Pirates look to Stallings for how to steal more strikes

Mar 10, 2020 • 12:40 am

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BRADENTON, Fla. -- A baserunning blunder and poor situational hitting cost the Pirates in losing to the Blue Jays, 3-1, Monday at LECOM Park.

More on the baserunning in a bit.

Starting at DH Monday was Jacob Stallings. The spring training DH start is normally a luxury for starters who need to get at-bats in but don't necessarily need to be in the field. That's quite a departure from a year ago, when he was fighting for a roster spot.

Stallings had been praised for his game-planning, pitcher management and blocking early in his career, but graded poorly as a framer. Once it became clear he was going to be in the major-leagues for an extended period of time rather than bouncing between there and Indianapolis, he and bullpen catcher Jordan Comadena developed a receiving program based on what other successful pitch framers do. He learned how impactful framing was, and he wanted to become better at it.

Part of the program was the two would work with weighted balls, building more strength in his wrist to either stick where the throw came in or quickly bring it back to the zone. Stallings was hardly the first to do it, but a willingness to try new ideas and pull information from the rest of the league helped make him one of the best pitch-framers in baseball.

This spring, he has continued with the receiving program.

"It's been part of our daily routine," Stallings was telling me.

But it's not just Stallings this time. Now every catcher in camp is working with weighted balls, partially due to Stallings and Comadena's success.

"It's something that's important to our receiving program," major-league coach Glenn Sherlock told me. "It's not something that we've always done. It's something that's developed."

Sherlock focuses on the team's catchers.

"I know it's something Jordan did a really good job with Stalls with it, and it's something we certainly wanted to incorporate."

It is the first time many of these catchers have worked with weighted balls. That includes Luke Maile, who was acquired this offseason because of his good defensive and framing reputation.

"There's a couple in there, especially the heavier ones, where it feels like it's going to beat you," Maile was telling me about the balls. "So you have to be relaxed but really focused on being direct with your route."

So is he a fan of the program?

"It's an interesting concept. The whole idea for receiving for me is to be strong and to have good timing. I think the weighted balls are a way, from what I've gathered, to give you immediate feedback if your timing is good."

It's new for the minor-league backstops who were in camp, too. Players like Arden Pabst and Christian Kelley have good defensive reputations, but they are now more conscious of their framing abilities, too.

"I used to take pride in being able to stick a 99-mph fastball, but now it's like, can you use that momentum to guide him back into the strike zone?" Kelley was telling me.

After seeing how Stallings rose from a glove-first minor-league catcher to a major-league starter, the group has bought into the same ideas.

"They've definitely been hungry to learn to get better," Stallings said. "I don't know if it's become more an emphasis for me or Glenn, but they've definitely been asking a lot of questions. I'm definitely seeing improvement from them."

In addition to using weighted balls, Sherlock has had the catchers receive while on one knee. This is also something Stallings experimented with at the end of last season, dropping to one knee when there were less than two strikes and with no one on base. By doing so, he got a little lower to the ground and stole more low strikes.

This is becoming a trend across baseball, partially spearheaded by Mitch Garver of the Twins.

"I'm a really big fan of catchers on one knee," Sherlock said. "I think it gives them a really good base and foundation. Keeps them low to the ground. Gives them [the pitchers] a more consistent target."

Kelley briefly began receiving on one knee while playing long games in the Dominican winter league. He quickly found that he liked it and has been refining his secondary stance in camp.

"For the longevity of the year, I feel like you can conserve a lot, and get a lot lower," Kelley said. "Lower target, rip the ball up from the bottom. I'm a fan of it."

The catchers have done other things to work on stealing more strikes, including receiving some weighted ball underhand tosses barehand or with a smaller mitt, and focusing on keeping their glove down and how they angle their bodies. And each program is individualized, with the player giving feedback.

"We're giving them some freedom to experiment and be creative," Sherlock said.

That willingness to experiment is only fitting. After all, that's how Stallings and Comadena got this far.

• Ok, the base running play.

Bottom of the 7th, Pirates trail 2-0. Bases loaded for Oneil Cruz, who absolutely demolishes a baseball.

"Cruz hits a two-iron," Derek Shelton started his description of the play.

On a normal day, it would have been a homer, but the wind kept it in the park, so he had to settle for a double.

Well, doubling into a double-play that is, because Kevin Kramer, who was on second, slipped on his way to the plate, leaving himself and Jason Martin out to dry.

"I don't really have much on that one," Martin said. "If [Kramer] doesn't fall, we both score."

• That play had shades of Carlton Fisk's classic double tag.

• Cruz was optioned after the game, one of 11 cuts in Pirates camp Monday. Nothing to read into, just he needed to get consistent at-bats and the major-league team needs to start getting ready. I wrote a separate article about all of the cuts.

• Trevor Williams was scheduled for four innings, but lasted only three after his pitch count crossed of 60. He threw 63 pitches, 33 for strikes, while walking two. He allowed two hits and struck out a pair.

"Felt like I was able to execute a little better today with my offspeed," Williams said.

The offspeed stuff was a main focus for this start.

"The fastball's where it should be," Williams said. "Now you're just trying to whittle away at the offspeed and the sharpness in the difference between a 1-0 changeup versus an 0-2 changeup."

He threw a simulated inning afterwards to duplicate the feel of getting up a fourth time.

• Williams Jerez survived the first round of cuts, but he didn't help his cause for making the roster. Of his four batters faced, one got a hit and three walked.

Nick Mears inherited bases loaded, nobody out and only allowed one run on a sac fly, but that is the type of outing that can sink a fringe-guy like Jerez.

• This was threatened Saturday, but the media is being locked out from clubhouses, which makes my job, um, a bit more difficult.

Major League Baseball will join the NBA and NHL in closing clubhouses to media due to fear over potential spread of coronavirus, sources tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 9, 2020