By Jake, on February 27, 2010, at 10:36 pm | 25 comments
Eight days left in the Pledge Drive to keep the paywall down. You can read about it here and here. So far $428 has been pledged toward our $1,000 goal. Pledges can be made here.
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Traveling tonight so short post.
Q: I usually keep my hopes for the Pirates in check. I fully expect them to lose 100 games this year, if not their usual mid-90s. But I will be paying close attention to their minor- league clubs. .. Truthfully, I think its extremely difficult to build an entire team from within.
Bob Smizik: I think you have the right approach, Nate. Low expectations for this season but increasingly higher ones in the years ahead. The Pirates have placed their bets on the amateur draft. It’s not a perfect way to build a team but it seems the only way they can do it. ..
The picture Smizik paints above shows, imo, one of the main problems the fans have in proper evaluation of the current regime. Simply put, he’s content waiting for higher expectations in the years ahead as we build via the draft. No matter where you go to read about the Bucs and ‘the plan’ that’s the message you are hit with.
The problem with that mindset is that there is no accountability for the last two years. For instance, the Nutting family has refused to infuse any of their own cash since 2007 to prop up our draft position during a full rebuild that Bob Nutting said he is the co-architect of.
One way the Nuttings could have done that is by keeping Jason Bay through his contract years which would have resulted in two additional draft picks in 2010 from Bay walking out the door as a free agent. All things being equal, that would have provided us with the 36th and 57th picks in 2010 for an additional $10M or so paid to Bay.
Obviously that $10M infusion would have ultimately been reduced some from Bay’s market value (ie: suite sales, corporate sponsorships, ticket sales, etc, etc, etc) and then wiped out totally from future value received if just one of the two draft prospects contributed as expected – if the second one was a hit as well, then Nutting would have actually banked a considerable profit. That assumes, of course, that Greg Smith and Neal Huntington properly identified, selected, and signed two solid players.
And perhaps that’s exactly the issue – maybe the Nuttings didn’t trust Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington and his staff enough to ultimately bring them that future profit? Instead of risking those personal funds (which we now know would have been at least been covered from the profit they stated the organization made in 2008 and 2009), they instead chose to dump Bay’s salary off the books.
Now going back to Smizik’s assessment and fan perceptions.. are we really committed to rebuilding through the draft if we haven’t leveraged our draft position opportunities considering 12% of the 2009 Type A free agents (three in Gonzalez, Grabow, and Bay), and two of the Type B (Nady and LaRoche), had been under our control when the new regime took over? By my count, that’s a potential for three additional first round picks or no less than three additional second round picks, plus no less than three first round sandwich picks but could be as high as five.
Imagine that a second.. we could have had no less than eight selections before the 82cd pick overall this year and possibly as many as ten of the first 82. Now THAT’s rebuilding through the draft folks. And we could be supplementing that while rebuilding by bringing in ’better bets’ over the next few years in signing free agents with high Elias ranks and giving them stupid money one-year deals. We couldn’t lose because the value of free agent compensation far exceeds any stupid money paid out unless it’s $10M over true value received.
We’re not rebuilding by the draft – all we’re doing is spending as little as possible to get by.
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Iwamura is evidently not 100% yet. Not that we believe he ever will be during his stay with us, but that’s a story for another day.
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Hilariously posted at Pirateball.com as if mocking Pirates ownership.
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Joe Blanton will pitch against the Bucs in Bradenton when the Phillies come in March 6th. They aren’t wasting any time, although it will be interesting to see how many pitches Blanton actually throws. How ironic is it that Coonelly’s old buds send a right-handed soft tosser over to get lit up. Make sure you place your bets on that game.
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“I feel like the most complete player I’ve ever been. I feel like I can be a threat on both sides of the ball. I’m excited to see what I can do.” — Lastings Milledge as said to MLB.com
I, I, I, I, I, I.. well, at least the I’s have it.
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Nyjer Morgan, the good corporate guy – he learned fast in Pittsburgh. Now he’ saying in Washington that there’s a “vibe” in the clubhouse that he didn’t feel in 2009. You know, like we’re hearing about the Bucs in 2010, and we heard in 2009, and 2008, and 2007, and 2006, and..
You get the idea.
Now I wonder if that vibe he’s feeling is a good vibe, or a bad one because they only have three starters?
By Jake, on February 17, 2010, at 9:07 pm | 10 comments
We’ve had a few changes in structure and personnel:
Pro Scouts –
Jim Benedict was demoted to minor league pitching coordinator, Doug Strange was demoted to director of player personnel, Joe Ferrone and Keith Champion had their titles changed from GM special assistant to the brand new position of pro scout and will be joined in the role by new hires Steve Williams and Michael Basso.
That leaves no AGM and four SA’s for Huntington: Larry Corrigan, Jax Robertson, Marc DelPiano, and Pete Vuckovich.
Amateur scouts –
The Pirates Director of Scouting is Greg Smith and he has some top-heavy help with Jack Bowen and Jimmy Lester as national crosscheckers. After that it’s pretty much all downhill from the regional supervisors all the way down through the area scouts, although there are a few solid guys in the group.
I assume Larry Corrigan is the most trusted voice to Neal Huntington out of the group and I further assume Neal Huntington has been running the draft board for at least the first few rounds for Greg Smith. Whether we win, lose, or draw in all the trades we’ve made and draft philosophy and picks, there’s no question it rides on Corrigan’s back.
I mention all this because one very dialed-in fan asked me the other day if I thought it was possible Corrigan would be replacing Huntington sometime soon. To be honest, I had never considered Corrigan as GM. I won’t deny it’s an intriguing proposition considering Corrigan’s network, but I don’t think he’s a front-and-center kind of guy, and considering what I’ve heard about his personality from those around the game, I’m not so sure it would work.
But it was a great question.
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I’m pleased to announce that I have worked out an agreement with a former St. Louis Cardinals scout who will be writing scouting reports on our minor league players he sees in Florida State League action this year for members over at New Bucs Insider. His reports will begin later in March with coverage from Bradenton. I’m still working on adding pro scout coverage for Altoona and West Virginia.
New Bucs Insider will open mid-March.
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We’re up to 30-something for fantasy baseball so if you would like to play in a private, and free, stress-free league run byMLB.com and have a chance at winning $10,000, leave a comment below and I’ll add you to the list. This isn’t hardcore fantasy – it’s a make a roster move once a week kind of thing.
Those that have already left a comment stating they wanted to play don’t have to leave another message.
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Did anyone else notice that BP’s Joe Sheehan is now working as an analyst with the Bucs? Perhaps its old news I missed?
Edit by Jake 2/21: some are saying that the Sheehan hired is not BP’s Sheehan. That’s what I get for assuming – my bad.
Neil Walker is back behind the plate, you say? Yeah, every spring he squats hoping like hell someone sees something of value but nobody ever does. His catching days are over in Pittsburgh except in a utility role like in ST.
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All the main meetings are this week in Bradenton so expect a few major announcements over the next week.
Eight paragraphs into the story Neal Huntington says:
“My job as a general manager is basically to give John Russell.. the players that they need to go out and win a game. We’re in the process of doing that.” – my emphasis
Oppps.. it’s not every day a GM comes out and admits he doesn’t have tools to win ballgames. It’s a refreshing angle.
Later the article said:
“Huntington has talked about how it takes years to evaluate the return in any trade.”
Well of course he said that. I mean, unless the Cubs need another pro scout, where would Huntington find employment if he loses his job?
The article kept rambling on incoherently:
“But that doesn’t mean.. there can’t be an expectation for improvement — and 2010 seems as appropriate a time as ever for those to begin.”
Let’s see.. April 25th it will be 31 months since Huntington took office and Langosch seems to think only now should we begin to expect improvement. How would you like to be given a VP role in some multi-million dollar corporation and not have to be held accountable for improvement for nearly three years? Oh my.
I kept hitting my head against the wall by reading more of this garbage:
“With so much of the last two seasons spent retooling a Major League roster..” — my emphasis
Damn, another Littlefield “R” word resurfaces. And with that in mind, here’s Andrew McCutchen doing his best imitation of Jack Wilson before he was offered a long-term contract:
“I believe in what we have,” center fielder Andrew McCutchen said. “I really think what we have now is going to be strong. I believe all around that you’re going to see a difference. I believe it’s a team that’s going to surprise some people. We have the pieces to the puzzle. We just have to put them together.”
How sad is that? One day these guys will learn to stand up and tell the world the truth – “My team sucks” - I won’t respect them until they do which, unfortunately, always happens after they leave Pittsburgh.
We’re stuck in a revolving door folks.
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Lots of fans talking about the depth of our minor league system and how it’s going to change everything.
Been there, done that.
Remember back in 1999 when BA ranked the Pirates system 18th with guys like Kris Benson, JJ Davis, JR House, Dave Williams, DJ Carasco, John Grabow, Rob Mackowiak, Craig Wilson, among others? Yep.. ranking was pre-season and Mickey White took over as scouting director and that June drafted Sean Burnett in the first round.
Over the next three years everybody in the industry, including BA and Sickels, said our drafts were some of the best in organizational history but we lost ground in BA’s rankings because some talent graduated to the bigs. In 2001 we were ranked 19th after Littlefield was brought in as GM.
Then catastrophe – Creech was promoted over White who lost his voice in the draft and promptly resigned after the 2002 draft. But White’s drafts took root, and as a result of the Giles trade, our system climbed to 11th best in the game by 2004. Sure, we went downhill after that primarily because Littlefield lost so many of White’s top notch scouts after 2002 and 2003 because they didn’t get paid on time, plus Brian freaking Graham was put in charge of our minor league system and he implemented a Marine basic training camp the players all hated (ie: see 2008, 2009, and 2010 under Stark).
But alas don’t forget that much of the talent the Pirates had amassed via trades and drafts, and ranked as the 11th best system by BA in 2004, put the Bucs in line with a 750 run scored club by 2008 including the “best outfield” in the game. All that was needed to make a reasonable run was free agent starting pitching but Huntington broke it up instead. Does anyone know if Sabathia would have taken $15M on a one-year or AJ Burnett $20M on a one-year? Doubtful, but who knows?
As I said earlier, we’re in a revolving door with new names across the landscape. I respect that the fans feel there is more depth in the system this year than there was 3 years ago — there is, I agree. But it’s critical for the fans to understand that it’s not impact quality depth. Realize this too, the probability of these kids developing into something more than the average arms they were drafted as is significantly more remote than the probability of them ending up as relievers or broken down investments.
When this rebuilding process started I stated that we had to have one goal - we had to trade our veterans for younger elite talent. We added exactly one potential elite talent via trades in Bryan Morris and it’s starting to look like Huntington shot blanks with him. Other than Alvarez, there might be an elite player in the high school arms we drafted but we won’t know that for seven more years after they get their feet wet in Pittsburgh. Still, many of these players were taken so late in the draft even optimists have to wonder, if the player was as solid a prospect as Huntington thought they were, why didn’t other organizations jump on them too? The answer is simple to me – because they were too young and too average for the most part.
We’re witnessing Part II of the big con folks.
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Hisanori Takahashi signed with the Mets.
Yawn.
More interesting to me is that Kip Wells signed a minor league deal with the Reds. Now where will Kris Benson land?
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Friends in Orlando, Florida, tell me there is a renewed push there to bring a team in by 2014.
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From wire services: ” Five veteran baseball scouts were named as the 2010 inductees to the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame… Honored at Charleston will be Jax Robertson (Pittsburgh Pirates). Honored at Fort Myers will be Terry Ryan (Minnesota) and Dave Yoakum (Chicago White Sox). Honored at Hudson Valley will be Bob Miske (New York Yankees). Honored at St. Paul will be Ken Stauffer (Tampa Bay).”
Kudos to Robertson.. what an honor!
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Here’s a nice article on Jim Rooker’s current career path of writing children’s books and a video is included. Very neat stuff.
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Planning to head down to the first ever pep rally February 25th in Bradenton, Florida, for the Mauraders? Allegiant Air has flights leaving Huntington, WV, to Orlando for $38 on the 23rd and a return ticket $38 on the 27th.
By Jake, on February 9, 2010, at 7:57 pm | 40 comments
I’m a Pirate fan regardless of the product on the field or regardless of who owns them. — Neil
This dude gets it. The only reason any of us are hanging around this pathetic team is because of our love for the organization – certainly not because of any love for the Nuttings. Now why any other fan would call this guy out because of his statement is beyond me. I refuse to see that kind of immaturity in my comments section and I’ll boot every fool who trashes another fans feelings without reason. I don’t mind seeing educated responses which run contrary to other people’s feelings, but I’m not interested in seeing childish bickering here. Do you hear me now?
That being said, Neil also asked another great question yesterday:
Jake, I don’t want to call you out or anything, but I’ve been reading your blog for years and I have never known you to hold back on a post because it was too “edgy.” I hope that this new place that bought the site isn’t censoring your posts because I really enjoy what you do and I know others do too.
First of all, nobody bought me out.. I just changed the name. As for my removing the post, as I said it wasn’t the post I intended to put up and it caught a few people off guard. It was not my intention to create drama for my readership or some of the parties listed in the post, but it did.
Since quite a few want to know what it was all about, here’s an abstract view. I called the post “edgy” because it mentioned some things only a few people knew about during the Huntington/LaCava GM interview process and when I wrote the article, I felt it was critical that the Pirate Nation had more facts at their disposal on why this management team are losers. Most of that article was written more than a year ago and then I started adding to it along the way. I discussed the contents of the post with a few people months ago and we all agreed it would be better that some things remained under the table.
Parts of the post I am willing to reveal today included a breakdown of Frank Coonelly’s career as seen from an anti-player, anti-union, and anti-umpire perspective. I felt his extensive work against labor made him a loser as CEO and I felt that his only motivation taking Nutting’s job was to try and get out from behind Rob Manfred’s coat tails so he’d have a better chance of becoming Commissioner.
I also stated that I felt Neal Huntington was a loser because it was clear to me his only motivation taking the job was for money. I listed several reasons why I felt his motivation was only money and I won’t go into those today other than to say Huntington was a member of LaCava’s camp, LaCava interviewed for the GM position first, and later Huntington agreed to interview and peer repercussions in the game for Huntington taking the position have not ended. That should tell you all you need to know.
Together these two losers represent a pro-ownership, anti-labor stance which, imo, isn’t exactly conducive for rebuilding an entire organization from the ground up. More evidence of my position can be seen in other events such as building one of the most rigid farm systems in the game which has caused distress amongst some field staff and players, labor fights from events like field staff calling out the GM as being dishonest, labor representation calling out Coonelly and ownership (Boras twice) or simply walking away from their demands like Sano and his agent did, and many, many other situations over the last two years.
That’s the basic version of that post.
Does this mean we’ll never see advancement? No, of course not.. even a blind squirrel finds nuts. Does it mean we’re in for a bumpy ride? Absolutely as we’ve already been witness to several times each year, year-after-year under their control. When will it end? After Nutting is run out of Pittsburgh.
It will be the result, not the goal.
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I had a great time during my Super Bowl break talking with some college coaches and a couple of scouts and Josh Spence’s name came up quite a few times. Some believe this kid is poised for a breakout season with AZ State which might catapult him into the first round. He’s not 1/2 stock but don’t be too surprised if you start hearing him as a possibility for our second round pick.
As for Harper and Taillon, some of the coaches were put off on his mechanics saying he’s a classic Dr. Andrews patient in the waiting and they seemed to like AJ Cole better. Everybody I spoke to loved Harper’s chances and three of them have seen him play extensively and think he’s likely to end up at third. Not one person said they would pass on Harper if he fell to the Pirates which really surprised me. The consensus “closest to the majors” pick for the Pirates was Anthony Ranaudo and the “best signability pick” was thought to be Christian Colon.
Great stuff.
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Has Neal Huntington done any Q&A’s for any publication/newspaper that isn’t owned or managed by the Nutting family. Here’s another one NH just did for the new guy at Pirate Report who I hear was run out of Chicago for being an idiot. Notice all the “absolutely” and “exactly” answers by Huntington meaning it was designed to boost ratings at PR and little else.
Did anyone notice this NH blurb:
I would like to see this thing through. This has been a labor of love. The reality is, we’re not through the toughest part yet. The building part is easy compared to the sustaining part of it. That’s where were headed now — how do we take that next step from building to executing to sustaining? That’s the challenge that I look forward to in the future. — my emphasis
Headed???? You mean, we’re not there yet??
C-ya Doumit. C-ya Maholm. C-ya Duke.
It’s a result, not a goal. Damn, I’m starting to like these Nutting PR slugs since they work two ways.
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Ready for some fantasy baseball? MLB.com’s system allows for a 12 team league with a live draft. It’s simple, simple, simple stuff which is perfect for most of us that don’t have enough time to devote to a hardcore league.
If you are interested in joining a Bucco Blog league, leave a comment below using your real e-mail and I’ll send you the login info to signup with.
If everyone prefers to do something else, or if you have any ideas for another game, let’s discuss it in the comments.
By Jake, on January 21, 2010, at 12:19 am | 16 comments
“And this is why I write, time and again, that the true test of this ownership is.. [when] those players are ready for arbitration years and beyond.. that is when it will be transparent to all whether or not there is a genuine financial commitment to back up the promise.” — Dejan Kovacevic; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 20, 2010. emphasis New Bucs
Dejan does an ok job covering the Pirates but, I have to tell you, I really cringe seeing any beat reporter write comments like that — even as a blog entry — because it smacks of no objectivity. I mean, those are the words of the man who is granted a media license by the Pirates allowing him to cover the team from the inside that the fans demand objectivity from all year round. So when I read his words — online or in print — I am expecting that he is covering the news of the Pirates.
Not creating news (ie: his “true test” fuzzy logic).
Now it’s your turn: at what point do sports writers cross the ethical divide? Or can they?
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Duke signed for $4.3M avoiding arbitration. Obviously he’s worth every penny of that as a solid MLB #4 type starter in our rotation. Will we, should we, see Neal Huntington approach Duke with a long-term offer? I think they waited too long for it to matter now. I’m guessing Huntington and Coonelly entered 2009 thinking Duke would regress back to 2007 type numbers and planning to offer him a long-term deal after the season.
If so, that backfired on them as Duke’s numbers improved across the board.
What would he command? If the Pirates wanted to buy out one arb year and two free agent years, I’m thinking they would value him around 1.75 WAR per year. That would be $22M over three, less the 35% third-year arb discount of $2.5M, and that leaves $19.5M over three distributed something like this: $5.5M in 2011, $6.5M in 2012, and $7.5M in 2012 (at age 30).
Would Duke sign that deal? Probably not. He’s going to want in the neighborhood of $25M – or more – over those three years and his agent is probably sitting back reading all the negative revenue sharing news and licking his chops even more. Plus, his agent is reading Pirate Nation media coverage like I posted above from Dejan knowing full good and well that the new regime has to start being held accountable at some point, and they probably believe Duke is that point. Do the Nuttings pony up for one of the organizations draft and developed players, or trade him off to reduce future costs in the name of getting younger?
On the flip side, I sit back and realize that Zach Duke’s name isn’t on my roster when we finally compete so it behoves Huntington to deal him for some youth while he still holds some value over contract. Huntington probably believes it’s best to wait out the first part of 2010 and see how things go before dealing him, but I think that’s a mistake.. we should have dealt him this winter at the latest. We’ll see what happens in the next 6 months.. a long-term contract or trade. Or nothing.
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Dotel inked. I went back and watched some film on him and walked away concerned that he tends to leave batters in the box too long, tends to be too repetitive in his pitch selection, and tends to throw upstairs too much.
For instance, reviewing PITCHf/x material on him shows he’s one of the few pitchers in the game who will almost always throw a fastball when behind in the count. Not 75% of the time, not 85% of the time, I’m talking like almost every single pitch. To his credit, he has enough movement on it that he doesn’t get hit hard which should play fine at PNC, but I wonder if that will be the case in some of the smaller NLCD parks? The same is true of pitching upstairs because we have some pretty solid hitters in this division who crush that pitch.
He’s a straight fastball-slider guy who tosses a occaisonal changeup to left hand hitters and curve to righties. The fact he has two more pitches than Capps says it all; throw in movement on his fastball and he’s going to be an exciting difference over Capps. But it all comes down to money.. at $3M I’ll love it, at $4M I’ll still be happy but he better not waver. At $5M I’ll be laughing like hell because this roster doesn’t deserve a $5M closer.
That is, unless David Roderick’s internal division theory is correct – internally some believe we have enough pitching to contend despite having a below average offensive machine.
Do we? I think we’re about to see when Dotel’s contract amount is revealed.
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I want you to know that I placed my “Neil Walker possibly being traded” source into the unreliable drawer today on the advice of someone who intimately knows the source. I’m sorry to have led you astray. As for any other place that has suggested a Walker trade, I’m 100% positive it didn’t come from my source so they either got the idea here, or have their own source.
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Doug Davis back with the Brewers, huh? What a strange addition.
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Some are wondering if the Pirates are getting serious about Ben Sheets? My answer would be no since we sent an amateur scout to watch him instead of a pro scout.
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thcBA, thcERA, and thcOPS are new sabermetric stats that were copyrighted today by Kief Ganja. Interestingly, when you see the ”+” sign behind one of them like “thcERA+” it doesn’t mean park or league adjusted – it means known user.
Confused? Then that’s probably a good thing. For those that know exactly where this is going, I assume you were the ones called by ABC News in their recent poll. You see, 81% of those contacted:
“.. support legalizing marijuana for medical use and nearly half favor decriminalizing the drug more generally, both far higher than a decade ago.”
Dude, like, at least I’ll be able to laugh watching my 90+ loss team year-after-year-after-year-after-year-after..
By Jake, on January 19, 2010, at 9:15 pm | 42 comments
An ex-NL scout handed me his projection today for Andrew McCutchen in 2010: .285/.360/.465 .. 35 stolen bases, 110 runs scored, and 20 home runs – all from the #1 hole. I thought it interesting that he thought 2011 would be the earliest Huntington would consider moving him down the order.
Wow – so much for the sophomore year jinx, huh?
Let me tell you if McCutchen busts out with production like that, some of those optimist comments I’ve seen like “this team might surprise you next year” will be spot-on if our pitching holds together.
A couple of more observations from him –
– he likes Jones bat speed and ability to adjust and thinks he’ll maintain solid numbers in 2010. He agreed with me that Jones seemed to be vulnerable to getting busted in belt-high and above and said he’ll have to come out of spring training having to handle that pitch or he could flounder. If he does handle it, 30 home runs are not out of the question he said. Amazing.
– like me, he likes Clement but doesn’t think he’ll respond with the bat until late season, if at all in 2010. He suggested that if Clement gets 550 AB in 2010, he’ll be an offensive force to recon with in 2011 likely as the Pirates everyday catcher (that surprised me) – “not enough power, not enough defense, to stay at first.” He thinks Huntington will hold off dealing Doumit until July as he’ll be more valuable to a contender then since questions about his wrist injury linger. I’m still hearing Doumit’s name as a potential trade, however;
– said Maholm could blossom to a #2 type starter (another shocker) and several teams are high on him. I asked when he thought Huntington would deal him and he responded that he thought Huntington would hold him to the end of his contract unless handed a must-trade opportunity;
– unlike me, he likes Ohlendorf as a #3/#4 starter and thinks Kerrigan is the right guy to help him adjust to the league. If he isn’t able to, he thinks May and on could be rough for Ohlendorf;
– not high on Morton, not high on Cedeno, likes Hart over McCutchen to start the year in the rotation, questions if Aki is truly healthy, said Duke was a solid MLB #4 starter, and not high on Moss.
His “wild guess” is 75 wins.
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Brandon Jones, huh? He’s a Braves draft-and-follow failure the scouts were always mixed on. Some thought his defense would be his saving grace, others thought his bat would come around. Now at 26, he’s a marginal prospect with a tick of upside and good makeup put on the wire with an option, so Huntington grabbed him. Obviously he’ll be assigned to 3A because he’s a notoriously slow starter and by the end of the year he’ll put up incredible numbers making Huntington’s 3A club — and Huntington – look good. If Jones ever finds more plate discipline and learns how to run better outfield routes, he might be a candidate for a 4th OF role in 2011, but don’t count on it.
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A charge of family abuse was dropped against Tyler Yates who was arrested and later bonded out. A quick review of the statute linked above suggests that Yates’ victim must have had some obvious injury for him to be arrested in the first place, although that’s speculation on my part. Since I don’t know what happened, I won’t guesstimate on Yates’ makeup and why Huntington didn’t know better before dealing for him.
Congratulations are in order to the Garden Island newspaper for publishing the facts. Also, kudos are in order to Mary Junck of, get this, Ogden, Iowa, the CEO of Lee Enterprises who owns the Garden Island newspaper, for her belief in the public’s right to know. I can only assume the Pirates and/or Ogden Newspapers attempted to squash any release of the Yates arrest which tended to devalue one of Nutting’s commodities, but I don’t know that for sure.
For the record, I never liked the Yates trade. If Todd Redmond was still around, he would most likely be our (raw) 5th starter in 2010.
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I had heard Neil Walker was out the door but tonight I’m hearing that there may be more than one club in on him now (personally, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him end up in San Diego). We’ll see since it will probably happen in the next 24 – 48 hours if it gets done.
“[T]he union is far from done pushing this revenue-sharing issue. Next up: the Pirates, who have been the most blatant team of all when it comes to pocketing their revenue sharing, trading off all their highest-paid players and creating a mausoleum of their beautiful taxpayer-funded new park. ..
But have faith, Buc faithful. The players’ union is coming to your rescue.”
Madden’s article represents the first honest ray of sunshine I’ve seen as a Pirates fan since 2002. I just hope he’s right.
Dejan reported January 12th: “I just communicated with a source outside the Pirates who confirmed that the Pirates are not a target for a similar push…” Well, no matter which writer is correct, the fans win if for no other reason than we are getting press on the subject. I tend to believe Coonelly and Nutting fought off their first challenge by releasing small amounts of their financial picture, but we’ll see. We’ll see. Plus I’m guessing Chuck Greenberg becoming an owner won’t hurt our cause either.
Dang, I’m actually getting some goosebumps thinking about it all. I mean, will the Nuttings run instead of fighting back or being forced to spend $65M? I’m betting they would. Maybe all these years of hammering these yo-yo’s here will finally pay off with a little prize?
Sounds like the bullpen has taken shape now that they inked Brendan Donnelly and Dotel is waiting in the wings for Huntington to clear a parking place. Assuming they go with 13 in the pen, I suspect we’ll see:
Dotel closing
Hanrahan and Donnelly as bridge workers
Meek (bridge trainee), Lopez, Carrasco, and Jackson or Hart (either one have an option?) as middle relievers
Kartsens long
Rotation of:
Ohlendorf
Maholm
Morton
Duke
McCutchen
Not exactly the depth or talent that the Reds, Cubs, or Brewers have, or even the Astros for that matter, but the Cards are in trouble if they don’t find some pitching or money.
As for Donnelly’s deal at $1.5M with an extra $1.5M in incentives, unquestionably it’s nice to have a guy with his experience in the pen. That being said, his stuff hasn’t exactly returned to being crisp offerings. With the Marlins last year he had a nice ERA but when you look at video you see quite a few floaters.
Simply put: we paid too much for him if he gets anything near the $3M. Actually, we paid way too much for him.. stupid money high. Maybe we did that because Huntington and Kerrigan believe his split-finger will play better in the division? Or maybe there is a lot more concern about the health of both Hanrahan and Meek that we aren’t hearing about? I don’t know, but I do know he doesn’t have $3M stuff – never had.. even to a team who couldn’t get anybody else to sign.
I’ll wait and see if Dotel signs before doing some model runs.
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To my untrained eye, it looks like the coaching staff and Clement has plenty of work to do to turn him into an average first baseman by April 5, but the Pirates sound optimistic.
If Clement is dead set in his mind to remain a catcher, you would think he’d resist efforts to convert him to a first baseman. If Clement does resist, then it’s up to Russell and Huntington to “correct” that thinking which only leads us down the path to more of that counterculture stuff I was talking about the other day. Along those lines, Huntington told Pirateball.com recently:
We want him to come into camp as a first baseman,” Huntington said. “If that doesn’t happen, then maybe we consider the possibility of him as a catcher, but that is not our priority right now.” — emphasis New Bucs
I liked the fact Neal Huntington publicly gave the young man the benefit of the doubt. He’s saying “Jeff, we respect you want to catch but we need you here for now and we trust you are going to work hard to help us meet that need.” Considering the high number of head cases we’ve had on our roster dragging down morale the last few years, I think Huntington’s quote speaks volumes to Clement’s character.
Now it’s up to him — will he join the “dark side” or stand up and be a leader? This is classical old/current Pirates culture vs new/desired Pirates culture. Which one will win out? It better be leadership or we might be destined for a lot longer period of culture problems in Pittsburgh.
Oh wait, both packages include tickets to either the Yankees or Red Sox games. It only makes sense that our fans want to see some real baseball players. Ok, ok.. I’ll stop.
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It’s getting close to that special time of the year when we generally see extensions handed to the brass. Don’t be too surprised if you see another two years handed to Huntington, but I’d feel better it’s only one.
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 January 5, 2010, at 1:21 am | 11 comments
The Pirates finally announced today that Jim Benedict was hired as their minor league pitching coordinator. Two thoughts immediately came to mind about this man better known as “Benny” – one, he is a very respected evaluator of pitching talent; and two, why the heck would he take such a demotion?
Forget for a second that he was fired from every stop where he held the same role, and let’s also forget for a second that ex-Pirates pitching coordinator Troy Buckley, who was an unmitigated disaster in Pittsburgh player development history, credits much of his teaching methods to Benny, and let’s also forget that he has some Duquette branding as well, and instead let’s focus on the man.
Let’s start with some positives – he’s known to be an excellent communicator, a very good evaluator of pitching talent, and has numerous years of experience in player development. On the flip side, he’s said to have been an independent rough rider with a heavy-handed style that many field staff and players clashed with. Think Troy Buckley on steroids and you end up with the old Jim Benedict in player development I’m told.
Now approaching 50 some wonder if Benny has calmed down his style some but I’m guessing that probably isn’t the case considering the way Neal Huntington has forced domineering control down the throats of our prospects and the little feedback I received from instructionals.
As for him taking a demotion, well, that happens in this game. Sometimes guys just want to get back into battle (on the field; in the trenches), sometimes they are told to take a demotion, and other times they just want to do something different. Who knows why Benedict accepted the demotion but I’m told by a couple of sources that it isn’t likely he would have accepted a pay cut so, to him, it’s probably just another title with different responsibilities.
I don’t know what to say about this move. Benedict hasn’t been in a player development role in over a decade, he has used unorthodox instructional methods in the past which did leave problems in his wake, and yet he was successful with some of the players he touched with a few openly crediting him for their advancement in the game.
My concern is that he hasn’t toned down and that we end up with a bigger mess than we had under Buckley. But perhaps that is why Neal Huntington also hired Bernie Holliday as a mental conditioning coordinator in order to get our prospects ready to be able to handle Benedict? Seriously, it could be that bad.
For now I’ll take the middle ground and give Benedict the benefit of the doubt until the first player comes to me and tells me that Benny came out to the mound and told him he wasn’t a pitcher, had no business being in the game, and he couldn’t throw strikes if his mother’s life depended on it. Our prospects know what I mean by that comment. All we can do as fans is hope Benedict realizes his, and this organization’s, previous mistakes and takes our youth to the next level using his vast knowledge and not a vast mouth.
I wish him well and I’ll try to keep my ears pinned to the ground.
Lastly, I assume Benedict signed a two-year deal in October 2008 when Huntington brought him in so it’s possible that he enters a lame duck year along with Huntington. In other words, Benedict could end up being just a one-year wonder and even further wrecking havoc on our PD continuity. Also, and this is a bit outside the box, is it possible Frank Coonelly wouldn’t allow Huntington to bring in a new two-year contract in PD and instead sought to use up Benedict’s remaining year filling the coordinator role? I mean, if Coonelly has designs to replace Huntington then Coonelly is going to want the new GM to put his own people in place immediately. Doubtful, but possible.
As for Huntington hiring Steve Lombardozzi as their minor league fielding coordinator with zero PD experience, that’s a bummer but not the end of the world. All PD people start somewhere and he’s getting his chance. What his teaching credentials are I haven’t a clue, so we’ll just have to see what the players think of him and what he can accomplish as time goes on. Jeff Banister can guide him along too.
If you want to know if there were more experienced hires available, the answer is affirmatively yes. Would they work for Pittsburgh? Hmm. When Perry Hill and Joe Kerrigan walked out the door at the end of the season both with one-year club options remaining, that said more than any words ever could. Kerrigan re-signed but the cards had already been dealt. I’m not suggesting we couldn’t hire anybody because that’s simply not true, but at the same point I’m sure their message hurt us some.
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The Bucs threw out some names of their non-roster invitees today with the only real interest piece being Tony Sanchez. It’s common to bring in young catchers so that isn’t that amazing but instead, focus on how many at bats he gets in early spring games. That could tell us more than anything else.
It was nice to see Jimmy Barthmaier’s name. I still think this guy has some untapped ability.
Neal Cotts? Oh my.
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Here’s my first-look schedule analysis. I’ll be fine tuning this based on opponents rosters, our roster, and other factors until mid-February or so, but it isn’t likely to swing very far.
We open with two solid months of pure hell and then life gets a bit easier as the year goes on. The worst of the worst in my current model runs had us 27-61 at the break so there’s a strong possibility we could be significantly worse than 34-54 at the break (ASB). However, I have a lot of adjusting and regressing to do yet so don’t get too excited by this first run.
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Speaking of the fans being losers, bet you didn’t know that the Pirates had more than one entity working at the White House this winter?
Yup, it turns out that Mother Earth News and Natural Home Magazine, both Nutting publications under the Ogden Publication group, spent a considerable amount of money redecorating two rooms in the Blair House, the president’s official guest house, and one of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms in the State Department’s Harry S. Truman Building in Washington, D.C. before Christmas.
Mother Earth News and Natural Home Magazine, as well as all other publications involved in the project, were responsible for using their own funds for travel, lodging, personnel expenses, photographers and to decorate the Blair House and/or State Department. Suppliers with close relationships to Ogden’s two titles were contacted and generously donated their merchandise and/or products to be used as décor, though.
Ho Ho Ho, there’s where some of your Pirates ticket money goes? No wonder Bud Selig came out in support of the Nuttings so graciously. Keep up the good work Bob and Frank.
