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Pirates Don’t Stack Up Well Against the Best in Buster Olney’s Rankings

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Tomorrow morning, Buster Olney will put out his list of the top ten teams in baseball. If you go by his rankings over the last two weeks, the Pittsburgh Pirates don’t stack up well against the top teams in baseball.

The lists started off bad with the Pirates getting almost no recognition on each of the first six positions Olney posted. Even with 5-7 players in the Honorable Mention category, the Pirates had no starting pitchers or relievers listed on the first day. That was followed up the next four days by first base, second base, shortstop and third base. The only Pirate to make those lists was Josh Harrison, and he was one of seven honorable mentions at second base.

Olney then moved to the outfield and things started looking up for the Pirates. They were led by Starling Marte, who he considers to be the second best left fielder. Andrew McCutchen was next as the fifth best center fielder, followed by Gregory Polanco as the seventh best right fielder. In the past, Olney did the best outfields and he had the Pirates top two going into both 2015 and 2016.

Catching was up next and Francisco Cervelli went from fourth last year, to outside the top ten this year. Olney blamed the drop on Cervelli’s lack of power, though I assume the injuries didn’t help either.

So for ten lists of position players, the Pirates had three players make the top ten, and two players get an honorable mention. If you consider that an average team should have three players (30 teams/100 players) make the top ten, and two players make the honorable mentions, which had approximately 60 players listed, then the Pirates end up looking very average.

Olney then moved on to the team lists and the Pirates weren’t among the top 12 rotations (ten, plus two honorable mentions). They ranked tenth for their bullpen, then got an honorable mention, along with five other teams, for the best lineup. Sunday’s article focused on the best defenses and the Pirates didn’t receive a mention among the 14 clubs listed.

Judging by what we know so far with his rankings, the Pirates are probably going to end up getting an honorable mention for the best teams tomorrow. As was briefly mentioned in the bullpen article on Friday, the Pirates weren’t stacking up well against the top two teams in the division.

Olney had the Cubs with the best rotation and third best bullpen. Since then, he’s had them as the third best lineup and now today, he named them as the best defensive club. Basically, they are the team to beat in baseball. The Cardinals ranked eighth for bullpen and they were one of two honorable mentions for the rotation. They got ninth for lineup and just like the Pirates, they were left off the defenses list. So while they wouldn’t be considered elite, the Cardinals are still ahead of the Pirates in the team lists. Not surprisingly, the Red and Brewers didn’t even get an honorable mention for any of the team lists, so there is a clear divide in the NL Central.

If the Pirates make the top ten teams tomorrow, we will have an article. If not, I’ll just post an update at the bottom of this article. I’ll also point out that if you disagree with Olney’s rankings on any players, there will be a much bigger group of people talking about them tonight.

MLB Network starts their series of the top ten at each position, covering second base and third base tonight. It’s two shows, an hour long each, starting at 9 PM EST. They will post two new lists each of the next four Sunday nights as well, covering all ten positions. The shows usually have two hosts give their lists, a panel of four experts weigh in with their own lists, then “the Shredder’s” list, which is a computer based list. This is another topic, where we will post an article if a player makes a top ten, but won’t if no Pirates make the top ten.

UPDATE Monday, 9:30 AM: Pirates didn’t make Olney’s top ten, but they fell in the 11-15 range, which was basically the range the previous lists suggested for them. He noted that bounce backs from Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole would help push them back among the top teams.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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