Earlier, we heard the Pirates may bat Andrew McCutchen second in an attempt to better optimize their lineup. That’s not the only optimization planned, writes Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Slow footed John Jaso may bat first so the club can take advantage of his high OBP – especially against right-handed pitching. As manager Clint Hurdle notes, the expected effect of an optimized lineup might come out to only one or two extra wins over the course of a season. Of course, it’s also right to note that expected and actual production can diverge for numerous statistical reasons.
Here’s more out of Pittsburgh:
- Juan Nicasio’s ability to command the fastball will determine if he can have an impact as a starting pitcher, writes Sawchik. The veteran righty has pitched well this spring with 16 strikeouts, three walks, and no runs allowed in 10 innings. Nicasio is now a viable alternative to Jon Niese, Jeff Locke, or Ryan Vogelsong. However, he might be better suited for relief work since his velocity played up to 96 mph out of the Dodgers bullpen last season. He’s sat 92 to 95 mph this spring as a starter.
- While pitching coach Ray Searage gets the credit for the Pirates ample success with starting pitchers, it’s an organization-wide philosophy, writes Rob Biertempfel of the Pittburgh Tribune-Review. Jim Benedict, now with the Marlins, helped to develop the philosophy. Now it falls to others in the organization like Double-A pitching coach Justin Meccage to continue implementing their proven techniques. While baseball strategy is important, Searage cites communication and trust as the keys to the Pirates Way.
- The Pirates have changed their policy for pre-arbitration players after the brouhaha with Gerrit Cole, GM Neal Huntington said on MLB Network Radio. Huntington admits the policy was probably outdated before the incident with Cole. Previously, the club followed strict policies for setting pre-arbitration salaries. Teams do this to minimize the need for negotiations over relatively small amounts of money. A set policy can also help to avoid hurt feelings or disputes. Obviously, that wasn’t the case here.
It makes no sense to say “we want this specific guy to be our big OBP guy we can lead off”, when form exists. Why not just use stats after about a month so there’s a sample, then from May on just use whoever has the highest OBP to lead off? It would also reward good players with more ABs.
Because we already have stats that are fairly indicative of who will be the high OBP guys, and a month of stats starting the seasons is a meaningless sample that will regress towards the mean.
So what you are saying is that since Jaso has an OBP of .361 over a 7 year career he will continue to have a solid OBP even if he has an OBP of .250 for the month of April? Players don’t have slumps man and you are foolish to think that a solid sample size of a month (25ish games) is not a better judgement of a players abilities than career norms. How dare you!!
If you look at most players stats across the course of their career, they generally return toward their career average every year; barring injury or the effects of age.
I wish the Pirates could do the same for hitting as they do for pitching through their coaching methods. Once Tommy Greggs’ contract with the Royals is up, I would love to see him move back to the Pirates organization.
welcome to
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n i k e $38
(Ref Garrit Cole) what are the Pirates doing?
1) I don’t think the issue with Garrit is the $10k … Kyle Hendricks of the Cubs is getting $541k with a full year less service time than cole. Kris Bryant got $652k in his 2nd year (c’mon Pittsburgh, show Cole that you respect his value)
2) To change the policy ‘next year’ is just salt in the wound
3) Dont you know you just validated everything that Boras has been telling his client (Cole). (I.e. Good luck signing him past his 3 arbitration years … See next comment)
4) this shows the Pirates don’t even see holding cole beyond his controllable years as a possibility
I am a Cubs fan, so hey sounds good to me (Cole will be an option in the future).
The Pirates will more than likely trade Cole after the 2017 season. Especially if they are able to extend Cutch no way they will be able to afford both. Trading Cole with 2 years of control will fetch a huge return for the Bucs.
How can the Pirates maintain their current status by trading Cole? I see them as needing both Cutch and Cole long term.
Because Searage, Glasnow, and Taillon