Stories From Camp: The Gang is All Here and Ready For A New Start

With the first full week of Spring Training in full swing, the Pittsburgh Pirates have their whole team together once again. With the future on their mind, the team is looking to establish a new culture in Pittsburgh as they build towards becoming a winning club.

After a season where the team finished 19-41, the Pittsburgh Pirates can finally move forward as the full squad reported to Spring Training on Monday. With camp in full swing, the 2021 Pirates have a different look with some new faces in camp as well as some of the young prospects who look to make up the future of this team. Guys like Josh Bell, Joe Musgrove, and Jameson Taillon are replaced by Quinn Priester, Nick Gonzales, and Cody Bolton, all looking to show what they have to the Big League coaching staff. With so many new guys in camp, now is the time to change the culture of the Pirates from that of an organization that is used to losing to one that is ready to build for the future.

That means implementing a system that both the players and coaches understand and can be used throughout every level of the Minor Leagues. Being that the Pirates are a small market team, you are never going to see them as one of the top spenders in the league. Therefore, their focus should be on doing the mundane everyday things almost perfectly and building from there. It all starts with pitching and defense, the two essentials to any winning team. Coming off a year where they ranked in the bottom half of the league in terms of fielding, and middle of the pack in terms of pitching, they will have to focus on turning those around and getting near the top of the league in both categories. Spring Training offers a chance to work on both aspects of the game as this young team gets ready to embark on 2021.

Fielding

For any team to be successful, they have to be able to field the ball and make outs when the ball is put in play. No pitcher in the world can be perfect every time out, and without defense, everything else suffers. The Pittsburgh Pirates experienced this first-hand last season when they ranked 29th in the league in fielding percentage (.978) and tied with the New York Yankees for most errors committed during the season (47). The two worst defensive positions on the field were shortstop (.945) and first base (.985), both ranking in the bottom two of the league. For a team that relies on groundballs, your infield defense has to be up to par, and the infielders for the Pirates just weren't getting it done.

The only bright spot defensively were the seasons put together by Adam Frazier and Jacob Stallings. Both players were nominated for Gold Glove Awards at their respective positions, and both ended up finishing second in voting. For Frazier, it was the second consecutive season that he was nominated for the award, and 2020 was his best defensive season to date. He played 343 innings at second base and posted a career-best .994 fielding percentage. He committed just one error all season, and when the ball was hit his way you knew he would get the job done. In the case of Jacob Stallings, it is the first Gold Glove Award he was nominated for, as he posted a .990 fielding percentage and caught more innings than any other catcher. He ended up finishing second to Cincinnati's Tucker Barnhart but proved his catching skills to the Pirates and the MLB.

So, how do you fix one of the worst defensive team's in the MLB from a year ago? You go back to basics. It starts with the infielders and Manager Derek Shelton has noted the job that infield coordinator and third base coach Joey Cora has done implementing the new defense. In an interview posted on the Pirates official Twitter page yesterday Shelton noted that the team got their first defense and said "Joey (Cora) outlined a really good plan and I'm happy with the way things went." With so many infielders in camp, Cora has split the work into the classic varsity and junior varsity teams so that everyone gets in the work they need. With both Frazier and Stallings controlling the infield defense, they look to instill the basics into these young guys so that defensive play can improve and stay top-notch for years to come.

Pitching

If there was one area hurt the most by injuries last season, it was the Pirates' pitching staff. Of the 11 players that ended the year on the injured list, eight of them were pitchers leaving young guys to step up in their place. To combat this in 2021, General Manager Ben Cherington has gone out and acquired pitching talent in bulk. He brought in 14 new pitchers through trades, Major League, and Minor League contracts to help bolster the depth of the staff. It is a staff that struggled last year with a starter's ERA of 4.94 (17th in the League) and a Bullpen ERA of 4.62 (20th in the League). With all of the "aces" gone from the 2019 season, the Pirates will be relying on two pitchers who showed promise at the end of 2020.

The first of those two pitchers is right-handed pitcher Chad Kuhl, who bounced back from Tommy John Surgery last season. He started as a piggy-back man at the beginning of the season but made his way to the starting rotation in August. He was one of the most consistent starters for the Pirates, finishing the year 2-3 with a 4.27 ERA over 46.1 innings of work. Once fully in the rotation, Kuhl was able to turn in five quality starts over his final eight games, with the best effort coming in a seven-inning shutout in his final game of the season. The other is left-hander Steven Brault, who made huge strides as a starter last season. He did not allow an earned run through his first five starts and went 1-3 with a 3.38 ERA. His best stretch came on his final two starts when he through his first career complete game, followed by seven shutout innings to end the season.

Pitching coach Oscar Marin has his work cut out for him with 36 pitchers in camp this year, but he is ready to work with all of them. Rather than producing a cookie-cutter pitching style like the previous regime, players rave about how Marin works with each pitcher individually to put together a program that works for them. This helps the player play off of their strengths and use what works best for them to produce the best results. Catcher Jacob Stallings is also going to be instrumental in the pitching staff's development as he continues to work with and get to know his guys. Using analytics and video review, Marin and Stallings will work together to carve a plan for all 36 pitchers in camp as they try to make their way to the Major Leagues and keep the Pirates in close games.