Pittsburgh Pirates
Overview
We're pretty sure we opened last year's page on the Pirates with this, but still: oh, how the mighty have fallen. From 1919 through 1928 the National League was the League of the Pirates: they won 7 pennants in 10 years and if they only took home 3 World Series during that time, they were at least getting there. Then in 1929 the team got a little old and dropped to 82 wins. One last pennant race existed for this club in 1930, as they finished just a game in back of the Cubs, and then it all came undone. Last year's team was a tick worse than the clubs in '31 and '32, and at this point it's pretty clear to everybody except for perhaps the Pirates themselves that their dominance is over.
What doomed them more than anything else was an absolutely anemic offense that looked stuck in the dead ball era. The Pirates had 37 homeruns by the entire team all season long, 4 fewer than Remi Parent had for the Pirates' rivals across the state. Their .264 average was close to decent but no pitcher in the league respected their lack of power: their 380 walks, barely 2 per game, was worst in all of baseball. The pitching was actually pretty okay, but not nearly good enough to overcome those bats.
Bill Red has had the unfortunate luck to reside over the collapse of this team. Lured by the promise of a nice salary after leading the Yankees to a 3rd place finish in 1931, Red has been able to do very little with this team. A firing at this point might be viewed as an act of mercy for this man.
Pitching
It now seems a given that
Dave Brace will finish out his career as the dominant member of a second-rate team. He is just 1 victory away from tying for the second most in league history (he has 374) and at this rate is maybe a year and a half away from surpassing Bob Turner's 398. Last year he finished 7-2 and just missed out on a 13th 20-win season.
After Brace, the pickings are somewhat slim.
Paul Slocum led the Pirates in losses and finished tied for 3rd in the league. He really didn't look like he was ready for the big leagues last year.
Cesar Fernando somehow managed a winning record last year; given his career marks of 129 wins and 181 losses, he provided the Pirates with a lot more than they should have reasonably expected. For some reason they've asked him back next year.
Kent DeLong was just plain not good.
Code:
Player Age W L Pct G GS SV IP H ER HR BB SO ERA
*Dave Brace 36 19 14 0.576 35 35 0 290.2 281 81 14 56 107 2.51
Paul Slocum 20 8 16 0.333 30 29 0 208 216 90 6 92 69 3.89
César Fernando 40 10 8 0.556 25 21 0 167.2 173 62 6 47 19 3.33
Kent DeLong 27 2 13 0.133 19 17 0 115.1 148 80 7 68 38 6.24
Jimmy Engel 29 7 10 0.412 31 16 1 144 170 67 4 52 60 4.19
Bruce Flinn 35 3 7 0.300 17 12 0 96 103 50 7 46 18 4.69
*Don Dyson 23 5 4 0.556 15 15 0 90.1 102 33 2 44 34 3.29
Gene Hayden 33 4 6 0.400 42 0 17 72 73 19 3 21 57 2.38
Brian Turner 34 2 1 0.667 34 0 2 59.2 53 14 1 12 21 2.11
*Harry Clements 24 2 4 0.333 32 0 0 54.2 54 19 1 20 27 3.13
*Russ Hughes 20 3 1 0.750 4 4 0 36 31 9 1 5 8 2.25
Marty Rackham 24 1 2 0.333 3 3 0 23.1 26 12 1 10 7 4.63
*Russ Carter 29 0 2 0.000 2 2 0 15 19 7 0 8 3 4.20
Roger Dixson 31 0 0 0.000 4 0 0 4 4 3 1 2 2 6.75
*Joe Allen 24 0 0 0.000 2 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 0 0.00
Henry Jones 28 0 0 0.000 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0.00
Team Totals 28.6 66 88 0.429 296 154 20 1380.2 1453 546 54 487 471 3.56
Catchers
For being about what you'd expect from a catcher,
Jake Moore was one of the Pirates' best position players last season. He's not the same guy who hit .346 back in 1923 or for that matter the player who produced a .388 on base percentage in 1928 but he's stil a useful player.
Clay Cannon was given a brief opportunity at the beginning of the year but despite an arm that lives up to his name, he just didn't look ready.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
C Jake Moore 34 125 121 436 48 115 17 5 1 39 1 2 55 34 0.264 0.351 0.333
C Clay Cannon 21 42 25 114 10 27 5 1 1 13 0 0 3 12 0.237 0.254 0.325
C *Bill Watson 23 33 11 55 6 15 3 0 0 10 0 0 5 5 0.273 0.323 0.327
Infield
Jim Ponder hits just well enough year to year that he reminds the Pirates of the incredible potential he showed in his rookie campaign of 1930 (.363 BA). That lack of power would be unacceptable on just about any other team - Ponder's 25 paltry extra base hits was the worst total among league qualifiers - but the Pirates just continue to ignore him. They got a pretty nice books in the month that Ponder missed with veteran minor league star
Dave Danna but in classic Pirates fashion they didn't really recognize his talent and gave the job right back to Ponder when he came off the DL.
Joe Jarboe's 1933 was a nice story but there are too many questions about his game to really make it something the Pirates can build on. The 29-year-old got his first chance to play regularly in the majors since a stint with the Browns in 1930 and at the plate, at least, he really made the most of it. In the field, however, the natural corner IFer was never comfortable at second and the Pirates stopped using him there after he committed 35 errors in 68 games.
Richard Martin is still penciled in as the starter but he hasn't had a fully healthy season in 4 years now.
His clutch numbers didn't show it but by and large
John Chastain had the same year in '33 as he did in '32. Moving from the Chicago Cubs to the Pittsburgh Pirates meant that he had a much bigger impact on the team during the time that he did play, of course. He also didn't play quite as much in '33 because the Pirates were committed to
Mark Vick at the beginning of the season. His 1932 (.295, 85 RBI) was way out of line with his career numbers and the Pirates did, for their part, show the ability to cut the cord when he played more like the Mark Vick of old.
Mark Melton started the year out as the team's shortstop and fielded as well as ever, but he hit poorly and when the Chicago White Sox came knocking, the Pirates answered. Now without a player for the position, the Pirates alighted on minor leaguer
Steve Mangum to fill the role. He did well enough that Pittsburgh was able to shuffle him off for Ted O'Toole. Who plays short for the Pirates this year is anybody's guess.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
1B Jim Ponder 25 123 110 453 42 136 20 3 2 61 0 1 34 25 0.300 0.343 0.371
1B #Dave Danna 32 40 30 132 15 38 10 2 4 22 0 0 9 6 0.288 0.336 0.485
1B *Bill Laird 32 21 1 19 0 4 2 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 0.211 0.286 0.316
2B *Joe Jarboe 29 101 76 320 39 108 15 6 0 31 0 1 15 28 0.338 0.368 0.422
2B Steve Lewis 24 44 38 145 14 27 2 4 4 16 1 2 10 3 0.186 0.244 0.338
2B #Richard Martin 36 38 37 145 18 45 15 2 0 24 0 0 9 12 0.310 0.348 0.441
2B Christian Humphrey 29 35 24 81 6 17 1 2 0 6 0 1 3 4 0.210 0.238 0.272
3B John Chastain 32 100 89 349 42 97 32 6 4 37 0 1 16 42 0.278 0.313 0.438
3B Mark Vick 33 60 56 218 17 46 2 1 1 26 1 0 16 19 0.211 0.269 0.243
SS Steve Mangum 31 107 97 384 46 101 9 8 1 30 8 7 20 35 0.263 0.297 0.336
SS Mark Melton 30 49 48 196 21 45 3 3 2 17 1 2 17 22 0.230 0.293 0.306
SS Steve Martin 24 39 38 159 16 36 9 1 1 14 0 3 6 17 0.226 0.251 0.314
SS Colin Richards 26 12 1 13 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 2 0.077 0.200 0.077
Outfield
Daniel Gravel had a very rough season last year and we can't point to any reason for it except complacency. He's getting to a point in his career where he's going to need to stop relying on his natural abilities and work harder before and after games to hone his skills. He's still a top-flight right fielder, having earned his second straight Gold Glove, but if he has another year like the last one he won't be playing enough to earn those honors.
On the other side of the outfield,
Herbert Fisher was used judiciously all season - he only had 19 at-bats vs. lefties the entire year - and that paid dividends for Pittsburgh. He may have been their most valuable position player, which means he'll probably be tried in a larger role in 1934. Whether that will work out or not, it's hard to say, but it's not like the Pirates have a lot of other options.
Joe Gehrke was the 1933 center fielder by default but he didn't play a single game after August 19 thanks to a ruptured Achilles tendon. That's not an easy injury for a guy whose game is primarily based on speed to come back from. After he went out, the Pirates tinkered with Gravel in center and
Hilton Heard in right. Prior to 1933 the career minor leaguer had all of 9 at-bats in the major leagues, but he did well enough to make that look like something approximating a viable option for 1934.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
LF *Herbert Fisher 28 98 91 382 57 118 18 4 6 35 1 1 32 33 0.309 0.364 0.424
LF Jim Cathcart 30 18 10 48 3 6 0 0 0 3 0 1 2 5 0.125 0.160 0.125
CF Joe Gehrke 28 89 89 357 41 96 16 6 2 44 1 4 24 31 0.269 0.313 0.364
CF Lyle Salters 33 58 29 145 24 48 11 5 1 17 2 2 16 11 0.331 0.398 0.497
CF *Clark Becker 29 17 14 65 10 18 1 1 0 5 3 0 7 4 0.277 0.342 0.323
CF Edgar Reyes 27 17 13 52 12 18 2 2 0 0 3 1 6 4 0.346 0.414 0.462
CF Dan Buford 28 8 3 17 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.176 0.176 0.235
RF *Daniel Gravel 28 149 146 597 74 154 38 16 5 75 10 10 56 65 0.258 0.318 0.400
RF *Hilton Heard 29 35 35 142 14 41 5 1 1 20 0 0 8 16 0.289 0.322 0.359
Team Totals 28.7 1754 1386 5452 602 1439 248 80 37 588 33 39 380 491 0.264 0.312 0.359