The Pittsburgh Pirates pitching has been pretty poor this season. As a staff, they entered play on Monday with a 5.05 ERA, 4.72 FIP, and 1.42 WHIP. Monday afternoon these numbers only got worse as they allowed 13 runs in a loss against the Cincinnati Reds.
Both their ERA and WHIP are the third-worst in baseball and their WHIP ranks 6th to last. Overall, nothing to write home about, to say the least. The team needs to show at least some improvement, and multiple steps can be taken in order to improve the staff.
The first is the further development and promotion of top prospects.