A few random thoughts about the Pirates move to Bradenton. 

For one, you won’t see this kind of coverage in Bradenton, that’s for sure.  The News Advance was typically blunt and to the point in its coverage of the Hillcats over the years but many view the Bradenton Herald as nothing more than a publication for retirees.  Down the road is the more progressive Sarasota Herald Tribune (a part of the New York Times Co) where I have some good friends working and I’ve been told they are already in the planning stage to cover the Bucs games in Bradenton.  I wouldn’t call them excited, but they seem willing to embrace the club as ‘their’ team since the Reds are gone.  A few locals I spoke to down in the area told me they remain Reds fans but would attend some games nonetheless.  A few years from now they will probably be following the Bucs instead, I’d guess.

Secondly, the organization is going to save some long-term money with this move which is a good thing even though it’s under the command and control of the Nutting family. 

Thirdly, while I suspected the other day there might be a lower rate of injury with pitchers in the consistently warmer climate, I was advised today that isn’t the case and, if anything, the opposite may be true.  I was surprised to hear that and will follow-up by asking a few folks who do that kind of research what they think. 

My overall impression from the locals and media I contacted:  it’s all good. 

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Carlos Garcia was named first base coach and infield instructor today. First let me congratulate Garcia for the appointment and wish him well since he will have his hands full right out of the shoot.

The fact the Pirates went internally to fill this slot isn’t too much of a surprise but many thought Tony Beasley would be get a shot instead of Garcia being promoted over him.  Perhaps that spells out Beasley’s future with the Bucs?  Perhaps not.  Maybe better put – the fact Neal Huntington seemed to make this ‘Cleveland’ pick might spell out more about JR’s future than Beasley’s? Maybe not.

Now, did we select a good guy?  The Pirates official website said this in the hiring announcement:

Garcia, 42, spent the last two seasons as Pittsburgh’s Minor League Infield Coordinator. Prior to joining the Pirates, he spent three years (2005-07) as Seattle’s Third Base Coach and Major League Infield Instructor, where he made an immediate impact as the Mariners led the American League in fielding percentage in 2005, while also finishing in the top five in 2006 and 2007.

Immediate impact?  I’m sorry but I don’t buy Pirates.com stretching the truth, at least in my book.  Instead, I think adding Richie Sexson at 1B and Adrian Beltre at 3B is what made the immediate impact on the 2005, 2006, and 2007 seasons since they already had a strong defensive club.  It wasn’t Garcia.  If anything, Garcia was along for the ride plus he was singled out by some Mariners bloggers as a below average third base coach all three years. 

Ironically, Garcia wasn’t even picked up by Huntington until December of 2007 meaning even Huntington passed him over to replace Perry Hill who had tentatively agreed to accept the position for the 2008 season but then ended up needing to stay close to family for the year instead.  If you remember, Huntington hired Lou Frazier instead but handed the infield duties to Beasley.  Garcia was then named the Bucs minor league infield coordinator about a month later.

Not only that but let’s take a different look around at what this move does to us in our bowels.  So far our pitching coordinator was run out of the organization (Troy Buckley) in-season, our top player development consultant Rich Donnelly was run out also during the season (last week or so), and now we’re moving out our infield coordinator.  That’s three of the most the most important roles in player development that, once again, will need to be filled (and I’m not even counting a couple of field staff that can’t wait for their contracts to end). 

We have become consistently unstable in player development.  Very unstable.  Maybe that’s to be expected considering the ‘cultural’ changes and all, but man, come on.. there’s wayyyy too much turnover.

Anyway, so what should we expect from a guy who is going from being seemingly passed over (or rejecting our initial offer if one was indeed ever made) in 2007 to being our infield coordinator to now having to direct changes after infield-guru Hill walked out the door?  Obviously if 29 other clubs didn’t want him over the two years he was in our minor league system then I suspect we shouldn’t be expecting too much from the man.  But let’s figure anyway… 

LaRoche is pretty athletic so if he’s moved to second next July he’ll probably be fine once he figures out footwork, throwing lanes, and league batters over a year (a lot of work there), Cedeno’s footwork was horrid until Hill seemed to get him uncrossed so I’m not so sure Garcia will have much left there to polish (haha), Young is going to be defensive trash no matter who coaches him so no big deal (LOL), Jones is not a bad defensive first baseman so there isn’t much to worry about there other than Doumit’s future in a platoon catching role while playing first (OMG), and when Alvarez comes up mid-season 2010 he’d be eating rawhide for a while no matter who was coaching him so probably no issue there either (.890 FPCT is .890, huh?). 

In other words, you can believe the Pirates position on the difference between Hill and Garcia on paper doesn’t amount to much considering where we are right now, but I’m not so sure that’s a very realistic short-term vision.  We’ll come back and relook at this next July.

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Would you offer Freddy Sanchez $12M/2, with his health history, to play in the NLWD?  I sure wouldn’t have.

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I’ll be off Saturday night and will return Sunday eve.