5 day forecast
Sportsman of the Year: McCutchen's trophy season (so far)
-
Pirates outfielder and Dapper Dan Sportsman of the Year Andrew McCutchen has fast become a fixture of the Pittsburgh sports scene.
Share with others:
Rarely has Pirates manager Clint Hurdle spoken with another manager or baseball official this offseason without Andrew McCutchen's name entering the conversation.
"Tell me about Andrew," they say to Hurdle. "They don't get to see him every day. You know a guy's special when other people will ask you," Hurdle said.
That tends to happen after the type of season McCutchen, the Dapper Dan Sportsman of the Year, compiled in 2012.
The award will serve as the latest of a series of accolades accumulated during a busy offseason. McCutchen won his first Gold Glove in late October, an award that made him proud.
"It was good just to be able to have that, because being drafted, they said that my downfall was my defense," McCutchen said.
His first Silver Slugger followed in November, and he finished third in the voting for National League most valuable player. Fans voted McCutchen onto the cover of the video game MLB '13 The Show, swarming Facebook and Twitter to lift McCutchen ahead of triple crown winner Miguel Cabrera and NL MVP Buster Posey.
"Being on the front cover of a video game, that probably tops a lot of things for me," McCutchen said. "That's huge for me, a huge accomplishment."
That accomplishment stemmed from McCutchen's many feats during the 2012 season, by far the best of his four-year major league career. He hit .327 with 31 home runs and a .953 on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS). He won consecutive NL player of the month awards in June and July, when he hit .370 and .446 respectively with seven home runs in each month.
McCutchen accomplished all of this by the age of 26. Hurdle credited McCutchen's parents and high school coach, among other mentors, with helping McCutchen handle the increased attention, and said he often consults with McCutchen out of curiosity as much as concern or aid.
"I don't know that it's helped, but I do know there's not many things that have happened to him that I haven't asked him his feelings," Hurdle said. "It's never been a situation where he kind of looked at me and said, 'This is just freaking me out.' "
McCutchen is again training at the IMG Academy near the Pirates' spring training facility in Bradenton, Fla., along with Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez, to prepare for the 2013 season. Despite the ascent to his status as one of the best players in the league last season, McCutchen and Hurdle see room for improvement.
Opposing pitchers learned their lesson, and McCutchen's performance slowed in August and September. His OPS dropped to .693 in August, and he hit .254 in September.
"I still had a bit of a downfall toward the end of the season," McCutchen said. "I just want to still focus on trying to shorten that up, having a shorter period of that, being able to come back and be more consistent."
Despite having speed that rivals most NFL defensive backs, McCutchen's stolen bases dropped from 33 in 2010 to 23 in '11 and 20 in '12. Between June 20 and Aug. 20 last season, McCutchen did not successfully steal a base in only four attempts.
"I think it's one of those things that keeps him humble, but also one of those things that keeps him motivated," Hurdle said. "He knows this is something he can do, he did it when he first came up."
McCutchen said he has focused on his explosiveness and first step at IMG this offseason.
"Everything that I need is there," he said. "I just got to go out and I just got to do it."
Hurdle said he believes McCutchen's arm strength and accuracy have room to improve as well, and the steals will result as much from McCutchen's mindset and fearlessness as from his speed.
"Everything he has put his mind to, he's been able to either go get, or put a dent into it," Hurdle said. "This is the next challenge for him from, I would think, a game skill standpoint. This is the one thing he's more than capable of doing."
Past SPORTSMEN
In being named Dapper Dan sportsman of the year, Andrew McCutchen adds his name to a Who's Who of Pittsburgh sports:
1939 Billy Conn
1940 Fritzie Zivic
1941 Aldo Donell
1942 Bill Dudley
1943 Rip Sewell
1944 Frankie Frisch
1945 Billy Conn
1946 Bill Dudley
1947 Ralph Kiner
1948 Bill Meyer
1949 Ralph Kiner
1950 Joe Geri
1951 Murry Dickson
1952 Red Dawson
1952 Stan Musial
1953 Lew Worsham
1954 Dudley Moore
1955 John Michelosen
1956 Dale Long
1957 Dick Groat
1958 Danny Murtaugh
1959 Elroy Face
1960 Arnold Palmer
1960 Dick Groat
1961 Roberto Clemente
1962 Lou Michaels
1963 John Michelosen
1964 Delvin Miller
1965 Vernon Law
1966 Roberto Clemente
1967 Baz Bastien
1968 Steve Blass
1968 Dick Hoak
1969 Red Manning
1970 Danny Murtaugh
1971 Willie Stargell
1971 Danny Murtaugh
1971 Roberto Clemente
1972 Chuck Noll
1973 Johnny Majors
1974 Joe Greene
1975 Terry Bradshaw
1976 Tony Dorsett
1977 Franco Harris
1978 Dave Parker
1979 Willie Stargell
1980 Hugh Green
1981 Jackie Sherrill
1982 Joe Paterno
1983 Dan Marino
1984 John Stallworth
1985 Louis Lipps
1986 Mario Lemieux
1987 Syd Thrift
1988 Mario Lemieux
1989 Roger Kingdom
1990 Jim Leyland
1991 Bob Johnson
1992 Bill Cowher
1993 Jay Bell
1994 Bill Cowher
1995 Jaromir Jagr
1996 Kurt Angle
1997 Jerome Bettis
1998 Joe Paterno
1999 Mario Lemieux
2000 Jason Kendall
2001 Kordell Stewart
2002 Ben Howland
2003 Larry Fitzgerald
2004 Ben Roethlisberger
2005 Jerome Bettis
2006 Sidney Crosby
2007 Sidney Crosby
2008 Mike Tomlin
2009 Evgeni Malkin
2010 Jamie Dixon
2011 Dan Bylsma/Marc-Andre Fleury
First Published January 27, 2013 12:01 am
