PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – What they did recently didn't work. They don't have the money to be the biggest staff, so why not be different.
That is how the Pirates say they are approaching their offseason training and eventually their work with players, when the lockout ends.
"The game is changing," said Pirates manager Derek Shelton on Thursday. "We're trying to figure out ways to expedite development and make sure development is done in the right way. The challenge that Ben (Cherington) and I have put forth on our major league staff and our CPD staff is think of ways we can things differently, then have the why behind it."
An example of what has changed we saw before games last year. For years, coaches and often the manager used a long bat, or fungo bat, to hit ground balls to the infielders during batting practice before games. That drill has been around for decades, the Pirates decided to use machines that they believe can simulate more real situations. Fungo bats also can't create the spins you see from ground balls in games, machines can.
"I think I used it after the All-Star Game, but there was a play in the All-Star Game that one of our former players had that," Shelton said. "It was a top-spin, hard-hit ground ball by the MVP of the American League. I was sitting with Rabs (Major League Field Coordinator Mike Rabelo) and (Pitching Coach) Oscar (Marin) at the time he hit it. Rabs looked at me and he's like, 'That's a machine ground ball.'"
"You can't replicate that. I think a lot of why we got better last year had to do with how we trained different defensively. We'll continue to explore that. That was stuff that was led by our coaching staff."
Shelton said it's something they demand in any hire, that the person be willing to try something new. You have to be willing to learn and grow and do it differently.
"We're also not gonna apologize that if we do it for six months and it doesn't work, we're gonna adjust," Shelton said. "We have to have that ability to do that. I think that's the thing that's most exciting to me. Even now, our group, weekly calls or when I talk to our staff, they're thinking about things that we're doing differently. They're looking at how we can do things differently. I think that's gonna be important for us.
Shelton on Hitting Coach
It was first reported a couple of weeks ago, but the Pirates hired their new hitting coach officially on Thursday. Andy Haines comes, most recently as the Brewers hitting coach.
"I think the thing that stood out is he's really open-minded," Shelton said. "We've seen the hitting space grow exponentially in the last few years. I think when you find guys who have done it, they're not as open-minded as we thought Andy was."
"We thought that was kind of a unique blend, a guy who has been a major league hitting coach, been around some really good hitters. But he's still open-minded to … you guys saw us practice differently last year. We will continue to break boundaries on that. Andy was really open in our conversations about how to do that. We thought Andy really fit in well to that structure."
Before Milwaukee, Haines was an assistant hitting coach with the Cubs and managed seven seasons in the Miami Marlins farm system.
"I think the big thing for us is his plan going forward, his work not only with major league hitters, but this guy has been a coordinator," Shelton said. "He's managed in the minor leagues. That plays a large part when you become a major league hitting coach; there's a lot of different factors. I really felt that when we interviewed Andy and we talked about hiring him, he fit in well with the rest of our hitting group with Christian, Timmy and kinda moving forward that way. We really look to Andy to lead that group."
New Staff Position
Pirates hired Yankees Coaching Assistant and Bullpen Catcher Radley Haddad to be their Game Planning and Strategy Coach. Haddad won't be with the team on the bench, rather he will be there to plan. The actual catching instruction remains with Glenn Sherlock and Jordan Comadena.
So instead of a number of people splitting up that role, the Pirates thought with a young staff, they have someone just do to that job.
"We searched for a really different skill set," Shelton said. "What we found out about Radley from his old job is he was doing a lot of that work in conjunction with their pitching group. So it really fit well."
Shelton also believes that frees up Oscar Marin to do more things with the pitchers in-game. Marin can spend more time on things he sees and as Shelton put it 'have different conversations' with his guys.
