PITTSBURGH — The Pirates announced on Monday two important dates for the spring. Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to conduct their first workout on February 19 and the first full squad workout is scheduled for February 24.
The players are expected to report the day before each of the respective workout dates. That’s just 95 days until the first group must report to Bradenton, Fla.
During the final homestand of the Pirates 2011 season, Manager Clint Hurdle discussed the importance of off-season conditioning. Fatigue kicked in on the team and Hurdle said he wants to make sure that the club is the best condition in the League going into next year.
“There’s a message to each player here, what he needs to do to prepare in the off-season,“ Hurdle said. “One of the best steps we took forward this year was building a foundation of pitching, for our pitchers to understand that they are the machine that’s going to fuel this thing. People want to be successful, but how bad do you want to be successful? Truly, how bad? Where’s your level of commitment? I challenged them in early spring training and I think some of them were like, ‘What’s he talking about?’ We need to be the best conditioned team in the League. I believe we were when we broke spring training. With that being said, we need to be in better conditioning next year because fatigue did play a part…The other thing that we talked about, that I’m not sure that they had a grasp on, they do now is they asked me what it’s going to take for us to be good. I said, ‘It’s going to take everything you got, everyday.’ And I think they understand that now.”
“From a pitching standpoint, yeah its about throwing. I think we have to ramp that up a little bit. And with our other guys, there is a strength and conditioning component of it that’s important. There’s a speed and agility component of it that’s important. We also talked about, don’t let the first time you pick up a bat be February [24th], the first time you pick up the glove or take a grounder.”
The team will also conduct a mini-camp this winter that will focus on conditioning but the dates have not yet been announced.
Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports
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