Assistant hitting coach Jobel Jimenez and bullpen catcher Jami Pogue are working with the pitchers to double down on their strengths and avoid and improve their weaknesses. Lay off these pitches. Hunt those ones. The days of every pitcher doing the same drills have ended.
“The pitchers have their own specific routines, based on what we have seen in the last year or so,” Shildt said. “What they like to swing at. What they are better at swinging at. We have gone through that whole process. We treat them as hitters. Now, we don’t have the proverbial sample size (compared to a position player), but we have to work off something.