Bad games happen, and over a course of a long season, it’s inevitable that the entire system will have at least one stinker of a night.
It took a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth by Wyatt Hendrie for the Bradenton Marauders to not get shutout. Had that not happened, they would have joined Greensboro and Altoona in failing to register a lone run. Even to an extent Indianapolis had their struggles, as eight of their runs were scored in a single inning.
So, having this happen every now and again isn’t really concerning, but how it’s happening should be the alarming part.
Leaving out Indianapolis, the other three full-season teams combined for just 11 hits, while striking out 31 times. While strike outs here and there are nothing, the rate at which the Pirates’ minor league teams have been is on the alarming side.
According to Fangraphs, it’s actually somewhere between ‘Poor’ and ‘Awful’. Collectively, Bradenton, Greensboro and Altoona hitters have struck out 27.9% of the time. Bradenton paces the way, with a 29.2% rate and an overall count of 778. Altoona brought it down some, with a 24.9% rate on the season.
On the pitching side of things, high walk rates have been an issue up and down the system. While on this particular night there wasn’t much the pitchers could do if the offense was completely held off the board, they still had their issues.
Pitchers (again, excluding Indianapolis) walked 17 batters while only striking out 21 batters. Striking batters out hasn’t been a problem, as the three teams collectively own a 24.9 K%, it’s been the walks (11 BB%) that has been the issue.
Again referring back to Fangraphs, the K% is considered ‘Great’, but anything over a walk-rate of 9% is ‘Awful’.
When going through a long season like baseball, ups and downs will happen, but there are certain marks to watch to see if a player, or team, is trending in the right direction. The fact that the same thing comes up when the system is struggling, that’s the concerning thing.
With half a season left, this isn’t anything to condemn them on yet. The previous issues have been going on long enough where some sort of change should be considered.
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