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Pirates Look For More Defense Out Of Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker

Here's a good post from Bucs Dugout that looks at the Pirates' defensive statistical profile for 2010. You may have heard (because I've said it about 18 times, both here and over there) that many of the apparent problems with the Pirates' pitching this year were actually the result of poor defense. Statistically, it looks like the worst regular fielders were Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez. (Ryan Doumit was probably also among the worst, but the statistic this post looks at has little to say about catcher defense.)

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This is pretty interesting, because these are three players the Pirates will depend on going forward. McCutchen clearly has the tools to be a good defender (and the idea that he was one of the main problems with the Bucs' defense this year is already counter-intuitive) and Walker was learning a new position, so there's reason to hope this trio will be better next year. Alvarez will probably still be a below-average defender next year, but if he hits well and doesn't get worse in the field, the Pirates can keep him at third a little while longer.

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.