CHARLESTON, WV – Jameson Taillon made 23 starts during his pro debut season in West Virginia in 2011. Out of those 23 starts, only seven were for five innings, and none longer. Taillon was mostly limited to four inning appearances, with the Pirates exercising caution with their top prospect.
When I was in West Virginia last week, I saw two pitchers going into the seventh inning. Eduardo Vera — in his first full season back from Tommy John — went seven full innings. Luis Escobar went 6.2 innings, but ran into control problems which prevented him from escaping the inning.
It’s a massive contrast from how the Pirates used to handle pitchers in the lower levels. And it’s not just West Virginia.
In the GCL, Leandro Pina is making his jump to the US. He went six innings on July 22nd, at the age of 18. Young pitchers in the GCL used to have those same 3-4 inning restrictions, maybe topping out at five innings.
The same was true in the past with the DSL. On July 25th, 17-year-old right-hander Noe Toribio went six innings. A few days later, on July 29th, 18-year-old left-hander Jose Marcano also went six innings.
Perhaps the biggest eye opener for me in the last year came with Mitch Keller. He pitched into the seventh inning five times last year in West Virginia, just five years after Taillon had his strict limits. The Pirates didn’t slow him down later in the year either. He went eight innings in a playoff start at the end of the season, after a promotion to Bradenton.
There was a time when an eight inning start would only happen in Indianapolis, and even then it would be a shock. To see Keller go eight innings in A-ball at the end of a long season was a sign that things had changed for the Pirates. Seeing the workloads for the lower level guys this year was just confirmation that it went beyond Keller.
Last week in West Virginia, I caught up with Pirates’ Assistant General Manager Kyle Stark to see what changed in the Pirates’ approach with the younger pitchers.
“The biggest thing we’re doing different is trying to more accurately assess workload,” Stark said. “An inning is not an inning is not an inning. To treat all innings the same is probably asinine. So [we] look at two things: Pitches are the more applicable workload measure to look at, and the second part of it is how is their body responding. What is their body telling us? As opposed to just arbitrarily saying ‘Hey, you should be able to handle X.'”
This isn’t really a new concept for them this year, and is something I’ve heard before in regards to another situation. Last year, Jameson Taillon was returning from Tommy John surgery (and there’s probably some commentary here about how all of the caution in the world won’t prevent pitcher injuries). He hadn’t pitched in an official game in two years, and the Pirates were closely monitoring his workload.
But each time Neal Huntington was asked if they had an innings limit, Huntington would respond that they were looking at something else. They were focused more on the number of pitches Taillon was throwing, and then digging deeper to see how many stress pitches he threw. The lower level pitchers being able to throw more innings is just a different application of that theory.
“Same basic principle,” Stark said regarding the Taillon comparison. “It’s looking at pitches rather than innings, and even then a pitch is not a pitch is not a pitch. So we’re trying to evaluate and trying to approximate how much stress is in those pitches. And the other part of it is trying to say what is the body telling us, as opposed to just arbitrarily saying ‘You can’t handle X.’ Well, the body may show that this guy can, this guy can’t.”
There isn’t really a definition of “stress pitches”, mostly because the Pirates don’t want to reveal what they are. But it could also be due to the fact that this is a new approach for them, and the definition could be changing with more research that they get. Every minor league park in the organization has a Trackman like system installed, and you can only imagine the Pirates are making the most of those readings.
The Pirates received a lot of criticism for babying their pitchers back when Taillon was in the lower levels. That was mostly due to a reaction to the innings. This newer approach makes more sense, as it allows a pitcher to build up innings, while making sure their total workload is still in check. It also allows for them to build up starters who are used to pitching deep into games.
“One of the things we’ve talked about, as far as guys pitching deeper into games, is that’s your job as a starter. Here’s the X number of pitches you have, your job is to pitch as deep into the game as possible, rather than say five innings. Because if it’s five [innings] and 50 [pitches], that’s way different than five and 100. It’s just looking at things a little bit differently and challenging guys, and I think guys respond accordingly.”
The Pirates, like every other team in baseball, are trying to find that magic solution that will reduce injuries and maintain health and stamina. This approach makes sense, but only time will tell how effective it is at not only keeping pitchers healthy, but at getting pitchers trained to go deeper into games.
