Friday, May 31, 2019

Pirates’ Kevin Newman making big strides in Year 2


By Tim Benz
May 31, 2019
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(Christopher Horner/Tribune-Review)
Across the parking lot from PNC Park, after a preseason game in August, you’ll probably hear Steelers coach Mike Tomlin say something about James Washington, Jaylen Samuels or Chuks Okorafor “being on the rise from Year 1 to Year 2” of their NFL careers.
Tomlin is big on that one. That’s a staple NFL coaching cliché. An easy one to pull out of the bag when a second-year player makes strides after looking lost as a rookie.
That’s an easy concept to apply in football. You get drafted. Make the team. Feel your way through your first campaign. Come back in Year 2. And contribute more. In the NFL, you have no minor league shuttle to ride. No threat of demotion.
Baseball’s a little less streamlined. Because if you struggled as a rookie, you could still find yourself bouncing up and down between the majors and minors until you figure things out in your sophomore season. Still earning that second look on a full-time basis.
Pirates infielder Kevin Newman has played this whole year looking like he’s on an NFL progression in a baseball uniform.
Whether he buys the analogy or not.
“I’m not comfortable,” Newman said Friday. “I’m not sitting here saying, ’I’m here for the rest of the year.’ That’s not the mentality I have.”
However, with a .338 batting average, a .398 on-base percentage and an .871 OPS, Newman sure looks comfortable at the plate.
With the glove, that three-error disaster in the sixth inning at Wrigley Field on April 9 aside, he also has looked plenty comfortable. Totally clean.
Those numbers are a far cry from the ones the former first-round pick posted after getting elevated to MLB on Aug. 16 last season.
Newman hit only .209 with a .247 on-base percentage. Yet the organization gave him a chance to travel with the big club out of spring training this season.
In fact, the only time Newman spent in the minors this year was on a rehab assignment after cutting his finger moving the pitching machine.
Newman’s stint to begin 2019 in the big leagues was anything but assured. Cole Tucker had yet to be called up. Erick Gonzales began the year as the starter at shortstop before getting hurt. Adam Frazier was at second. And the Colin Moran-Jung Ho Kang combination was penciled in at third base.
All Newman has done is bounce among every position — including two appearances in the outfield — and delivered at a surprisingly effective clip.
Newman attributes his bright spots this year less to that of a been there-done that confidence carrying over from his ineffective call up in 2018 and more to that of knowing that a little success in his second trip could be buying himself some leeway.
“How this year has gone has helped my confidence,” Newman said. “How I feel after I get out, it’s not, ‘Shoot, do I have to worry about going down (to the minors)?’ If you think that way, it can creep more into your mind.”
Pirates manager Clint Hurdle allows that mental fortitude may be a component in Newman’s bounce back from the end of 2018. But he looks more toward the utilityman’s physical development than what is between his ears.
“He got strong,” Hurdle said. “He was just out of gas last year. Getting strong, having rest, that helped as much as anything.”
After playing all season in the minors before his recall, Newman was said to have arrived in Pittsburgh 15 pounds underweight.
“Now, the game speed, acclimation, and reps added it to it,” Hurdle said. “It’s probably a little bit of both (physical and mental). He’s playing with some confidence. He’s fielding with some confidence. His development has been fun to watch.”
The Pirates have enough faith in Newman now that they are trying him in the leadoff spot. He went 1 for 5 there in Thursday’s 11-5 loss to the Brewers.
To go back to the football analogy, if you’re a first-round pick and your first exposure on the big stage goes like Newman’s went, you get labeled a bust fast, and you get no help changing minds.
If you don’t make that jump in Year 2, it may never happen.
Newman’s 2019 season is giving us reason to think he’s ready to take that leap.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@tribweb.com or viaTwitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
Categories: Sports | Pirates | Tim Benz Breakfast With
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Thursday, May 30, 2019

T.J. Watt sets new tone for Steelers by embracing leadership role


By Kevin Gorman
https://triblive.com/sports/kevin-gorman-t-j-watts-sets-new-tone-for-steelers-by-embracing-leadership-role/
May 29, 2019
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(93.7 The Fan)
T.J. Watt evolved from a rookie who kept his head down and tried not to mess up to a second-year star who led the Pittsburgh Steelers in sacks and was selected to the Pro Bowl.
When asked what he would do for an encore in his third season, the first words out of Watt’s mouth were that he wants to make “more splash, more plays” — and, presumably, more splash plays — but it was what followed that caught my attention.
“Also trying to build that leadership role,” Watt said, “and trying to be a guy that some of the younger guys can look up to and be a tone setter in general for the team.”
When leadership and the Steelers were mentioned in the same sentence the past five months, it was only to talk about how much they were lacking it last season. It was largely to blame for such a talented team not winning the AFC North and missing the postseason for the first time in five years.
So it was a refreshing change to hear the 6-foot-4, 252-pound outside linebacker embracing the responsibility, not so much with his words but by setting an example for his teammates through hard work and dedication to his craft.
“I feel like I haven’t totally proved myself,” Watt said, “but through what I have done around here, the extra work that everyone see me put through work that I can start to get into that leadership role and have a voice on this defense.”
Instead of deferential, Watt wants to be a difference maker.
That Watt is only 24 shouldn’t be a deterrent. He’s young but proved himself by leading the Steelers with 13 sacks, 21 quarterback hits and six forced fumbles and finishing fourth with 68 tackles after switching to the left side last season.
The Pro Bowl nod showed Watt has earned credibility around the NFL, stepping out of the shadow of his older brother to create a name for himself. That’s not easy to do, as Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt is a three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year and five-time All-Pro.
But T.J. Watt knows leadership is earned, not awarded. So he doesn’t treat his Pro Bowl status as if it was a credential that brings him the credibility of a captaincy.
“A little bit, but I don’t care what anyone outside of this locker room thinks of me,” T.J. Watt said. “I care what these guys (on the Steelers) think about me and I earn that through working hard and they all see that. I think that’s the biggest thing here, having respect. You earn respect through working hard and doing the right things on and off the field.”
This is where we should start a slow clap.
The Steelers have been a soap opera of off-field distractions, to the point of being compared to The Kardashians. They are attempting to put that reputation behind them this offseason, but some old habits die hard.
Watt believes he and Bud Dupree are going to have a breakout season — they combined for 181/2 sacks last year — and you have to hope that Watt’s positive energy and big-play ability can rub off on the right outside linebacker.
This is still a veteran-oriented team, but it’s important young stars like Watt, JuJu Smith-Schuster and James Conner are becoming more visible and vocal. They can either delve into the dysfunction or change the culture and lead the Steelers back to chasing Super Bowl championships.
Watt taking on a leadership role is a step in the right direction.
“I don’t think I had a need to do it. I just think that’s who I am as a person,” Watt said. “Dating back to my Wisconsin days, you just get your feet wet and get the respect of a lot of guys. You see that guys are starting to follow you and ask questions, how you sleep, how your diet is, how you study film? You think, ‘Wow, some guys are starting to follow in my footsteps. It’s time to take on a leadership role.’ It kind of blossoms into what it is.”
Watt admits he’s still figuring out how to be vocal, so his leadership role is not yet in full bloom. That’s what makes the voluntary OTAs and mandatory minicamp so valuable, as it allows Watt to build a bond and earn the trust of teammates.
“The biggest thing about being a leader is you have to know who you’re talking to at all times because a lot of guys come from different areas,” Watt said. “They take leadership differently. They take coaching and everything differently.
“Being a guy that works really hard, showing through example and then talking when the time is right, not trying to over-coach and be somebody that I’m not.”
That Watt is working hard to become somebody the Steelers need, making splash plays on the field and serving as a leader in the locker room, sets a tone for his teammates to follow.
Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email atkgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter .
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5/29/19: Moran, Bell both homer in Bucs' 7-2 victory

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Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Josh Bell’s breakout season can be traced to 1 stat


By Tim Benz
https://triblive.com/sports/tim-benz-josh-bells-breakout-season-can-be-traced-to-1-stat/
May 29, 2019
Josh Bell homers against the Rangers on May 8th in Pittsburgh (Gene J. Puskar/AP)
One of the advanced analytics regularly in the dunking booth for baseball old-schoolers is exit velocity. You know, Major League Baseball’s Statcast tracking of how fast a player hits the ball off the bat. The older the baseball fan, the more likely you are to hear: “Do I really need a stat to show me a ball pounded 400 feet over the fence was hit hard?”
Enter Pirates first baseman Josh Bell, he of a breakout 2019 season. Heading into Wednesday’s games, Bell finds himself in the National League’s top five in batting average, RBIs, home runs, slugging, and OPS.
Those are basic stats most of us can grasp.
Meanwhile, Bell also leads the NL in average exit velocity at 95.5 mph. His 86 balls hit at over 95 mph also lead the NL, as does his hard-hit rate, which is the percentage of balls put in play at 95 mph or more, at 57.7%.
Has that helped the 26-year-old’s lofty total of 17 home runs? Of course.
But the baseball stat geeks will insist the exit velocity is important beyond adding a fun nugget on a graphic for a Bell home-run highlight package.
And they would be right.
On balls that don’t jump out of the stadium, Bell is hitting the ball so hard this year that he’s beating the defense even when it’s positioned well to stop him.
That’s helped boost his batting average 79 points from where it was at the end of last year.
Perhaps too often, you’ll hear exit velocity worked into a conversation as a “yeah, but” excuse to defend “Player X,” who might typically be a .300 hitter but whose stats are off a bit. It usually goes something like, “So far this year, he is hitting only .250, but his exit velocity is good, so he’s just getting unlucky.”
In Bell’s case, though, the exit velocity stats are underscoring his effectiveness at the plate beyond the “wow” factor of launching balls into the Allegheny River with increasing regularity.
On Saturday, manager Clint Hurdle spoke of Bell’s ability to regularly transfer raw power into practical application even on batted balls that do stay within the field of play.
“The lower-trajectory-launch-angle balls, there’s a correlation now,” Hurdle said of Bell’s swing.
Take a look at Bell’s double over Yasil Puig in right field last night against the Reds as an example. That one jumped of the bat at 101 mph.
Hurdle also pointed to two examples from Thursday’s 14-6 Pirates win over the Rockies as evidence. Bell went 3 for 4, including a blast over the center-field fence.
But his two other hits that afternoon were perhaps more impressive because they were smoked hard enough to beat defenders in good position to make plays.
Those swings included a fourth-inning double into right-center field off a 90 mph fastball that David Dahl simply couldn’t reach before it lasered into the gap. The other was a single that eluded Brendan Rodgers on a dive between first and second base.
“The second baseman (Rodgers) flat out got beat,” Hurdle said. “And he’s a pretty good defender with good first-step quickness. And you saw (Bell) drill that ball through the right side. If that ball isn’t hit that hard, the kid gets a glove on it and makes a play.”
The numbers support Hurdle’s anecdotal evidence. Bell’s average exit velocity is up 5.5 mph from last year. His hard-hit percentage of 57.7% is up from 39% in 2018. He’s hitting the ball on the barrel of the bat 17.6% of the time. That’s up from 7.0% throughout last year’s campaign.
“It’s just being ready to hit balls in zones that I’m looking for, and not missing them,” Bell said Saturday.
Hurdle partially credits Bell’s relaxed approach to batting practice, claiming that, in the past, Bell needed a good “rehearsal” to carry over into the game. Now in Year 3 of his career, Bell has learned to be more laid back at first pitch, even if his pregame preparation wasn’t perfect.
“I don’t really care about results in BP,” Bell said. “Just getting loose and preparing for starters with a game plan and a mentality. (I don’t) really worry about anything in regards to my swing.”
Based on how 2019 is going, why should he?
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@tribweb.com or viaTwitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Phil Kessel to Wild would’ve been wrong move for Penguins


By Tim Benz
https://triblive.com/sports/tim-benz-phil-kessel-to-wild-wouldve-been-wrong-move-for-penguins/
May 28, 2019

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(Getty Images)
If there was a trade in place between the Penguins and Wild involving Phil Kessel, it appears to be off now.
And it appears it’s off because Kessel doesn’t want to go to Minnesota. The Wild aren’t on his eight-team approved list for trades. And, according toSportsnet, Kessel doesn’t appear willing to go there.
That’s a good thing. Not because I’m fretting over a Kessel trade happening. I’m resigned to the Penguins trading Kessel eventually, despite his points-per-game stats and two Stanley Cup rings.
General manager Jim Rutherford has promised change. Moving Kessel with his $6.8 million contract, his grumbly demeanor and his lack of attention to anything but scoring is probably a good place to start.
However, a trade of Kessel didn’t have to be this specific trade. Aside from shipping him out to the Western Conference, I don’t think a lot of positives would’ve come from the reported move.
The Athletic reported that the swap would’ve been Kessel and defenseman Jack Johnson ($3.25 million per year) to the Wild for Jason Zucker ($5.5 million) and Victor Rask ($4 million).
To me, that sounds as much about an attempt to get rid of Johnson’s contract as it does getting good return for Kessel.
Frankly, the reported trade proposal wouldn’t have accomplished very much because having Rask coming back in return eats up the savings enjoyed by moving Johnson. Unless Minnesota would retain some salary for one or both players, the Penguins would emerge with only $550,000 in cap savings.
For a decision a seismic as trading Kessel, the Penguins should get better talent than Rask and Zucker. Or they should demand high draft picks and the gift of significant cap space to shop for a suitable and affordable replacement in free agency.
There is a lot of good to Zucker’s game. He’s a fast winger with durability, missing just four games during the last three seasons. Plus, he’s a decent scorer with 76 goals over that span.
This past year was a drop off for Zucker. His goals dipped from 33 to 21. His point total dropped from 64 to 42. He went from a plus-34 in 2017 to a minus-8 in 2019.
Michael Russo, who covers the Wild for The Athletic, helped advance the trade story last week with this assessment of Zucker’s performance and by providing commentary on 93.7 The Fan on Friday.
“At times, he can be aggravating, like all players that like to cheat for offense,” Russo said. “There are things that drive you nuts in your own zone. He can score. He gets a ton of chances. But a lot of times, he can aggravate on the ice.”
Gee, a guy who can score but aggravates in his own zone and cheats for offense. Who does that sound like?
Also, it’s not as if Zucker is so special to the Wild that they would consider moving him only for a player of Kessel’s status. Keep in mind, general manager Paul Fenton was reportedly ready to trade him to Calgary back in February.
As for Rask, he’s just a not a good enough player for the money he is making. He had only nine points in 49 games. He’d be a fourth-liner in Pittsburgh, at best. Sometimes, organizations have to overpay for a guy such as Johnson to be on your blueline. They should never have to overpay for a fourth-line forward like that, especially when the Penguins have cheap options such as Teddy Blueger (RFA), Garrett Wilson (RFA) and Adam Johnson (RFA) who can eat up time on the fourth line.
When news of this trade proposal broke, many railed against it because the thought of trading Kessel and his raw point production makes them break out in hives. That’s not me. I’m willing to live in a post-Phil world.
But shipping him out in a trade like this would’ve been the wrong way to go. Kessel did Rutherford a favor by reportedly nixing the deal.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@tribweb.com or viaTwitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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Sunday, May 26, 2019

Phil Kessel Is On The Trade Block And That's Probably For The Best


By Barry Petchesky
https://deadspin.com/phil-kessel-is-on-the-trade-block-and-thats-probably-fo-1835002261
May 24, 2019

Phil Kessel #81 of the Pittsburgh Penguins takes the ice against the New York Islanders in Game Three of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at PPG Paints Arena on April 14, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images)

One of the hardest things to do in the NHL is to rebuild a team on the fly—to remake the roster, usually younger and cheaper, while still remaining competitive. The Blackhawks are the success story of the salary cap era, but even they had to pay the piper eventually. Now it’s the Penguins’ turn, though they don’t really have much choice: The obvious and correct thing to do is try to win while Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are still in their primes, even if that means trading away their third option. Phil Kessel has almost certainly played his last game in Pittsburgh.

 It’s an open secret that Kessel is a near sure-thing to be moved this summer—not even the first summer that’s been a strong rumor. But this time we have details. The Athletic’s Josh Yohe reports the Penguins and Minnesota Wild have a deal in place, centered on Kessel for speedy 27-year-old winger Jason Zucker, and that “it is believed the only holdup at this time is Kessel, who has the right to veto the trade.”

 Also potentially on the table is a swap of bad contracts in center Victor Rask and defenseman Jack Johnson. If it’s a pure two-for-two trade, the Pens would get a little younger and a little more future cost certainty—exactly what they showed they were looking for in their February trade with Florida for Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann.

 But, as has been the case for most of his career, the sexy piece here is Kessel. He’s still a consistent offensive force, durable and sturdy as they come. But his game has gotten increasingly one-dimensional, and he doesn’t really make his linemates better and in some cases actually aggravates them to the point of making them worse (Malkin). The Athletic describes Kessel thus: “his enigmatic nature has irritated coaching staffs and front offices in Boston, Toronto and Pittsburgh.” That’s a hell of a euphemism, and a loaded one, but Kessel’s eventually found himself the center of attention—often for bad reasons, but often not his fault—everywhere he’s played. He is an occasional headache, but one who will unerringly play 82 games and give you somewhere between 25 and 35 goals. He’s a hugely valuable player, but a change of scenery could very well do both him and Pittsburgh some good.

 Zucker also offers some consistency, but in his floor rather than his ceiling. He’s scored at least 20 goals in four of his five NHL seasons, but he followed up a breakout 33-goal, 31-assist 2017-18 season with a relative down year: 21 goals and 21 helpers this past campaign. He’s faster than Kessel, and more defensive-minded, and these things seem like they’d make him a better fit in Mike Sullivan’s system—and more likely to make Evgeni Malkin happy. Still, he’s no true replacement for Kessel, but at the same time he might be the closest the Penguins will be able to get. Zucker is signed for four more years at $5.5M per.

 (On the other side of this, what are the Wild’s grand plans? Who really knows, man. Kessel would be a nice addition, but they really do seem extremely horny for bad contracts. Maybe having Jack Johnson on the books until 2023 won’t look so bad when Suter and Parise are signed for two additional seasons after that.)

 It seems like this is all down to Kessel, who has a partial no-trade clause that allows him to block trades to 23(!) teams, Minnesota among them. The Athletic reports that Kessel is still deciding whether to waive his NTC, and that “he did research on Minnesota and the Wild during the past week.” And if you’re now also having a visual of Kessel sitting down to Google some things, congratulations: It’s a fun thing to picture.

 Even if Kessel vetoes a Wild deal, the very fact that the specifics have leaked make it probable that the Penguins have made up their mind to move him this summer. Pittsburgh hopes it’s less the end of an era, and more the propping open of a window.
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Friday, May 24, 2019

How Pirates switch-hitter Josh Bell became a feared home run threat


By Andy McCulloch
https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-josh-bell-pirates-switch-hitter-home-runs-david-freese-20190523-story.html
May 23, 2019

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Josh Bell hits his 16th home run of the season in the Pirates' 14-6 win over Colorado on Thursday in Pittsburgh.

 Before he refurbished his swing over the winter in Orange County, before he streamlined his workload and quit his incessant tinkering, before he emerged as the one of the most fearsome hitters in the National League in 2019, Pittsburgh Pirates teammates Josh Bell and David Freese had a conversation about switch-hitting.

 The two men spoke last summer, in the days before the Pirates traded Freese to the Dodgers. Freese was never a switch-hitter, but he had played with Lance Berkman. Bell had spent the entirety of his professional career trying to craft identical swings from each side of the plate. Berkman, Freese explained to Bell, never did that. Berkman understood his body well enough to wield two different swings, two different approaches.

 Bell added the point to his offseason checklist. He recalled the moment last week at Petco Park, when he had swatted 10 homers as a left-handed hitter and only two as a right-handed hitter. The disparity didn’t bother him, he insisted.

 “I definitely have more pop left-handed than I do righty,” Bell said. “But, I mean, I’ll probably run into a ball or two. We’ll see.”

 Two days later, Bell did precisely that. He hit two home runs off San Diego Padres left-hander Nick Margevicius to cap a prodigious week at the plate. Bell received National League Player of the Week honors as a reward. The first baseman looms as the most dangerous Pirate when the Dodgers visit PNC Park this weekend.

 In 46 games, Bell has already produced more home runs (15) than he did in 2018 (12). At 26, he has blossomed into an MVP candidate. Heading into Thursday, Bell ranked third in the National League with a .694 slugging percentage, behind only Dodgers star Cody Bellinger and reigning MVP Christian Yelich. Bell also trailed only Bellinger and Yelich with a 1.092 on-base plus slugging percentage.

 “Josh is understanding himself at a much higher level,” Pirates hitting coach Rick Eckstein said. “Some of that comes from experience. Some of that comes from mindful work. Some of that is just his overall growth and development.”

 After reaching the playoffs each fall from 2013 to 2015, the Pirates have stumbled toward mediocrity. Their front office misfired on a pair of franchise-altering trades last season. The Pirates sold low on pitcher Gerrit Cole before the season, and watched the Houston Astros mold Cole into an ace. During the summer, Pittsburgh paid a premium in prospects to the Tampa Bay Rays for pitcher Chris Archer. Archer has a 5.55 earned-run average in 2019; former Pirates Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow have been crucial to Tampa Bay’s early success.

 The missteps have left the Pirates caught between the cycle of tanking and the realistic possibility of competition. They lag behind the Chicago Cubs and the Milwaukee Brewers in their division. But they still possess enough talent to vie for a Wild Card berth. Bell will play a considerable role in that push, a year after spending the summer pounding baseballs into the ground.

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Josh Bell scores on Melky Cabrera's double in the first inning of Thursday's win over the Rockies at PNC Park. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)

 On the strength of a 26-homer, .800-OPS campaign in 2017, Bell finished third behind Bellinger in National League Rookie of the Year voting. Both players experienced a sophomore swoon. Bell’s was more pronounced. His patience at the plate improved, but his slugging percentage sagged to .411. When he put the ball in play, it was a grounder nearly half the time.

 Bell compounded the trouble by fiddling in the batting cage. His approach adjusted from day to day, at-bat to at-bat. He spent hours trying to make his swings from each side of the plate look identical. In September, with the season already lost, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle benched Bell for a series to allow him to reset. Hurdle advised Bell to devise a brief list of principles at the plate and stick with them.

 Bell grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but he chose to relocate to Southern California this winter. He contacted his agent, Scott Boras, about using the agency’s facilities in Newport Beach. Boras put Bell in contact with Joe DeMarco, a hitting consultant who played in the minors and coached at the University of Kansas and UC Irvine. Bell went to work with DeMarco in early October.

 “He wanted to just go back to the drawing board and revamp it,” DeMarco said. “And really learn and understand from a different point of view.”

 The sessions lasted hours in Irvine and Santa Ana. DeMarco determined that Bell was operating with too wide of a base, which disoriented his swing as soon as it began. Bell stands 6-feet-4 and weighs 240 pounds. Even a small disruption in the kinetic chain can derail a larger player, and Bell “just wasn’t putting himself in a position to make it work,” DeMarco said.

 As the offseason progressed, Bell polished the edges on his two stances. From the right side, he utilized a toe tap as a timing mechanism. As a left-handed hitter, his leg kick became more pronounced, with the knee of his front leg rising as high as his waist. His timing began to sync up. DeMarco sent videos of their sessions to Bell’s management team with a tantalizing prelude: “He’s getting dangerous.”

 “It’s scary,” DeMarco said. “I wear a helmet when I throw. But still — he hits the ball hard. There’s a flow to it. He’s got a lot of mass. He’s got a lot of twitch to him.”

 For Bell, the toil extended beyond the cage. Bell believes “iron sharpens iron,” so during workouts at Boras’ facility he studied the patterns of another budding power hitter, Oakland Athletics third baseman Matt Chapman. “He’s unreal,” Bell said. “He’s a puma. He’s one of those guys who looks like he grew up on Jupiter, like under heavier gravity, and he got transported to Earth.”

 When the season began, Bell started to lift baseballs into orbit. He slugged .592 in April with a .955 OPS. In early May, he became the fourth player in the history of PNC Park to splash a homer into the Allegheny River. Bell had deposited balls there on a bounce twice before. This one was his first to land in the drink on the fly.

 Bell has cut his groundball rate by nearly 10%. In conversations with DeMarco and Eckstein, Bell rarely discusses the launch angle of his swing. He focuses on his timing, because “if you’re in a good hitting position on time, then good things happen,” he said.

 The Pirates implemented measures to keep Bell from excessive time in the cage. Eckstein asks Bell to vocalize his goals before each session. “A lot of times, guys who tinker, they swing and swing and swing and swing and swing and swing and swing,” Eckstein said. “So we were very mindful of saying ‘This is what we want to accomplish.’ And when we’ve accomplished that, we trust it.”

 There will be hiccups. Bell is striking out more often than before. He is still learning how to be a different hitter from the left side of the plate and the right side of the plate. But the progress has already resulted in plenty of damage.

 “It all goes back to Josh,” Eckstein said. “He understood where he wanted to grow.”
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Bell leads Bucs to wild win over Rockies - 5/23/19

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Thursday, May 23, 2019

Accelerated development from Teddy Blueger could be good news for Penguins


By Jonathan Bombulie
https://triblive.com/sports/accelerated-development-from-teddy-blueger-could-be-good-news-for-penguins/
May 22, 2019

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(NHL.com)
Before he made his NHL debut with the Pittsburgh Penguins at the end of January, the story of Teddy Blueger’s career was slow and steady improvement. His two-way game was always a point of strength, but his offensive game took some time to come around.
As a freshman at Minnesota-Mankato, Blueger managed six goals and 19 points. By the time he was a senior, he nearly doubled those totals to 11 and 35.
In his first season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, he had seven goals and 31 points in 54 games. This season, he jacked those totals up to 21 goals and 39 points in just 45 AHL games.
Once he arrived with the Penguins, though, he wrote a different script, immediately putting up six goals and 10 points in limited ice time in 28 games.
To break that down a little further, Blueger averaged 1.1 goals per 60 minutes of five-on-five ice time. The only player on the team with a better figure was 40-goal man Jake Guentzel (1.45).
To outside eyes, he was an overnight success. The way Blueger saw it, though, it was the same process he followed in college and in the minors, just accelerated.
“I had a good run there for a bit and was able to play some more minutes and stuff and grew more and more comfortable,” Blueger said. “I’d say probably the first 10, 15 games, I’d say my game took some adjusting. I was just worried about chipping the puck forward and dumping it in. After that, it kind of started to slow down a bit. I was able to hang onto the puck more and make more plays and feel more comfortable that way. I thought I played better after that.”
Blueger’s development continued once the season ended. At the World Championships in Slovakia, he posted a goal and three assists in seven games and was named one of Latvia’s top three players. He also ranked among tournament leaders with a 62.7% success rate in the faceoff circle.
Continued improvement from Blueger is critical for the Penguins.
While much of the focus around the team’s desire to get better at this point in the offseason focuses on trades, free agency and the draft, the Penguins will also need to see improvement from within. It’s not reasonable to expect many of the team’s key players will see a boost in production as they move into their 30s. It is reasonable to expect the 24-year-old Blueger’s arrow to be pointing up.
With 42-year-old Matt Cullen hitting unrestricted free agency and considering retirement, the fourth-line center job looks wide open for Blueger.
Most of the forwards who spent time on the team’s fourth line this season did not match’s Blueger’s production of five five-on-five goals in 28 games.
Riley Sheahan had six in 49 games. Cullen had five in 71 games. No one else scored more than two.
If the Penguins are going to be the kind of team that rolls four lines that can score – a stated goal of coach Mike Sullivan on many occasions – Blueger seems better equipped for the task than many players who have been tried in the role over the past two seasons.
With his developmental pace on overdrive, Blueger will spend his summer preparing to fill it during his second NHL season.
“You know what to expect,” Blueger said. “Everyone always says, ‘It’s fast, it’s skilled, blah blah blah,’ but you don’t really get a feel for what it’s like until you’re actually in it. You know what the pace is like, what to expect, how hard it is to hang onto pucks, protect the puck down low, beat guys one on one, things like that. You can tailor (offseason workouts) to your own personal experience, how you felt out there and what you feel you’re missing. I think that makes a big difference.”
Jonathan Bombulie is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jonathan by email atjbombulie@tribweb.com or via Twitter .
Categories: Sports | Penguins
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