BRADENTON (93.7 The FAN) - 2019 was a year that Pirates reliever Kyle Crick is likely happy to put behind him and perhaps no one on the Pirates staff will benefit more from a fresh start.
That idea of a fresh start is something I presented to Crick when he reported for Spring Training on Tuesday and he agreed with.
"Fresh start is a good way to put it," Crick admitted. "A lot of new coaching faces, and from everyone I've talked to, it seems very player oriented, player friendly and that's very refreshing."
Crick went on to talk about the moment he realized those distractions became an issue and how he changed his frame of mind.
"As soon as my finger was hurt, I look down, I was like, 'How dumb is all this?' That I'm going to miss 20 days because...I don't really want to get into it, but the first thing that was on my mind after it was split open was, 'I got to face this as fast as possible. I'm expected to perform'...And when you can't do it, it gives you a whole new respect for the game. When you're watching your best friends take the field, you're not dressing out and taking the field with them, it feels...what's a good word for it? You feel helpless, and I don't like that. I'm going to do everything in my power to never feel helpless again."
So with all of that in the rear view mirror, Crick says last year was an outlier for him and he's ready to return to form.
"Undoubtedly an outlier, but if you look at the profession last year, the first half was fantastic. Sub-3, I think I had a 2.70 [ERA] going into the second half. That body of work was great. Now whatever happened from that second half on, that's my fault...I went back and checked it out, looked at some things, some things to fix, routine and pattern-wise, and I think they'll help me quite a bit."
Click the audio link below to hear more from Crick on his expectations for this year, his first impressions of the new coaching staff and what he thinks about the Astros cheating scandal.