BRADENTON, Fla. — With the first full-squad workout of spring about to begin, the Pirates' position players gathered in front of Kimera Bartee on the third-base line near home plate Tuesday morning.
Bartee, the club's first base coach, started with basic instructions for the first baserunning drill before he reminded the group of how important the skill is to winning. Performing such drills can help fine-tune technique, but on-field work is only one piece of the puzzle.
Bartee and Clint Hurdle are urging players to study and utilize the information given to them by the Pirates' analytics department. In their opinion, that's what was missing when the club failed to make an impact on the bases last season.
"We have one of the best analytics teams in baseball that can give us the numbers on what a pitcher throws in certain counts, when he picks, when he likes to pitch out, how often he pitches out," Bartee, who also serves as the Pirates' outfielders coach and baserunning coordinator, told DKPittsburghSports.com. "We have all that stuff, but it comes back to us preparing ourselves the right way. When you’re prepared, the success rate goes up. When you’re not prepared, you’re not really confident in what you’re seeing, so the success rate goes down. It comes down to simple preparation."
Baserunning was a particular area of concern during the Pirates' exit interviews with Hurdle last September. He wanted to better understand why they weren't aggressive running the bases and how exactly that could be fixed.
After all, the Pirates were among the worst baserunning teams in Major League Baseball, ranking 22nd in stolen bases, as well as 21st and 23rd in 2016 and 2017, respectively, in Baseball Prospectus' "baserunning runs" metric. The latter measures a player's contributions on the basepaths based on activity during the run of play, including stolen base attempts, tag-up situations and other advancement opportunities.
They were among the best baserunning teams in baseball during their three consecutive playoff appearances, including two top-10 finishes in that statistic during 2014 and 2015. But when the club struggled on the bases in 2016, Hurdle overhauled his coaching staff, hiring Bartee to coach baserunning and Joey Cora to serve as third base coach.
Together, the coaching staff has targeted weaknesses on the basepaths from the previous season. According to Bartee, the players didn't exactly adopt the plan, which included use of analytics.
"I think it could have been better," Bartee said. "I’m not going to point fingers. If there’s any finger-pointing, I’m going to point the finger right at me as far as preparation. I’m not going to say the preparation was lacking. Maybe the buy-in, getting the buy-in to do that homework."
According to Baseball Reference, the Pirates finished last season with an extra-bases-taken percentage of 40, which ranked as average, and they were second-to-last in 2016.
Josh Harrison explained last season's regression as complacency and sometimes, a fear to make a bone-headed decision on the bases. The Pirates recorded the seventh-most outs on base when they won 98 games in 2015 and committed the sixth-most in 2016.
Last season, though, they ran into 45 outs, which was the fifth-fewest in MLB. Not having Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco on the field impacted the results, but Harrison said the Pirates were capable of much more.
"It’s got to be a mentality that when we’re on base, we’re looking to score," Harrison said. "A lot of times, being on base is looked at as, ‘Ah, man, we’re on base.’ It’s cool to get on base, but what are you doing when you’re on base? You have to be looking to score. You have to be aggressive as far as dirt balls, make outfielders cut balls off to make good throws. A lot of the times we play so many games that it can be taken for granted that, ‘Ah, man, he’s going to cut that ball off.’ The difference between out and safe is the little hiccup we do between stop and go. If you give the appearance you’re going to go all the time, when that guy does bobble it you aren’t losing momentum."
Harrison was the Pirates' most valuable baserunner, according to FanGraphs, and Hurdle expressed confidence last week that the club will get more contributions from Marte, Polanco and Adam Frazier in that regard this season. But Harrison said speed isn't the only attribute that will be useful to the Pirates. Aggressive, yet smart baserunning makes the difference, in his opinion.
To produce those results, Hurdle has placed the renewed emphasis on preparation. That message was delivered again late last season and he's noticed a change of mentality. It's not unusual for players to resist relying too heavily on data, particularly with an instinct-driven aspect of the game such as baserunning. But Hurdle said that's the key to the Pirates becoming far more unpredictable and in turn, more aggressive.
"We can be more active on the basepaths when we trust and continue to do our homework," he said. "Hope isn’t a good game plan. Being well-prepared is a good game plan. There’s areas of preparation we’re adding for our baserunning, base stealing. ... Third base is an option. We need to be smart, we need to be aggressive. It’s been an area of angst at times. We have really wrapped this thing up."
Baserunning isn't the club's only weakness. Their .318 on-base percentage was below league average, which limits an offense's ability to put stress on a defense. But Frazier stressed the importance of taking advantage of every opportunity. He used the Reds' Billy Hamilton as an example of the impact baserunning can have on an opposing defense, and in his opinion, the Pirates will need more production when on the bases to have success in 2018.
"If we’re going to have success we need to be more aggressive on the bases," Frazier said. "That puts pressure on the defense. The Reds, when we play them, Billy Hamilton and those guys put pressure on our defense and our pitcher. They might not be the best hitters in the world, but when they get on base it’s tough. We’d like to be that kind of team this year. I think that would allow us to have more success."
