there isn't any single magical stat that'll vault your favorite team into contention there's not a

hey if you're at this level of a r a or this level OPS or whatever, you're going to be a great team.

There's just too much to the game.

However, some matter more than others.

Good morning to you.

Good Friday morning.

I'm Dan Kovachovic of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports.

This is Daily Shot of Pirates.

It comes your way bright and early every weekday.

If you're into football and or hockey, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Penguins in the same place

that you've found this. Fan graphs put together a list. And much like the list that I brought

up on yesterday's show, it doesn't reflect particularly

well on the local franchise. I swear to you, I'm not cherry picking these. These are the ones

that are just coming along. The pirates tend to do badly in these, which shouldn't surprise

you considering where they tend to sit in the standings. There is a correlation between statistics and standings.

And the pirates, well, let's just say this one's about as simple as any statistic you'll ever come across in baseball.

It's the number of times your guys hit the ball over the fence. That's it. No cutesy acronym, nothing special,

just home runs. And the Pirates in the 2024 season finished 25th out of Major League Baseball's

30 teams with 160 home runs.

The year before, they had 159 home runs.

And yes, I'll beat you to the joke that this is what Ben Charrington would call improvement.

Although at least this would be accurate, unlike his assessment.

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