It’s been a weird season for the Greensboro Grasshoppers. After Saturday’s loss, their record has dropped to 21-28, with only Jersey Shore behind them in the South Atlantic North division.
While the pitching has had its own fair share of troubles adjusting to a more hitter friendly ball park, the offense has had its own struggles.
That’s crazy to think, as Greensboro still leads the Pirates system in home runs per game, with a 1.34 mark as of this writing.
Regardless, runs are down even when just looking at games being played at First National Bank Field, where balls fly out at will.
Last year, Greensboro hit 1.91 home runs per game at home, 5.96 runs, and went deep once ever 17.14 at-bats. They scored a total of 358 runs in their 60 home contest, 115 home runs. The offense was able to score nearly at will.
The 2022 edition of the Grasshoppers is barely over the five run per game mark (5.09), home runs at 1.68/game and 19.17 AB/HR. They’ve scored the fourth most runs and are tied with Greenville for the most home runs at home.
Still not too shabby.
Over a full home schedule of 60 games, that’s 54 runs less and 15 fewer home runs from this to last. That’s nearly a run per game. At some point, that adds up.
So what’s the difference?
Greensboro is striking out at an alarmingly high rate in 2022. They lead all teams in the South Atlantic League in strikeouts by 54. Their strikeout rate is also the highest in the league, coming in just under 30% (29.7).
Comparatively, the 2021 Greensboro team struck out 26.5% of the time. That small difference adds up to almost 150 extra strikeouts over a full season. That’s a lot of at-bats where the ball doesn’t end up in play.
Of the eight current players on the roster with at least 100 plate appearances with Greensboro this year, only two do not have a strikeout rate of over 30% (Endy Rodriguez and Abrahan Gutierrez). Even those two, neither of which have had a full season where they struck out over 20% of the time, are pushing that mark (27.2% for Rodriguez, 27.9 for Gutierrez).
As far as the schedule goes, Greensboro will have played 26 at home by time the weekend is over and done, which is nearly halfway through. Not much time left to turn things around.
Pirates Prospects Spotlight
Tsung-Che Cheng: “He’s the type of guy who has an elite level of focus, an elite level of drive”
Pirates Links
Prospect Watch: Some Good Pitching in the System
Daily Video Rundown: Travis Swaggerty, Cody Bolton, Anthony Solometo
Pirates Discussion: Pirates vs Diamondbacks, 4:05 PM
P2Daily Articles:
- Rodolfo Nolasco Making The Tiny Steps In Development
- Travis Swaggerty Will Reportedly Join the Pirates on Sunday
- Minor Moves: Kyle Nicolas to Injured List
- Max Kranick Undergoes Tommy John Surgery
- Matt Gorski Named as South Atlantic League Player of the Month
THIS WEEKEND ON PIRATES PROSPECTS
Prospect Roundtable: The Rest of the Bradenton Pitching Staff
Po-Yu Chen Fine Tuning His Stuff in Bradenton
Luis Peralta: Trying To Learn From Early Season Failures
THIS WEEK ON PIRATES PROSPECTS
Williams: The Growing Pains of Single-A
Carlos Jimenez Has Emerged As One of the Pirates’ Best Lower Level Pitching Prospects
Anthony Solometo: High Changeup Usage Highlights Debut
Bradenton Statcast: Who Is Hitting The Ball Well?
Tsung-Che Cheng: “He’s the type of guy who has an elite level of focus, an elite level of drive”
Joelvis Del Rosario is Starting to Make a Name For Himself
Brenden Dixon: Approach Leading To Success As Bradenton’s Table Setter
