McCutchen’s game has been dynamic
PITTSBURGH – Having covered the Pittsburgh Pirates throughout their entire 17-year streak of consecutive losing seasons, it often seems like I’ve written the same old story. And the story has rarely been positive. It’s mainly been about losing, losing and more losing along with all the negative stuff that accompanies with a franchise that has lost at a historic level.
However, while I certainly did not expect to be writing about a team on the cusp of winning a championship or even having a winning season, I really thought the tones of my columns would be different this season.
I believed that the Pirates were a franchise on the brink of doing good things after totally remaking their major-league roster last season, improving the quality of their farm system and spending more money in the amateur draft in the last two seasons than any other major-league franchise.
Alas, the Pirates haven’t shown many signs of progress and there have been many reasons to blast them as has been well-chronicled in this space.
However, standing above the morass of all the bad baseball and poor performances has been Andrew McCutchen. The center fielder, still a little less than three weeks short of the one-year anniversary of his major-league debut, has followed up an outstanding rookie season with a extremely promising start to his sophomore year.
McCutchen entered Monday night’s game at Philadelphia hitting .340 with five home runs, 12 stolen bases and a .396 on-base percentage in 36 games.
McCutchen has now played 144 games in the major leagues, the equivalent of nearly one full season, and has a .300 batting average with 17 home runs, 67 RBIs, 34 steals and a .372 OBP. Those might not be quite superstar-caliber numbers yet, but considering McCutchen is just 23 and also plays above-average defense, he is certainly on his path to reaching that level.
“I like to use dynamic in describing Andrew because everything he does is dynamic,” Pirates manager John Russell said.
Russell is a man of few words but he describes McCutchen perfectly. Everything about McCutchen’s game is dynamic from his burgeoning power to his game-changing speed.
However, McCutchen’s dynamics go far beyond that. He is an extremely likeable guy with a sparkling personality, infectious smile, a deep understanding of the nuances of the game, a great desire to win and leadership skills.
“He’s the total package,” an executive from an American League club said over the weekend. “He has the talent, the makeup and the baseball smarts to be one of the very best players in the game. What you really have to like about him is that he gets better every day. He isn’t close to being the finished product.”
Then the executive added this interesting observation: “He’s going to be one of the top players in the game and also an ambassador of the game because of the type of person he is. If the Pirates ever get good, he will be one of the most-recognizable figures in baseball.”
Unfortunately, most baseball fans beyond this region wouldn’t recognize McCutchen if he knocked at their front door while in uniform. The Pirates are not scheduled to be on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball for a ninth straight season and are also not on Fox’s schedule of Saturday afternoon national broadcasts.
That is what happens when you play for one of the laughingstocks of professional sports. However, if anyone can change the Pirates’ status, it is McCutchen with his seemingly limitless potential.
Herald-Standard sports correspondent John Perrotto is the editor-in-chief of BaseballProspectus.com.