Every time I see Ivan Nova do whatever it is he does when he approaches home plate with a wooden object, I wonder if the Pirates’ pitchers have really been as bad at hitting as I think they have. Then it occurred to me how easy it is to check this at FanGraphs. So I did. It turns out, they’re incredibly bad. Worse, in fact, than the pitchers of any other NL team during Neal Huntington’s tenure. (For everything that follows, I ignored Houston, which left the NL after 2012. The Astros’ pitchers, though, haven’t been as bad as the Pirates’.
Bucco brunch: How bad have the Pirates’ pitchers been as hitters?
