The Pittsburgh Pirates scored the 27th fewest runs last season. Part of the reason for that was having the second highest strikeout rate in the majors.
It’s an interesting thing when digging into it, as their plate discipline numbers on Fangraphs speak to one simple suggestion.
Be more aggressive in the strike zone.
Pittsburgh hitters swung at only 31.7% of the pitches outside of the strike zone last year, the 10th lowest rate in all the majors. They also had the fourth best contact rate (86.7%) within the zone.
The issue? They took strike calls at a higher rate than any other team in the majors (18.