Michael Ryan had his game card in front of him. The then-manager for the Altoona Curve had just watched his starter, James Marvel, spin a seven inning gem in late June, 2019, and was praising his outing. He had a good game plan. Good command. The fastball and curve were working.
He got a lot of outs on three pitches or less.
That arbitrary number and result had been part of the discourse around Pirates pitchers for years. It fit in with the overarching ideologies of the previous regime. Pitch to contact, rely on the fastball, especially sinkers and two-seamers. For a brief period, it was successful, but as the game evolved, the Pirates were left behind. That’s why so many pitchers -- including Charlie Morton and Tyler Glasnow, who will be pitching for the Rays in the World Series -- found success elsewhere rather than with the Pirates.
Those ideologies and mindsets changed in the majors last year with the hiring of Oscar Marin as pitching coach. There will be change in player development too, as senior pitching coordinator Scott Mitchell and assistant pitching coordinator Tom Filer are no longer with the front office, DK Pittsburgh Sports has learned.
This is part of the restructuring within the player development department.
Mitchell spent four years as senior pitching coordinator after being the minor league pitching coordinator from 2011-2016. He worked closely with Jim Benedict when he was with the Pirates and has had a hand with every pitcher that has come through the system over the past decade. Filer had been a pitching coach in the system since 2010 and spent the last six as the assistant pitching coordinator as well. He was assigned to Altoona in 2020 before the pandemic cancelled all minor league games.
In recent years the Pirates have not produced many potential high-impact pitchers. For example, Marvel was named the 2019 minor-league pitcher of the year, but passed through waivers at the end of the season. No other team took him.
Many of the young arms that have passed through the system the past few seasons performed better in 2020 under Marin's tutelage too, such as Mitch Keller, Steven Brault and Chad Kuhl.
The same way Mitchell was partly a product of the Ray Searage and Neal Huntington approach to pitching and player development, it seems safe to assume that whomever is brought in will match Marin and Ben Cherington's ideologies. That would mean focusing on a pitcher's individual strengths rather than trying to have them fit a certain mold. It's why the Pirates' team fastball usage was just under 50% this year, when it was routinely around 60% over the past decade.
It would also mean a more analytical approach. During spring training, Marin held analytics "for dummies" sessions for a crash course for the pitchers. It was well received. The Pirates have some technology and infrastructure for more analytics-based coaching in the farm system. They will need to make sure it is better utilized going forward.
Since the day he was hired, Cherington has stressed player development as one of the pillars to make the Pirates a winning club again. That will apply to pitching in particular.
