{"id":89616,"date":"2024-11-13T21:59:47","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T02:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=89616"},"modified":"2024-11-13T21:59:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T02:59:47","slug":"pirates-hire-brent-strom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/13\/pirates-hire-brent-strom\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Surprise By Hiring Pitching Guru As Assistant Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Pirates hired long-time pitching coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/strombr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-13_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brent Strom<\/a> as assistant pitching coach. <em>Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/em> beat reporter Noah Hiles was the first to break the news. The Pirates have made no formal announcement as of this writing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Source: The Pirates have hired Brent Strom as an assistant pitching coach. He will work from the dugout during games. The club will appoint someone else to coach from the bullpen. That move has yet to be made.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Noah Hiles (@_NoahHiles) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_NoahHiles\/status\/1856840707157197019?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 13, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It was a productive day for the Bucs. Earlier in the day, the Pirates <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/13\/pirates-hire-matt-hague-hitting-coach\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">hired<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/haguema01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-13_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Hague<\/a>, \u201cThe Hit Collector,\u201d as their hitting coach.<\/p>\n<h3>Pirates Surprise By Hiring Pitching Guru As Assistant Coach<\/h3>\n<p>Strom, who turned 76 last month, pitched in the major leagues from 1972-73 and 1975-77 for the New York Mets, Cleveland Indians (as they were then known), and San Diego Padres. The left-hander got a taste of both starting and relieving, going 22-39 for his career with a 3.95 ERA.<\/p>\n<p>More importantly, Strom has been a highly respected pitching coach. He served in that role for the Houston Astros (1996, 2014-21), Kansas City Royals (2000-01), and Arizona Diamondbacks (2022-24). He has a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2021\/01\/20\/reliving-history-2017-world-series-game-seven\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">2017 World Series<\/a> ring with the Astros and helped Arizona to the National League pennant in 2023. Strom has also held various pitching-related positions in the minor leagues.<\/p>\n<p>It was in Houston where he earned his reputation as a pitching guru. Ironically, his work there with former Pirates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/colege01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-13_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gerrit Cole<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=mortoch02,mortoch01&amp;search=Charlie+Morton&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-13_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Charlie Morton<\/a> was a factor when the Pirates fired pitching coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/searara01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-13_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ray Searage<\/a> after the 2019 season. Owner Bob Nutting had grown weary of seeing former Pirates pitchers flourish after they\u2019d gone elsewhere. Cole was 35-10 with a 2.68 ERA under Strom. (Not that Cole was a total flop in Pittsburgh. In 2015, he was 19-8 with a 2.60 ERA as a Pirate and placed fourth in the National League <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/y\/youngcy01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-13_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cy Young<\/a> Award voting.) Meanwhile, Morton was 29-10 with a 3.36 ERA with Strom. Strom encouraged both former Pirates to work their fastballs high in the strike zone, as opposed to Searage\u2019s sinker-heavy approach.<\/p>\n<p>With Arizona, Strom\u2019s star pupil was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/galleza01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-13_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zac Gallen<\/a>. In three years with Strom, Gallen was 43-19 with a 3.20 ERA and twice received NL Cy Young Award consideration. Gallen\u2019s 0.913 WHIP led the NL in 2022.<\/p>\n<h3>Diamondbacks Loss Could Be Pirates Gain<\/h3>\n<p>On October 3, the Diamondbacks announced that Strom wouldn\u2019t be returning as their pitching coach as part of a coaching shake-up. It was assumed that Strom would simply retire. Some might be puzzled that Strom would take a back seat to Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin. It\u2019s possible that at his advanced age, Strom wanted to continue working while not having the responsibilities that go with being the number one man. (If you still don\u2019t understand, contact this writer sometime, and you\u2019ll hear what that\u2019s like.)<\/p>\n<p>Strom will get to work with young phenoms <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/skenepa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-13_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul Skenes<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=jonesja09,jones-013jar&amp;search=Jared+Jones&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-13_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jared Jones<\/a>, along with the other promising young hurlers in the system. Pirates fans should hope that he has some tricks up his sleeve to help turn around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bednada01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-13_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Bednar<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Joe Rondone\/The Republic \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Pirates hired long-time pitching coach Brent Strom as assistant pitching coach. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette beat reporter Noah Hiles was the first to break the news. The Pirates have made no formal announcement as of this writing. &nbsp; Source: The Pirates have hired Brent Strom as an assistant pitching coach. He will work [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":89628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1071],"tags":[5208,833,5829,611,3718,28806,6371,1820],"class_list":["post-89616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","tag-brent-strom","tag-charlie-morton","tag-david-bednar","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-jared-jones","tag-matt-hague","tag-paul-skenes","tag-zac-gallen"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}