By Jake, on March 12, 2010, at 8:04 pm | 7 comments
I have two MLB.com Fantasy League Baseball slots left to fill.. both are for a live draft next Thursday 03/18 at 09:00 pm ET. The league is free to play, MLB’s software will draft best available for you if you can’t make the live draft (I won my division that way last year), and very little time is needed during the year – you set your roster one time for the next week’s play and that’s it unless you want to make trades or something. The exciting part about this one league is that it is only an 8 team league so your chances of winning the division and heading into the playoffs for a chance to win $10,000 is a lot better than the 12-team leagues. Leave a comment below if you would like an invitation.
The other two leagues are now full. Here are the draft orders:
B&G1 League:
Draft Pos.
East
6
PIT
12
screamin demons
4
2011NLCDchamps
11
Cherub Nine
2
Team II Beat
8
Hotel-Dotel
Draft Pos.
West
5
Squirrel Hill Nuts
9
Bonds3232
1
Lions632
3
Brookville Bucs
7
KoolaidSippin2010
10
OV Splits
B&G2 League:
Draft Pos.
East
6
PIT2
5
Grafton Bucco s
7
Rock N Roll Bandits
8
George H
11
Baseball Kings
3
ReynoldsBucs
Draft Pos.
West
4
jsn4219
10
You Have No Mahbles
9
Zack C
1
Playground Legends
12
The Burgh Bombers
2
Blue Ridge Gnomes
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Chris Sale’s start was short-lived as they were rained out.
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Bucs will see Clay Buchholz Saturday with Hideki Okajima and Daniel Bard throwing in the later “B” game.
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Traveling so quick post..
I had an interesting e-mail from a reader who asked why the Pirates haven’t updated their “Blueprint.” It was an interesting question because the five priorities outlined in the initial Blueprint, four of which are things expected of any organization anyway, are now obsolete.
By Jake, on February 28, 2010, at 11:50 pm | 7 comments
We’ve reached the halfway point! Seven days left in the Pledge Drive to keep the paywall down.. you can read about it here and here. So far $517 has been pledged toward our $1,000 goal. Pledges can be made here.
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Oh my, what a heartbreaking loss by the American hockey team. Stunning. Let’s take a look at a few question marks we have entering ST play from a different perspective.
First our coaches.
Let’s not forget that Tony Beasley, for the second time in two years, was denied an opportunity for advancement. Instead, ex-Indians minor league instructor Carlos Garcia was promoted in to be the infield coach. It is one thing for the denial to be based on Huntington bringing in guru Perry Hill, but it is a completely different thing for a relative newcomer in Garcia to walk in over Beasley who has paid his dues having been with in the organization as an instructor for more than 10 years. That was a shocker and Beasley can’t be a happy camper.
Then there is John Russell. I can’t find one person around the game who expects the Pirates to be remotely competitive this year because of the developmental transition stage we are in and many believe Russell will be the one to fall because of it. How will he handle the pressure and, more importantly to me if he is released in-season as the scapegoat, how will the players handle it?
Joe Kerrigan was rumored to announce he would not be back in 2010 despite the Pirates holding an option on him but later recanted and agreed to return while also stating this would be his last year. If so, obviously there was something Kerrigan didn’t like to take that position.
That’s three of our field staff with potential question marks hanging over them. I’m not suggesting the motivation of any of these men will be less than expected, but should we expect these men to be perfect soldiers all things considered? Plus the players hear rumors too.. they know what’s going on. While it may not be proper for them to question the credibility of the front office, these issues have to weigh on them with questions like.. who will be managing next year? .. will there be a new GM? .. and so on.
It’s no wonder the Pirates hired a mental conditioning professional.
Next, roster makeup.
The players know better than anyone where our roster stacks up in the game and while every one of them are competitive human beings, it’s not easy to grind out 162 games knowing full good and well every other club in the game has more talent on paper than you do. Still the games have to be played and Lady Luck is known to throw some bizarre curves so, who knows, anything is possible. But they are only human and walking into each contest feeling like the underdog takes a toll too resulting in more errors, blunders, inattention, bases being overrun, more chances taken in routes, and a slew of other miscues.
And even though Bob Nutting, Frank Coonelly, and Neal Huntington have all said this winter that the remaining players make up the core foundation, the players know full good and well that the game is a business first and they are likely to see more veterans shoved out the door mid-year in the name of rebuilding. After all, that’s all they know.. that’s all they have seen.. they expect it even though ownership and management said otherwise because they have been told that before too.
Just the expectation of the dumping - whether or not it actually happens – places a dark cloud over the players. It’s easy to say go play your best and don’t worry about things you can’t control, but when you are paid based on your production and your performance takes a monster hit because veterans around you are dumped, you can’t help wanting to strike out at the ones who hurt your livelihood. That’s human nature too.
And I haven’t even touched base on our prospects who are seeing new development staff every single year and, now with the GM not being renewed yet, start the season off wondering if Kyle Stark and his development team are even going to be around next year, much less next month.
Overall
That’s a crap load of issues. Sure, every team faces issues each year but few to none face the type of questions and insecurity our players are facing this year. The only parties who probably feel comfortable starting this season off are the owners, but there was also problems amongst them because the Nuttings withheld dividend checks to cover taxes this year Dejan said.
From the GM not being renewed yet, to scouts and development personnel being on the seats of their pants in case another GM is brought in, to player concerns, to an ownership rift, to fan discontent.. the state this organization is in is so unstable, so disjointed, how can they not be losers?
Think hard about it.
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I said this the other day and I’m going to say it again tonight and then not bring it back up until it happens – there is a lot of chatter about impending change. I haven’t a clue what the change is but something major is going on. I’m guessing it has something to do with ownership like the Nuttings buying more shares, but it may not be. I just don’t know what it is – and I’m not too sure anybody else really has a handle on it yet either – but I can say there is some concern floating around.
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Just imagine Ryan Doumit hitting at US Cellular Field. Their fans are based on the e-mails I’m getting.
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Since we had fun talking about Ohlendorf yesterday, here’s a tidbit that was thrown out at me from an anonymous scout this evening: Ross Ohlendorf’s ERA partially benefited from a lower than expected BABiP from an improved changeup. He wouldn’t go so far as to talk about whether he thought the lower BABiP would continue for him or not.
That surprised me because I have that offering as a tick below average pitch. I’ve read research about plus changeups resulting in lower BABiP but I can’t remember Ohlendorf ever throwing a plus changeup all year. Now he has me wondering if I’m grading changes I see properly.
Anyway, food for thought.
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Here’s one that almost got away.. you can work for the Pirates if you have a degree and are willing to accept no benefits. Sounds just like a Nutting job offer, huh?
Exciting careers with the Pittsburgh Pirates!
Inside Sales Representative
This sales position is entry level and focused on selling full season plans, partial season plans, and group tickets to individuals and corporations in the Greater Pittsburgh region.
Some of the responsibilities:
Make minimum 100 outbound sales calls from provided lists to sell full, partial, 10-game and group ticket packages, Call on canceled business and individual season accounts, Develop new sales leads and actively prospect daily, and Meet or exceed weekly and monthly sales goals.
Education required: Bachelors Degree in Management, Business Administration or equivalent
Please Note:
This position is temporary with no health and welfare benefits or relocation assistance.
By Jake, on February 26, 2010, at 10:02 pm | 9 comments
Nine days left in the Pledge Drive. 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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One of the more basic stats in the game is average run production per at bat. In the National League, I only look at position player productivity believing that additional run production by pitching is just gravy on top. Last year the Pirates position players racked up an average of 0.1227 runs over their 5,118 at bats generating 628 runs scored.
Since everyone seems to love Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA projections, I decided to use them for my baseline projection here and they are predicting a 7% increase over 2009 to 0.1320 runs. If we assume 5,150 at bats, that would be 679 runs scored resulting in the second worst projected offensive output in the National League and, obviously with the AL DH rule, the second worst in the game. Other projection systems like Marcel and ZIPS also project a low scoring Bucs offense.
Personally, I think the 0.1320 PECOTA projection is too high and have the Pirates regressing 2% from 2009 productivity to a 0.12025 which, over 5,150 at bats, would generate only 619 runs scored. But understand, my projection isn’t as tight as PECOTA because I included projected trades as well like Doumit and Aki.
Regardless which system you like, or what your personal projection might suggest, the goal of the Pirates front office this year needs to be production in the 0.1400 range generating 721 runs scored (assuming 5,150 position player at bats) in order to be competitive in the division. The reason for that is this – there isn’t much punch in the division this year and our pitching staff is going to leak runs allowed like a sieve. PECOTA projects them at 800 runs allowed (5th highest in MLB) and I have them even higher (4th highest at 825).
Now the million dollar question is, how can the front office generate more run production? The simplest route lies in the batting order.
Iwamura is in a contract year coming off an injury, he has league average speed (which means not much), he has the best eye and contact rate of all our players, and thrives in the leadoff spot. He’s not a natural #1 hitter for the NL, but he’ll be about as solid as you’ll see.
Behind him I’d like to see a good bat handler who puts the ball in play. I think Lastings Milledge would be a good choice here because he typically chokes in high leverage situations like whiffing at the worst time, he doesn’t have that great of an eye, he has some speed to get down the line, and while he isn’t exactly the best bat handler on the roster, he stings the ball enough to force the opposition to play on the balls of their feet. No, he won’t be a trusted hit-and-run batter, and yes, he’ll still whiff a lot, but I think with McCutchen behind him he’ll see more pitches to square up on.
The third hole has to be McCutchen. The toss-up is do you want him on the base paths when other batters without high contact rates coming to the plate, or do you want him driving runners home? That’s a no-brainer.
I’d put Jones in the four-hole and follow him with Doumit and then let Clement sting the ball next followed by LaRoche and then Cedeno. So it would look like this:
Aki, Milledge, McCutchen, Jones, Doumit, Clement, LaRoche, and Cedeno.
When Alvarez comes up, and assuming LaRoche is traded, he could hit in Clement’s spot while he gets his feet wet, and a decision could be made about whether to swap Clement and Milledge who would bat behind Alvarez.
My model runs project a modest increase in runs scored using this lineup card a majority of the season. And, surprising to me, more production than a McCutchen, Aki, Milledge, Doumit type of card. Oddly, the best lineup for run production had a lineup of Aki, McCutchen, Church, Moss, Doumit, Clement, LaRoche, and Cedeno (not Crosby). That would be a very poor defensive lineup card except in some of the smaller parks, but there you go – lefties must rule this year. Surprisingly for his age, my models runs just don’t like Milledge this year.
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I’m starting to get a few tidbits out of camp and I’m hearing there are a few more minor injuries than we’ve already heard about. I’m not going to discuss them in the hopes they just go away but one in particular is a major concern to me. We’ll see over the next few days what is reported.
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The Red Sox bench players are being paid just $1M less than our projected 25-man roster, a Comcast report states.
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The Bradenton Herald covered the Pirates pep rally held in Bradenton with a nice article and some good pictures.
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Fan note of the day: Bob Smizik writes absolutely nothing and gets like 100 kiddie comments, Mondesi’s House puts up their Friday at the Polls and gets 5 comments, and recently Deadspin wrote about the depressing Pirates story of the day and generated 9 comments.
If that doesn’t tell you all you need to know about the current state of the Pirate Nation, nothing ever could.
Anybody else notice that all of a sudden blogs and discussion forums are becoming littered with posts suggesting why the Pirates should take a position player and not a pitcher in the first round? The exact same thing happened last year during spring training then died off and came back again about a month before the draft.
By Jake, on February 19, 2010, at 7:20 pm | 15 comments
I cringe every year when I hear our pitchers throwing more than 30 pitches in their first ST bullpens. Evidently this year is no exception:
“The following 16 pitchers threw a 35/40 pitch bullpen session: Zach Duke, Charlie Morton, Daniel McCutchen, Brian Burres, Brendan Donnelly, Javier Lopez, Octavio Dotel, Jeremy Powell, Evan Meek, Wil Ledezma, Vinnie Chulk, Brian Bass, Ronald Uviedo, Ramon Aguero, Jeff Sues, Jean Machi.”
What is more worrisome to me is that there are at least four players in that first group who have had recent health problems and a couple others who enter the year with major red flags.
Why do they need to throw so much so early? They don’t. We push our pitchers way too hard. Way too hard. Later in the year when some of these guys fall by the wayside we can point back to the first bullpens in the cold at ST and ask, I wonder if that had anything to do with it?
“Rehabbing pitchers Neal Cotts (60 pitches!!) and Jimmy Barthmaier (30 pitches) threw off a mound in the bullpen. ”
Ouch.
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No brainer in this AP announcement:
“Just two days into spring training, the Pittsburgh Pirates might already have settled one of their position battles. … In discussing his pitching corps, manager John Russell mentioned Hart as one of the starters and McCutchen among the bullpen crew. But when pressed, Russell stopped short of confirming Hart has won the job.” — AP News
But this one is a bit puzzling:
“NOTES: OF Ryan Church checked into camp on Friday. Only seven position players — including Andrew McCutchen, Lastings Milledge, Delwyn Young and Ronny Cedeno — have not yet been spotted at Pirate City. The first full-squad workout is Tuesday.” — emphasis by Jake
Nice to see the ‘team’ mentality shaping up early (the list includes Ronny Cedeno, Argenis Diaz, Delwyn Young, Gorkys Hernandez, Andrew McCutchen, Lastings Milledge and Jonathan Van Every).
Other than pitchers and catchers who had to show up, plus Tabata and Alvarez, that appears to be all the remaining Black and Spanish players on the 40-man roster.
Hmm.. a collective message perhaps?
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Speaking about Jose Tabata, one of my least favorite media writers occasionally writing about this club, Rob Neyer, actually posted something of value about the Bucs today:
“Considering that the Pirates can’t win without young players both cheap and good, and that Tabata was supposedly one of the youngest and the best of their young players, the notion [by Neal Huntington] that Tabata’s age doesn’t matter just isn’t supportable. What the Pirates are trying to do, can be done. But the margin for error is exceptionally small. And trading for a 20-year-old who’s actually 23 — if that’s what the Pirates did in 2008 — was an error.”
Hell, this kid might be 26 or 28 for all we know. But at the end of the day, I don’t think it will really matter.
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I’ve posted daily college baseball scores under the “NEWS” navigation tab above.
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If you can’t sell tickets to a crappy show, how do you make more money from those who do buy? Right, give them booze.. lots of booze, and charge them a ton for easy access to it.
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E-mails went out to all the folks who stated they wanted to play in our fantasy baseball league so check your inbox. If you didn’t receive it for some reason, leave a comment below.
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Kevin Goldstein at BP released his top 10 Pirates list today and, once again, he showed why he really isn’t dialed-in to the Bucs very well. He has a tendency to select players who management appear to be pushing instead of players who have tools as evidenced with his Tony Sanchez selection as the Bucs second best prospect.
Here’s his list:
Five-Star Prospects
1. Pedro Alvarez, 3B
Four-Star Prospects
2. Tony Sanchez, C, 3. Jose Tabata, OF
By Jake, on January 30, 2010, at 9:45 pm | 19 comments
According to sources on the Penguins side, the meeting happened four months ago at the Penguins’ front-office headquarters in Chatham Center, Uptown. Mr. Lemieux, Mr. Burkle and Mr. Nutting were present, and the intent of the meeting was for the Penguins owners to offer to buy the Pirates. Mr. Burkle made a financial offer. — Post-Gazette; January 30, 2010.
I’m proud to say I broke this story a month ago – I just couldn’t list the buyer to protect my source. Dejan expanded on the news by listing the buyers as well as putting the timeframe together, so kudos to him. That being said, I was told no offer was ever presented to Bob Nutting contrary to Dejan’s report.. simply talking about wanting to buy the team will never get it done.. talk is cheap.
I will tell you that there is a group of extremely powerful individuals who have made themselves available to any group wanting to buy the Pirates. Lemieux and Burkle’s camp were only recently made aware of this group so they did not have the benefit of their help when they talked with Nutting the first time. Whether or not they are serious enough in this endeavor to bring these folks into their camp remains to be seen.
Coonelly reiterated: “What I can tell you: Bob is not interested in selling the team; the team is not for sale. Bob is committed to bringing a championship back to Pittsburgh.”
First of all, Bob is Ogden’s son.. ’nuff said there. And second of all, anybody who believes for one second Bob Nutting gives a rats ass about bringing a championship back to Pittsburgh needs their head examined, imo. I think it’s fair to say the only competitive spirit the Nutting’s have shown the fans since 2003 is in the miser column, not the win column. They have had numerous opportunities to reinvest back into the on-field product starting with keeping Aramis Ramirez and they have shot blanks at every turn.
You don’t take people like the Nuttings out by talking to them. Instead, you make them want to run. One way that could get accomplished is by cutting off their cash cow. In that regard, I’m aware that a group wants/wanted to put up billboards all over town this season with a message something to the effect of don’t buy tickets, and another group has their eye on staging protests for the same purpose. I’d bet there are others I don’t even know about.
I said this the other day, the fan base is one collective pissed off group but, for now, they don’t have enough leadership to bring the Nuttings to their knees. Someone with a household name needs to take the bull by the horns and until that happens, the Nuttings will continue to sit comfortable.
Personally, I don’t think the remaining fans are at the tipping point yet. The players in the system seem to be, but the fans aren’t. If the Bucs lose another 90 games in 2010 with Alvarez, Clement, and Doumit around, that might put the fans over the top. I’m betting Coonelly knows that too so don’t be surprised if you see a series of mid-season moves that might seem a bit shocking if the club is heading towards 90 losses. Their goal will be to try, one last time, to build a hope fire under the fans, as well as to keep the union off their back.
At some point the fans will finally wake up. They always do. I just hope to see it before the Nutting’s slither away.
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 18, 2010, at 11:33 pm | 26 comments
One down, three or four to go. Michael Weiner, in his first venture as head of the players union, successfully wrestled the Florida Marlins to baseball’s financial mat and is prepared to take on similarly recalcitrant revenue-sharing rogues. …
Bob Nutting, the Pirates’ managing partner, has been especially criticized by other owners for not spending the money to improve his team, which is on a record 17-year streak of losing seasons. …
“The Pirates, Marlins and Rays are spending nothing on payroll and showing operating profits of $20, $25 million, which goes into the owners’ pockets,” one executive said. …
The combined pressure exerted by Henry, other owners and the union was too much for the commissioner’s office to ignore. When Selig and Manfred don’t let a dispute get to a grievance, a management person said, “you know it’s serious. They made the Marlins accept it.”
Now the Pirates are on deck. There’s no more deserving team to bat next.
That came from an article posted today by Hall of Fame writer Murray Chass. Obviously Chass believes, as we found out yesterday Bill Madden believes, that the Pirates are a future target by some owners and the union.
Indeed.
Unfortunately after digging deep into MLB’s ownership circles Sunday, I came away with the feeling Bob and Ogden Nutting are pretty safe. That’s not to say there isn’t trouble in paradise surrounding the Nutting empire, just that the Pirate Nation isn’t likely to see them cornered by other owners between now and the new CBA talks. If ever.
You can probably thank the Nuttings impeccable strategy timing the transition of power from McClatchy for that.
Remember how McClatchy went public in 2006 stating he wanted Nutting more involved in the organization but Nutting only took baby steps that year, then took the entire 2007 season to “evaluate” his system before implementing change? That one and one-half year stall/delay seems to have perfectly positioned the Nuttings outside the crosshairs of the owners and union.
The Commissioner’s office implemented a yearly recommended minimum payroll threshold several years ago which several teams have failed to meet (the Pirates are one of the clubs that have never met it, I’m told). Not meeting that minimum has drawn the ire of the player’s union especially since quality players have either been forced out of work or had to settle for significant reductions in pay the last couple of years because of the reduced market and demand.
On one hand we have the Commissioner with a recommended salary floor the Pirates didn’t meet, on the other we have the union screaming for more demand for their product, and on the side sit a few well-heeled owners who are fit to be tied that a few owners seem to be taking their ‘charity’ for a Sunday ride and thereby devaluing the MLB brand and their financial position along the way.
Simply put, its greed vs greed vs greed where the ultimate loser will always be fans like you and I who have to bet on the longshot to win.
Last thoughts — I think an important part to the “why aren’t the Pirates being told to spend more” equation is to remember that this organization has a debt load of over $100M which grew in 2009. I questioned that figure years ago as fictional accounting because I felt it was primarily funds they would have to reimburse the state for the building of PNC and accrued interest from two loans they took on, neither of which they would have to repay unless the franchise is relocated before 2030.
Ironically, the first $20M URA loan made in 1985, and the $11.5M subsequent loan handed to the organization when McClatchy begged the city to renegotiate the terms of the first note, were both taxpayer subsidies which are being slowly written off by the city for years now. See this post for more coverage on the subject. I assume the Pirates would have to write those off their debt load too but yet they get seemingly replaced by Nutting limited partner and McClatchy buyout stock purchases made the last few years along with a few other capital expenditures.
In other words, if the owners want to play hardball and come after the Nuttings for perceived creative accounting, then all they are doing is opening a can of worms because every club is probably doing the same thing. That will never happen. The books say the Pirates have $100M+ in debt and every owner will tell you that they want one of their own to have the ability to pay down that debt with the spread the wealth formula they have in place.
So put any “Nutting gets hammered by the union” fantasies aside because they are unrealistic at this point. If you want to blame someone for that, you can blame the Nuttings for refusing to infuse deep pocket partners or refusing to sell because neither has happened despite valid attempts.
Will the new CBA negotiations offer Pirates fans any hope? I’m certainly not counting on any.
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“For us to compete in the market size we’re in, we have to do some things like this from time to time — a bold move.” — [Reds GM Walt] Jocketty on the Chapman signing
That quote is from Phil Rogers’ Sunday column in the Chicago Tribune. It was a brilliant risk in my book, one we should have taken, especially considering the deferred money payout. Unfortunately, another smaller market organization in the same division did.
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We ended Brian Bixler’s misery today by tossing him over to Neal Huntington’s ex-boss so we could clear roster space. That’s not the trade I heard about so you might see another deal here shortly outside the rumor below.
One thing I need to tell you is that Neal Huntington has taken extreme measures to quiet circuit gossip about his moves. And I do mean extreme. Bluntly put, he has made it well-known he won’t tolerate leaks anymore and he’s gone to great lengths to surround himself with old school men who don’t talk about their organization to even their best friends. Period, end of story.
However, he still has some holes in his armour plus he can’t control what happens after he talks to other clubs, so things leak out. But the waterfall of rumors all media around this club enjoyed the last five-plus years is quickly drying up, so when a rumor comes our way we’ll have to be a bit more careful not to expose our source.
Now for a juicy rumor.. is Doumit close to being dealt? I ‘tink so and I also ‘tink we’re close to signing another catcher. Now let’s see 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.
