Michael Sanserino, on why Josh Harrison has looked so good at the plate this spring:
In 10 appearances this spring, Harrison is hitting .600 with five doubles, a triple and five RBIs. Harrison credits his spring success to a patient approach at the plate. His coaches credit it to a mix of experience, confidence and determination.
Harrison has drawn two walks in 15 plate appearances this spring. He had three in 204 with the Pirates last summer and seemed mostly unrepentant about his inability to occasionally get on base via some method other than the base hit.
Obviously it’s a tiny sample and that makes it meaningless, but it’s good that Harrison is at least acknowledging that patience is something that he needs to have at the plate. He is fairly good at putting his bat on the ball and hitting it hard somewhere; if he could just find some modicum of patience at the plate I think he’d be a pretty useful utility player. I’m more intrigued by Yamaico Navarro at the moment (I think the Pirates are, too, given the number of at-bats the two players have gotten this spring) because he represents at least some ability to play shortstop and the sort of minor league profile that might grow into a more productive player, but I just wanted to mention Harrison because despite all of the jokes I made about his OBP in the last nine months, I do think there’s a spot for him on the team if he can improve his approach at the plate.
Sorry for the relative silence the last few days; TAing has me busy, as usual, and my internet went down last night. I’ll have more interesting things posted soon, I promise.
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