Battling Bucs : The Pirates ARE Clutch

Last year I went round and round with a few posters about how the Pirates poor RISP were just a sample size issue but nonetheless the cries of them being an unclutch team continued. In the end I largely gave up trying to convince them otherwise but now I hear people calling them an unclutch team unable to hit with RISP despite the numbers showing something entirely different. I'm not sure I understand that so let me just lay out a few numbers.
RISP
The biggest complaint about the Pirates is that they can't hit with runners in scoring position. That is simply untrue. The team as a whole has a .356 OBP with RISP the highest mark in the NL. They have a 100 wRC+ in such situations third best mark in the NL behind only the Dodgers and Brewers. Baseball Reference's OPS+ has them at 101 tied for the 4th best mark behind the Brewers, Dodgers and Rockies. If you want to just stick with something simple like batting averages they are tied for the 4th best mark at .251 with the Miami Marlins trailing only the Rockies, Dodgers and Brewers. Eliminate the pitchers from the discussion and they have 4th all to themselves. Any way you slice it the Pirates have done a great job at hitting with RISP.
Getting In 'Easy" Runs
Another thing that I hear a lot is that the Pirates are not good enough at getting a runner in from third with less than two outs. That true playoff teams do a better job. In that exact situation the Pirates are hitting .350 good enough for the second best mark in the NL trailing only the Rockies. They have a .428 OBP and a .945 OPS in those situations both of which are the best mark in the NL by quite a distance. The Pirates are literally doing a better job at this than every other team in the NL and yet some folks seem to think playoff teams have to do a better job at it.
High Leverage Situations
Maybe all these complaints are stemming from the Pirates failing in an important situations or in other words high leverage situations. That doesn't appear so either the Pirates have a .263 average in such situations, third best mark in the NL trailing only those clutch Marlins and Diamondbacks. Their 106 wRC+ at such times is tied with the Marlins for the best in the league. The Pirates are performing better in these situations than any other contender in the league.
Runners LOB
One other complaint I constantly hear is about how the Pirates leave a ton of guys on base. Indeed they do they have the most runners left on base in the National League. That doesn't look good but then you have to consider they have the highest OBP in the league which means they are putting more runners on base than any other team. The Pirates have had 1,490 runners reach base by virtue of a hit, a walk or a HBP, tops in the NL. Now this isn't a complete list of runners as teams will also get them on via fielder's choices or errors but it should be a good approximation. The Pirates have stranded 59% of those runners and the league average is 59%. Looking at the other contenders the Nationals have stranded 60%, the Dodgers 58%, the Braves 61%, the Cardinals 60%, the Giants 59% and the Reds 59%. The one contender I haven't mentioned the Milwaukee Brewers are an outlier stranding only 54% of their runners. Overall 12 of the NL's 15 teams strand between 58% and 61% of their runners. The Brewers and Rockies are on the good side of that while the Phillies are on the bad side. Overall there isn't much variation here and the Pirates are right in line with all the other teams.
Overall I just don't get the complaints this season. I learned to live with them last year because the baseball gods were being mean to the Pirates in "clutch" situations but this year the baseball gods have decided to be nice to them. When healthy the Pirates have one of the best offenses in the National league and that is the case regardless of the situation and it is about times fans started realizing that.