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Shots Across the Bow: "It's been a whirlwind."

Shots Across the Bow: "It's been a whirlwind."

Those were the words of Andrew McCutchen, speaking by phone from Florida the other day, on his offseason. A Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, third in MVP voting and a video game cover will keep one busy.

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Now, McCutchen spends his time training at the IMG Academy, preparing for 2013. I've spent countless keystrokes here and in the paper describing McCutchen's spectacular 2012 season, as have many others, so I felt it appropriate to discuss what's still to come for the 26-year-old.

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"It's just maintaining," McCutchen said. "It's getting better and being more consistent with what I did last year."

Clint Hurdle, also speaking by phone from Florida, agreed.

"In Andrew's case, the next step, I believe, for him would be to just be able to repeat it," Hurdle said. "The consistency of play over continued years."

McCutchen's steal total -- or really, the disparity between his sheer speed and the number of bases he stole in 2012 -- became a point of focus for him this offseason. He worked out with a track coach last winter, but said he paid more attention to his work at the plate.

"Now that I got that figured out, I'm really going to focus on that, maintain that, but get even better on the basepaths," he said.

McCutchen has told Hurdle he wants to improve his situational running -- stealing bases when the game dictates rather than running for the sake of running.

"This is him finding his way back to the freedom," Hurdle said. "That mindset that, I'm going to go get this base. I'm going to go get bases when we need to get them, not just to go get them. That's one thing he continues to talk about."

More on McCutchen in Sunday's Post-Gazette.

-- Photo courtesy of Rich Schultz/Getty Images

First Published: March 24, 2016, 5:18 p.m.

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