The Pittsburgh Pirates opened their second training camp (aka The Deuce) on Friday at PNC Park, but closed it to the media in an effort to follow a late Allegheny County order to limit gatherings to 25 people.

Somehow, we saw more fireworks than baseball this holiday weekend, even though baseball is back and fireworks were canceled.

Go figure.

That didn’t stop us from interviewing Pirates manager Derek Shelton and players every day via Zoom video conference calls, talking about topics ranging from players testing positive for covid-19 to Joe Musgrove’s hope of being the Opening Day starter (the Pirates open July 24 at St. Louis) to Josh Bell’s speaking up on racial and social injustices to Derek Holland sharing his fear of getting “butt rash” by following MLB health and safety protocols by carrying his own rosin bag in his back pocket while pitching.

A compilation of what we heard but didn’t get to see:

Welcome to Pittsburgh, guys. pic.twitter.com/1TfLctCNdr

— Pirates (@Pirates) July 3, 2020

1. Walk in the park: The Pirates signed the final three members of their 2020 draft class on Thursday, when they locked up three right-handed pitchers: supplemental first-round pick Carmen Mlodzinski of South Carolina, second-rounder Jared Jones of La Mirada (Calif.) High School, and third-rounder Nick Garcia of Division III Chapman University.

Shelton got a chance to meet the newest Pirates when they signed their contracts at PNC Park, sharing a thrill that he and his family experienced following his introductory news conference in November.

“One of the coolest things for me is walking onto the field at PNC the last day I was in this (interview) room, walking out on the field and seeing the ballpark,” Shelton said. “The ability for these guys to see it with their families and see the Clemente Bridge and see how beautiful the skyline is, it’s extremely impactful.”

Shelton noted that he has a photo in his refurbished office of the expression on the faces of his three children when they walked through the tunnel to see the view of the city skyline from the home dugout for the first time.

So blessed to bring this crew with me to the Burgh! #TeamShelton #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/BP5gpAxnOx

— Derek Shelton (@derekshelton) December 4, 2019

“Seeing those draft picks and seeing their faces, and being able to see their moms and dads look at that, I’m excited about that group,” Shelton said. “As we’ve talked about, the lifeblood of our organization is going to be development. When you have a draft and you get guys you want, it’s an exciting day.”

We’re here to work. pic.twitter.com/eoF8RoZxAz

— Pirates (@Pirates) July 3, 2020

2. Anchors away: With Jameson Taillon and Chris Archer out for the season while recovering from surgery, it’s Joe Musgrove’s move to take the reins of the starting rotation.

Shelton said Musgrove “looked sharp” in throwing 75 pitches on Friday. The step that has Musgrove most excited is his expanded pitch repertoire. Musgrove said he spent the downtime crafting his extension-side two-seam fastball and can now count on throwing six pitches, with the possibility of another. He added a one-seamer that he calls a “comeback sinker” to lefties, a pitch he’s thrown a few times accidentally with surprisingly good results that reduced the hard contact and launch-angle numbers.

The challenge, Musgrove said, is keeping all of his pitches sharp.

“They come in waves. Sometimes, you rely on two out of the six, some games you have all six; that’s just icing on the cake,” Musgrove said. “Everything about that (comeback sinker) is quality for me. It’s just execution. I really locked in on that during this down time. I don’t know if you’d call it another pitch, but to me I feel like it looks like any other pitch that I throw. It’s got action to a certain side of the plate that none of my other pitches have. So it feels like I’ve created this seventh pitch, almost.”

Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings called Musgrove’s newest pitch a “front-door two-seamer.” Stallings noted that last season the right-hander’s slider and curveball mostly went to his glove side, going in on left-handed hitters and away from righties, and made it easier for batters to “zone him up as the year went on.”

“If he can get that two-seamer more consistently going to his arm side and sinking like when it’s on, it’s really good,” Stallings said. “That changes the eye level of the hitter so much more. If he can get that two-seamer going, say he front-hips it to a lefty and he can do it consistently, then he will get swings and misses with the slider and curveballs that go back foot more often than maybe he got last year. It’s just another thing he can add so he can change the eye level of the hitter so they can’t zone him up out over the plate.”

Find you a hype man like Guillermo Heredia. pic.twitter.com/es5D8EOuPj

— Pirates (@Pirates) July 5, 2020

3. Don’t sleep on Stallings: When Stallings isn’t worrying about being at the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis and catching covid-19, the Pirates backstop is trying to build rapport with pitchers like Musgrove by offering constructive criticism.

That’s where their friendship comes in.

“I think you can only do that when you have a relationship,” Stallings said. “There were times last year when I would go to Joe. I think the biggest one was last year, his night game numbers were a lot better than his day game numbers.”

To that point, Musgrove was 8-9 with a 4.02 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in 23 night starts last season. Hitters slashed .237/.291/.404 against Musgrove, who averaged 8.4 strikeouts per nine innings and 3.72 strikeouts-to-walks. In day games, however, Musgrove was 3-3 with a 5.70 ERA and 1.41 WHIP, allowing batters to slash .299/.332/.525 and averaging 8.0 strikeouts per nine and a 5.43 strikeouts-to-walks.

What Stallings noticed is that Musgrove followed the same pitching-day routine, day or night.

“So I went up to him one day, and was like, ‘Hey, one of the things that changed my career was realizing that I can’t do the same thing for day games, in terms of getting my body ready, as night games,’” Stallings said, sharing that he wakes up way earlier for day games to get his body adjusted. “That’s just one example of a conversation that we would have, and I think he would appreciate that. And I think that builds trust. And I think he saw some improved performance during day games as the season went on. So I love Joe. I love competing with him. Hope I get to catch him a lot as the years go.”

If you find some baseballs in Allegheny, Gregory was just mashin’. pic.twitter.com/mR0euP7Xv7

— Pirates (@Pirates) July 4, 2020

4. Shots of Coffee: Shelton said the pitchers are ahead of the hitters, as to be expected, but that didn’t stop Bell from gushing Saturday about watching Gregory Polanco take batting practice.

Bell called it “the most impressive workday that I’ve seen Polanco have since last year,” gushing about his hitting home runs “to all fields, definitely homers in the river.”

Bell also endorsed the idea of Polanco batting third or fifth, saying he was “excited to hit in front of or behind him. There’s going to be a lot of runs to be scored.”

The big question is Polanco’s left arm, as he missed most of last season after undergoing surgery on his throwing shoulder. Bell said Polanco made throws from right field to second, third and home “and that was the best I’ve seen his arm since surgery.”

Bell estimated that Polanco was throwing at “definitely 90-plus” mph, and said that if he can get backspin on the ball, his throws will “be right on target.”

Guess nobody on this team wants to be the DH.

Chad's filthy. pic.twitter.com/2asFIw3fYC

— Pirates (@Pirates) July 5, 2020

5. Keeping it Kuhl: As complimentary as Stallings was of the pitchers he caught over the weekend, it was the one he faced in live batting practice that got his best feedback.

“Chad Kuhl,” Stallings said. “His stuff was filthy.”

Kuhl missed the 2019 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, so the Pirates brought him along slowly in spring training. The additional downtime has certainly helped Kuhl’s confidence, not to mention a curveball Stallings called “gross.”

Stallings said Kuhl went from “tentative” to making him look silly.

“Every guy is different coming back from surgery, and he was tentative. He was not afraid to let it go, he just was easing his way into it,” Stallings said. “I think now he’s just much more comfortable with where his arm is and with where his stuff is and how his body’s feeling. He made me look so bad my first at-bat the other day that … he threw me a first-pitch fastball my second at-bat, and I just swung, because I didn’t want to face his slider or his curveball. That’s how nasty he was the other day.”

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