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Pirates Notebook: Looking at the Strategy of Getting More Rest For the Starters

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PITTSBURGH — The Pirates will play on Thursday without Francisco Cervelli or David Freese in the starting lineup. Wednesday, they held out Josh Harrison.

None of those players are hurt. It’s just a part of the Pirates’ dedication to providing an adequate amount of mid-season rest for their players. With the Pirates only getting one day off the entire month of May — and they used to travel back from the Arizona — the team has been proactive about getting players they feel that need more rest out of the lineup.

“I believe being proactive with it is the best way,” manager Clint Hurdle said this week. “Instead of saying well, he had a good day, the mindset was always to take the guy out after he’s 0 for 20, when he probably should have had a day off before then. Now you’re going to take him out and do him a favor that you’ve really helped him get into that rut and into that slump. Just give him a break. Give him a blow. Refresh.”

It’s one thing to espouse the benefits of rest, but with the Pirates already-narrow margin for victory, they often miss those players resting on the bench.

“Everybody in that clubhouse wants to put out the best lineup that gives us the best chance to win every game we play,” general manager Neal Huntington said last year on the subject. “That’s an interesting balance to walk. How do we put ourselves in position to win the most of the 162 game season, so a day of rest [early in the season] may be crucial even though a player is playing well or a pitcher is on a nice run.”

There’s also an individual aspect to it, as well.

“We’re looking for days for different guys at different times.” Hurdle said, while noting that the things the Pirates look for and their methods or doing so would remain proprietary. Sometimes, it’s obvious, such as the case of Freese.

“He’s a 34-year-old man just off the disabled list from a hamstring injury,” Hurdle said. “There’s probably some sound reasoning involved in it.”

Freese said it’s something that he’s seen around baseball and it doesn’t just have to do with age, either.

“Across the league, there’s older guys that play every day and there’s younger guys that need days,” he said.

You don’t have to go around the league to find an example like Cervelli, though. The 31-year-old catcher is three years younger than Freese, but thanks to a lingering foot issue, he’s been put on a more aggressive rest program.

“The only way it gets better is resting,” Cervelli said. “I want to play. I get paid to play baseball. I don’t like to take days off. I want to be there. So, I have to do everything I can to get better and be out there more. … I’m going to do enough this season.”

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