In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Pittsburgh Pirates front office has been able to return the team to competitiveness largely in part due to a knack for finding – and then exploiting – market inefficiencies.
First, it was defensive alignments. Then, it was the importance of getting hitters out in three pitches or less. In 2015, the club copied a page from the Golden State Warriors’ playbook and took pains to give player’s extra rest.
As the 2017 season is about to begin, however, finding those small cracks that other teams aren’t paying attention to is getting harder by the day. Every team now has its own research or informatics departments. The amount of intelligence that has found its way into today’s game is staggering.
Depending on who you ask, Pittsburgh is already behind the eight-ball with one such market inefficiency. The Cleveland Indians’ use of Andrew Miller in the post-season could very well spark a rash of copycats. The Pittsburgh Pirates have the horses to employ a similar usage if they choose to, with Juan Nicasio being a prime candidate.
The club may do just that, and it may just be effective, but it would not be a case of the Pirates being as forward-thinking as they have been in the past.
To me, the one trend that the team may be able to get out ahead of is curveball usage. As Clint Hurdle spoke about at the winter meetings, benders are creeping back into the game in a big way after seemingly years of pitches with hard movement getting the headlines.
The Pirates themselves seemed to re-emphasize the curveball last season among their starting pitching. This despite ranking second-to-last in terms of overall curve usage.
Adopting the curveball more could provide the Pittsburgh Pirates with a new wrinkle that teams aren’t expecting. And, in the end, that is what identifying and exploiting an inefficiency is all about.
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Baseball Talk on the Web
- 2016 National League Co-Home Run Leader Chris Carter has signed with the New York Yankees, where he will undoubtedly enjoy hitting at Yankees Field.
- As the World Baseball Classic looms, this is a fun read about some “geographically unique” baseball stars.
- Ben Lindbergh has a great read on what teams are doing to protect their data in the wake of the Cardinals hacking scandal.
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