Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Outfielder Andrew McCutchen Click photo for larger image. More Coverage: Pirates Notebook: Castillo settles in at second base

BRADENTON, Fla. -- When the Pirates' position players report to spring training today, the lone teenager among them plans to act his age.

To an extent.

"I'm really excited about this," outfielder Andrew McCutchen said from his home in Fort Meade, Fla. "It's such an honor to be invited to major-league camp, just to be around players at that level."

At the same time, there clearly is another side to McCutchen, the team's first-round pick in the amateur draft last summer, that grasps a sense of belonging in such environs.

Not now, maybe, but sometime soon.

"It's a learning experience for me. That's how I'm taking it. One of these days, I'm going to be somebody they're counting on to help them in Pittsburgh."

Do not expect anyone in the Pirates' management to dispute that, given the unusual move they made in having McCutchen attend major-league camp even though he will open the season at Class A Hickory.

It is common for a first-round pick to have a clause in his first contract that requires the team to invite him to the main camp the year after he is drafted. McCutchen has a similar clause, but it requires the Pirates to invite him in 2007, not this year.

"There are two reasons Andrew McCutchen will be in this camp," director of player development Brian Graham said. "One is that it's going to help him down the road. The other is that he deserves it based on his performance last season."

McCutchen, a right-handed-hitting center fielder, made an immediate impact after being drafted 11th overall out of Fort Meade High School.

He was named top prospect in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League, batting .297 with 9 doubles, 3 triples, 2 home runs and 30 RBIs in 45 games for Bradenton. He also posted a sterling .411 on-base percentage, thanks largely to 29 walks and only 24 strikeouts in 158 at-bats.

Promoted late in the season to Williamsport of the New York-Penn League, he fared even better by batting .346 with a .443 on-base percentage in 13 games.

It was McCutchen's patience that most impressed the Pirates in this setting.

"It's not something you expect from a kid right out of a small high school program," minor-league field coordinator Jeff Banister said. "It's just a natural instinct with him to wait for his pitch."

McCutchen fairly shrugs when his patience is mentioned.

"My high school experience helped a lot there because I knew I'd get walked a lot," he said. "I just kind of took that attitude with me to pro ball."

That eye has helped McCutchen get the most out of what scouts describe as an unusually potent swing for someone 5 feet 11, 170 pounds. Baseball America rates him as the Pirates' second-best prospect behind catcher Neil Walker, largely because he has a strong and quick upper body that allows him to turn on the ball and hit for average and for power.

Some in the organization liken him to Marquis Grissom or Ron Gant.

"You're looking at someone who has that leadoff ability but also could get you home runs," Graham said. "We see Andrew as having a power kind of swing, and we want to make sure we give him the opportunity to develop that."

To that end, the Pirates plan to move him from leadoff, where he spent most of last season, to No. 3 in the order at Hickory.

"He's got that extra thump, and you want him to use it," Banister said. "To be honest, Andrew's one of the most impressive athletic players I've ever seen, especially when he's hitting. Everything comes together right in the hitting zone, all the parts of his body, all his natural strength. He doesn't have a picture-perfect swing, but his leverage point is always together. That's not a learned skill. He just has it."

McCutchen has speed, too, as evidenced by his stealing 17 bases in 19 attempts and by the ground he covered in center. Baseball America chose him as the best defensive outfielder in the Pirates' system, even though his arm is below average and his ability to read the bat off the ball remains raw.

"I had to work on my defense the hardest and, really, that's why I was the happiest with that part of my game," McCutchen said. "I was able to make some fantastic plays in the outfield I didn't think I could make before."

"He started off struggling a little," Banister said. "But he got so much better quickly."

In his 58 games, McCutchen committed only three errors and recorded six outfield assists, half of those by throwing out a runner at home.

Add up all the statistics and the praise, and it is enough to give off the appearance it all came too easily for him.

"You know, some things do come a little easier to me than to others," McCutchen said. "But I believe it takes preparation to succeed and to get where I want to go. All that hard work I did off the field paid off for me last season."

The Pirates are not projecting how long it will take McCutchen to arrive in Pittsburgh, but he has a target in mind.

"I'm hoping by, at the latest, 2008," he said. "I really think that, if I have another good season coming up, then another, I'll be ready. Maybe I can even get a glimpse of the majors in '07. I just have to keep trusting in myself."