Williams makes 'strides' after work with Marin

Trevor Williams thought his fastball was coming out of his hand a little "hotter" than normal Saturday. Perhaps it was because of the 93-degree heat. Or that he was pitching a simulated game with his teammates again at PNC Park.

Or maybe it was because he was happy to just to be back on a real mound.

"In Phoenix, all the fields outside got shut down," Williams said during a Zoom call after his workout Saturday. "They were really open for like a week or two, so I only was able to throw on a field twice, and it was at a high school field, which is fine, and they were great fields. But for me to get outside and dig into my mound that I’m used to throwing on, the optics of PNC Park, it’s special. I had more pep in my step today."

Williams may not have been able to work out on high-quality fields during the shutdown, but he had something better: Pitching coach Oscar Marin.

Like Williams, Marin lives in Arizona, so he was able to be at Williams and left-handed reliever Nik Turley's workouts. So it should come as no surprise that Williams thought those three months of private tutoring helped greatly.

"That helped me tremendously because we were at a place in spring training before this happened where we were starting to get to know each other and starting to see how each other worked," Williams said. "So, personally, I feel like I made a leap getting to work with Oscar every day. We really hammered in certain things that we were working on at the end of spring training. And we were able to do that in a controlled setting where Oscar could see me every day working on it."

The Pirates will be counting on Williams this year since they are down their top two starting pitchers, Jameson Taillon and Chris Archer. He seemed to have a breakout year in 2018, especially in the second half, finishing with a 14-10 record and 3.11 ERA. While he started strong out of the gate in 2019, injuries and mechanical issues made him regress to a 7-9 record with a 5.38 ERA.

While he did not have good results during spring training in Bradenton, Fla., he felt he was zeroing in on things as camp progressed. Having some more time with Marin helped him build on what they were working on in Florida.

"I feel like I made strides and I made the most of my 12 weeks at home," Williams said.

Williams said he felt he made progress in being able to repeat his mechanics and spin his breaking pitches consistently. Both of his breaking pitches.

While Williams has operated mostly as a fastball-slider pitcher in the Major-Leagues, he has had a curveball in his back pocket the past few years. According to Baseball Savant, he threw it 21 times in 2019, accounting for less than 1% of his total pitch selection.

He expects to throw it more in 2020.

"Because of the 12 weeks, I was able to use it a lot more where I’m not just hoping with it as I probably would have if the season started normal,” Williams said.

Williams threw 75 pitches in his five inning simulated game. He is scheduled to pitch either five or six innings on July 9, like it was a normal turn in the rotation.

"I thought the execution of the pitches was good," Derek Shelton said in a Zoom call after workouts concluded. "He looked strong. It was obviously warm out here today, so for the first time to be out here, I think we were fortunate."