After the 2012 season, the Pittsburgh Pirates hired Jay Bell to be their new hitting coach. The Pirates hoped Jay Bell could turn the putrid hitting Pirates around. The 2012 Pirates finished near the bottom of every offensive statistical category. So, let’s take a look at Jay Bell’s body of work through the first couple months of the 2013 season.
2012 – AVG .243 (25th in MLB)
2013 – AVG .235 (27th in MLB)
2012 – OBP .304 (27th in MLB)
2013 – OBP .300 (26th in MLB)
2012 – SLG .395 (19th in MLB)
2013 – SLG .377 (24th in MLB)
2012 – OPS .699 (25th in MLB)
2013 – OPS .677 (25th in MLB)
It may not be fair to judge just yet as we still have 4 months of baseball to play. However, at first glance, it’s safe to say Jay Bell has done nothing to improve the club offensively. In fact, they're worse than last year’s team.
The 2013 Pirates are 25th in runs scored, 26th in hits, 24th in walks, and 6th in strikeouts. The team is proving to be undisciplined and several players are regressing (McCutchen, Jones, Martin, Walker, and Marte lately).
You can’t help to wonder if Jay Bell could be on the hot seat in the near future. Despite the complete lack of offense, pitching has enabled the club to still have a great record. At some point, the offense is going to have to come around for this team to have any chance of sustaining their winning ways.
Until then, how patient will Pittsburgh be with Jay Bell?
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