BRADENTON, Fla. — Tahnaj Thomas turned and gazed out to the four primary practice fields at Pirate City, the same ones that used to feature Gerrit Cole, Tyler Glasnow and others who had to go elsewhere to reach their full potential.
When Thomas was traded to Pittsburgh in November 2018, the Pirates were akin to a manufacturing plant, where custom fits were ignored and their teaching methods and desires routinely trumped what was best for the player, regardless of talent involved.
Although the Pirates sparked their last brush with success by combining pitch-framing with sinkers thrown low and exemplary defense, they never evolved. Technology proliferated. Spin became sexy. The Pirates, meanwhile, continued to lean on old principles, until the entire structure came tumbling down.
“Over the years, it’s been a big change,” Thomas said. “I know when I first got here, it was just like one main group trying to accomplish the same goal and navigating that with the coaches. Now, I feel like it’s more individualized.”
Fortunately for the Pirates and their fans, that previous mentality has been scrapped. Pounding square pegs into round holes has given way to training tools and cameras flooding fields in Pittsburgh and Florida, the organization under general manager Ben Cherington shifting to a player-first mindset that basically means treating no two prospects the same.
The approach has resonated with pitchers young and old, although the guys here for a two-week pitching camp are experiencing the Pirates’ philosophical shift at a grassroots level. What the Pirates have done in December has mirrored much of how they’ve functioned since the new regime took charge after the 2019 season.
“I think we’re doing some really good things with the direction of each individual player rather than the pitching staff as a whole,” said Quinn Priester, the Pirates’ first-round pick in 2019. “It’s cool to see guys improving on the things that they need.”
Asked whether things used to be that way, Priester delivered another honest, insightful answer.
“It wasn’t,” Priester said. “I’ll leave it at that. I feel like we’re definitely going in a really good direction from a goal-setting standpoint and actually talking to and sitting down with players and seeing what works for them, what doesn’t and taking that feedback and adjusting the plan to achieve goals based off of what each player needs.
“It’s very progressive and exciting to see. I think everyone is gonna benefit from it in some way.”
While the results certainly haven’t been good at the major league level — the bulk of their organizational talent is still very young — the impact among minor leaguers has been tangible.
Eight of the Pirates’ top 15 prospects per MLB Pipeline are pitchers, including Priester, Roansy Contreras, Anthony Solometo and Bubba Chandler, the second two from the 2021 MLB draft. Those four, thankfully, have not had to endure what Cole and Glasnow did, where they were instructed to throw sinkers while the usage of their best pitches was limited.
“You have to meet guys where they’re at,” said Josh Hopper, Pittsburgh’s coordinator of pitching development and one of the key cogs in this entire process. “You have to find what works for them. If a man needs to do a job, he needs a hammer, and you hand him a screwdriver, we’re probably in trouble.”
‘Method to the madness’
As someone who must monitor the pitching staffs at four minor league affiliates, plus two rookie-ball teams and two more in the Dominican Summer League, there’s a lot of information that comes Hopper’s way, a lot of progress to oversee and development to track.
Hired from Dallas Baptist University in December 2020, Hopper is tremendously smart and articulate, the pitching equivalent of director of coaching and player development John Baker. Asked how he handles the ups and downs of his job, Hopper started with a thoughtful-yet-simple answer.
“Lots of ice cream,” Hopper said. “I don’t drink, so I go home and I’m like, ‘Holy cow, I think I screwed up five things today — ice cream.’ Or if I go home and we’ve done it right, then I celebrate with ice cream. Ice cream is what gets me through.”
Hopper proceeded to (jokingly) name drop a couple of local ice cream shops (Alice Scooper’s and Detwiler’s) while also mentioning a few preferences (“Breyer’s is always solid for a quick fix,” and “Any time you can add caramel, it’s not a bad thing”) but the bulk of what the Pirates have accomplished has actually been fruit-based.
Low-hanging fruit, to be exact. Knowing players rarely want to work on anything too serious during the season, the goal this offseason was to “find the low-hanging fruit for each guy.”
In the process of identifying those desires, Hopper and others began to notice a few common themes. Some pitchers wanted to add velocity. Others wanted to refine an additional pitch. A third group needed to work on command.
So the Pirates came up with five “buckets” in which players would spend the majority of their time: velocity, command, pitch design, body movement and general, the last one for guys like Chandler and Solometo, who are still getting their feet wet with the entire process.
“They're taking an individual approach with it,” Logan Hoffman said, “which is great because they tailor your exercises to what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, what you can work on and that kind of thing.”
Jared Jones is the Pirates’ 15th-ranked prospect. He’s flirting with a triple-digit fastball and was downright dominant at times this season for Low-A Bradenton, but the 20-year-old right-hander also walked 34 over 66 innings in 2021 — a number he’d like to knock down during his second year of pro ball.
To improve his command, Jones has been part of a group doing all sorts of strange drills. Jack Hartman described a rapid-fire course where pitchers threw balls of different sizes and weights to specific spots while going down a slope or chopping their feet through a ladder.
There have been “turn-and-burn” throws and others that are part of a zigzag course that sounds like it belongs on American Gladiators. The balls range in weight from four to seven ounces, and include other variants such as softballs, lacrosse balls and even a CleanFuego ball, which is basically the middle part of a ball if you’d chop it into thirds.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Hartman said. “But there’s a method to the madness.”
Jones appreciates the madness. He admitted that “I’m not your typical pitcher” and said he hates using plyometric (or weighted) balls. So Jones is freely allowed to try other things and recently found a weighted-band routine that he feels like achieves the same goal.
“It’s player-first,” Jones said. “If you want to work on something, you go to a coach, make a plan and attack it from there.”
A part of Jones’ plan has been the command of his fastball, which he said he has struggled to locate to his arm side. So whether it’s throwing drills like firing objects to nine different quadrants or digger deeper into the mechanics of how he delivers his fastball, Jones is directly addressing an area of weakness.
Thomas, too. A former infielder, Hopper joked that Thomas is so athletic that he looks like one of the Under Armour mannequins at Dick’s Sporting Goods. “He’s a freak,” Hopper said. But being new to pitching and eager to impress, Thomas can also get a little “pitchy,” which was Hopper’s way of saying that he sometimes gets stiff and loses his athleticism on the mound.
Those pieces of fruit have Thomas in both the body movement and command groups, where his mechanics are being challenged and analyzed, and the Pirates are also trying to find ways for Thomas to feel a little more free when he’s pitching.
“In the past, I felt like it was, ‘Your own career, you're on your own, pretty much. Figure out what you need to do,’ ” Cam Alldred said. “But now, it's more. The coaches are way more involved, and it's great.”
Identifying unicorns
When Hopper isn’t scouring cities and stores for ice cream — “Half Baked” by Ben & Jerry’s is another favorite — he’s often looking for the unicorns.
“We try to identify guys’ unicorns,” Hopper said. “The thing that makes them stand out.”
Whereas a couple years ago that was likely a sinker or two-seam fastball, the unicorn for each pitcher now is different. Some might throw heat. Others might be really good at spinning the ball. Sinkers still have their place, too.
The idea is more the willingness to be flexible and the desire to let pitchers function how they know they do best, the opposite of Cole going to Houston, throwing more curveballs and sliders and finally becoming the pitcher many thought he could be.
After some rocky roads, it appears the Pirates are finally on the same path as other teams, the ones thought to have progressive pitching programs.
“Our analytics team has been tremendous for us,” Hopper said. “But hitters are the best test. If you get a lot of swing and miss in zone with that pitch, that must be a pretty good pitch. Let’s not screw that up.”
Improving a pitch can happen any number of ways. Hopper joked about pitchers sharing tips while playing catch, something that, yes, even pros do. Hartman described a throwing drill he does where he bends his slider around a pole. High-speed cameras capture things like spin efficiency, which can be affected by finger pressure at release, as well as grip, arm slot and the rest of the body.
From a velocity standpoint, Pirates pitchers are also doing some pretty funky stuff. Hoffman will do what he calls “skater jumps” or basically side-to-side lunges to help with explosion. There’s also work done with aqua bags and medicine balls.
But the biggest separator here might actually have nothing to do with baseball training or any sort of fancy instruments. It’s communication. If a player doesn’t like something or feels like a certain need is being neglected, he’s free to say that, no big deal.
If Hopper or anybody else in player development comes up with an idea or something that might enhance the entire ecosystem, shoot, do that, too. The worst thing the Pirates can possibly do is again refuse to evolve.
“There are a lot of different training facilities and plans out there that are like, ‘Our way is the best,’ ” Hopper said. “The fact is, if their way was the only way, then only their school of thought would be having success.
“When you see that’s not the case, we know we need to be flexible, meet ‘em where they’re at and have them take ownership over their own career, because it is their career. But let’s be the guard rails to make sure they’re going in the right direction.”
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