in walks. Indy has easily the youngest hitters in the league on a weighted average basis. They’re half a year younger than any other team and two full years below the league average. Obviously, that’s because they’re loaded with prospects, leaving them with far fewer AAA veterans than the norm. It’s hard to say what impact this could be expected to have, but given the rapid increase in strikeouts throughout baseball the last few years, logically you’d expect younger players to strike out more. And that’s apart from whatever difference experience might make, especially at a level where a high percentage of the players have major league experience.

Strikeouts Are Becoming a Theme For Indianapolis Hitters

Altoona: In the 12-team Eastern League, the Curve have the fourth-most strikeouts, fifth on a per-game basis. Altoona is seventh in runs per game and fifth in OPS. They’re eighth in walks per game. Altoona has the second-youngest hitters.

Greensboro: The Grasshoppers have piled up the most strikeouts in the 12-team South Atlantic League, although they’re second on a per-game basis. They’re third in runs per game and also in OPS, and they’re ninth in walks. Their hitters are the league’s second-youngest by a slight margin.

Bradenton: The Marauders are fifth in the ten-team Florida State League in whiffs. They lead the league in runs per game, are second in OPS and rank fourth in walks. Their hitters are the third-oldest, a little above the overall league average.

The numbers show that, as a system, the Pirates are pretty much in line with what’s happening everywhere on strikeouts. Except for Greensboro, which is definitely on the high side, their affiliates are just a little on the . . . uh . . . aggressive side. Since all their teams except Bradenton are very young, that’s probably not too surprising. Two of the teams are more patient than league norms, two less.

Overall, the most logical conclusion you can draw is that this is just the way the game is played now. On an individual basis, it’s obviously a lot more complicated; team-wide and league-wide trends don’t help all that much. We’re in an unprecedented environment and it’s going to be quite a while before it’s clear how that impacts hitters transitioning to the majors, or how it impacts the task of trying to project what hitters will do when making that transition.