Pirates buck early workout trend
the fact that fields are still moist early in the morning.
“It gives our guys a chance to rest a little longer,” new Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said earlier this spring, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “We are going to focus on rest, recovery and our guys being the strongest versions of themselves. Guys come in a little more refreshed, they’re in a better mood and the balls stay a little bit drier so the [morning] drills are a little bit more effective.
“I don’t think there’s any value in getting to the ballpark when it’s dark just to get to the ballpark when it’s dark.”
Josh Bell didn’t buy the point about the moist grass, given the fact that baseball players play in rain all the time, but all things being equal, he wouldn’t mind moving back the start time. He generally arrives at LECOM Park around 6:50 a.m. to warm up, do hitting work and eat breakfast before a meeting or the team stretch at 9:15 a.m.
That 6:50 arrival is about three hours earlier than he typically gets to the ballpark for a day game in the regular season.
“I feel like there are some guys that enjoy waking up,” Bell said. “I know some guys show up at the park at like 6 o’clock, getting their work in.”
Bell, on the other hand? “I’m definitely more of a night owl myself.”
The move also reflects a reality about current players: They simply have less conditioning work to do at spring training than previous generations of ballplayers did, given the intense offseason regimens modern athletes undertake.
“In the ‘60s and ‘70s, they probably had longer days before games started because you had extra work at the end of the day,” general manager Neal Huntington said. “Guys used to have to condition themselves in spring training, so you needed longer days. Now, these guys come in in great shape, and you’re just getting them in baseball condition.”
The growing trend aside, the Pirates won’t be making wholesale changes to their spring-training schedule right now.
The team has four full fields at Pirate City, where the major league club practices in the early part of spring.
But once competition kicks in, the major league camp migrates to LECOM Park, which has a back field in addition to the main ballfield.
Huntington said teams that have earlier report times have more fields available, allowing home and visiting teams to work simultaneously and get through their work quicker before games.
“Those teams that are able to utilize their back fields — not just one, but multiple fields — they’re able to push their work into parallel the visiting team,” Huntington said. “We’re not able to do that.”
“The conflict we’re having is how to do it,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “We’ve still had days where we’ve pushed back. … So it’s something we’ve kept in play. We’ve been doing it for a long time, we just don’t make a lot of noise about it.”
Huntington said the team has discussed the possibility, especially for that early part of camp at Pirate City. But the idea of having later start times at Pirate City, only to shift them earlier once the team moves to LECOM, isn’t a clear-cut solution, either.
“We’ve had some discussions and have talked about pushing those days back,” Huntington said. “But if we’re coming right back into earlier report days … in our days at LECOM, does that 10 days really help us that much? We’ve gone back and forth there.”