Through the first ten games of the 2017 season, the Pirates’ pitching staff has been average. Entering Saturday’s game against the Chicago Cubs the Pirates rank 15th in the Majors in FIP (4.08), which puts them. literally, smack dab in the middle of the pack in Major League Baseball.
There is an issue that is plaguing the Pirates. It is an issue that is often times overlooked, if noticed at all, by fans. That issue is that their batting average on balls in play is too high.
Batting average on balls in play, or BABIP for short, is a stat that measures how often non-home run batted balls fall for base hits.