BRADENTON, Fla. -- John Baker’s t-shirt had a simple message.
“Get better at baseball.”
He isn’t the only one. Plenty of the minor-league players at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla. are wearing some variation of the shirt, like the one outfielder Matt Gorski modeled:
ALEX STUMPF / DKPS
Matt Gorski.
“We’re calling it our ‘Get Better at Baseball’ camp,” Baker, the director of coaching and player development, said Wednesday.
It’s not just players. There are morning meeting for coaches along the lines of “get better at teaching” or “get better at coaching.” For the players...
“It’s ‘Get Better at Baseball,’” Gorski said. “It’s get better at outfield. It’s get better at hitting. It’s get better at running. It’s all the aspects. It fits the name.”
It’s different than the other instructional camps you’ll find around the league. For one, a chunk of it takes away from the diamond, at a location like a Top Golf or paintball facility. Practice wrapped early on Wednesday so the group could hit up a local go-kart track.
“The intention is to show the players that we think that they’re people that play baseball and not just baseball players,” Baker said. “I think it’s all been successful.”
When it is about baseball, there are twists. There are outfield goggles that make it tougher to read a fly ball. Players take batting practice with occlusion goggles, flashing light shortly after release, with the goal being to quickly read what pitch is coming and anticipate how it’s going to move. Sometimes the pitch is in the dirt by design, wanting to see if a player will lay off.
Players like Mason Martin have really taken to it, seeing improvement in pitch identification.
“I wish I could get a pair of goggles to bring home and use for myself in the offseason,” Martin said. “It helps me see the ball better and recognize it earlier.”
A former big league catcher, Baker knows the struggle of trying to improve baseball vision. He’s done a lot of the tricks: Cover one eye, stand a foot away and try to identify the pitch. This is hopefully the next step.
“All we can do is introduce somebody to say, ‘Hey, this is where we see the area for you to improve to get to the major leagues. And we've thought about it a lot. And so we bought these glasses from Germany, and we flew this person from Europe over to work with you,’ ” Baker said. “What are they going to say, ‘No, I don't want to try it?’ ”
A lot of what’s being done in this camp new. When I asked outfielder Cal Mitchell how much he knew about what was going to happen in the camp, he chuckled and responded with a simple, “zero.”
That’s kind of the point, though. Experimentation is a key component of how the Pirates do player development now. So is learning and evolving. That’s what makes this camp hopefully one-of-a-kind: Because if they succeed in their goal and get better at baseball, then the goals will be changed for next year.
“People who study Zen philosophy will talk about 'kaizen,' the idea of continuous improvement,” Baker said. “This [“Get better at baseball”] is our kaizen. When we have our camps next year, they’ll all be named something like this. But as we have our camps in the future, my hope is we’ll have different iterations of this shirt so we constantly keep it fresh. Because if we’re doing this exact same camp next year, even though this camp has been great, then we failed. It needs to be better and it needs to improve.”
MORE FROM BAKER
• There were several key prospects last season who played at a level where they were younger than most of the competition they faced. Some notable examples were in the lower levels, such as Liover Peguero, Hudson Head and Jared Jones, all of whom were 20 years old and playing A-ball rather than spending the year at the Florida Complex.
“If you're good enough, why wouldn't you play against the best competition,” Baker asked. “That's how you get better. Boxers don't get better by punching a punching bag. They get better by training against good sparring partners that help them get better.”
“To be younger in the league, significantly, you struggle a little bit, we can say, 'well, you're younger than everyone else.' And if they perform, we can say, it's the best of both worlds. You performed well, 'you're way younger than everyone else! That's fantastic! We can push you.’ ”
The Pirates also did something uncharacteristic this year by promoting Rodolfo Castro straight from Class AA. The experiment yielded mixed results and Castro was optioned back down, but it could be something the club does more of in the future.
“As we run our models and look at the pitching, it's not a huge difference anymore between even High-A and AAA,” Baker said. “These guys are really polished pitching. If guys play well against that style of pitching and they hit elite velocity, let's see what they can do in the big leagues. I do think you'll see it more."
• Baker certainly has more than a handful of good catching prospects to work with in camp, including No. 1 overall pick Henry Davis, Class Low-A Southeast League MVP Endy Rodriguez and trade deadline acquisition Abrahan Guttierez. It’s quickly become an area of depth for the Pirates.
With depth comes challenges for playing time. Baker went through this as a player. He was part of the same Athletics draft class as Jeremy Brown of Moneyball fame.
“Every year, they would put us against each other. It didn't take us very long to realize they're putting us in and see who rises to the top out of the two of us. The stance we both took, we made this agreement, was we're just going to root for you to do really well. If you do well, I've got to do even better to get up to the big leagues. If I do well, you've got to do better, so why don't we just attack this as a group.
“The trap in baseball, and it's an easy one to fall into, is to root for other people to fail. I saw that my whole career as a player. I experienced it. I had those thoughts, like, 'oh man, that guy just got four hits. What's going to happen to me?' Those are things that you have to wrestle with because that's a natural, human reaction to baseball. Trying to deny that it happens is also a trap. That's how we actually feel. That's how we think. Those things are valid. Learning how to unhook from that toxic, competitiveness mindset and learn how to get that go and understand that I'm not just playing for the Pirates. That's another thing we tell our guys too, and this might sound shocking, but I want all these guys to play in the big leagues. Do I want them to be Pirates? Yes. Will I celebrate if we trade a guy, he goes to the big leagues with the Tigers or something? Absolutely, because he's one of our people. He's come up through our process. It's our people, and major league debuts are incredible things. That's what we're all in this for.”
Baker said the Pirates will be hiring a catching coordinator to work with their minor-league backstops and major league coach Glenn Sherlock. The search will begin this week.
• When class High-A third baseman Jared Triolo won a minor-league Gold Glove, Baker called him to congratulate him.
He also wanted to say he also thought he could play other positions.
“I feel like you could also be an excellent center fielder,’ Baker told him. “And I think you could play shortstop in the major leagues as well.”
The Pirates obviously value defensive versatility, and it’s something they do in the minors to help a player get more playing opportunities. It’s not for everyone though.
“It is a bit more case by case, based on capabilities. Could Peggy [Peguero] play center field? Absolutely. What's required for him in the organization right now is to dominate shortstop… Peggy is a great defensive infielder, but we think he could be even better. Once he reaches a level of proficiency that we're happy with, absolutely it'll be time to expose him to an alternate position. We're going to try to move forward with that for all of our players next year. Everybody in this organization, we're going to talk about a secondary position. Why not, it’s more fun that way.”
• Without a short-season Class A team, all major league teams were limited to just 180 players. Those teams were cut in the minor-league realignment last year, and it wasn’t popular with Baker.
"I think we miss it. I think baseball misses it. It's a great learning experience. It's a great place to send the kids that sign from college and high school to go play baseball at an affiliate and not necessarily the complex. I wish that we had one short season team.”
With a smaller pool -- and no expansions after the draft -- there were plenty of midseason cuts, even if the Pirates tried to stay at 180 the whole year. Baker took it upon himself to personally deliver the news to as many cuts as he could.
“For me, personally, that cares about people, that can be really challenging that we have to release players in order to activate players. It doesn't seem like that is the best thing for playing opportunity, personally. I've given this feedback to the league, so I feel comfortable saying it publically. I think we should do what's best for people, and that would probably be having one more team and a little more grace with our roster numbers."
• Baker came over from the Cubs’ front office, and the t-shirt idea sure is similar to what Joe Maddon does with his players.
“I’ve got a lot of Joe Maddon t-shirts. I will say, [I was] very fortunate to have spent some time with Joe. We’re not quite on Joe's level yet. I think that once these become mass produced, we could give them a run for their money. One thing that we have that Joe never had is Jamey Carroll as a graphic designer.”
