The last two days in the Gulf Coast League have featured more or less one non-Juan Nicasio highlight for the Pirates: Andrew McCutchen is mashing taters all over the place. Yesterday in Sarasota he sent a Kevin Gausman pitch nearly into orbit, and it landed well beyond all seating and stadium structures. Today in Bradenton he hit a Masahiro Tanaka pitch nearly as far.
Perhaps more interestingly, he opened up a bit about his knee injury from last year after the game, talking about how it affected his training during the season and what he’s done this winter to be ready for the season. There’s also some talk about the potential of him batting second this year, which warms my sabermetric heart right up.
I’ll be honest; the knee injury is something that’s been floating around the corners of my mind when I think about McCutchen this spring. Not that it’ll hurt him again this year, necessarily, but just about how badly it hurt his swing in the early year and the way that it affected his defense all season. I don’t put a ton of stock into any spring training results, but seeing him mash the ball this week and hearing him open up about the knee is pretty comforting.
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