News Roundup: Andy LaRoche Credits Coaching for Adjustments

by Charlie Wilmoth on Apr 20, 2009 3:24 PM EDT

-P- Andy LaRoche credits Bucs hitting coach Don Long with suggesting adjustments that have led to LaRoche's mini-breakout.

The change was simple. LaRoche's urgency to try steal a hit -- he started the season 1-for-20 -- inadvertently caused his upper body to begin rotating too far toward right-center field. That closed LaRoche off from being able to hit inside pitches, and opposing pitchers took full advantage.

Already now we've seen Pirates coaches credited for improvements in LaRoche's hitting and also his fielding. I hope the coaching staff has made Andy their top priority, because it sounds like he needs to have his hand held through everything. I don't mean to infantilize him, but already he's needed help to fix hitting and fielding that had been awful, and this offseason when he didn't have supervision, he was supposed to do back exercises and he didn't do them, leading to problems with his back in Spring Training.

-P- After a homer, a single and a walk yesterday, Pedro Alvarez is now hitting .250 AVG / .375 OBP / .528 SLG.

-P- Daniel Haigwood, the former Red Sox minor league pitcher who was in camp with the Pirates this year, has signed with the independent Winnipeg Goldeyes.

-P- Via Pat, one blog has a good writeup about Andrew McCutchen and Daniel McCutchen. It reports that Daniel was touching 97 with his fastball.

-P- And speaking of Indianapolis, David Letterman was at the game there on Friday.

-P- The Bucs rank 20th on ESPN.com's Power Rankings, ahead of the A's, Angels, Indians and Diamondbacks. Hey, it's early.

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Commentary on Laroche or the Dodgers org?

Charlie,

Does Andy need the hand-holding because that is what he received from the Dodgers and expected the same from PGH or like you suggest, left to his own devices he sloughs off?

by Mick Kraut on Apr 20, 2009 4:07 PM EDT reply actions

FYI

Doumit out with a wrist injury per Dejan.

by Hitman Easler on Apr 20, 2009 4:07 PM EDT reply actions

pitchers were definitely killing andy laroche inside so this might actually be some sort of sustainable improvement.

by johnnycuff on Apr 20, 2009 5:26 PM EDT reply actions

Pedro's stats

If Alvarez can keep his OPS over .900 for an extended period (6 weeks?) he needs to be moved up to Altoona.

It’s hard for a guy like Pedro to learn a lot in A+ ball, the pitching and IFs are so bad.

by WstCstBucco on Apr 20, 2009 6:35 PM EDT reply actions

He could work on contact.

.250 isn’t anything special for a college player of his pedigree, even if he’s showing good power.

by Vlad on Apr 20, 2009 7:50 PM EDT up reply actions

To what extent do you think his 250 avg. is the result of pitchers being afraid to pitch to him?

He has been drawing a ton of walks in his last few games. I suspect that after his huge opening night, everybody has been afraid to pitch to him and so he was swinging at crap and making outs. He seems to have adjusted and is now taking a lot of walks. I haven’t seen him play though, so this is just speculation.

by houksyndrome on Apr 20, 2009 8:47 PM EDT up reply actions

I saw him play last Friday. The opposing starter was a lefty breaking ball pitcher and threw him nothing but offspeed stuff. The first reliever was a righty and threw mostly pitches in the dirt, none of which Alvarez swung at. The last pitcher was a lefty who threw pretty hard and Alvarez lined his first pitch, a fastball, for a hit to center.

Basically, he’s going to get challenged about once every day or two. All of his 9 walks have come in his last 7 games, with two 3-walk games. So, yeah, I figure he’s starting to adjust and is willing to wait for that rare pitch over the plate. I think they’re going to need to promote him just to get him up against pitchers who’ll challenge him more often.

by WTM on Apr 20, 2009 10:46 PM EDT up reply actions

He swung and missed a lot in college, too.

K’d in 23.1% of his AB from ‘06-’08. That’s pretty high for a top-level college bat, and it’s one of the reasons that I had Smoak rated higher going into the draft.

by Vlad on Apr 21, 2009 9:23 AM EDT up reply actions