Player Development

by Roberto on Apr 28, 2011 9:12 AM EDT

One of the problems over the years with the Pirates has been player development. Add that to skimping on talent acquisition and you have a recipe for losing. We've been told that this was changed with the new management, but it's been difficult to find concrete examples of that. There's been talk of developing fastball command, but it has been less than clear what's going on for me.

Well Tim Williams has offered an interview with Jim Benedict, the Minor League Pitching Coordinator of the Pirates that really puts things in context for me.

In Part 1 Benedict talks about his schedule, long toss, and fastball command. A shock to me was the comment, "We are big believers in long toss." Who knew. He also has some interesting comments about what fastball command really means.

In Part 2 Benedict talks about Jeff Locke, Aaron Thompson, and Tim Alderson. He gives a cogent explanation of why Alderson's velocity is down; I had not seen this before. It's not the strange delivery, Alderson has had that since day one. What's happened is that Alderson has lost his "L" at the plant. I come away with a lot of confidence in Benedict and NH for hiring people like him.

Take a look. What's your take?

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the managing editor (Charlie) or SB Nation. FanPosts are written by Bucs Dugout readers.

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I cannot post over there...

One thing I would REALLY like to know is Benedict’s take on pitchers throwing from the arm-side vs. the glove-side of the rubber.

It was a great read, and he talks about staying tall to affect the downward plane…but I’m curious as to his take of the horizontal angle of the ball as well. We’ve got many of our pitchers throwing from the glove-side of the rubber, and that directly affects the delivery point of the pitch (horizontally).

by insane_sanity on Apr 28, 2011 10:02 AM EDT reply actions