This probably isn't as significant as you might imagine, but I still found it fascinating:

"I read an interesting article a while ago on the Golden State Warriors, how they get maximum production with their players," Hurdle said. "They're actually playing less, and they're playing better collectively as a group."

Someone in the Pirates' front office actually did a study of the Warriors, who are currently the NBA's best team. I imagine the Pirates and other teams do studies like this all the time, but it's rare that we get to hear about them.

Anyway, the Warriors' success at optimizing playing time might prove difficult to emulate. Baseball teams have already put a great deal of thought into playing time for pitchers. For position players, that might be different, but my guess is that you'd have to be pretty creative to learn something from what the Warriors are doing. Whether to allow a player to play five or seven straight baseball games is completely different from whether to allow an NBA player to play 30 minutes a game or 33. There are some pretty creative people in the Pirates' front office, though.