Now we're talking.

I will be completely honest here. Nothing, NOTHING, that Dejan has written since spring training has made me more excited than the quote from Pirates' manager John Russell that appeared in today's feature story:

"Tejada swings on a 1-2 count 87 percent of the time if you throw him a changeup," Russell said. "That's not Joe making up a number. That's what the player does."

I haven't even finished reading the story yet; I was so excited that I had to immediately say something about it. Quite frankly, I don't know if this kind of thing was going on during the McClatchy/Littlefield/Tracy years or not, but given my limited understanding of Jim Tracy, I doubt it, and it's exactly the type of analysis the club needs to be successful. Give these guys a simple matchup stat that tells them exactly what they need to do for a certain batter in a certain situation, and it puts them in a good position to be successful.

Chances are that if you throw Tejada a good changeup on a 1-2 count, he's going to swing at it, and he's not going to hit it particularly well. Seems simple enough, right? Well it's just the sort of thing that shows this club might finally be headed in the right direction.