In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.
On Super Bowl Sunday, the Pittsburgh Pirates briefly stole headlines in Pittsburgh when Clint Hurdle confirmed -via the official Pirates Twitter account – that the club will indeed shift its outfield configuration. Andrew McCutchen will be taking his talents to right field, with Gregory Polanco moving to left field. Starling Marte will take his seemingly rightful and predestined place in PNC Park’s expansive centerfield.
You can read up on the move here, but today we should talk in more abstract terms about why this is the right move.
Of course, we can talk for hours on the various defensive metrics that prompted the move. Those are readily available, and to avoid unnecessary rehashing, this tweet from Statcast’s Daren Willman sums it up nicely.
The #Pirates made the correct decision… McCutchen was very bad last season in CF. Allowed a lot of extremely easy balls to drop pic.twitter.com/Qp95k0f4ca
— Daren Willman (@darenw) February 5, 2017
Despite his defensive shortcomings in recent years, McCutchen’s instincts could play well in right, particularly at PNC Park. While his arm remains suspect, I can foresee no issues with playing balls off of the Clemente Wall. I also believe that McCutchen can take much better routes to balls with less real estate to cover.
The Pittsburgh Pirates will undoubtedly lose some defensive runs saved in right, if only purely due to McCutchen needing some time to learn the position. However, the dirty little secret is that the club only ranked ninth in DRS within the 15-team National League in 2016 with -1. The expected gains from left field and center field should counter-balance any further dip.
And, of course, moving McCutchen from a very taxing position could help him rebound at the plate. We will be exploring that more in the coming days.
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- Chris Carter‘s inability to find a major league deal says a lot about how baseball executives view power, which has become an affordable commodity. MLB Trade Rumors is trying to figure out a landing spot for the slugger.
- Speaking of MLB Trade Rumors, each week they spotlight the best in Independent Baseball Media. PBD Is honored to be featured, and we encourage you to check out the latest installment for some excellent reads.
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