BRADENTON, Fla. – In the bottom of the first inning, Andrew McCutchen stepped up to the plate with two outs and fouled a liner into the stands. The ball was traveling so quickly that it allowed only for a split second reaction behind the dugout. A fan with a glove reached up with no hesitation and caught the ball clean, looking like an experienced veteran infielder.
McCutchen stepped out of the box and tipped his cap to the fan for the catch. He then proceeded to hit a double to the left-center field gap, scoring on a Gregory Polanco single in the next at-bat to get his Grapefruit League season off to a good start.
“That fan’s catch was far more impressive,” McCutchen said when reviewing the series of events. “Head on a swivel, especially today, a lot of people aren’t watching the games. They’re on their phones while at the games, so the fact that he came prepared with a glove, watching the game, and he made that catch — pretty impressive.”
The fan wasn’t the only person who showed up ready for baseball. The Pirates have McCutchen, Starling Marte, and Gregory Polanco getting a bigger workload early on. All three started at home today, and McCutchen will go on the road tomorrow to get additional time in right field.
“We’ve got the [World Baseball Classic] coming up, so I don’t have much time to be taking days off,” McCutchen said. “I need to get my at-bats, get in a rhythm, get in a groove. When that starts up, it’s going to be amped up a little more. I don’t want to be going through the motions still once those games start up.”
McCutchen wasn’t alone in getting off to a quick start. Gregory Polanco and Starling Marte were both aggressive on the bases, with Polanco stealing two bases, and Marte stealing one. While McCutchen will be playing for Team USA, Marte and Polanco will be playing for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.
“We’ve talked about our approach,” Hurdle said. “They also want to get moving early, because they’ve got things that they want to get in place, parts of the game they’d like to get in place. Being in good form when they break for the WBC.”
The approach for McCutchen is more than just getting ready. He’s also playing a new position, which means he will need extra time to adjust to the reads and the ins and outs of right field.
“It’s all new ground for him,” Hurdle said. “The other guys have gone over to cover these positions before to some degree. This is all new ground for him. He’s a very gifted defender. It will take some time. However, I think he’ll be in a really good place, all the reps he can get is helpful. He’s really taking his drill work to heart. It’s not just work. He knows he needs to really put some intent and some speed into everything, just to find out what he can do out there and where he can go out there.”
McCutchen said that running out to right field was different, and elaborated on some of the things he needs to work on, while noting that none of the adjustments will be too big.
“Your reaction times are a little different, because you’re more reacting after the fact, as opposed to being able to react prior to him swinging,” McCutchen said. “Center field, you’ve got it all. You can see out of the hand if it’s in or if it’s out. You can read the swing a little better. Right field is more a reaction. It’s more being there, and when the ball is hit, reacting to it.”
The Pirates should be in a better position defensively with McCutchen in right field and Starling Marte in center, and it shouldn’t be too difficult for McCutchen to make the switch. If the offense can return to pre-2016 levels, that will provide an even bigger boost, and the Pirates are trying to get an early start with their young outfield to try and make this happen.
The Fifth Starter Battle
The Pirates have four pitchers competing for the fifth starter role. Two of those guys started today, with Steven Brault and Trevor Williams pitching an inning each back-to-back to start the game. That’s very fitting, since Brault and Williams worked out all offseason together, are roommates, and are always around each other.
They both shared the same experience of making their MLB debuts in 2016, and now both come into camp with MLB experience under their belts, while competing for that final rotation spot. Brault said that the competition this year wasn’t new, though.
“We’re always competing in Spring Training, especially in the minor leagues,” Brault said. “Because you don’t have a set spot. You might be on the cusp for Low-A, High-A, whatever, but it’s always that way. When you get more established, it’s a little bit different.”
Both pitchers said that the experience last year allowed them to know what to expect, and they are taking advantage of a unique situation where they’re in the middle ground between being a lock for the majors and a lock for the minors. The key for Williams was the adjustment to big league hitters, and how there is less room for error, forcing you to limit mistakes even more, as simple as that sounds.
Both pitchers had scoreless innings today, with Brault erasing an error with a double play against his old organization.
“It’s awesome to get back on the mound and face other hitters,” Brault said. “It was cool that I got to face the Orioles. Makes it extra fun. It’s baseball season now.”
Williams got more work last year in the majors as a reliever, but approached today’s outing as if he were a starter, even though it was only one inning. He isn’t built up yet, so that removed the chance of him going all out for one inning. Instead, he just focused on getting his fastball command down today.
“Fastball was great,” Williams said. “It was one thing that [Elias] Diaz and I hit on in our early meetings. It’s still early in the spring. I want to get my fastball established. The slider was working great today. I felt loose, feeling great out of the hand. It felt like I was holding on to it a little longer to get the depth.”
Brault might have more of an advantage than Williams in the fifth starter race, since he’s a lefty and has more MLB starting experience. But expect both of them up in the majors at some point this year.
Other Notes
**The Pirates won both games today in their split-squad start to the Spring Training schedule. They got some unexpected power, with home runs from Jacob Stallings, and two doubles each from Joey Terdoslavich and Phil Gosselin on the road. They saw two home runs at home, one by Chris Bostick and one by Jin-De Jhang. The homer by Bostick was wind-aided, but the shot by Jhang was a no doubter.
**LECOM Park has a new scoreboard and a radar gun display on the board. I talked with some scouts behind home plate on the variance between the gun and their readings. The scoreboard was a few MPH high, ranging from 2-4 MPH higher, depending on the pitch. Most of the offspeed stuff and stuff coming in 90 and below was reading accurately, or within 1 MPH of the scoreboard. But some pitches were reading above 90 MPH on the scoreboard, and coming in much lower on the gun. I saw one that read 94 on the board, and 90 on the gun. So take those readings with a grain of salt.
**Jameson Taillon will take the mound tomorrow on the road against the Orioles. Tyler Glasnow will follow him, and Jared Hughes, Drew Hutchison, and Tyler Webb will also throw.
**Here are the lineups for tomorrow’s game:
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