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Afternoon notes: Swing and a looooong drive to left

By Stephen J. Nesbitt / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 9 years ago

BRADENTON, Fla. — Pirates practice today ended with this scene. OF José Tabata, in the last batting-practice group, called for one last toss as a driving rain swept in. He took the pitch and slammed it off the roof of the batting cages beyond the left-field fence.

“In the rain. Game over. Go home,” C Tony Sanchez said.

“Tabataaaaaa!” manager Clint Hurdle yelled.

And then everyone ran for cover.

• Here’s what Hurdle had to say afterward: "We've got one more day to finish it off, to put an exclamation point on our time here in Pirate City. The work has been good, it's been efficient. We've spent the appropriate amount of time on the field. We got the heavy-lifting portion of our workout done today [before the rain]."

• Hurdle will announce tomorrow the pitching rotation for the first few games of spring training.

• On the bulletin board in the clubhouse is a spreedsheet with the large title, “The Execution Game.” Basically, the Pirates have a five-day challenge going to see what player can execute best with the bat in their hands. On the back field, a coach is holding a clipboard and calls out different things for the hitter to do. Bunt to the left. Bunt to the right. Squeeze bunt. Slap bunt. Hit and run. Hit the 4-hole. Infield in. Infield out. Swing for a base hit. The batter gets a couple pitches for each category, then moves on. At the end of the day, everybody’s totals are added up and the spreadsheet is updated. The leaders after three days were ... C Wilkin Castillo (80), OF Jaff Decker (79) and Tabata (78). "It heightens our awareness of different areas we might need to work on with some different individuals,“ Hurdle said.

• OF Gorkys Hernandez, who is the winner of the visa-difficulties sweepstakes this camp, is expected to arrive in Bradenton tonight.

• SS Jung Ho Kang has a new interpreter being tried out currently, so Hurdle spent the workout session right next to Kang, relaying info back and forth to test the communication front. Interesting to watch. Kang punished the ball in batting practice, too. Here’s what Hurdle had to say: "The aggressive nature he has does show up [at the plate]. That's one thing we continue to remind him of. We want him to be the same hitter over here. We don't want him to start making adjustments from Day 1. Trust what he sees at the plate. He sees the pitch he likes? Get that aggressive swing on. He's got a very aggressive swing. He's got a very aggressive mindset. He's also showing some discipline at times in the taking of pitches. We talked briefly about the approach going into spring training. A lot of pitchers he's never seen. Maybe take some pitches to see some pitches, but in certain situations be ready to hit. Just so he's prepared, don't give them too much credit, trust yourself and the skills that you brought with you. I'm going to encourage him even more that we like the bat, he's shown the ability to swing the bat, and I'm really going to be happy when he goes up there and gets three aggressive swings off. We're willing to take our risk there. When he gets three swings off at the plate, we believe good things are going to happen."