How To Improve Pirates' Offense: Part I

     Right now the Pittsburgh Pirates sit in a tie for first place in the NL Central with the Reds at 32-27.  This is a borderline miracle.  But is it really?  I say I completely disagree with those who say this.  If anything, this Pirates team is underachieving.  People point to the Pirates pitching staff as some sort of huge surprise, but watching this Pirates pitching staff since the beginning of last year, I don't see how this pitching could come as a surprise.  Yes, it is true that the Pirates have been lucky so far this year, considering their pythagorean win-loss record is 27-32.  However, this team has had an offense that has underachieved significantly.
     Let's look at the guy who represents the Pirates' hitting struggles the most this year, Clint Barmes.  Clint Barmes has an OPS of .518 this year.  His career average is an OPS of  .693.  Barmes is a veteran and past his prime, so some people might point to that as the issue.  For that reason, let's look at Jose Tabata.  Tabata has an OPS of .608 this year, compared to his career OPS of .705.  Tabata was once a promising prospect in the Yankees system, where he was called "mini manny," in reference to him being compared to Manny Ramirez.  He was traded to the Pirates and performed quite well in the Pirates' minor leagues.  He even hit pretty well as a rookie for the Pirates, with an OPS of .746.  He has progressively gotten worse, with an OPS of .711 last year, and I already discussed his horrendous year this year.
     This leads me to my main point.  Players get worse under the Pirates coaching staff.  This is a serious issue, if you couldn't figure that out.  The Pirates hitting approach is terrible and many issues that the players have are evident to even the average fan, but the Pirates either ignore the issues or do something to make the issues even worse.  Clint Hurdle is a bad manager, but a good guy and seems to be making an overall positive impact on this team.  With that being the case, the Pirates Hitting Coach, Greg Ritchie NEEDS to be relieved of his duties.  Everyone not named Andrew McCutchen has gotten worse under his coaching so there is no doubt in my mind that he needs to go.
     This is the first step the Pirates need to take to improve their offense and I will outline the other ways in upcoming posts.
      Hope all is well with everyone and I'm excited to be back and posting for Bloggin Buccos!
      God Bless,
            Brian