There are three ways to keep the batter off the bases. Don't walk him. Don't hit him. Catch the balls he puts in play. The Pirates go 0 for 3.

Pirates pitchers are famously wild, averaging almost four walks per game, more than any National League team but the Brewers. Pirates pitchers are third in the league in plunking batters, too, having hit 37.

You hope a young rotation will find control, but that third problem, getting outs on the balls in play, isn't entirely the pitchers' fault. Anyone with the fortitude to endure a Pirates game lately witnesses death by a series of small cuts. Some of those rollers through the infield and bloops falling in front of the outfielders should be outs, but the Pirates' defense is either out of position or breaking late to the ball.

Eight National League teams have given up more doubles, and eleven have given up more triples and home runs than the Pirates, but singles have killed them. No team has given up more hits because no team comes close to the Pirates in offering singles.

Forget errors. The Pirates' fielding percentage of .982 puts them 12th in a 16-team league, but that represents only the most rudimentary measure of bad defense. A more advanced method of calculating a team's glove work is defensive efficiency, which is a measure of the rate at which balls in play become outs. The Pirates are the worst in baseball by this measure.

The team's defensive efficiency rating is .663, according to Baseball Prospectus. In other words, fewer than two of three balls hit into play are converted into outs by Pirates fielders.

The most efficient defensive teams in the American League, the Detroit Tigers (.730) and Chicago White Sox (.717), visit PNC Park this week. The Pirates should take notes.

Where is the glove work most lacking? The biggest sieves are second baseman Jose Castillo, the various first basemen and right fielders, and center fielders not named Jose Bautista.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. With Sean Casey at first base instead of Daryle Ward and Brad Eldred, and Chris Duffy in center field, defense was supposed to be good. Some even thought Jeromy Burnitz would improve play in right field.

Casey certainly has played better than Eldred, but neither Casey nor Craig Wilson has shown more range than Ward at first base. In center field, Duffy imploded and his replacements have not matched his play last summer. Neither Burnitz nor Wilson has done himself proud in right field either.

The biggest disappointment is Castillo. As much as his hitting has improved, his fielding has slipped to a greater degree.

Baseball analysts can't agree on the best fielding stats, but the Brewers' Richie Weeks is the only big-league second baseman with a lower fielding percentage than Castillo's .971. While Castillo remains a leader at turning double plays, that is more a factor of opportunity than brilliance. The Pirates' rate of DPs per opportunity is below average, and Castillo has no more assists than putouts, a sign of poor play, according to Baseball Prospectus analyst Clay Davenport.

I'll use two BP fielding stats. Runs Above Average offers the difference between what a given fielder and the average fielder gives you at his position. A second stat, Rate, can best be described this way: A player with a rate of 110 is 10 runs above average per 100 games, and a player with a rate of 87 is 13 runs below average per 100 games, etc.

Going around the diamond:

You don't have to take any number as gospel to see a problem, but it shows up in an astonishing .337 batting average against Pirates pitchers on balls in play (i.e. balls that don't leave the yard, excluding strikeouts.) The NL average is .302.

So pitchers Paul Maholm and Zach Duke, just to pick two, haven't been rewarded for all the ground balls they've gotten. Among 90 major-leaguers with at least 80 innings pitched, Paul Maholm is 11th in ground ball percentage at 55 percent and Zach Duke is 15th at 53 percent. Yet in batting average on balls in play, Maholm is second highest at .351 and Duke seventh at .328.

Pitchers might be more willing to pound the strike zone if they had confidence the guys behind them would catch the ball.