By Jake, on January 11, 2010, at 12:09 am | 28 comments
Before I begin, make sure you have read Chuck Finder’s article in the Sunday Post-Gazette then come back and read the rest of this post.
First let me say that I laughed so hard reading that piece that I was crying by the time I finished. It was so whacked, so out there, it was that hilarious to me. Outside of The Goose and Michael Keaton blasting ownership in the last decade, nothing written or verbal comes remotely close defining the problems of the Pittsburgh Pirates. And I mean nothing.
The Cardinals ponied up $120M for seven-years of Matt Holliday as a free agent.
I’m betting most of you didn’t feel the irony in Finder’s work as I did. That’s understandable because the average fan has only heard whispers about “the why” from media, and that was from an out-of-town writer at a small newspaper you probably didn’t even read. Nor are you likely to hear about “the why” any time soon from local media because it’s a subject that has seemingly grown censorship roots. But it’s real, it exists, it’s growing, and anyone close to the inside around the Pirates – including media – surely knows it is laughed talked about by others around the game.
The Brewers spent $37M free agent dollars on a three-year deal with Randy Wolf and a two-year deal with LaTroy Hawkins, three years after spending $66M on Suppan and Hall. They also spent considerable dollars to bring in Pete Peterson as their pitching coach.
No, the only place you probably heard about “the why” was right here and I’d guess most of you read it in passing and never thought another thing about it.. until you heard me bring it up again. And again. And again. Even then it probably didn’t resonate very far with you. But I’m guessing it will now.
Finder basically wrote a research piece which we see in local Pittsburgh Pirates coverage only a few times a year any more. In the article he interviewed Dr. Bernie Holliday who was just hired as the Pirates mental-conditioning coordinator.
The Astros spent $25M on Brandon Lyon, Pedro Feliz, and Brett Meyers this winter.
Holliday mentioned in the article that he could use workshops, simulations, on-field exercises, videos and MP3 audios personalized to each player, attention-control technology and biofeedback analysis in his work with the young men in our system.
Here’s a quick video showing one of the West Point routines that might be deployed:
Finder continued: “The techniques cover a variety of mental skill sets: from adaptation to analysis, from energy management to establishment of a purpose, from preparation to perseverance, from self-awareness to self-regulation.. [It] is a long-term, multifaceted, intensified regimen.”
“I want the guys to have [goals] in mind worth pursuing so much that the very thought of it happening sends a chill down their spines,” Dr. Holliday said. “When this happens, we’re on the right track.
Isn’t this just another name for brainwashing? Or maybe we should be more polite and call it coercive persuasion, or thought reform, or the manipulation of psychological and social influence?
Maybe it’s better to just call it mind control.
Unquestionably it’s cult-like which has been refered to as “a process (<== note: key word in Neal Huntington’s lingo) in which a group or individual systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator(s), often to the detriment of the person being manipulated.”
Scott Snair points out in his West Point Leadership Lessons: Duty, Honor And Other Management Principles book: “the delegating of tasks replaced the need for the daily morning meeting.. Finally, since cadets rarely found the time to form groups larger than two, there was little danger of ‘groupthink,’ the conference-room condition where awful ideas take over a group and everyone buys into them in the name of conformity” – what Huntington calls the “culture” of losing.
The Cubs spent $22.5M on Marlon Byrd and John Grabow and also paid a hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo the most money in the game.
In the American Psychological Association’sReport of the APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Techniques of Persuasion and Control, they talked extensively about cults and large group awareness trainings and discussed in their recommended public policy:
Young people, however, do not seek to be manipulated and deceived. They may long for an easy way to fulfill painful needs. But, except perhaps in certain pathological cases, they do not want to be the objects of “mind games.” Therefore, preventive efforts aimed at teaching them how “mind games” work may have much potential.
That reminds me of one sunny Florida spring training day not too long ago when one of the Pirates coaches mentioned to me that he was amazed how much younger the prospects seemed to be getting. He turned around and looked me in the eye and then said something to the effect of: “We have kids here who aren’t even shaving yet.” He wasn’t making a joke – he was concerned.
The Reds just spent $30M signing Aroldis Chapman to a five-year deal.
I understand most of you aren’t going to believe the Pirates are creating a force-fed military cult in their minor league system. That’s understandable. But I’ve told you the stories — a locker being placed in the center of the room like a throne and the players being told where their belongings must go, I’ve told you horror stories like how one prospect was approached on the mound in Bradenton and basically told he was a worthless piece of crap, and I’ve told you how I’ve been approached by numerous folks in and around the organization the last few years who were concerned about what was going on.
Finder’s article continued:
Kyle Stark.. last year instituted changes through the minor-league system — ranging from curfews to an on-field dress code — and sought an in-house, consistent system. His conclusion: a military approach. In his research, he came across the Army program that started with sports and cadets, then moved to soldiers before and after active duty.
I ask you, is there a point where the Pirates demands on their youth are too excessive? At what point are we just being ridiculous?
“We are relaxing some rules. Our approach is to allow our youth to be young men, not in forcing them to be something they aren’t. We determined that was counterproductive to our goals.” — anonymous executive
Is there a point all this “manhandling” backfires? For instance, is it possible future talent like Sano and Chapman will automatically refuse to sign with this organization because of what appears to be a psychotic obsession with rigid discipline as opposed to baseball development? I mean, throw that gem on top of the fact we’re a losing organization to boot.
And what about future first year player draft talent? Are they going to feel comfortable signing? Don’t be too quick with your answer. More from Finder’s article:
Mr. Stark said of the two-pronged strategy to develop players as men and as mentally-sturdy athletes, “We went off the radar here. We have to be creative” given the Pirates’ market size, not to mention the 17-year streak of losing seasons.
In my humble opinion, Stark’s “two-prong strategy” is only going to piss off the kids in the system more than they already are and, in turn, create another wave of culture shocked players with an attitude toward this organization. Our problems began decades ago when we refused to pony up for talent and the only possible answer to that problem is to either build robots or zombies. Or infuse cash.
The Pirates spent $1.8M on Bobby Crosby and Javier Lopez.
Until this organization starts spending money on true talent, we’re never going to be competitive because you simply can’t turn average ball players into five-tool talent with mental voodoo, holistic yaya, or cult’ish coercion. I don’t doubt for a second Stark’s program will build better men of our prospects, but there isn’t a stat in the game that suggests better men equate to more wins.
By Jake, on December 26, 2009, at 10:24 pm | 41 comments
I’ve spent a considerable amount of my offseason time researching our current player development system by talking to a significant number of people.
The ‘big picture’ I walked away with is this..
.. we have just as much confusion, discord, and lack of continuity and communication as we had two years ago under Dave Littlefield, if not more.
Here is a sampling of my research findings:
– the players either love or hate the current system.. oddly, I found little middle ground;
– we have young pitchers who are so fed up they may prefer to walk away than remain in the system;
– we have position players who believe they aren’t getting the help they deserve;
– animosity remains a constant factor between many Littlefield and Huntington draftees; and
– we still have staff up in arms over the system’s processes who can’t wait for their contracts to expire.
Now don’t walk away thinking that everyone is unhappy or that the system is in chaos because that wouldn’t be accurate. For instance, if you talk to any of the out-of-baseball working men who were hired back into the game to become a part of Stark’s new regime, they will probably tell you they have never seen such a well oiled machine. Or if you talk to any of the young prospects or their families who were handed hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in the draft to come play baseball, they will probably also tell you they love what they have seen so far and they are very excited. But when you dig into the core and get away from the fluff, you’re likely to find a completely different picture.
Realize too that my research is potentially biased because of who was willing to talk up. After all, I’m better known for being an organizational watchdog of sorts so people who are dissatisfied in one way or another were more likely to come to the surface.
But the fact remains, we still have numerous problems with the most glaring being continuity.
One of the biggest system-wide disappointments comes in the area of player plans. In two of the past three winters under Neal Huntington’s control, offseason pitching plans have been done for all the young minor league pitchers in the system either by a plan writer who had never even laid eyes on many of the players (Jeff Andrews in 2007) or the writer was raw and inexperienced (ex-Cleveland operations intern Kyle Stark in 2009 with help from a newly hired pitching coordinator). In the third year the plans were written by ex-coordinator Troy Buckley who, as we know, walked away from his position with the Pirates in-season several months later.
If you are keeping track, that’s four different plan writers over the last four years.
Obviously these plans aren’t the Holy Grail for young pitchers but they do go a long way in assisting the players and letting them know where they stand. As a position player, Andrew McCutchen was one of the first to criticize the lack of communication and organization in Huntington’s player plans during the winter of 2007 and he has been joined since by a significant number of players. As I mentioned above, some players have been left so much in the dark they are considering just walking away, the frustration level is that high. And make no mistake about this, these aren’t the ‘problem childs’ of the system who are the only ones concerned – its widespread.
Another area that needs attention is staff credibility in our system. A standing joke amongst some of the prospects is that two stops on the affiliate trail are ’dead ends’ because of the staff in place there. And it’s not just players who feel that way – even fans have written or talked to me about the same problem.
Lastly, it seems to me the exact same problem that plagues the organization in the major league arena also plagues the minor league player development system – lack of quality communication. Some have said they felt that Neal Huntington is unapproachable and now I’m hearing the exact same thing about Kyle Stark. It’s not that there isn’t communication because there is. Lots of it. But it appears to be one-way communication.. management to their hires or charges and little receiving.
No player development system is perfect or every organization would be a clone of it. And unquestionably we still have some prospects in the system who are self-defeating and dragging the system down — it was easy for Huntington to purge problems from the major league clubhouse but it’s not that easy with young men as prospects. Kyle Stark has done a good job implementing layers of accountability but there appears to be too little follow through. Plus, these are young men we are training to become ballplayers, not soldiers going to war. At some point Stark and Huntington need to ask themselves if their domination is because of the desire to turn around the system, or instead because they fear failure so badly?
That being said, we’ve moved forward in a few areas and taken steps backwards in others which might be expected, but we’re on our last leg with credibility – we have to hire better quality baseball instructors, we have to halt the turnover, and we have to implement better processes in communication. If we don’t, then every dollar we’ve spent on the draft the last few years will go up in smoke over the next three years.
Now is the time and it starts with this:
One of the most important decisions the Pirates have to make this winter involves replacing pitching coordinator Troy Buckley because we are heavily relying on young pitching to move this organization forward and their professional development is essential to that goal.
When the season ended there were some outstanding names available who could have helped in this mission such as Rick Peterson, Jeff Jones, Bryan Price, Carl Willis, and even Leo Mazzone. Obviously some of those men might not have considered a development role with the Pirates but who knows when you come calling with stupid money and/or a great PD plan? The Pirates obviously are having some trouble closing a deal with one of their coordinators since they have twice postponed their hiring announcement, but when they do I’ll dig up what I can on the hires and we’ll see if they add or subtract from the above goal.
Here’s my Top Ten Prospects for the 2010 season:
1. Pedro Alvarez. How ironic is it that internally the Pirates executives talk excessively about competing by the 2011 season yet hinge that on a player who is 0wn3d by Frank ‘I want to be Commissioner in 2011″ Coonelly’s soul mate Scott Boras? If that doesn’t spell disaster-a-brewin’ in the only city in America which imposes a payroll tax on non-resident baseball players, then also consider Alvarez’s immature holdout after being drafted which labeled him a softie. Does he pull a ‘Benson’ in 2010 keeping him down-and-out for 2011, or doesn’t he? Go look up the word ‘culture’ in your dictionary and stay tuned.
2. Brad Lincoln. The talent gap in the system between first-tier prospect Alvarez and second-tier start with Lincoln is pronounced but at the end of the day, I wonder if Lincoln doesn’t leave Pittsburgh with more playing time and better numbers? Lincoln’s plus-heat, pinpoint control, knee-buckling 12-to-6 hook, and ability to throw under the chins of batters on both sides of the plate, is exactly what the Pirates need. The Pirates need him to dominate in spring training and his first thirty-one days in 3A to earn a quick call up.
3. Jose Tabata. He’s probably the Bucs #2 prospect if you look at raw tools but he doesn’t have the power projection to play a corner and he doesn’t have the defensive wherewithal to play center rendering him useful as a solid fourth outfielder long-term. But since this is the Pirates whose owners care more about new ski lifts than Pirates wins, he’ll play left field regardless and the fans will continue to hear GM fish tales like ’some of our players underperformed’ while the team struggles to score 700 runs every year as a result. In most other systems he would be trade bait (oh wait, he was).
Pick the next six out of a hat. This is where the system starts to crowd up with the average guys who either have projection or tools but need to stand out another year or two before anyone can really get excited about them. The problem is, we’ve been saying this same thing about our player development system with this class of player every year for the last decade and that remains true in 2010.
Edit 1/18/10: 3a. Bryan Morris. I just plain screwed up not having Morris in my intial list (my excuse: the dog ate his index card!). Last year I said he probably deserved to be listed as the best prospect in our entire system but this year he’s fallen a tier because of non-production and makeup concerns. His stuff is A++ — and always will be — but it’s starting to look more-and-more like he’s going to be another member of the Pirates self-serving culture brigade. I’m giving him one more year to man up.
4. Tony Sanchez. It’s hard to pass up Tim Alderson here but I’m not in the camp that puts much faith in him. Sanchez has at least demonstrated some ability so far and since the Pirates are spending more time with him than any prospect perhaps in the last five years, he better show up or else we are in worse shape than anyone can possibly believe. He’ll be rushed to Pittsburgh way too early which will derail what little bat he’ll bring and probably kill his defensive skill set too, but for 2010 he deserves to be right here and start in Altoona.
5. Quinton Miller. This kid ‘gits it’ and even the Pirates player development system can’t hold him back. Well, unless they break his arm, that is. 2010 is a defining year in this young man’s growth and I think he’ll take a bit of a ‘maturity’ hit early but come roaring back strong.
6. Justin Wilson. This is where I think the third-tier begins. Something about this southpaw gets me going – he’s as wild as Oliver Perez at times but from the little I saw of him on video last year, and some scouts opinions, I think he’s starting to harness it. If he does, he could end up a solid middle of the rotation starter in a couple of years. If he doesn’t, we’re likely to find out this year at Altoona. For now I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt much like I did with Donnie Veal on this list last year. Don’t be too surprised if Veal and Wilson open at Altoona together with Sanchez catching them.
7. Brooks Pounders. This is one of my picks where I reached over other talent to dig out a young man I think will excel in 2010. If he can continue to build on his 93 mph fastball, continue to develop his three other offerings, and keep his arm attached, I think he becomes the ’Rudy Owens breakout player of the year’ in 2010. I should also add that this is one young man I am very concerned about his injury risk in 2010.
8. Tim Alderson. He has to be listed somewhere so I guess this is the right place. I didn’t see any of his games in 2009, didn’t watch one frame of video on him, nor did I ask one scout this winter about him. I just didn’t like his scouting reports during his junior year of high school, nor did I like his ’07 reports, so I guess I just don’t like him. But here he is because those who have seen him believe in him. Don’t be too surprised if you wonder where he went two years from now.
9.Matt McSwain. The guy nobody wants to believe in but me. I think this will be the year his velocity finally comes back to the 94+ range since his TJ surgery and, coupled with his pitchability lessons learned the last two years, will finally be able to put it all together and take it to the next level. I expect him to open in Altoona with Veal and Wilson but the problem is he’s a Dave Littlefield draftee which means he’s likely headed for a reduced role. I think that would be a huge mistake and should be given at least 15 – 20 starts this year to see if he’s the real thing.
10. Sterling Marte. Take your pick here – fourth outfielder types like Gorkys Hernandez and Marte, 2009 breakout candidate and another Littlefield draftee in Rudy Owens, one-inning Huntington draftee in Zach von Rosenberg, the overhyped like Chase D’Arnaud or Robby Grossman, projectable guys not on track yet like Wesley Freeman, or any number of the 2009 high school pitchers like Colton Cain or Zach Dodson. They all run together.
Notes:
I rank Shelby Ford as my 6th best prospect (7th if Clement was added) because I want to believe his limited production in 2009 was the result of sustained injuries. I haven’t had the chance to talk with him and the Pirates won’t budge on the subject so until I find out more, I’m leaving him off since he tanked so hard. I just hope he isn’t another casualty of the Littlefield vs. Huntington draftees war but I’m starting to wonder.
I left Neil Walker off this list but I’m still high on his bat and think the young man has a career ahead of him, perhaps as a backup catcher if the Pirates ever allow him that chance again.
I also left off Jeff Clement because I don’t consider him a prospect. Anybody who has read my blog over the last three years knows I’ve always been in Clement’s corner and would have ranked him 4th on this list overall. But he has some work to do in 2010.
By Jake, on October 24, 2009, at 1:06 am | 4 comments
UPDATED.
The name of the game is scoring more runs than you give up because that’s how you win baseball games.
Neal Huntington can take credit for at least one positive in the Pirates system in 2009 - the ratio of runs allowed to runs scored was reduced from near franchise high levels in 2008 at every level. Some might call that a remarkable job, all thing considered. Others wonder how the heck he allowed the system to tank so far in 2008.
But, whatever..
In the chart below I simply took runs scored per 9 innings and subtracted runs allowed per nine innings to get the difference each year and then plotted it at each league level. ( team RS/9 – RA/9 = run diff )
It’s not a pretty sight. Not in 2007, not in 2008, and certainly not in 2009. Big picture? If we are moving forward in this regard, it’s at a snail’s pace. Considering we are a rebuilding club, you logically expected to see progression forward from 1A (many of Huntington’s first draft class) to High 1A between 2008 and 2009 and, sure enough, it’s there from a -1.3 run difference in 2008 at 1A to 0.1 run difference in 2009 in high 1A.
In fact, the 2009 high 1A positive run value difference is the first time that has been achieved in our system below 3A since Altoona in 2006 when a bunch of guys 26 – 30 years old you probably don’t remember the names of all seemed to have career years at the same time, and they rolled up a scant 4.2 runs allowed average per game type of year. This year at least the age of the players was appropriate for the league making it a legitimate honor even if they were absolutely blown out in the second half (28-42).
Still, kudos to Huntington, Stark, and their rovers and field staff – they made it happen at one hop. It’s a small win for the fans. Very small, but still there. Now the million dollar question looms – will it continue forward to 2A in 2010 and, more importantly, will we see additional movement forward?
Anyway, the sad part about that chart above is that it’s all negative numbers, has been in negative numbers for years, and remains in negative numbers today despite two solid drafts. In fact, the two years Huntington and Stark have been in control of the system have yielded the highest combined run deficit across this organization since Bonifay days. Part of it is explained off by the level of talent they took control of, but that doesn’t explain it all by far. There’s a lot of work to be done yet.. a lot of work.
As a fan, I need to start seeing each club consistently improve year-by-year against their division opponents. It’s that simple. One ‘elite talent’ in Alvarez won’t win us a division – it takes a whole team. 2010 is going to show us if this FO is improving the system. Not in words like ‘we’re stronger and deeper today than we were’ but whether those ‘deeper guys’ are getting it done in the trenches.
Or not.
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Edit 10-24 at 1PM — lots of people e-mailed wondering how many of the other clubs were doing in the same leagues so I threw together a fast trendline chart to show you plotting only 1A, high 1A, and 2A runs scored minus runs allowed differences per team, per year.
Don’t look at the length of the trendline because it’s only determined by the number of affiliates that club has in the same leagues with the Pirates. Instead, look at the general direction of the trendline to get a feel for their system as each trendline starts at 2005 and runs through 2009. Not perfect science by any means but it does tend to show you how much better the talent is than in our system overall. Also notice the Pirates are at the very bottom, notice that only the Astros, Pirates, and Braves systems are not moving in an upward trend, notice the Nats have come out a major hole to being respectable, and look at the Giants and Yankees who always draft well behind us. That’s really embarrassing.
By Jake, on March 1, 2009, at 11:17 pm | Comments are closed
How ’bout dem Bucs.. tied for first after five games? Yaa-HOOOO!
Our pitching wasn’t pretty – walked seven, struck out just five — but our bats came through in the clutch. McLouth ripped a Miner fastball over the right field wall with a 20 mph wind aiding its flight and with two men on, Andy LaRoche picked up an rbi with a sac fly, and Sanchez’s single plated two.
Job done.
I think it’s about time to start focusing on how well we’re doing in the box against opposing starting pitchers because that’s the best spring barometer I know of.
11 IP
7 H
2 R
2 ER
4 BB
7 K
1 HR
That’s 1.6 runs per nine innings and as many strikeouts as hits (5.7 per nine). That’s not going to win many games. Obviously it’s way too early to put any stock in those numbers but it’s not a good trend to see.
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Sounds like Phil Dumatrait may begin the year on the DL as he continues to work his arm back into shape. If so, that will open a roster spot.
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I’m hearing the pitchers like throwing to Diaz over Jaramillo. It will be interesting to see if those feelings continue and if Russell rewards the young man’s work.
I’m also hearing a few players are very impressed with Shelby Ford’s game.
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It’s going to be interesting to see how long the Bucs keep Jimmy Barthmaier in the big league camp while he’s having command problems. Personally I think this young man has the stuff to challenge Karstens and a few others for a slot but he doesn’t have the relationship with Kerrigan that Karstens does, and that may play a role. But I don’t think it should.
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I hope they move McCutchen over to the minor league side of camp to clear his mind. Let him get rolling over there and then bring him back over to the big league camp.
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Here’s an interesting article Sunday by Dejan on Kyle Stark’s implementation of a rigid discipline system in the minors that a few readers/parents have asked for my thoughts on.
If you’ve been reading Bucco Blog very long, then the theme probably didn’t surprise you very much because I outlined many of Stark’s ”fear of God” type processes and the fallout from them last year. Many of those issues were because need begets change which is typically fought off by the followers, or maybe better put, Stark had to take control and the resistance he encountered required a heavy fist.
While it is true I personally didn’t agree with a few of the tactics used by his employees, some of which I felt belittled his youthful charges, the players as a whole seemed to benefit overall and I guess that’s always the desired end result.
But make no mistake about this point which has been raised numerous times in the last week or so.. even though Stark has his own personnel in place now, including a commando unit of rovers and field staff, the players still have to buy into it all. From what I’m hearing today, that’s going to be a tougher nut to crack than Stark probably realizes.
On the surface the players can go through his drills, but for Stark to have a chance to change their hearts, Bob Nutting, Frank Coonelly, and Neal Huntington have to deliver a lot more to Stark in the form of tools, tools, and more tools.
Until that happens, the way Stark and his group goes about their business won’t make much of a difference and the kids and parents know that better than anyone.
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Little ball? Nice article at the NY Times on how the players seem to be getting smaller.
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By Jake, on January 14, 2009, at 11:31 pm | Comments are closed
Nearly every day I get an email that starts something like this: “Where are we going?” I used to answer those with a simple response - we’re rebuilding and it’s going to take time. But then I would typically get a reply saying something like “What do you mean rebuilding when we aren’t making any trades?”
Casual fans just don’t get it like hard-core fans do, but recent statements by Neal Huntington, Frank Coonelly, and unquestionably in Larry Corrigan’s radio interview the other day, are now confusing even the hard-core fans. So let’s take a look at the Pirates blueprint and see if that answers some of your questions.
Why the Pirates won’t admit to rebuilding
Because they aren’t, and they won’t be, at least not in the traditional sense. I finally realized this the other day when I was communicating with one of the Pirates top brass. After I hit the send button it dawned on me that my rational for thinking we were in a rebuilding mode was completely off base.
When we hear the term rebuilding as fans we immediately jump to the conclusion there will be a fire sale.. you know, dump everyone you can and reload with youthful prospects. In previous years with the Pirates and other franchises this was the case. But as I mentioned the other day, baseball’s landscape has changed dramatically the last 18 months and, while it might have been feasible to have a fire sale in December 2006, it’s nearly impossible to do that now.
Why? Because the value of toolsy youth has skyrocketed beyond reasonableness.
Three years ago a club could have wrestled a Carl Crawford type of player away from a team like the Rays by taking on his big contract and giving back one or two toolsy prospects, but that’s nearly impossible any more. Now an organization has to give up three or four 60+ score (out of 80) prospects PLUS eat the large contract. The days of the Yankees or Red Sox dealing their better draft picks for guys like Crawford are gone unless an organization virtually wipes out the top level of their farm system.
And it’s only going to get worse.
So if we’re not rebuilding per se, what are we doing?
I suppose that’s best answered by another “R” word – restructuring. First we saw this at the upper most levels of the organization when Kevin McClatchy stepped down and Bob Nutting took over. Nutting took a year to evaluate the system and consult with his peers and then made the decision to restructure the balance of the organization starting with the hiring of Frank Coonelly.
That was the biggest decision Nutting had and, while I think Coonelly was his man all along, I don’t believe it was for the reasons that garnered our attention as fans. Sure, Coonelly could help Nutting save a few dollars with his arbitration background, and sure, Nutting would probably benefit financially by having an ex-MLB guy take the reins, but I don’t think that’s the main reason why Coonelly was hired.
Instead, I believe he had a different vision on how to turn this organization around. We’ll call it “Frank’s Plan” from here on out.
Now I can’t speak for Coonelly because I haven’t even discussed this with him, and he’s free to leave us a comment below if he so desires, but we’ve all heard a few different media reports from credible sources that Huntington and Coonelly appear to be heading in different directions at times. I believe professional tension exists between the two parties but I don’t believe it’s anything to write home to mom about, nor do I think there is any infighting between them.
Instead, Neal Huntington wants to command the restructuring as any GM would but Frank Coonelly just isn’t willing to let go of those reins – thus the difference of opinion that sometimes is played out in the press. It’s not that Huntington and Coonelly are on different pages, it’s that Huntington wants traditional GM power and he doesn’t quite have it yet.
That’s also part of Frank’s Plan.
Traditional GM’s handle roster affairs and only go to the President or ownership for financial approvals. True, when a franchise player like a Jason Bay is possibly going to be dealt, that’s different. But day-to-day roster management is generally always handled exclusively by the GM without interference from the President or ownership except, as I said, for financial approval. (I hear some of the front office types across baseball laughing at that last comment because there are a lot of owners who meddle.. have faith – keep reading.)
But in Pittsburgh, Frank Coonelly has added another layer to Neal Huntington’s ability to manage his roster – trade approval. Maybe not in every case, but in most.
That’s also part of Frank’s Plan.
So now that the Pirates have taken two years to restructure the organization (January 2007 – January 2009) in what they ultimately called a culture change, we’re starting to see phase two of Franks Plan take root.
Surfing the waves
I’ve spoken here numerous times over the years about Jonah Keri’s fabulous article at Baseball Prospectus in 2002 called “The Success Cycle.” There Keri outlined exactly where Dave Littlefield’s plan differed from Cam Bonifay’s and why Littlefield appeared to be heading in the wrong direction in his.
To what extent Littlefield was his own problem over all those years isn’t at issue here. But notice how Frank’s Plan has so far paralleled Littlefield’s plan – dealing a couple of vets for some youth, locking up fan appealing players to longer term deals, and picking up a few pieces of worthy fruit here and there to help the current team.
But there’s one notable difference in Frank’s Plan than from either Bonifay’s or Littlefield’s.. holes are being filled and tradable youth and veterans are staying put.
It appears Frank’s Plan is to let the current wave of players - Wilson, Sanchez, Doumit, McLouth, and Adam LaRoche – remain in place regardless of the cost or resulting wins for one benefit Bonifay and Littlefield never seemed to understand or could afford.. full development of the next wave.
And based on what we’ve heard in the media from trade opportunities Neal Huntington has taken to Coonelly for approval the last two years that were ultimately shot down (Wilson times two, Bay to Cleveland, Maholm, Snell, Grabow, etc.), it appears Huntington doesn’t understand Frank’s Plan either. I mean, on the surface it doesn’t make a bit of sense just as Keri alluded to – either you commit to a full rebuild or you ultimately end up with a disaster.
But in reality it’s the first time in two decades anything our front office has done that does make sense.
Breaking down the blueprint on each wave
Frank’s Plan requires that current holes in Pittsburgh be filled first, then the next wave’s holes filled second, and then a third wave developed behind that as we saw by the selection of the risky but talented Bryan Morris in the Bay trade and the drafting of riskier high school products in Robbie Grossman and Quinton Miller.
The first wave can easily be defined as the current core group of Pirates that make up the 25-man roster. One theory why Wilson wasn’t dealt is because Frank’s Plan won’t allow a hole to go unfilled unless a reasonable youthful replacement is found, especially a critical position like the left side middle infield for the Bucs.
Huntington couldn’t find one so Wilson remains a Buc. And no, Frank’s Plan doesn’t allow a utility or below average player (perhaps as projected by the Pirates pro scouts?, although I do know Coonelly can break down players pretty good himself) to assume the duties unless that is the result after a trade is made which ultimately makes this organization better overall.
The second wave includes the balance of the 40-man not on the active roster plus just about anyone in 2A and up. But more specifically by each position: a hole at first base possibly filled by either Andy LaRoche or Pedro Alvarez with the other player remaining on the other corner, Shelby Ford at second, perhaps Brian Friday at short (though a bit early to declare him), Jose Tabata in left, Andrew McCutchen in center, perhaps Brandon Moss in right, and maybe Ryan Doumit catching the first couple of years of this wave, although I see a hole at this position myself.
That wave is scheduled to begin no later than 2011 and will probably also include starting pitchers Tom Gorzelanny and Paul Maholm (signed to five year deals in 2009?), any graduates of the Joe Kerrigan two-year school of pitching (Karstens, Ohlendorf, McCutchen, Lincoln, McSwain, Barthmaier, Beam, and Meek are likely candidates), plus any possible advanced top draft pick in 2009.
Then the third wave will start pushing to shore around 2014 – 2015 hopefully providing the depth needed for a consistent run in the division year-in and year-out.
Get it? Right, it’s actually very simple and exactly what Ed Creech/Dave Littlefield and Cam Bonifay/Mickey White were doing all their years but didn’t have the financial luxury to continue playing higher priced dead weight in Pittsburgh so the next wave could continue to develop.
The risks
Mickey White was no fool, and by most standards Ed Creech and his lowly paid foot soldiers didn’t do too bad a job either contrary to public opinion. Unfortunately, player development failed both men not to mention many of their riskier picks led to too many bad luck flameouts.
We’re still at risk for these types of drafting errors/problems because we have, by most accounts, too many unproven foot soldiers at the area level. As I was recently told, most clubs like to place area scouts with no less than three years of proven experience under their belts, but we’re not there yet in some important parts of the country.
Throw in the fact our scouting department took a significant hit several years ago when this organization had a hard time coughing up payroll for their scouts, and to say we lost ground from the associate scout level up from China to the US would be an understatement.
Frank Coonelly is doing what he can to try and change that sentiment in the industry with increased cash flow to the department, Neal Huntington is placing more emphasis on the voices in each region as evidenced by the last draft, and even little things like Coonelly passing out water on hot days to advance scouts working at PNC during the year is making a difference. Trust me, scouts are talking about all this.
But it’s going to take time.. it’s going to take a lot of time.. to alter the mindset of those foot soldiers in this game who are true difference makers we might like to employ by giving life changing money to, because they still won’t come.
As for player development, I covered that in December by basically saying that it’s nice we have weeded out the cultural problems, it’s nice that we have a new blueprint, and it’s nice that Stark is working passionately 24/7/365. That’s a huge start which will begin to show up more in the third wave than we’ll notice in the second wave.
But there are still glaring problems in PD.
For one, we seem to be hiring too many temporary stopgaps like quality field staff being hired on one year deals. That reduces productivity, reduces cohesiveness within the system, and continues the mentality that Pittsburgh is a place to hang out waiting for a better gig.
And two, Kyle Stark has handed way too much power to his rovers. If you read my blog you know I’ve touched on this during the last year and Stark is adamant his system’s approach is the best way, but in some folks eyes there’s already been too much damage inflicted both inside and outside the system with the power his rovers are commanding.
Typically when a rover visits a minor league team in most other organizations they listen to the field staff, do their work with the players and their plans, and then observe. They don’t take out bullhorns and take over like we’re seeing in our system. Perhaps this will be toned down some this year with the hiring of some more professional help 2A and up. We’ll have to see.
Lastly, as we all know it comes down to tools in this game and the Pirates have taken some positive steps forward trying to find that talent outside the draft like the new academy in the Dominican Republic and spending more time outside the US looking at potential talent.
Ultimately impact talent outside the draft is going to primarily come from trades so it’s up to Neal Huntington and his advisors to find that talent when the opportunity presents itself, and as well as Frank Coonelly’s willingness to let Huntington pull the trigger. So far Frank’s Plan has been to keep a light touch on the trigger, for better or for worse.
Conclusion
First and foremost don’t ever forget you are watching The Frank Coonelly Show here in Pittsburgh. Before Frank it was the Kevin McClatchy Show. From all the sources that I have reached, it appears the Nuttings are not, and never have been, involved in any micromanaging as I have suspected.
That being said, there are still a lot of holes in our processes as well as in the prospect waves building offshore, as noted above. While we have patched quite a few of the holes and this ship is back afloat, it’s only just treading water. As Keri noted, Frank’s Plan is risky in that he’s not selling a full rebuild like Branch Rickey did here in the 50’s, and if we’re at the same position in two years we were two years ago, it’s going to be a lot easier to see.
Plus, 2009 is a defining year for this franchise in many ways. If the Pirates draw 1.4 million fans or less and/or lose 100 games, ownership is going to be put in a precarious position as many needed revenue streams are all but sure to dry up until the next wave hits Pittsburgh.
Ownership knows that better than anyone and that’s why they handed the reins to Frank. It’s his baby, sink or swim, although this ownership is probably going to be very quick to pull the rug out if the ship starts to sink too much.
Stage three of Frank’s Plan? .500 baseball riding the surf year-in and year-out. I’m betting in his heart he wants it in 2011, will settle for 2012, but probably realizes his cycle begins in earnest in 2013.
Will that be too late? And will Frank’s Plan even work at all?
Good questions.. tough questions. On paper it all seems so simple.
By Jake, on December 27, 2008, at 7:02 pm | Comments are closed
Between supper and playing Santa on Christmas Eve, Kyle Stark repsonded to the questions we sent to him back in November. For those that haven’t followed along, Stark had asked if we would wait until he completed his minor league hiring since some of the questions dealt with those positions.
Lastly, I stressed in a post a few weeks ago that if the Pirates were only signing one-year deals to key development people (1A and up plus the rovers), then we weren’t taking the steps necessary to build a cohesive system. So I asked Stark and he replied:
”I appreciate where you’re heading with your question, but we’re not going to comment on the contract status of our coaches. I will say that we are only as good as our coaches so you can bet my focus is on assembling and preserving (if not improving) a quality staff.”
That being said, I continue to be worried that we are only hiring stop-gap solutions, albeit many are quality men. But until the Pirates can hire and hold their key development staff, too much productivity will be lost in each transition and the entire system weaker as a result. We won’t turn the corner until that happens but, as Stark notes about personnel below, we are getting closer.
Now for the Q&A:
1. In your first Q&A with us in April you stated that the most important process change you implemented in the system was your new philosophy: “To help players achieve their potential, while developing them as professionals, through a relentless, systematic, and cohesive approach. That drives everything we do in development.”
While strides were clearly made in the system, one might argue that those standards took a few hits this year: cohesiveness, the significantly high turnover rate of field staff; and systematic, in that a few notable players in the system criticized their player plans as being inefficient, untimely, and/or inadequate. What steps are being taken to better inform players what is expected of them on a more consistent and timely basis? And, what steps are being taken to reduce staff turnover in your system?
Stark: Strides were definitely made and I would argue that whatever bumps we ran into along the way (and we certainly ran into some as one would expect when implementing a new system in any environment) still were heads and shoulders above where we were as an organization a year ago. The fact that not everyone was on board or some players were critical of their player plans still is better than everyone doing their own thing with no cohesive message or a checklist of things a player should be able to do that was not relevant to a player’s development. I will discuss both items in more detail, but first want to comment on the good things that are going on in development.
I am extremely encouraged with where we’ve come in about 12-13 months, which makes me excited about where we’re going in the next 12-13 months. Whether it be individual staff members getting better, players improving, stories from the community commitment program, staff from other clubs complimenting our staff or how our players play to me, personnel within the organization in other departments recognizing the strides and expressing pride in our development system for the first time, external people complimenting our Spring Training and Instructional League workouts (one such person commented that he had visited about 20 different camps and they all lagged behind ours), or other organizations expressing some interest in our staff for other positions (12 of them which I’ve never heard of in one offseason … and many chose to be a part of this), I believe in what we’re doing.
As for the turnover in staff, it really is not much different than what we had the year before. I am not shocked that not everyone was completely on board with what we are doing. In fact, if everyone embraced it then the message was probably not different enough from the past one or not challenging enough. We talked openly that there is more than one way to develop players (even though we feel strongly this is the best way) and that no one would take things personal if people wanted to leave.
We used this year to determine who was on board with what we were doing and who was competent to execute what we were doing, and ultimately made some decisions that not everyone was.
The fact that many people have chosen to be a part of this (both existing staff and new adds like Kremblas, Walbeck, Forbes, Treanor, Whitehurst, Brewer, Long, Skaalen (almost!), etc. who all chose our opportunity over others) tells me that we’re on the right track and don’t have to worry about staff turnover being near as great going forward. Although, with as much interest that was shown by other organizations in our current staff, we may have to worry about losing people to other opportunities! However, that’s a good problem to have and actually a goal of ours, i.e. to see Pirates throughout the game as ML staff members, coordinators, farm and scouting directors, cross-checkers, general managers, ML managers, etc. I am very excited about the staff we’ve assembled in a very short period of time.
I think we have good leadership in the coordinator group (one person commenting that we have a pretty good ML staff right there), a manager group who better aligns itself with our development philosophy, and excellent teachers throughout. We’ve added difference makers at the upper levels, moved personnel to roles and levels they are better suited for, and been creative in adding people to complement our staff (ex. veteran baseball guys like Rich Donnelly and Jim Skaalen – who we lost to OAK as their ML hitting coach, experienced teachers at the lower levels like Gary Robinson – diverse background and long history of developing players – and Mark Brewer – veteran pitching coach up to 3A with coordinating experience in Latin America as a rehab pitching coach in Bradenton to help with rehabs and entry level pitchers, etc.). Much has been made about “clipboard holders” being hired in development or people desperate for jobs, but I think this offseason shows a different approach.
As for players and their player plans, any player who is/has complained should be calling himself out since players are involved in the process and creation and player plans are designed to create accountability in the players so there are no questions about what he has to do to advance (it’s completely on his shoulders). I have commented a number of times that not only does the talent in our organization need to improve, but so does the mentality and this is a reflection of that. Some people still are struggling with the accountability concept.
That being said, the player plan system has not been implemented perfectly in less than one year and has room for improvement. I think we made strides in introducing the concept, getting people’s mindsets to change from a checklist of items that may or may not be kept up-to-date to a living document that changes with the player, and introducing it to the players. However, we need more familiarity with the concepts (that it drives a player’s development and our teaching) and more consistent implementation by all staff. When functioning efficiently, the player plan system will let all parties know exactly what needs to be done, what is being done on a daily basis to help accomplish those goals, and what progress is being made. The mindset has been introduced, but we need to further application of being systematic in our development.
2. Have you started getting baselines of some of the young pitchers at ASMI? If so, how many and can you tell us who has been there? If you haven’t started yet, can you tell us if, and when, you plan to start and who would be likely candidates to go?
Stark: We have not gotten any pitchers to ASMI yet; however, we have laid the groundwork and have started getting our staff more acclimated with what ASMI does. Like anything else we do, we strive for consistency throughout with all parties involved being on the same page so we’ve decided to make sure that all personnel (strength and conditioning, medical, pitching, ML/minor league) have a familiarity with ASMI.
We had planned to send some pitchers during Instructional League, but could not work out the logistics. Timing is important as the pitchers need to throw at roughly 90% intensity to ensure accurate results. The next logical opportunity to try it would be towards the end of ST or during next IL. Ultimately, the groundwork has been laid and we’re ready to add this aspect to our pitching evaluation and development processes. Likely candidates would include guys coming off injury, those with red flag mechanical concerns, and some higher dollar investment guys to get initial baselines established going forward.
3. Can you tell us the goals of the new flat ground throwing program that pitching coordinator Troy Buckley implemented this last year?
Stark: First, everything that has and will be implemented in player development is a joint effort and a commitment by us rather than an individual person. That being said, Troy Buckley, as our pitching coordinator, has a significant voice and serves as part of our pitching “leadership”. His pitching philosophy greatly aligns with mine, Neal’s, our ML pitching coach, and others within the organization.
Our throwing program, which we feel like led to significant strides made by a number of pitchers and led to the overall improvements in health (as noted by your question below), does include a flatground element. This is no different from most other quality throwing programs that I have been associated with or come across. Basically, pitchers finish their long toss session with a limited number of “pitches” at 50-55′ on flatground for daily maintenance of their delivery and feel. Unlike hitting where everyone can get hundreds of swings every day to work on their mechanics, pitchers are limited in the number of throws they can execute.
Doing it on flatground helps limit the stress, as well as monitoring the intensity, but allows us to practice our delivery every day as opposed to only on sideline days. Also, the flatground routine is part of our progression of intensity from long toss to flatground to bullpen to game so that pitchers do not have to flip on a switch and go from 60% intensity to 95% in competition.
4. I had heard a rumor during the year that certain pitchers had been prohibited from throwing certain pitch types. Is that true? If so, can you tell us what the benefits of such a restriction would be?
Stark: Certain pitchers were limited in their pitch selection in certain situations. Examples include a more general limitation like the amount of 2-seam fastballs thrown by younger prospects to more specific limitations like capping the number of breaking balls a pitcher threw (or limiting them to one of the two innings the pitcher threw) or challenging pitchers to throw fastballs rather than falling in love with their offspeed stuff. The goals can vary greatly depending on the pitcher and the situation, but the main purpose is the same, i.e. our sole focus is on what that player can be (hopefully someday in Pittsburgh) as opposed to what he can be on a certain night. Sometimes you need to sacrifice a battle to win the war!
This applies to the situations outlined above in the following ways: limiting the number of breaking balls thrown was done to force the pitcher to throw his change-up more (which led to a solid average if not above average change-up in Ronald Uviedo’s situation); challenging a specific pitcher to pitch with his fastball as opposed to simply rely on the change-up (even though we are trying to increase the use of the change-up throughout the organization) was done to get the pitcher to pitch off his fastball (and hopefully develop some more velocity which it did) as opposed to pitching off his change-up (which led to Tony Watson being viewed more than simply an A-ball lefty with a change-up who can dominate A-ball hitters); and the limitations on the 2-seam fastballs are done to promote the 4-seam fastball (the foundational pitch in basic pitcher development), which leads to 1) better command, 2) more arm strength, 3) not afraid of contact mentality (de-aluminize their thinking), and 4) change-up development because of the lack of fear of contact.
Everyone wants to focus on that night and finding shortcuts to help, but our focus is more of a big picture, long-term perspective since development is progression-oriented. Obviously, each pitcher is different and different courses of action are applied in each situation, but our core philosophies and beliefs serve as a foundation where we start from and build off for the individual person.
5. Pick one: tools or makeup? Why?
Stark: BOTH! I don’t know that you can get away with only one or the other. However, it all starts with tools. If you don’t have some base level of tools, then you are limited. You’ve probably heard the line about chicken salad (can’t make chicken salad out of …). Tools allow us to have something to work with in helping players reach their potential. Those players with greater tools tend to have greater potential.
However, make-up can be the separator in whether the player reaches his potential or how close he comes to reaching it. We’ve made it a point to spend a great deal of time defining “Pirates” makeup, identifying players with those characteristics, and developing those characteristics in our system. The fact that we’re defining makeup indicates the importance we’ve put on it, but also the fact that it is such a gray area. We all want to surround ourselves with good people, but that is not necessarily makeup. Therefore, we’ve separated it into off field (character), on field (competitive), and baseball intelligence. I’ve told numerous people that the two greatest things that needed to change in this system were obviously talent, but also the mindset. This is where the accountability concepts have come into play.
6. It’s hard to have a Q&A with you and not talk about the potential for a logjam at third base with Alvarez, Walker, LaRoche, and others. Without divine intervention it’s hard to tell who will end up where down the road, but is it safe to say Alvarez has to stick? If you say possibly no, is there any plan to get Alvarez some time at first base in 2009? And, is there any chance Neil Walker will start seeing some time behind the plate again?
Stark: I think Pirate fans have been waiting a long time to talk about logjams of talent! I personally am looking forward to the day when we’re talking about them at more than one position. However, I can tell you that setting up projected rosters for next year was much more challenging than last year as we have more prospects at similar positions that need every day at-bats. As for third base, we think all three players can be quality ML third basemen and also see a scenario where all three fit on the same team. Each bring different things to the table (LaRoche has the best track record, Walker brings athleticism and defense, and Pedro has the upside). The amazing thing about this game is that these things tend to work themselves out (which is why you need multiple options at every position), but it is a good problem to have.
I can tell you that there is no plan for Pedro to get time at first base in 2009 (or beyond at this point) or for Walker to get time behind the plate again.
7. Can you tell us about a few players who made significant ‘under the radar’ strides in 2008?
Stark: When we first got here, our long-term goals were to obviously create a sustainable championship organization and development’s role in that was/is to help our players reach their potential. Therefore, we needed to start to create a cohesive philosophy that would guide our process.
The short-term implications of that were to maximize what was here and hopefully find some “value” where the industry didn’t expect it. I think we saw a number of those cases emerge this year where players either maximized their prospect status or put themselves on the map in many people’s eyes. I suppose those players put themselves “on the radar”, but they certainly weren’t when we first got here. Examples include Kyle Bloom, Jeff Sues, and Ronald Uviedo, none of whom people expected to be in the roster protect discussions; Luis Cruz becoming a viable ML utility middle infielder; Jimmy Negrych earning player of the year honors; Jose Tabata, Steve Lerud, Jimmy Barthmaier, and Juan Mateo re-establishing their “prospect” status; Evan Meek making significant adjustments after struggling horribly in the Big Leagues; Miles Durham, Matt McSwain, Moises Robles, and Tom Boleska all performing themselves into the mix.
However, I think there were some players who took strides that might not have gotten as much attention due to the fact that their overall numbers were not as good. These “under the radar” guys include Shelby Ford, Dustin Molleken (threw well in move to pen after getting chance to log innings early), Jordy Mercer and Brian Friday (competing at advanced levels for them), Angel Gonzalez (competed at 2A playing SS everyday), Michael Crotta (certainly not expected to be in the discussion to go to AFL earlier in the year), Neil Walker (on defense and power offensively), Andrew McCutchen (controlling the strike zone plus the strides he made during IL), etc.
While we cannot create impact players, we can help all of our players get better. There are a lot of good things going on in our system (which makes us even more encouraged for maximizing the potential of impact players when they’re added).
8. Many old school baseball folks say winning in the farm system is an important part of the development cycle. New wave baseball folks seem to place less emphasis on winning, especially at the lower levels. What’s your philosophy and why?
Stark: This seems to be a hot button topic and one with very black and white sides to the issue. Two significant elements of our overall development philosophy fall on both sides of the equation.
First and foremost, the most important game in our system every night is the one in Pittsburgh. That is why we’re here and what we’re striving for, i.e. winning championships in Pittsburgh. Therefore, everything we do in development is aligned with that concept.
Second, we are not just developing players to play in Pittsburgh, but to win championships there (as mentioned previously) so winning and learning how to win becomes part of development.
The question then becomes how do we win and teach players to win (develop players in a winning environment) while not getting short-sighted and focus on that night’s game as opposed to the long-term development of the player (the discussion above on pitchers and pitch selection alludes to this). We feel like this is accomplished by our staff’s attitude (show up to the park everyday expecting to win), managing the game with development first in mind but winning as the goal of the game, and getting our players better.
We talk about staff earning their salaries from noon until 7 pm and that the game is the reward, as opposed to the game being the focus of the day. This concept ensures the players are prepared and that we’re doing everything we can to get them better, which leads to more wins. However, we are not going to artificially create wins by holding players back levels, signing fillers to take at-bats away from our own players (who could be or are prospects), or making managerial decisions that limit a prospect’s development (ex. Pinch-hitting that left-handed hitting prospect because the opposing manager brings in a left-handed reliever).
9. It appears you significantly reduced days lost due to injuries in the system last year, but is it possible to place too much of an emphasis on having players play through injuries? I’m thinking about cases like Shelby Ford last year who appeared to continue playing despite a hip pointer diagnosis, he failed, and then had to be shut down. What’s the balance?
Stark: Because our focus is on what the player can ultimately be (long-term, big picture view), we are not going to make short-term decisions for a given night that risk the health of a player. That being said, we did have an overall healthy year on the field in 2008 and feel like me made strides in overall health and processes leading to injury prevention and maintenance.
Our new throwing program discussed above played a major role in that with our pitchers, and our strength and conditioning and medical staffs in the minor leagues did a great job responding to expectations and slightly different processes. Shelby Ford’s situation actually involved one of those slightly different processes/expectations as he could have been rehabbed a certain way to get him back on the field sooner. However, due to his history, we chose to shut him down completely, send him to Bradenton, and tackle the root of the problem rather than trying to keep him healthy to play. This occurred after the diagnosis (as opposed to challenging him to play, him failing, and then us responding). A similar approach was taken with Brian Friday when he suffered some back discomfort during the season.
10. What has been the hardest part of your job over the first year and what are three advances you would like to see the system take in your second year?
Stark: The most challenging part of this job in any year is managing all of the different (often competing) interests from all the parties involved. That is also what makes this job one of the most interesting and rewarding as well.
I think the biggest obstacle we ran into during this first year was trying to implement a completely different system in a short period of time. Most people suggested that I use year one to observe and evaluate before implementing any systems and processes; however, I knew there were certain things that we needed to do a certain way and we needed to get them in place as soon as possible. We still used the year to observe and evaluate (staff, players, etc.), but decided to tackle the culture, philosophy, and processes immediately.
As for advances for next year, I think I would prioritize them as:
1) continuing to tailor our general philosophies to individual players (we made huge strides in getting some things in place, but now we need to let them and our staff work the way they can to better our players),
2) continuing to get all parties on the same page (both with new staff and another year of familiarity with each other and our ideas), and
3) expanding our use of other resources that were non-existent before and took significant strides last year but have a ways to go (video, charted data, player plans, etc.).
By Jake, on December 20, 2008, at 1:04 am | Comments are closed
True to his word, Kyle Stark and the Pittsburgh Pirates announced their 2009 development staff today and there were a few surprises. Frank Kremblas was one of those.
First some background.. when the Pirates had their AAA affiliate in Nashville, I was a big supporter of the Sounds. Not just in the sense of being a season ticket holder for years, but also very active in assisting Sounds owner Al Gordon and COO Glenn Yaeger getting the votes needed with the very large Metro Council to build a new ballpark.
When the Pirates pulled up stakes and left Nashville, the Brewers came to town and the Sounds told them they hoped to have a new stadium for them to play in within two years because Greer Stadium was/is horribly outdated – one of the reasons the Pirates left town. After Gordon won support for the new stadium, everything fell apart over the next few years. The ‘why it happened’ isn’t relevant here but I was very dialed in to Sounds happenings through 2007.
Now back to Kremblas. In 2005 he took over as the manager of the club and, of course, was handed a youthful roster that included the likes of Prince Fielder, Corey Hart, and Rickie Weeks, just to name a few. Those guys easily won the division and cruised to win the PCL Championship. Kremblas was the manager that year but credit has to go where credit belongs.. Stan Kyles, the Sounds pitching coach, got a lot of mileage out of his limited staff, but Gary Pettis, their hitting coach, was the man.. he made it all happen, or so many of the players told me.
I took home a 2005 PCL championship ring that year and I owe that to Kremblas.. he did a fine job. But one of the things I learned over the years that Kremblas was their manager is that he packs a lot of baggage, so his hiring is a bit of a surprise to me. For the record, the Brewers fired him.
He’s a deeply passionate baseball man – some say perhaps even too passionate – who is very good at keeping things neat and orderly on his team, and he fits Neal Huntington and Kyle Stark’s ‘iron fist’ philosophy in the minors to a “T”, but after the game is over I have to wonder if Kremblas is still the right guy.
I just hope any remaining baggage doesn’t follow him to Indy.
But it seems everyone has some baggage so if Kremblas holds it all together, he’s an excellent choice for leading our 3A club. His record in Nashville 2005 – 2007 was more the byproduct of the Brewers deep organizational talent than his own doings of course, but he did have to earn his way in 2007 as the flow of talent started drying up on him (gone was Tony Gywnn, Ryan Braun, Yovani Gallardo, etc) and he took home PCL Manager of the Year honors. He’s known to be a good evaluator and more than a few folks have said he’s a brilliant game stategist, so I look forward to seeing him take the Indy Indians to the next level in 2009. I’m sure he’ll do just that.
Kremblas will be joined in Indy with pitching coach Ray Searage who has always stayed out of my statistical red flag spotlight as a pitching coach in our system (in other words, pitch count tracking, players with year-after injuries, that sort of thing), and hitting coach Jeff Branson who has done a good job but is obviously way over his head, yet who has a strong enough support network with his rovers and pro scouts that it shouldn’t make that much difference.
Matt Walbeck’s hiring for Altoona is another puzzle to me. I shot a few emails off to folks that know him so I can get a better line on this hire (stupid money signing? desire to develop signing? character problems and he fell here signing?) but he’s a very solid development man from what little I do know of him. He also fits the Pirates growing ‘iron fist’ minor league mentality that we’ll always associate first with Troy Buckley, the Pirates pitching rover. More on Walbeck down the road.
Walbeck is joined by pitching coach Dean Treanor, of all people. I have to wonder if Perry Hill had some influence on Treanor coming over, as well as their new hitting coach Ryan Long. Treanor’s resume is deep and those I quickly talked to said he’s a plus hire. Now why he’s here as a pitching coach is a bit of a surprise, but that probably has more to do with his passion than anything. Long has also been around the block some in development with the Royals and White Sox.
Most of the lower system is more about guys who just wanted a job more than anything it seems. Lynchburg manager PJ Forbes was a candidate to take over the Iron Pigs when John Russell left, Hillcats hitting coach Dave Howard was handed a managerial position with the Rays in 2006 then resigned a couple of weeks before the season opened and who knows what he’s been doing since, and their new pitching coach is Wally Whitehurst who had been in the Padres system then was teaching in 2008.
At short season State College we have a rookie pro manager in UNC-Charlotte college coach Gary Robinson, Brandon Moore was shot down from Altoona, and pitching coach Mike Steele is another rookie coming over from college baseball.. Michagan, and has a Notre Dame background (didn’t Stark go to law school there? Maybe not.).
And the overworked, underpaid, underappreciated Gary Green stays with our LowA club which moved to West Virgina. He has a staff of “who???” working with him.
Overall assessment?
The most obvious question is, how long are the upper level contracts for outside of Branson and Searage?
If we assume they are at least two-year deals, then Stark has done a very good job of bringing in quality baseball men at the top, including most of his rovers, under very trying conditions considering the state of our organization. If most are one-year deals, then we’re going nowhere. Under that condition it’s still nice to have some good baseball men but I would have liked to see his “cohesive plan” philosophy carried out with a stronger emphasis.
Stark’s reliance on developmental diversity in his hirings is also evident. His upper level men have years and years of experience in numerous quality organizations. That’s a major plus. But as we all saw last spring in Bradenton, that can cause conflict too. But since these men have been around the game awhile, I don’t think it’s going to take long for them to gel and that’s going to be important.
It’s no secret the Pirates minor league system under Stark is being run with an iron fist approach and that has its benefits during change, as well as its drawbacks. Stark knows I listened to complaint after complaint last year as the system underwent change.. some parents were dissatisfied, some previous college or high school coaches had a few words for the change process, there was some internal bickering amongst staff, and even some of the players had a hard time coping and understanding.
Where it will all shake out is anyone’s guess at this point but I totally agree with what seems to be Stark’s general concepts: weed out the cultural problems, more accountability, more (better?) communication, and he absolutely had to rid the organization of the dead weight. He’s done a good job in all of those.
Unfortunately, Stark’s work is meaningless if Greg Smith and his soldiers can’t find diamonds in the rough and if Neal Huntington can’t, or won’t, pull trade triggers to stock his system with impact talent. Huntington has to take some risks via trades and the way Stark’s model is setup, it’s pretty obvious that’s about to happen.
I think it’s also imperative that Neal Huntington cleanse his system as quick as possible now. By that I mean, we have some obvious culture change resistance problems on our 25-man as well as in our system. Huntington has identified them, now he needs to take action – before spring training begins. He simply can’t afford to expose our youth to more of their sour grapes attitude because it’s already starting to impact some of the youth in the upper levels.
The best part about the changes? Our scab is gone. I mean, how embarrasing was that – we draft players and then a scab meets and greets them at Bradenton. No offense to the person, but we deserved better.
B- work for Stark, all things considered. I think he could have placed a lot more emphasis from 1A down, and I think he’s got the potential for a few baggage problems, but we’re back heading down the right track in development, and I don’t say that lightly. Now it’s all about follow through.
Two thumbs up. The players in our system, and their parents and agents, should be pleased as should the fans.
By Jake, on December 17, 2008, at 11:07 pm | Comments are closed
Not much happening today – there were more rumors about us picking up some broken pieces for the roster (Ray King, for example), and I heard today the Pirates completed their hirings for the minor leagues and they plan to make their formal announcement later this week (Friday?).
But then the Furcal bomb went off as the day wore on.
He really screwed the Braves using their term sheet as a bargaining chip with the Dodgers. I’ve never heard of such desparate stupidity. But funny thing is, he ended up getting a $27MM/3 deal which is almost exactly what I mentioned yesterday he was worth ($26MM/3). They threw in a $3MM backend bonus to sway him from the Braves plus a stupid money option year if he gets in 600 PA during 2011, but that’s pretty doubtful considering he can’t control the lineup sheet.
Anyway, I’m pretty comfortable now with my recent evaluation of Wilson’s value as of today at $14.9MM/3.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s comment thread, we are witnessing yet another perfect example in Pittsburgh why small-market clubs with ownership culture problems should not sign long term deals to youthful players. Yet isn’t it ironic that Wilson’s own beat down cost him a chance to play for the very club he always wanted to play for? Remember him out of shape a couple of years ago? Now look at him since – he can’t even play a full year of baseball.
And remember, this club and their new front office let the same thing happen with Gorzelanny and Snell last winter. All we can hope for is that those two get some of their game back.
The Braves are stunned right now and might pursue legal options against Furcal, which they probably should. But in the meantime, they still need a shortstop. Will they come calling for Wilson? Doubtful, but who knows. I’ll keep my ears open.
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I had a rather odd thing happen tonight.. while out singing Christmas carols around the block one of the neighbors saw my son wearing his Pirates sweatshirt and asked who his favorite player was. He said he didn’t know in a shy way and the older man walked into his house and came out and handed him a baseball signed by Roger Maris he had in a case.
As bad as I wanted my son to have that baseball, I couldn’t say yes so I handed it back to him saying thank you over-and-over.
He then insisted that we come back into his wife’s ’sewing room’ and he showed us box after box of balls signed by players in the ’60’s explaining he was an usher at Yankee Stadium for years and he routinely gives them away as gifts.. please take it. My heart started pounding 100 mph just looking at his collection. And no, I didn’t dare pick one up thinking with my luck it would be a Mickey Mantle ball and it would get scratched or something.
We left without the baseball because of his advanced age – it just didn’t seem right. But we told him we’d come back and listen to his ushering stories because that would mean as much to us as the baseball.
What a humbling experience.
And yeah, when I tell my son that story when he’s 18 he’s going to kick my butt for not taking the baseball.
I’ve spent a considerable amount of my offseason time researching our current player development system by talking to a significant number of people. 
