Latest / Foul Territory / Pirates hitting coach Matt Hague on early success, Oneil Cruz's adjustments, coaching Konnor Griffin

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Pirates hitting coach Matt Hague on early success, Oneil Cruz's adjustments, coaching Konnor Griffin · Foul Territory

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Hey, we're excited to talk to Matt Hague about some
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: good ball talk right now. Nineteen and sixteen Pirates, he's
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: their hitting coach. He's joining us on Foul Territory Live. Matt,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: great to have you on the show. Thank you for
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the time. How's it going so far this year? It
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: looks like the boys are swinging the bats nicely.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate you all having me. Man, it's going
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: We uh after last year, it's been a fun process
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: to build and collaborate and trying to make things better
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: around the burg. So it's been a good one so far.
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: Did you do your hair for this interview?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Like? Did you get it freshly showered? Too?
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: So it's highlighting, it's getting rid of some of the
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: gray that I naturally have when it's dry.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: So Big Day.
• 0:51
  Speaker 5: Does does being a hitting coach bring more gray? AJ
• 0:55
  Speaker 5: knows every manager in the big leagues and he's like,
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: after like two or three years, he's like, dude, your
• 1:00
  Speaker 5: grays have gotten way worse managing. And every manager is like, yeah,
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: you try it, you'll turn gray. Just being a hitting
• 1:07
  Speaker 5: coach make you just as gray as a manager.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's a there's some genetics in there
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: as well, but it can. I mean, it's like it's long,
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: long days, long season, a lot of travel, I got
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: a family, you know. There's a lot of factors in there,
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: but definitely plucks out a little more gray in my
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: in my ear.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Hey, Matt, tell us about some of the bats that
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: are impressing you. I want to start with O'Neil Cruz
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and his improvement against left handed pitching.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: The easy narrative for the.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Casual fan is, well, all you have to do is
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: get someone left handed to throw to you in the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: off season, and anyone can hit left handed pitching too.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: There's got to be a lot more to the story.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think I think that is a part
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: of it, just kind of managing his workloads, being able
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: to get him extremely prepared. He's just simplified a lot
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: of things, whether that's kind of hunting pitches or simplifying
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: his setup to make it just bring out his athleticism,
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: because he is so athletic and so talented and gifted.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: But a lot of it he's taken a lot of
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: it on his own. Really, just the work habits that
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: he's created. Got some like strength and conditioning, routines that
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: he's very committed to a lot of it's just simplifying
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: and being extremely efficient when he's up there, kind of
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: key holding him in certain areas. And the dude's crazy,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: athletic and talented.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: So I think it's just a culmination of all those things.
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but how much do you like It's it's hard
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: because you see a dude like that. And Andrew mccutchon
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: was on here last year and he called him an avatar.
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: He literally when people stand next to him, he looks
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: like an avatar. Because you don't like that's like the
• 3:01
  Speaker 5: perfect baseball body. How do you coach that differently then
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: you do Jake Mangnum, who who just who just came
• 3:09
  Speaker 5: over this year? Not the avatar body, but the hit
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: skills like you had when you were in the bushes.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: My hit skills. I don't want my hit skills on there.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: That's you know, each guy wants things differently. Everybody's simple
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: is different, everybody's what they're hunting is different. I would
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: say Mangum coming over there, just the want for information
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: is different. But for a lot for Cruisy, it's just
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: simplifying everything. And I've said that a couple of times already,
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: but it's bringing them in just very simple areas because
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: the talent is so great, you trust him to adjust
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: because if he is an avatar and he can do
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: things that other guys can't do, and he can hit
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: the ball harder that other guys can't do. There's also
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: some some two strike approach ideas that he's really kind
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: of worked on and gravitated towards. But I mean, the
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: dude wanted to be good and he was not satisfied
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: with what happened last year, and just the work ethic
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: that followed that. The motivation this dude was in the
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: cages three days after the season and just getting after
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: it right away, and it's ultimately a testament to his
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: perseverance and adjustments that he wanted to make. But really
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: honing down on two strike approaches and really pushing his
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: work and simplifying to be efficient, that's kind of I
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: would say the motto that he really gravitated towards.
• 4:46
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• 5:46
  Speaker 4: Mah.
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: When you get a guy like Connor Griffin, a young
• 5:48
  Speaker 6: kid who's obviously just turned twenty years old, do you
• 5:52
  Speaker 6: let them just be for a little while and before
• 5:54
  Speaker 6: you try to dig in like you mentioned O'Neil Cruz
• 5:57
  Speaker 6: and some of the other guys you've had for a
• 5:58
  Speaker 6: few years, do you guys. Let them him be for
• 6:00
  Speaker 6: a little while before you start talking to him, or
• 6:03
  Speaker 6: do you just jump right into mechanical stuff, approach stuff
• 6:06
  Speaker 6: whatever that is.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: No, it's let him shine. We believe that, you know,
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: he's adjusted wherever he went in a very fast time,
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: and he's so another athletically gifted human being to where
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: he's extremely self aware of the environments that he's in.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: And he made some comments within three games. It second, well,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: I got to make some adjustments. I'm getting away with
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: I can't get away with some of the stuff that
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: I did in the minor leagues and just what he
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: can do athletically and adjustment wise and on my end,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: and it's different, I'm sure for hitting coaches if we're
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: going to make an adjustment when they have to go
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: compete at seven o'clock with guys throwing ninety five to
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: one hundred and everything looks the same. We tend to
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: be more on our end on the setup. The reason being,
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: like you can, over the course of the season they're
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: set up and their body changes and just kind of
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: really monitoring that and just putting them in really good
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: positions to start to where they're just starting from good
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: positions and going to be athletic and making sure that
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: their bodies calibrated the right way every day, because I
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: think that's one of the hardest obstacles for guys is
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: over the season all these different I guess external internal
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: things in their body and environment changes, and at least
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: they have something familiar to go back to because you know,
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: they've been playing baseball for a long time and if
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: they're in the right positions, they can go achieve the
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: approach or where they're trying to move them ball.
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: Is there something that you see, Like if you see something,
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: I know it's early, you've only seen him in the
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: big leagues for a month, but that Connor Griffin does that,
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: You're like, whoa, he could be going to get hot
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: because he had a homer the other day. I was
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: watching opposite field, like to the big part of the
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: opposite field, not the Roberto Clemente wall, but to the
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: big part, and I was like, I'm gonna watch the next.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: Few days to see if Connor, like if.
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: That clicks him. Where now he like gets that confidence
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: that he's going to go all over the park and
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: he's done pretty decent. But is there anything else that
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: you watch from him that you're like, when I see
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: that on the field, he's about to go off.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: Well, I think you just described it. It's using the
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: big part of the field with him and he's he's
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: been extremely hot lately and that's a testament to his
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: awareness and growth. He's really shrunk his zone. That's one
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: not trying to cover everything because it's the blessing and
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: curse with with his gift. He can move a lot
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: of balls forward in different zones, different pitch types forward
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: really hard and being able to when that gets overcooked
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: a little bit, it's just kind of reeling them back
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: into a smaller zone and really letting him shine because
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: he can't adjust. He can do he can move and
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: control his body the other guy ways other guys can't do,
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: and he's crazy athletic and he can hit the ball
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: really hard as well. He's also just taking his walks,
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: learned to take his walks when he can, and using
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: that big part of the field because he's so athletic.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: Has turned in some like pull side on off speed
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: extra base hits. So he's just he's continuing to learn.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: He is so incredibly impressive as a human and as
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: a baseball player in just so many different areas.
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: I can't believe I'm saying these words to you, But
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: you're a big league hitting coach, because as I knew you,
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: you weren't a big league hitting coach. And so that
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: smile proves it all. You don't believe it either, But
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: as a big league hitting coach, how do you deal
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: with everybody or half the guys having their own personal
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: hitting coach? Do you try to connect with those personal
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: hitting coaches? Do you try to because it's easier to
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: like build off of it, But what if that guy
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: doesn't agree with necessarily your what you're saying guys need
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: to set up. Hey, this is where his body is
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: at that time, and that guy's just constantly telling the
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: same thing to this hitter who's struggling.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so a couple of things to there.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: Always try and collaborate with their guy that they get
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: in the off season. Some of the things they worked
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: during the off season is in a reflection of when
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: stuff happens during the year. So, and what we're on
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: our end with Pittsburgh. What we have set up now too,
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: is we're not necessarily coaching off our feelings.
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: We are.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: We're pulling information, whether it's set up, whether it's movement,
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: whether it's the pitches they are handling, the zones they
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: are handling from the times that they're at their best.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: So we have objective information to where we're coaching to
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: basically their best standard during that timeframe, and we're just
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: trying to bring that out more and often. So, yes,
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: it's different. We're trying to collaborate always, but we're also
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: just coaching to the player's best version of themselves. That's
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: that's the goal with kind of where we're at now.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: It's where it takes some of the subjective thinking out
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: and it's more of on our end, we're just kind
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: of their accountabil buddy and facilitator and guy that can
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: bounce ideas off of what they're going to face that night,
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: and that's kind of the idea that we're honing down
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: on our end.
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: I should know this, but how many other hitting coaches
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: are on your staff? Do you have two assistants?
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Two assistants Christian Mary Tucker and they are their dogs?
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: Man, do you guys this is something that probably a
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: lot of fans don't know, but do you guys split
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: up the players? Do you do it intentionally because we
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: used to give the hitting coaches a hard time because
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: maybe like the head guy would be like, well, you
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: never throw to me. Clearly I'm not important, you know.
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: So how does that process work? Because the psyche of
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: a hitter is very finicky throughout a season, but also
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: batter to batter a player a player.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a fun one. Well, I would say that. So,
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: I mean, we're meeting every morning before we get them.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: We have we are all on the same page as
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: far as the work. We're into attack with it. And
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: I think the biggest thing on our end is whatever
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: information the player hears, they hear it consistently from everybody,
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: and we actually trying to want to get away from
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: uh the hitting coach has this guy, this guy, this
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: hitting coach has that other guy, to where we can
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: build an environment to where everybody's just on the same
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: page and that's.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: It does.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: I would say get away from that at times, But
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: some of the guys just, you know, kind of do
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: their own thing. Some of the guys want a full
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: collaboration and we're just there in their in their pocket
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: whenever they need us.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Matt, Do players care if coaches have Big League time, Like,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: do players care that you spend some time in the
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: bigs and you know you've played at the highest stage
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and really all across grinding to get there, playing overseas
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: the whole deal. Does that matter to players anymore or
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: does it matter to some and not to others?
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Well, I think it's I would say that it's it
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: has changed within the last five six years. It's not
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: as much as you would think. It is, like kind
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: of like a street credit thing. But at the end
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: of the day, after time, if you have the right content,
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: I don't think it matters where you play. Now with
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: all the information that's out there, you have to be
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: able to you have to be able to filter very
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: complex things into something very simple to the player. And
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: everybody's like I said before, everybody's simple as different to
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: where the guy that you know didn't get above high,
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: but he really knows how to deliver messaging. There's a
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: guy that just extremely prepared. Players can rely on the inform.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: It's not necessarily where they played or how long they played,
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: but it's benefiting the player. And if you get a
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: culture where guys buy in to information, they have fun
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: doing it. Information is relevant to them. I think it's
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: just a matter of time for that person that never
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: played in the big leagues to where you can get
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: through to them.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: You know, we don't always have to do things because
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: that's how it's always been.
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: Look, people consider me old school, and I thought I was,
• 14:27
  Speaker 6: but then we had the pitch clock and the abs
• 14:30
  Speaker 6: and ban on shifts and all these things that we've
• 14:32
  Speaker 6: had for a long time in baseball. And you know what,
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  Speaker 6: here for the new school and the changes that have
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  Speaker 6: been made.
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  Speaker 1: at FTFAM. I know you're not in this org, but
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: just to get an idea of how difficult this would be.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you saw the Red Sox cleared out like
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: half their coaching staff. How tough would that be for
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: players to have to work with so many different people
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: when they're six weeks into the season, and it does
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: seem like the people they're working with now have a
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: very different approach. I mean, I know that they kept
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: a couple of the guys, and there's some of the
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: drive line guys that are highly respected, but you know,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: it seemed like there was a little bit of push
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: and pull between hey, let's just pull fly balls versus, hey,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: there's a little bit more to each player's story.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: I'm not necessarily that familiar with that situation, but you know,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: I think a lot of those guys, uh and correct
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: me if I'm wrong. I think a lot of the guys,
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: the new guys that are there, they had there was
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: some relationship for a time with them before that, and
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: it's just with with any change, there's gonna be a
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: little chaos at first.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: But if if you're.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: If you're giving them the information these guys are, they're
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: going into the batter's box making their own educated guesses.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: As it is with whatever they do, they're they're making
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: guesses or placing bets on something, and in our end,
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: as long as that information matters to them, I think
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: it makes those transitions easier. But it's again again with
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: any any change, there's a little chaos at first, and
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: then it's how quickly you can you can build and
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: provide good pathways moving forward.
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: I got a question about d K after this Don
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: Kelly your manager. But first, when you lose your manager
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: and you're new hired on the job, you saw what happened,
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: just what he was talking about with the Red Sox.
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: Are there conversations within the organization for you with you
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: about Hey, you know what he's gone. I think Ridley
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: hadad went with him, Like are you like, do you
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: have that conversation or is that communication open or do
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: you sit there like you were a player, like, oh man,
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: I hope my phone doesn't ring.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: I hope nobody taps me on the back.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, yes, you do have the conversation.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: I think the one of the first things when DK
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: got the job is it's we're we're gonna really get
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: into this culture. We want to play winning baseball, create
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: a lot of competition. You're in those you're in the conversations,
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: and they continue to pick up during the off season.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: And it started with Bob and Ben and vice president
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: Travis just hey being extremely open and just having really
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: hard conversations. And DK from the moment he got in there,
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: this guy was a dog man. He went in there
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: and he was, Hey, what have we got to change?
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: Was a full collaboration. He knew where he wanted to go.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: But the way he led the clubhouse and really created
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: expectations and culture, it's still something we're trying to build
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: to this day and everything we've kind of put in
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: place so far with a group and just this big collaboration.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: DK has absolutely crushed it. And he leads the guys
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: and he's a player's coach. The players love him and
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: they respect him. So it's been it's been a fun,
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: interesting transition. But DK at the Helm is he's killing it.
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: How much has he changed because as one of our
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: people behind the scenes said, he can't get gray hair
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: because he's got my haircut.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: But how much has he changed?
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: Like success changes people, like make sure he knows that
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: he's still the kid from kid from the area.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: His guys, it's impressive, Like how consistent he is. So
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: to answer your question, I would say that he hasn't changed.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: I know that can be hard for some, but he
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: is strong in his foundation, with his beliefs and and
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: just who he is as a man. And I mean
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: everyone feels it. The the the baldness has not affected
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: him at all, and he keeps that thing smooth and crisp.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: I'm sure, just like you crassy right.
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, no doubt. You gotta you gotta have a
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: nice shave on it, all right.
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: Your lineup, the guys in your lineup, I mean we
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: have you have guys like veterans like Marcelo Zun. I
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: know he's not doing well right now, but you have
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: Brandon Lau, you have Ryan O'Hearn, you have O'Neil Cruz,
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: you have Connor Griffin. Young guys on this team. Who
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: is the guy that you would say hasn't even scratched
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: the surface yet of what he'll do this season, not
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: in the future, not like oh, you know, he's got
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: this potential because they're all coming from different realms and
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: all that matters is the Pirates built this team for
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: this year. Brandon low will be gone, Ryana Hearn's really
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: got one more year after this.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: It's a two year deal and so it's winning. Now.
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: Who is the guy that's going to end up having
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: the year that you think, Okay, bang, he's gonna he's
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: gonna explode from May fifth on.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: Oh man, that's tough. I mean, I would say the
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: track record proves, and he's been heating up a lot lately,
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: and he's already accomplished so much. And Marcello's in a
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: that's and obviously Connor Griffin. I think those are the
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: two easy answers. It's just we're trying to really just
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: crush consistency and being able and what that looks like
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: on a day to day And I think the way
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: Marcel oh So we call him, it's been going about it.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: He's been heating up lately, and what you see so
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: far during the year isn't it close to what he
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: is capable of? And with everything we got on our end,
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: he's about to He's about to go. He's about to
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: go off, So I think that's the easy answer there.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: You got to throwing Nick Gonzalez there too. This year
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: he's been he's been another guy that has absolutely taken
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: an off season to better himself. He's having some success.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: He's doing a lot of good things right now. And
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: then those guys that we brought in, I mean, those
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: guys are all hired weapons that are masters at their craft.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: So those they're having success right now as it is.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: But Marcel is the one my brain goes to.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Nice Hey, last one from me, Matt, how was the
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: off season for you? Were you super involved in terms
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: of deciding which hitters to recruit? Did you have combos
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: even with people that you guys didn't end up with,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: like Kyle Schwarber, And then were you jumping up and
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: down with the guys that you did land like the
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: ones we're talking about here.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man, So it started with in the last season.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: You know, you have these meetings and it's a big
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: it's a big round table and everyone's sitting there kind
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: of hashing out. And Ben was very involved and very
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: collaborative on my own, just extremely open minded, and you
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: talk about some of the conversations we have, it's what
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: do winning teams do? And I think you guys have
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: seen a heavy emphasis on getting more left handed this year,
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: especially at PNC and being very intricate with you know,
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: certain things like lineup construction and profiles within lineups. What
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: that means is like, do we want to front load
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: a bunch of guys that control the zone or contact profiles,
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: get on base and just the right blend of who
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: we acquire and who we talk to that kind of
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: fits that mold. So I would say you can chalk
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: that up to vision on where we need to take
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: the offense. But to answer your question, there was a
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: lot of collaborative talk strut the offseason. That's a testament
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: to Ben and Bob trying to open the mic up.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Hey, we're looking at those some of those team ranks
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: next to you, and those are some good numbers. Those
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: are some top three, top five, top ten numbers that
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: are refreshing to see in Pittsburgh. So it's looking good, man,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: keep it up. I know it's a long marathon. Here,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: means a lot for you to come on here and
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: spend fifteen minutes with us. We got a lot of
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: young players listening to this too, So thanks for the combo.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Really enjoyed it. Man, I appreciate Shell. It's been fun.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: That's Matt hag Pittsburgh pirate hitting coach joining us. Good
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: luck the rest of the way. Also a reminder to
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: everyone that we talk Buccos a lot on Bucco Territory
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Josh Harrison on every show with Noahiles and Platinum Key.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: It's really good.