PITTSBURGH – The Pirates have some speed to burn.
MLB’s Statcast data now includes a metric for player speed and the Pirates seem to have a leg up on the competition.
The new metric is called spring speed and it measures the feet per second of a player running at max effort.
Billy Hamilton is the fastest player in the majors at 30.1 feet per second and league average is 27 feet per second. The system requires a large sample size to work correctly, so only regular players have their speeds calculated. But of the Pirates that have been tracked, they stack up pretty well.
Andrew McCutchen (28.5 feet per second) leads the way, with Josh Harrison (27.8 feet per second) right on his heels. Adam Frazier and Jordy Mercer come in at a dead heat at 27.6, while Gregory Polanco (27.4), John Jaso (27.2) and Jose Osuna (27) all come in at or above league average.
Of the Pirates players tracked, only Josh Bell, Francisco Cervelli and David Freese came in under the league average mark. Here’s the full chart.
Speed can manifest itself a lot of ways in a team’s game. Faster players typically have a higher batting average on balls in play and are better defenders. But the value most frequently associated with speed is what happens on the basepaths.
The Pirates haven’t stolen a ton of bases this season, just 35 entering Wednesday, which is in the bottom third of the league. But the speed of the players on the basepaths can have an effect beyond stealing bases.
“It puts pressure on the opposing pitcher,” Harrison said. “A mistake pitch and ball down the line or in the gap and we can score from first or steal second and score on a base hit.”
With the Pirates current regular roster construction, their three fastest players will bat first, second and third. That stacked speed can have a cumulative effect on opposing pitchers.
“Any time you have a guy that can take extra bases, it puts that much more pressure and then when you have three guys in a row, they want to keep us off the base,” Harrison added. “We get on base, we want to create chaos in the hopes that they’re worried about us and make mistake pitches that our hitters can handle.
“That’s really what it is when you get on base. You try to add pressure. Pressure can be running. Pressure can be looking like you’re going to run, which makes the pitcher feel like he has to speed up. If they speed up, they can lose their location. At the end of the day, that’s all we’re trying to do is get our guy a pitch to hit.”
Sandwiched in between Frazier and McCutchen in the two hole, Harrison gets to see it happen from both sides.
“There are times where I’m hitting and there’s three pickoff throws to first base,” he said. “Anything we can do when we get on base to play with their timing a little bit helps.”
McCutchen just moved to the No. 3 spot after hitting sixth for a month and had two hits on Tuesday with Harrison on base ahead of him.
“When he’s on base, he makes a lot happens and gives me the opportunity to hit him in,” McCutchen said.
STARTING LINEUP
Game 78: #Pirates (35-42) vs
✨(41-28)2B Moroff
LF JHay
CF Cutch
3B ❄️
RF Osuna
1BLEFT OUT
Frazier and Gregory Polanco were both given the night off. Manger Clint Hurdle said it was a combination of the two of them needed a rest day and the Tampa Bay Rays throwing left-hander Blake Snell on the mound.
