Pirates hitting coach Matt Hague on early success, Oneil Cruz's adjustments, coaching Konnor Griffin

00:00:07
Speaker 1: Hey, we're excited to talk to Matt Hague about some good ball talk right now. Nineteen and sixteen Pirates, he's their hitting coach. He's joining us on Foul Territory Live. Matt, great to have you on the show. Thank you for the time. How's it going so far this year? It looks like the boys are swinging the bats nicely.

00:00:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate you all having me. Man, it's going you know.

00:00:26
Speaker 3: We uh after last year, it's been a fun process to build and collaborate and trying to make things better around the burg. So it's been a good one so far.

00:00:40
Speaker 4: Did you do your hair for this interview?

00:00:42
Speaker 2: Like? Did you get it freshly showered? Too?

00:00:46
Speaker 3: So it's highlighting, it's getting rid of some of the gray that I naturally have when it's dry.

00:00:50
Speaker 2: So Big Day.

00:00:51
Speaker 5: Does does being a hitting coach bring more gray? AJ knows every manager in the big leagues and he's like, after like two or three years, he's like, dude, your grays have gotten way worse managing. And every manager is like, yeah, you try it, you'll turn gray. Just being a hitting coach make you just as gray as a manager.

00:01:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's a there's some genetics in there as well, but it can. I mean, it's like it's long, long days, long season, a lot of travel, I got a family, you know. There's a lot of factors in there, but definitely plucks out a little more gray in my in my ear.

00:01:34
Speaker 1: Hey, Matt, tell us about some of the bats that are impressing you. I want to start with O'Neil Cruz and his improvement against left handed pitching.

00:01:43
Speaker 2: The easy narrative for the.

00:01:44
Speaker 1: Casual fan is, well, all you have to do is get someone left handed to throw to you in the off season, and anyone can hit left handed pitching too. There's got to be a lot more to the story.

00:01:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think I think that is a part of it, just kind of managing his workloads, being able to get him extremely prepared. He's just simplified a lot of things, whether that's kind of hunting pitches or simplifying his setup to make it just bring out his athleticism, because he is so athletic and so talented and gifted. But a lot of it he's taken a lot of it on his own. Really, just the work habits that he's created. Got some like strength and conditioning, routines that he's very committed to a lot of it's just simplifying and being extremely efficient when he's up there, kind of key holding him in certain areas. And the dude's crazy, athletic and talented.

00:02:45
Speaker 2: So I think it's just a culmination of all those things.

00:02:49
Speaker 5: Yeah, but how much do you like It's it's hard because you see a dude like that. And Andrew mccutchon was on here last year and he called him an avatar. He literally when people stand next to him, he looks like an avatar. Because you don't like that's like the perfect baseball body. How do you coach that differently then you do Jake Mangnum, who who just who just came over this year? Not the avatar body, but the hit skills like you had when you were in the bushes.

00:03:17
Speaker 3: My hit skills. I don't want my hit skills on there. That's you know, each guy wants things differently. Everybody's simple is different, everybody's what they're hunting is different. I would say Mangum coming over there, just the want for information is different. But for a lot for Cruisy, it's just simplifying everything. And I've said that a couple of times already, but it's bringing them in just very simple areas because the talent is so great, you trust him to adjust because if he is an avatar and he can do things that other guys can't do, and he can hit the ball harder that other guys can't do. There's also some some two strike approach ideas that he's really kind of worked on and gravitated towards. But I mean, the dude wanted to be good and he was not satisfied with what happened last year, and just the work ethic that followed that. The motivation this dude was in the cages three days after the season and just getting after it right away, and it's ultimately a testament to his perseverance and adjustments that he wanted to make. But really honing down on two strike approaches and really pushing his work and simplifying to be efficient, that's kind of I would say the motto that he really gravitated towards.

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00:05:46
Speaker 4: Mah.

00:05:46
Speaker 6: When you get a guy like Connor Griffin, a young kid who's obviously just turned twenty years old, do you let them just be for a little while and before you try to dig in like you mentioned O'Neil Cruz and some of the other guys you've had for a few years, do you guys. Let them him be for a little while before you start talking to him, or do you just jump right into mechanical stuff, approach stuff whatever that is.

00:06:07
Speaker 3: No, it's let him shine. We believe that, you know, he's adjusted wherever he went in a very fast time, and he's so another athletically gifted human being to where he's extremely self aware of the environments that he's in. And he made some comments within three games. It second, well, I got to make some adjustments. I'm getting away with I can't get away with some of the stuff that I did in the minor leagues and just what he can do athletically and adjustment wise and on my end, and it's different, I'm sure for hitting coaches if we're going to make an adjustment when they have to go compete at seven o'clock with guys throwing ninety five to one hundred and everything looks the same. We tend to be more on our end on the setup. The reason being, like you can, over the course of the season they're set up and their body changes and just kind of really monitoring that and just putting them in really good positions to start to where they're just starting from good positions and going to be athletic and making sure that their bodies calibrated the right way every day, because I think that's one of the hardest obstacles for guys is over the season all these different I guess external internal things in their body and environment changes, and at least they have something familiar to go back to because you know, they've been playing baseball for a long time and if they're in the right positions, they can go achieve the approach or where they're trying to move them ball.

00:07:38
Speaker 5: Is there something that you see, Like if you see something, I know it's early, you've only seen him in the big leagues for a month, but that Connor Griffin does that, You're like, whoa, he could be going to get hot because he had a homer the other day. I was watching opposite field, like to the big part of the opposite field, not the Roberto Clemente wall, but to the big part, and I was like, I'm gonna watch the next.

00:08:00
Speaker 4: Few days to see if Connor, like if.

00:08:02
Speaker 5: That clicks him. Where now he like gets that confidence that he's going to go all over the park and he's done pretty decent. But is there anything else that you watch from him that you're like, when I see that on the field, he's about to go off.

00:08:15
Speaker 3: Well, I think you just described it. It's using the big part of the field with him and he's he's been extremely hot lately and that's a testament to his awareness and growth. He's really shrunk his zone. That's one not trying to cover everything because it's the blessing and curse with with his gift. He can move a lot of balls forward in different zones, different pitch types forward really hard and being able to when that gets overcooked a little bit, it's just kind of reeling them back into a smaller zone and really letting him shine because he can't adjust. He can do he can move and control his body the other guy ways other guys can't do, and he's crazy athletic and he can hit the ball really hard as well. He's also just taking his walks, learned to take his walks when he can, and using that big part of the field because he's so athletic. Has turned in some like pull side on off speed extra base hits. So he's just he's continuing to learn. He is so incredibly impressive as a human and as a baseball player in just so many different areas.

00:09:25
Speaker 5: I can't believe I'm saying these words to you, But you're a big league hitting coach, because as I knew you, you weren't a big league hitting coach. And so that smile proves it all. You don't believe it either, But as a big league hitting coach, how do you deal with everybody or half the guys having their own personal hitting coach? Do you try to connect with those personal hitting coaches? Do you try to because it's easier to like build off of it, But what if that guy doesn't agree with necessarily your what you're saying guys need to set up. Hey, this is where his body is at that time, and that guy's just constantly telling the same thing to this hitter who's struggling.

00:10:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, so a couple of things to there.

00:10:09
Speaker 3: Always try and collaborate with their guy that they get in the off season. Some of the things they worked during the off season is in a reflection of when stuff happens during the year. So, and what we're on our end with Pittsburgh. What we have set up now too, is we're not necessarily coaching off our feelings.

00:10:31
Speaker 4: We are.

00:10:34
Speaker 3: We're pulling information, whether it's set up, whether it's movement, whether it's the pitches they are handling, the zones they are handling from the times that they're at their best. So we have objective information to where we're coaching to basically their best standard during that timeframe, and we're just trying to bring that out more and often. So, yes, it's different. We're trying to collaborate always, but we're also just coaching to the player's best version of themselves. That's that's the goal with kind of where we're at now. It's where it takes some of the subjective thinking out and it's more of on our end, we're just kind of their accountabil buddy and facilitator and guy that can bounce ideas off of what they're going to face that night, and that's kind of the idea that we're honing down on our end.

00:11:21
Speaker 5: I should know this, but how many other hitting coaches are on your staff? Do you have two assistants?

00:11:26
Speaker 2: Two assistants Christian Mary Tucker and they are their dogs?

00:11:30
Speaker 5: Man, do you guys this is something that probably a lot of fans don't know, but do you guys split up the players? Do you do it intentionally because we used to give the hitting coaches a hard time because maybe like the head guy would be like, well, you never throw to me. Clearly I'm not important, you know. So how does that process work? Because the psyche of a hitter is very finicky throughout a season, but also batter to batter a player a player.

00:12:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a fun one. Well, I would say that. So, I mean, we're meeting every morning before we get them. We have we are all on the same page as far as the work. We're into attack with it. And I think the biggest thing on our end is whatever information the player hears, they hear it consistently from everybody, and we actually trying to want to get away from uh the hitting coach has this guy, this guy, this hitting coach has that other guy, to where we can build an environment to where everybody's just on the same page and that's.

00:12:37
Speaker 2: It does.

00:12:38
Speaker 3: I would say get away from that at times, But some of the guys just, you know, kind of do their own thing. Some of the guys want a full collaboration and we're just there in their in their pocket whenever they need us.

00:12:53
Speaker 1: Matt, Do players care if coaches have Big League time, Like, do players care that you spend some time in the bigs and you know you've played at the highest stage and really all across grinding to get there, playing overseas the whole deal. Does that matter to players anymore or does it matter to some and not to others?

00:13:12
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's I would say that it's it has changed within the last five six years. It's not as much as you would think. It is, like kind of like a street credit thing. But at the end of the day, after time, if you have the right content, I don't think it matters where you play. Now with all the information that's out there, you have to be able to you have to be able to filter very complex things into something very simple to the player. And everybody's like I said before, everybody's simple as different to where the guy that you know didn't get above high, but he really knows how to deliver messaging. There's a guy that just extremely prepared. Players can rely on the inform. It's not necessarily where they played or how long they played, but it's benefiting the player. And if you get a culture where guys buy in to information, they have fun doing it. Information is relevant to them. I think it's just a matter of time for that person that never played in the big leagues to where you can get through to them.

00:14:21
Speaker 1: You know, we don't always have to do things because that's how it's always been.

00:14:24
Speaker 6: Look, people consider me old school, and I thought I was, but then we had the pitch clock and the abs and ban on shifts and all these things that we've had for a long time in baseball. And you know what, much like mitt Mobile and the other mobile carriers, I'm here for the new school and the changes that have been made.

00:14:39
Speaker 4: It's a good call.

00:14:40
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00:15:55
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:15:56
Speaker 3: I'm not necessarily that familiar with that situation, but you know, I think a lot of those guys, uh and correct me if I'm wrong. I think a lot of the guys, the new guys that are there, they had there was some relationship for a time with them before that, and it's just with with any change, there's gonna be a little chaos at first.

00:16:15
Speaker 2: But if if you're.

00:16:18
Speaker 3: If you're giving them the information these guys are, they're going into the batter's box making their own educated guesses. As it is with whatever they do, they're they're making guesses or placing bets on something, and in our end, as long as that information matters to them, I think it makes those transitions easier. But it's again again with any any change, there's a little chaos at first, and then it's how quickly you can you can build and provide good pathways moving forward.

00:16:50
Speaker 5: I got a question about d K after this Don Kelly your manager. But first, when you lose your manager and you're new hired on the job, you saw what happened, just what he was talking about with the Red Sox. Are there conversations within the organization for you with you about Hey, you know what he's gone. I think Ridley hadad went with him, Like are you like, do you have that conversation or is that communication open or do you sit there like you were a player, like, oh man, I hope my phone doesn't ring.

00:17:22
Speaker 4: I hope nobody taps me on the back.

00:17:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, yes, you do have the conversation.

00:17:28
Speaker 3: I think the one of the first things when DK got the job is it's we're we're gonna really get into this culture. We want to play winning baseball, create a lot of competition. You're in those you're in the conversations, and they continue to pick up during the off season. And it started with Bob and Ben and vice president Travis just hey being extremely open and just having really hard conversations. And DK from the moment he got in there, this guy was a dog man. He went in there and he was, Hey, what have we got to change? Was a full collaboration. He knew where he wanted to go. But the way he led the clubhouse and really created expectations and culture, it's still something we're trying to build to this day and everything we've kind of put in place so far with a group and just this big collaboration. DK has absolutely crushed it. And he leads the guys and he's a player's coach. The players love him and they respect him. So it's been it's been a fun, interesting transition. But DK at the Helm is he's killing it.

00:18:42
Speaker 5: How much has he changed because as one of our people behind the scenes said, he can't get gray hair because he's got my haircut.

00:18:50
Speaker 4: But how much has he changed?

00:18:51
Speaker 5: Like success changes people, like make sure he knows that he's still the kid from kid from the area.

00:19:00
Speaker 3: His guys, it's impressive, Like how consistent he is. So to answer your question, I would say that he hasn't changed. I know that can be hard for some, but he is strong in his foundation, with his beliefs and and just who he is as a man. And I mean everyone feels it. The the the baldness has not affected him at all, and he keeps that thing smooth and crisp. I'm sure, just like you crassy right.

00:19:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, no doubt. You gotta you gotta have a nice shave on it, all right.

00:19:30
Speaker 5: Your lineup, the guys in your lineup, I mean we have you have guys like veterans like Marcelo Zun. I know he's not doing well right now, but you have Brandon Lau, you have Ryan O'Hearn, you have O'Neil Cruz, you have Connor Griffin. Young guys on this team. Who is the guy that you would say hasn't even scratched the surface yet of what he'll do this season, not in the future, not like oh, you know, he's got this potential because they're all coming from different realms and all that matters is the Pirates built this team for this year. Brandon low will be gone, Ryana Hearn's really got one more year after this.

00:20:06
Speaker 4: It's a two year deal and so it's winning. Now.

00:20:09
Speaker 5: Who is the guy that's going to end up having the year that you think, Okay, bang, he's gonna he's gonna explode from May fifth on.

00:20:19
Speaker 3: Oh man, that's tough. I mean, I would say the track record proves, and he's been heating up a lot lately, and he's already accomplished so much. And Marcello's in a that's and obviously Connor Griffin. I think those are the two easy answers. It's just we're trying to really just crush consistency and being able and what that looks like on a day to day And I think the way Marcel oh So we call him, it's been going about it. He's been heating up lately, and what you see so far during the year isn't it close to what he is capable of? And with everything we got on our end, he's about to He's about to go. He's about to go off, So I think that's the easy answer there. You got to throwing Nick Gonzalez there too. This year he's been he's been another guy that has absolutely taken an off season to better himself. He's having some success. He's doing a lot of good things right now. And then those guys that we brought in, I mean, those guys are all hired weapons that are masters at their craft. So those they're having success right now as it is. But Marcel is the one my brain goes to.

00:21:36
Speaker 1: Nice Hey, last one from me, Matt, how was the off season for you? Were you super involved in terms of deciding which hitters to recruit? Did you have combos even with people that you guys didn't end up with, like Kyle Schwarber, And then were you jumping up and down with the guys that you did land like the ones we're talking about here.

00:21:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, So it started with in the last season.

00:22:04
Speaker 3: You know, you have these meetings and it's a big it's a big round table and everyone's sitting there kind of hashing out. And Ben was very involved and very collaborative on my own, just extremely open minded, and you talk about some of the conversations we have, it's what do winning teams do? And I think you guys have seen a heavy emphasis on getting more left handed this year, especially at PNC and being very intricate with you know, certain things like lineup construction and profiles within lineups. What that means is like, do we want to front load a bunch of guys that control the zone or contact profiles, get on base and just the right blend of who we acquire and who we talk to that kind of fits that mold. So I would say you can chalk that up to vision on where we need to take the offense. But to answer your question, there was a lot of collaborative talk strut the offseason. That's a testament to Ben and Bob trying to open the mic up.

00:23:13
Speaker 1: Hey, we're looking at those some of those team ranks next to you, and those are some good numbers. Those are some top three, top five, top ten numbers that are refreshing to see in Pittsburgh. So it's looking good, man, keep it up. I know it's a long marathon. Here, means a lot for you to come on here and spend fifteen minutes with us. We got a lot of young players listening to this too, So thanks for the combo.

00:23:33
Speaker 2: Really enjoyed it. Man, I appreciate Shell. It's been fun. Thank you.

00:23:38
Speaker 1: That's Matt hag Pittsburgh pirate hitting coach joining us. Good luck the rest of the way. Also a reminder to everyone that we talk Buccos a lot on Bucco Territory Josh Harrison on every show with Noahiles and Platinum Key. It's really good.