Peter Gammons – The Creative Buccos: Built for the Long Haul

BRADENTON, Fla.—Back off the river and the swamps and the Campgrounds sits Pirate City, where it seems it’s been since Dick Stuart was coming off 66 home runs in Lincoln, Nebraska. This has long been a place of intellectual baseball forethought, from Branch Rickey to Jim Leyland to Neal Huntington, and a morning seeing Bill Mazeroski and Bill Virdon , Kent Tekulve and Spanky LaValliere was a reminder of the tradition that the Buccos represent.

You walk through the halls of Pirate City and appreciate the history of this great franchise, but this is 2015, and the baggage is gone. Yeahyeahyeah, they didn’t make the post-season from the time Barry Bonds left until 2013, but they have more post-season appearances the last two years than the Yankees and Red Sox, combined. They won as many games and had the same run differential in 2014 as the Giants. Then got Madison Bumgarner in the elimination playoff.

After two seasons in which they lost in the National League Division Series and the Wild Card Play-in to the Cardinals and Giants—who went on to win the pennant and the World Series—there is a different sense to the Pirates. “We’re at the point where we can go a long way,” says their franchise player Andrew McCutchen . “We’re getting better and better,” says Clint Hurdle . “We’re deeper. Some of our young players are growing up. There’s a process teams go through as they mature, and we’re in that process. We have more depth than we’ve ever had, and that’s a factor. But we’re also in a very good, deep division.” A division McCutchen says “really has a lot of competition between good teams.” A division that always has the Cardinals at the door that opens to October.

The depth issue is one that opens the door to the Pirates organization that under general manager Neal Huntington has been one of the most progressive and creative in the game. They have long been at the forefront of the analytics revolution; Huntington simply doesn’t publicize it. They are highly creative in their developmental, medical, psychological and teaching programs.

For instance, one of Huntington’s assistants Mike Fitzgerald , listed as a qualitative analyst, was once an intern with the Golden State Warriors. Watching every Warriors game, as he does, Fitzgerald notices Steve Kerr’s substitution patterns, and how he always rests stars like Stephen Curry so, as Huntington says, “they are fresh at the end of games, late in the season and in the playoffs.” Kerr does so no matter what that game’s score happens to be.

Huntington, Hurdle and the staff thought it out and believe there is something to the rest factor, backed by nutritional and other experts they consult. “It is a very long season,” says Huntington. “Maybe we ask too much of players to go out there for 160 games. Or pitchers throwing a lot more than 200 innings. We talk about how Nolan Ryan and pitchers in another era threw 300 innings, but were they the norm?”

They saw how Buck Showalter used the Norfolk shuttle and the disabled list to creatively rest starting pitchers. It may be that Boston’s depth “excess” may be turned into a season-long strength.

After realizing that Russell Martin was going to move on (to Toronto on a five year deal) and trading for Francisco Cervelli to replace him, Huntington tried to construct a roster that had numerous alternatives. He signed Korean shortstop Jung-Ho Kang. He signed Corey Hart , who following 2013 knee surgery sat out last season and says he feels “completely healthy for the first time in years.” He traded for Steve Rodriguez . With Josh Harrison likely to play third regularly rather than being their version of Tony Phillips , there are multiple alternatives for Hurdle. And from their early look at Kang, they think his power is legitimate (“he makes a different sound when he hits the ball”—Hurdle), his defense adequate for giving Jordy Mercer blows at shortstop and, eventually, being able to play second and third.

This was a team that was fourth in the National League in runs, third in homers and slugging. That’s with Gregory Polanco in a learning experience, Pedro Alvarez going from home run champion to throwing and consistent hitting issues and McCutchen missing 14 games with a broken rib, a period in which the Pirates were 5-9 and in one stretch lost seven straight games. The loss of his fire, his duende and three year consistency (.410/.542…26 homer average) probably cost them the division.

Alvarez still believes he can return to third, which would be fine; they just want those 30-something homers. Cervelli’s defensive skills and personal edge fits. McCutchen believes that with Polanco and Starling Marte at the corners, they have the best outfield in the league; now, it probably can be fairly argued that starting the season the Miami troika of Giancarlo Stanton , Marcell Ozuna and Christian Yelich comprise the league’s best outfield, but Polanco takes off—and he is growing into an imposing physical specimen—then the Pittsburgh-Miami debate on the best all-around outfield can be made.

With A.J. Burnett back replacing Edinson Volquez , Charlie Morton due back no later than May Day, Francisco Liriano , Jeff Locke , Vance Worley , Brandon Cumpton and Nick Kingham they have starting depth behind Gerrit Cole . And after a season and two thirds of learning, which includes two strong starts against St. Louis in the 2013 NLDS, this is the season the former no. 1 pick out of UCLA may jump into elite status.

Cole believes he learned from the experiences of coming back from a lost stint because of shoulder stiffness, an experience that taught him to pitch without the 98-99 MPH power. He is 25 now, and makes no bones about his near-obsession with greatness. “I see that in Clayton Kershaw and Adam Wainwright , for instance, and I study them,” says Cole. “I’ve had the opportunity to talk to Clayton about it, and how the conviction it takes to be great requires experience.

Cole has that presence, similar to Justin Verlander , who Brad Ausmus says “doesn’t like not being great.” The Pirates saw that in Cole the way he took the mound against the Cardinals in the 2013 NLDS. They see it this spring. He is to Pittsburgh what Wainwright is to St. Louis and Johnny Cueto is to Cincinnati and what Jon Lester is expected to be for the Cubs.

The Pirates have been built for the long haul, not flash or sizzle. Their internal convictions are creative and exceedingly human. They have built through spending in the draft, and soon may have two more gunslinger partners for Cole in Jameson Taillon and Tyler Glasnow , who some feel may be the best of them all.

They went from the dark to consecutive October appearances, and 2015 could well be the year they progress from wild card respectability to National League elite. They don’t need to tweet out selfies, ownership doesn’t make promises, they don’t have a bunch of people who need to promote their intelligence. They know too much to argue or to judge, and because of it they may well be going deeper into October than you’re thinking right now, as this is one organization that never stops thinking and knows what it is when it looks in the mirror each morning.

Full article from Gammons Daily via http://ift.tt/1MYtTJE