Thursday, April 22, 2021

Pittsburgh Pirates Jerseys

As of the date and time of this post, the Pirates are 8-10 and tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for fourth/last place in the National League Central division. They are 3 games back of the first-place Milwaukee Brewers, and have been competitive after a 1-6 start. No one expects the team to be in playoff contention, though they might be better than the 100-loss team many people predicted (including those in my Pirates predictions post).

I started thinking about what jerseys the team is selling on its website. Although Ke'Bryan Hayes is injured and only played in two games this season, he's an exciting young player that fans want to support. Phillip Evans is off to a good start, so maybe fans would be interested in buying a jersey with his name and number on the back. Not so much. The Pirates shop shows 63 jerseys on the top sellers page

You expect jerseys for Pirates icons Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell to be at the top of the list, even though neither has played since 1972 and 1982 respectively. A "Your Name" jersey is also popular as is Josh Bell who was traded to the Washington Nationals in the offseason. According to the list, only 4 of the 63 jerseys are of current players, Kevin Newman and Adam Frazier. One of the Frazier jerseys is the most "popular" at #29 followed by a Starling Marte jersey at #30 and a Chris Archer jersey at #32. It should be noted that Marte was traded in January 2020, and Archer signed as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Rays after not pitching in 2020 after surgery. 

I know that there's not a lot to like about the Pirates team right now, but is it too much for the team to try to sell a Hayes, Keller, Reynolds, or Brubaker jersey?

Update: Just before I published the post, I clicked on the MLB shop website again. The Adam Frazier jerseys are now listed at #17 and #18. I doubt that many people bought Frazier jerseys in the last 24 hours, so I have no idea how the list is organized or if it changes daily.

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