Statcast Heroes: A Surprising Pirates Offense and Whiffs From Indianapolis

The addition of Statcast data throughout the game of baseball allows for a deeper understanding of player performance. We know instantly how hard and how far a batter hit a baseball, and we’re able to track the exact velocities and pitch effectiveness for every pitcher.

This year, Statcast is expected to be rolled out to all of the full-season teams, after only being in MLB, Triple-A, and Single-A last year. I’ll be recapping the best results throughout the Pittsburgh Pirates system this year, using the data on Baseball Savant in this feature every Wednesday.

This week, the focus is on the offense at the MLB level, and the pitching depth emerging in Triple-A.

Hitting in the Majors

The Pirates have some usable power at the Major League level. This past week, if you didn’t hit a ball at least 107.3 MPH or 375 feet, you weren’t going to be in the top ten for Pirates production.

Despite the hard contact, the Pirates only managed four home runs. Those came at key times, fueling a comeback on Opening Day, and another comeback on Sunday in the sweep against the Marlins.

The four homers from the Pirates ties for 18th with five teams across the majors. The Pirates rank middle of the pack in terms of isolated power, with a .149 mark. A lot of their hard hits went for singles or doubles, with the team picking up plenty of those hits. Their .302 team average ranks third in baseball, with a .400 OBP that ranks first. They are also top ten in wOBA (.377, 6th) and wRC+ (124, 10th).

Out of the gate, this offense is looking good. They’ve got home run power when they need it, but what stands out is there are a lot of players who can just hit. There doesn’t seem to be a dead spot in the lineup, even when the reserves are playing. This gives the feeling that no lead is safe for the opposing teams — which the Pirates have proven multiple times.

Whiffs in Triple-A

The Indianapolis pitching staff opened the year with some encouraging results in the swing and miss department. This was led by each of their starters.

On Friday night, left-hander Michael Plassmeyer led the way with nine whiffs in his four innings of work. Paul Skenes stepped it up on Saturday, picking up 12 whiffs in three perfect innings. The grand finale was on Sunday, when Quinn Priester had 20 whiffs in 5.2 innings.

There are questions still unanswered about the talent level of the Louisville roster. Are the Indianapolis pitchers this good, or are the Louisville hitters just free swingers? The results from Priester raise the biggest questions. It’s not that he hasn’t had swing and miss outings in the past, but he’s never been that dominant. The source of the whiffs will be answered as both teams build up a larger sample size.

In the bullpen, Kyle Nicolas picked up seven whiffs across two appearances. Colin Holderman made a rehab appearance, picking up five whiffs. Connor Sadzeck and Geronimo Franzua combined for 13 on the same day as Holderman and Plassmeyer, strengthening the argument that Louisville might just be an undisciplined team. Still, the results are good to see, even if that’s the case.

Weekly Leaders

Every week, I’ll be recapping the leaders across four categories in both the majors and the minors. This week only had five MLB games and four minor league games to cover, but still produced some loud results. All stats run through 4/2/24.

Top Exit Velocities

The Pirates were hitting the ball hard in the majors, with the distribution pretty spread out. It was an encouraging debut for Michael A. Taylor, and Henry Davis ended up leading the week with a pair of doubles.

Down in Triple-A, Carter Bins, Liover Peguero, and Nick Gonzales dominated the rankings. Bins is a top catching depth option with Ali Sanchez gone, and the other two are top infield depth options.

MLB

1. Henry Davis – 111.5 MPH (4/1, Double)
2. Ke’Bryan Hayes – 110.4 MPH (3/30, Single)
3. Rowdy Tellez – 110.1 MPH (3/30, Single)
4. Edward Olivares – 109.9 MPH (3/30, Single)
5. Michael A. Taylor – 109.5 MPH (3/30, Double)
6. Michael A. Taylor – 108.3 MPH (4/1, Sac Fly)
7. Ke’Bryan Hayes – 108.2 MPH (3/30, Single)
8. Bryan Reynolds – 107.5 MPH (3/28, Home Run)
9. Connor Joe – 107.4 MPH (3/30, Double)
10. Bryan Reynolds – 107.3 MPH (3/29, Single)

Triple-A

1. Carter Bins – 112.6 MPH (3/31, Double)
2. Joe Perez – 108.0 MPH (3/29, Single)
3. Liover Peguero – 107.4 MPH (3/29, Single)
4. Nick Gonzales – 106.6 MPH (3/31, Double)
5. Liover Peguero – 106.2 MPH (3/30, Double)
6. Malcom Nunez – 106.1 MPH (4/2, Home Run)
7. Carter Bins – 105.4 MPH (3/29, Groundout)
8. Liover Peguero – 103.9 MPH (3/31, Forceout)
9. Malcom Nunez – 103.7 MPH (3/31, Home Run)
10. Gilberto Celestino – 102.5 MPH (4/2, Single)

Top Distances

The longest hit of the week was the blast from Rowdy Tellez to help give the Pirates a win on Sunday. Edward Olivares hit a few shots a long way. Down in Triple-A, the distances were dominated by Nick Gonzales.

MLB

1. Rowdy Tellez – 425 ft (3/31)
2. Edward Olivares – 413 ft (3/28)
3. Michael A. Taylor – 409 (3/29)
4. Bryan Reynolds – 406 (3/28)
5. Connor Joe – 388 (3/29)
6. Oneil Cruz – 384 (3/28)
7. Jared Triolo – 382 (3/30)
8. Andrew McCutchen – 381 (4/1)
9. Edward Olivares – 379 (4/1)
10. Jack Suwinski – 375 (4/1)

Triple-A

1. Malcom Nunez – 386 ft (3/31)
2. Nick Gonzales – 385 (3/29)
3. Malcom Nunez – 385 (4/2)
4. Jake Lamb – 384 (3/29)
5. Nick Gonzales – 377 (3/31)
6. Matt Gorski – 372 (4/2)
7. Nick Gonzales – 364 (3/31)
8. Billy McKinney – 355 (3/30)
9. Matt Gorski – 342 (3/30)
10. Liover Peguero – 341 (4/2)

Top Pitch Velocities

You needed to throw 98.9 MPH or harder to make this list for the Pirates. You needed to be named Paul Skenes to make this list for Indianapolis. By the end of the season, if you’re not Skenes, Jones, or Aroldis Chapman, you’re not going to be on this list at the MLB level.

MLB

1. Aroldis Chapman – 101.2 MPH
2. Aroldis Chapman – 100.6 MPH
3. Aroldis Chapman – 100.2 MPH
4. Jared Jones – 99.9 MPH
5. Jared Jones – 99.8 MPH
6. Aroldis Chapman – 99.7 MPH
7. Jared Jones – 99.0 MPH
8. Luis Ortiz – 99.0 MPH
9. Aroldis Chapman – 98.9 MPH
10. Aroldis Chapman – 98.9 MPH

Triple-A

1. Paul Skenes – 101.2 MPH
2. Paul Skenes – 100.8 MPH
3. Paul Skenes – 100.7 MPH
4. Paul Skenes – 100.6 MPH
5. Paul Skenes – 100.5 MPH
6. Paul Skenes – 100.5 MPH
7. Paul Skenes – 100.4 MPH
8. Paul Skenes – 100.4 MPH
9. Paul Skenes – 100.4 MPH
10. Paul Skenes – 100.3 MPH

Swing and Miss

The Pirates got a lot of encouraging results from their bullpen this week, while getting a truly dominant debut from Jared Jones. Down in Triple-A, the Indianapolis squad beat up on Louisville, with Quinn Priester and Paul Skenes leading the way.

MLB

1. Jared Jones – 22 (3/30)
2. Mitch Keller – 14 (3/28)
3. Martin Perez – 9 (3/29)
4. Josh Flemming – 8 (3/29)
5. Bailey Falter – 6 (3/31)
6. Roansy Contreras – 6 (4/1)
7. Ryan Borucki – 5 (3/28)
8. David Bednar – 5 (3/31)
9. Hunter Stratton – 4 (3/31)
10. Ryder Ryan – 4 (4/1)

Triple-A

1. Quinn Priester – 20 (3/31)
2. Paul Skenes – 12 (3/30)
3. Michael Plassmeyer – 9 (3/29)
4. Geronimo Franzua – 8 (3/29)
5. Eric Lauer – 6 (3/30)
6. Colin Holderman – 5 (3/29)
7. Connor Sadzeck – 5 (3/29)
8. Brent Honeywell – 3 (3/30)
9. Kyle Nicolas – 4 (3/29)
10. Kyle Nicolas – 3 (3/31)

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