With the help of baseball's analytics, Tyler Heineman catching on with Pirates

Tyler Heineman claims he was no math whiz at UCLA.

The only number that mattered to him as a student-athlete in 2012 was his .332 batting average that helped get him drafted in the eighth round by the Houston Astros.

But now he’s a pro, and he’s made 10 starts as the Pittsburgh Pirates catcher since he was acquired via waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays on May 16.

A switch-hitter, he has started eight of the past 11 games, getting three hits May 31 in a victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers and two more Sunday while helping the Pirates defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Nothing is permanent in a long baseball season, but Heineman, for the moment, has supplanted Michael Perez as the Pirates’ regular catcher after Roberto Perez was lost for the season (hamstring surgery) and Andrew Knapp was designated for assignment.

Not unlike many players in today’s game, Heineman has embraced baseball’s analytics, a must, he said, if you want to know the best way to get a hitter out.

“It’s not complicated,” he said. “You just have to try … and you have to care. When someone asks me why I called a certain pitch, I want to have a reason.”

Heineman meets daily with pitching coach Oscar Marin, game planning/strategy coach Radley Haddad and the pitchers, going over every hitter in the opposing lineup.

Heineman said he keeps much of the data in his head after it is reviewed and discussed. Tendencies are tracked and catalogued on a daily basis with a purposeful intent.

“If there was a pitch inside on (the Diamondbacks’) David Peralta, and he hits it hard, I don’t know (precisely) how hard he hit it or what the expected slug (slugging percentage) is.”

Slugging percentages and other statistics for every opposing hitter are calculated and studied based on pitch velocity, type and location, plus launch angle and how fast in mph it left the bat.

“We go based off of, ‘He saw this sequence of pitches this time and this was the result,’ ” Heineman said. “Why don’t we try to do a different sequence? Or, maybe that sequence was correct.

“We are always talking on the bench, and I’m always trying to remember every single sequence of pitches.”

Believe it or not, this is not a new concept.

“It’s always been this way, even way back in the day,” Heineman said. “It’s always been this mental chess match. But I think now there’s more data out there that supports the pitch call.

“When a catcher or a pitching coach said (in the past), ‘Hey, this guy’s not very good on a pitch inside,’ they didn’t really have as much analytical data to back that up. They just go with their eyes. They see, ‘Hey, this guy’s pulling off the fastball.’ But now they have analytical data that says, ‘Hey, this guy in this (hitting) zone has a X slug (slugging percentage) of .145, which is not good.’ So we can exploit that. We pitch in that zone. If he doesn’t hit it, OK, that’s a good zone.”

Heineman said Pirates pitchers haven’t shaken off many of his calls.

“Here, most of the time, they’re sticking with what I have to say,” he said. “Because they see that I’m prepared, and I go into meetings with all the notes of the hitters and what I see and what Radley sees.

“I think that the pitchers are bought in (on the gameplan) and know the catchers are doing the homework, know that Radley and Oscar are doing the homework.

“And the pitchers do their homework as well. They know where their fastball plays best, where their off-speed plays best.

“So, when I put something down, even if it wasn’t the No. 1 thing (the pitcher was) thinking of, they know there’s a purpose behind it and makes them more inclined to want to throw it.”

It hasn’t taken long for the pitchers to gain trust in Heineman.

“I’m going to be back there working as hard as I can for them, from pitch one to the end of the game,” he said. “That’s how we kind of get on the same page and they seem to respect that.”

Heineman, 30, took aim on a baseball career at a young age and thought catching was his best bet.

“I heard when I was a kid that switch-hitting catcher was the quickest way to the big leagues,” he said. “I was undersized (5-foot-10, 190 pounds now), so I think playing shortstop was maybe in the equation. But I didn’t really have too much power so first base, third base are out. The outfield positions are out. Not super fast, so center field is out.

“I don’t have the best arm, so pitcher is out. (Catching) kind of just fell into my lap in terms of they had an opportunity in my middle school (in Pacific Palisades, Calif.). They needed a catcher, and I decided to do it and I liked it, so I just stuck with it.”

Shelton likes what he has seen from Heineman, who is hitting only .217 with two RBIs while contributing a sacrifice bunt in San Diego and proving to be adept at the hit-and-run.

“He does things that really lead himself to getting in the lineup more,” Shelton said.

Playing most days helps, of course.

“Hitting is so hard when you’re not playing every single day. Hitting is hard when you’re playing every day,” he said. “Getting consistent time and being able to do that has really helped me, especially to establish a rapport with the pitchers.”