Pirates Prospects · Dec 24, 2015
First Pitch: Current Pirates Offense is Better On Paper* Without Alvarez and Walker
The Pirates lost a lot of home runs with the loss of Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker, but made up for that with some high OBP guys. Photo Credit: David HagueA few weeks ago I wrote about how Gregory Polanco is the key to the offense for the 2016 season. The main point of the article was that the Pirates were expected to see an offensive downgrade at first and second base with the departures of Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker, and that improvement from Polanco (which was seen in the second half) would help to off-set that. Add in the improved defense in the infield, and the Pirates could be a better team if Polanco's second half improvements are for real.