New hitting coaches, hired for 'modern' philosophies, get
first reps with team The Pirates' most important offseason additions might not
have been in the bullpen or batting cages at Pirate City during the club's first
full-squad workout on Monday morning. One was behind the cage on Field 1,
talking to Starling
Marte during live batting practice, while the other
watched Jung Ho Kang hit
on another field.
The Pirates hired hitting coach
Rick Eckstein and assistant hitting Coach Jacob Cruz this
winter to get more out of their bats, and their work begins in earnest this
week. Eckstein and Cruz have set out to extract more power and consistency from
a lineup in need of improvement.
That’s where the Pirates heads are going into spring
training. The Pirates want to take the offense forward in ways they haven’t
been able to before. The Pirates are trying to tape into each guy individually
to reach more of their potential and play as a unit so as everyone in camp is
on the same page.
Last year, the Pirates ranked 17th in the Majors with a .725
OPS, 20th with 692 runs and 25th with 157 home runs. They will return most of
the same hitters this season, however, especially in the heart of their lineup.
They dismissed hitting coaches Jeff Branson and Jeff Livesey
the day after last season ended, although manager Clint Hurdle praised both as
"really good baseball men." In their place, the Pirates installed two
coaches who are more familiar with what they've called "modern"
hitting philosophies. Eckstein brings a wide variety of coaching and
instructing experience to the role, while Cruz offers both playing experience
and familiarity with the latest hitting technology.
The Pirates have really put two new men for us into place
that have their finger on the pulse of the offensive game. They're more
proactive than reactive and sometimes you don't get results, and a new voice
can have an impact.
The research that both Eckstein and Cruz did as they went
through the interview process, the experience they've had with analytics, with
new technology, with new ways to measure, with new ways to instruct, with new
ways to teach, it all just seemed like the perfect combination for us for the
Pirates.
The differences in approach and philosophy may not be
apparent until the Pirates begin playing games that matter. But there are
physical representations of change around the batting cages at Pirate City:
Rapsodo tracking devices capturing batted-ball information and tablets
presenting it as instant feedback for coaches and hitters alike.
They aren't just dumping data on players, though. For
Eckstein and Cruz, this part of Spring Training is for building relationships.
On Monday, Eckstein bounced from field to field and was around the cages,
watching from different angles and talking to different players: first Marte on
one field, then Lonnie
Chisenhall on another field, then Josh Bell on
another and so on.
The Pirates focus is a little bit more on a ground-floor
level of timing and positioning and understanding that there's certain areas of
the hitting area that the Pirates need to be really good. There's a difference
between the strike zone and the hitting area, and within that there are contact
points that are optimal contact points, and there are contact points that are
sub-optimal. If the Pirates players can understand that everybody has a
downward plane of their swing and everybody has an upward plane of their swing,
where does that play for you?
The Pirates believe there is more potential within all of
their returning hitters -- more consistency for Marte and Gregory
Polanco, more power for Bell and Colin Moran. Eckstein
and Cruz are setting out to treat every hitter as an individual, understanding
that Bell's swing is different from Adam Frazier's swing,
but Eckstein has been using the same phrase with every hitter: Eckstein has
been pounding into the players that there's a time to feel good, and then
there's a time to get good.
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