BRADENTON, Fla. -- New pitching coach Oscar Marin has had a chance to see his guys on the slope for the first time this week, and he has liked what he's seen.
"Just the intent behind what they're doing is really exciting," Marin told reporters Thursday.
There are two days between each group's side sessions, so Saturday marked the start of the second rotation of the three groups. While the pitchers still have plenty of time to recover, it is a little bit more of a workload than usual for the first week of spring.
"There's not much time to get ready," Marin said.
The Pirates are only a week away from their first game this spring, so Marin wants to get a look at his pitchers live before they get to game settings.
That type of approach is one of the things closer Keone Kela appreciates about Marin. While most of the staff is still getting to know Marin, Kela knew him from their time in the Rangers organization. Marin was Kela's first professional pitching coach when he was in rookie-ball in 2012.
“He’s not a cookie-cutter guy with his thought process or his ideologies on pitching or how to go about it,” Kela told me earlier this week. “He’s a player-centric type of guy. He’s willing to be assertive — and I mean that in the most respectful way — because he goes out of his way to tend to what our needs are and to help us figure out what we need to do to better ourselves.”
One of the common things Pirates pitchers have said about Marin is how he is taking a more of a direct, individualized approach rather than sticking to a philosophy, like previous coach Ray Searage.
Marin gave a lot of credit to bullpen coach Justin Meccage for him being able to be prepared to that for the start of spring.
"Him being here last year and understanding a lot of these guys, what makes them tick, some of the things they started working on and some of the things that he wanted to move forward with as a group," Marin said. "It started from the beginning [his hiring], breaking down the information, watching video and just analyzing stuff, but also letting the guys be themselves."
• Gregory Polanco arrived to camp Saturday and took some batting practice in an indoor cage. I'll have more on him in a separate article later tonight.
The short version is he feels "way better. Way better" than he did at this time last year.
• Oneil Cruz worked out for the first time in a major league camp Saturday. After reaching double-A for the final weeks of 2019, Cruz is shooting to make the majors in 2020.
Derek Shelton loves that optimism.
"Guys should think that. I think guys should come into camp with that thought all the time. Everybody should," Shelton said.
• Shelton hasn't had a chance to spend a lot of time with Jarrod Dyson yet, but he has talked to him on the phone and had a little bit of interaction with him in camp.
What he does know about Dyson already is he is a great teammate for the clubhouse.
"When you talk to other people that he's been around and they rave about him, that's a great thing."
• Still no official word on if Chad Kuhl is going to be a starter or reliever this year.
"We're gonna take it day by day, week by week. How I'm feeling and how things are going for me," Kuhl was telling me.
• The bullpen needs a lefty, and it appears to be a fairly open competition among the southpaws in camp. After rehabbing with him last year, Kuhl gave a strong endorsement for Nik Turley.
"He's got a really good curveball. Exceptional spin rate. He's going to be a weapon," Kuhl said.
Turley has not pitched in a game since 2017 after being suspended for 80-games for PEDs and then undergoing Tommy John surgery. In 2017, he averaged just over 2,600 rpm on his fastball, the third best in baseball that season.