BRADENTON, Fla. — As pitchers walked slowly off the field at Pirate City at the end of a workout Wednesday morning, Ray Searage watched carefully as Bo Schultz went through his throwing program on flat ground.
Searage, who is entering his ninth season as the Pirates' pitching coach, wanted to critique the delivery of Schultz, a 32-year-old right-hander recovering from Tommy John surgery. On the other side of the field, Justin Meccage demonstrated an adjusted arm angle to Tyler Eppler, a starter who pitched for Triple-A Indianapolis last season.
This weeklong voluntary minicamp is Meccage's first as a member of the major-league staff after he was promoted to assistant pitching coach last month, and he will have a large hand in the Pirates' pitching plan for 2018.
His coaching style and techniques are different from that of his new mentor, though. Meccage (pronounced like 'message') used analytics to develop young talent during his rise through the coaching ranks, and he'll now do the same to complement Searage's wealth of knowledge.
"I’ve got a lot to learn, first of all," Meccage, who turns 38 next month, told DKPittsburghSports.com. "I do think I have a few different things that can help guys that I feel like can be simplified enough so that the players can digest it and they can actually incorporate it into what they’re doing. There are different analytics involved in that. There are some that work well for guys and some that don’t work well for guys. It’s just a matter of putting that puzzle together."
The Pirates' three young starting pitchers — Jameson Taillon, Chad Kuhl and Trevor Williams, all of whom worked with him in the minor leagues — expressed excitement at Meccage being added to the major league staff.
Taillon, who completed his first full major league season in 2017, said he was actually surprised the Pirates didn't already have two pitching coaches. After all, those three young starters kept the 63-year-old Searage quite busy this past season.
Kuhl revamped his arsenal with a curveball. Taillon altered his changeup grip twice. Williams experienced growing pains after transitioning from the bullpen in May.
"Especially with us being so young, Ray, I'm sure he got some extra gray hairs last year if he's not all the way gray," Taillon told reporters at PiratesFest last month. "The amount of mound visits he made to make sure the game wasn't speeding up on us, the amount of time he was scouting and looking ahead to teams -- it's insane how much work that dude does. It's crazy."
Still, the Pirates used only seven starters — tying the franchise record for fewest used in one season — and they had the third-most shutouts in Major League Baseball. Additionally, five Pirates pitchers had at least 115 strikeouts for the first time since 1984.
Each of the three young starters made tangible progress throughout the season, particularly Williams, who emerged as one of the National League's top rookie starting pitchers. Clint Hurdle has gone out of his way to express admiration for each of them, as well as Searage's work.
But the Pirates are going to need more out of the rotation in 2018, especially with it looking more likely that Gerrit Cole will be traded this offseason. Also, Neal Huntington told reporters at the Winter Meetings last month that the club is going to need to increase its focus on developing young pitchers because of the ever-increasing prices in free agency.
That's where Huntington thinks Meccage can help. After a brief minor-league career with the Yankees, Meccage spent seven years as a college pitching coach before joining the Pirates organization before the 2011 season. He had stints as a pitching coach in State College, Bradenton and Altoona before he spent last season as the club's minor-league pitching coordinator.
In that role, he traveled to every affiliate, as well as the Pirates' academy in the Dominican Republic, to work closely with pitchers and coaches.
"That wealth of knowledge, that experience, the comfortable nature of coaching the players that we have in hand, another set of eyes," Hurdle said. "Plus, we can have Ray actually mentor him coming up, as Ray was mentored [by former pitching coach Joe Kerrigan] when he first came on as part of a group of coaches. … I think he's going to add value to us. He's cutting-edge."
Meccage developed the reputation of being 'cutting-edge' during his time with Altoona. Three years ago, he began to take a deeper look at analytics. As the organization began to receive more information, Meccage wanted to find ways to apply it to his coaching.
Kuhl, Taillon and Tyler Glasnow were some of his first guinea pigs. At first, Meccage would take a look at the numbers, watch video and then have a conversation with a pitcher. Then the experimenting started, whether it be a change in arm slot or adding a pitch.
Over time, it began to produce results. Now, the Pirates are hoping he can use that analytical mind to dissect all of the information available to Searage, who can now have more time to be hands-on with his players, and to help ease the transition of young pitchers to the major leagues.
"The numbers started to show up big with whatever I was looking at," Meccage said. "I dug deeper once that happened. ... It was experimenting and I’m still doing it. I’ll hear something, I’ll see something and then I'll do some research. I'm actually going to do that right now after I heard something today."
Although Searage said it was quite difficult early in the season when the Pirates' young starters were struggling, he admitted he never thought there was a need for an additional pitching coach. He leaned heavily on his catchers before, during and after games.
But Meccage will give him an extra set of eyes, and with more young starting pitchers on the way to the major leagues, Searage will use his new assistant as a resource for information.
"I’ll ask him about his expertise with some of the young kids coming, especially in spring training," Searage said. "Find out what their keys are in that way and I’ll have him do some work that he can watch during the game. We can pick up some pointers that way so we can address some issues if they arise."
Searage is a firm believer in positive reinforcement. Sure, he'll have real conversations with a pitcher when an issue needs corrected, but Pirates pitchers repeatedly talk about how Searage always encourages them during the most difficult of times.
Meccage is a far different personality. The son of a baseball coach, Meccage is known for his intensity, something he says is a product of growing up in rural Montana. Steven Brault recalled Meccage once screaming at him on the mound during a game in Altoona and described Meccage as a "breath of fresh honesty."
Other young pitchers echoed that assessment, but reiterated the impact Meccage had on their careers.
"I think it's going to be huge," Meccage said. "I look forward to being a resource for Ray, [bullpen coach Euclides Rojas] and Clint. Just maybe giving them a little nugget here or there to get a guy back on track or take a guy to another level."
