Trade is just the first step
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Five days after the trade that sent Kevin McClatchy below decks in exchange for Bob Nutting and perhaps a Nutting to be named later, the Pirates made what for them passes as a ship-rocking offseason splash.
Sure it's probably coincidence, but by packing off Mike Gonzalez to the Atlanta Braves for slugging first baseman Adam LaRoche, general manager Dave Littlefield finally executed the kind of maneuver that should soothe the club's increasingly truculent fan base, if not actually, physically, demonstrably improve the ballclub.
Yeah. You read it right.
A long-discussed, intensely negotiated, re-negotiated, non-negotiated and ultimately consummated Gonzalez-LaRoche deal is a viable prescription for a significantly better Pirates offense at a reasonable price. It's a prescription essentially arrived at over four episodes when Gonzalez and LaRoche shared the same field last summer.
On Aug. 1, LaRoche ripped two solo homers off Ian Snell to lead Atlanta to a 4-2 victory on the North Side. On Aug. 2, he doubled off Paul Maholm in a 3-2 Braves victory. He played elegant defense at a position where the Pirates had been decidedly inelegant since the era of Kevin Young, which is not exactly the glory days.
Wouldn't it be nice, Littlefield figured, to drop that velvety left-handed stroke in the middle of a Pirates lineup on its way to a league-low 141 homers, to slide a 30-homer guy between a burgeoning batting champion (Freddy Sanchez) and a two-time All-Star (Jason Bay) in Jim Tracy's batting order?
Yes, that would be sweet.
Three weeks later, on Aug. 22, Gonzalez walked to the mound for the ninth inning of a game at Turner Field in Atlanta, fanned Chipper Jones, fanned Andruw Jones and got Brian McCann on a lazy fly to left for his 22nd save. The next night, with the Pirates ahead 5-4 in the ninth, Gonzalez came on again. He whiffed LaRoche, whiffed Matt Diaz and punched Marcus Giles out looking for save No. 23. Two innings, two saves, five K's.
Wouldn't it be nice, Braves general manager John Schuerholz figured, to drop that 95 mph lefty cheese into the fading souffle that was the Braves' bullpen, the one blowing saves by the half-dozen, hanging together on the 37-year-old right arm of Bob Wickman?
Yes, that would be sweet.
LaRoche was available in part because of Scott Thorman, a former first-round draft pick who just happened to lead all Braves minor-leaguers in hits, total bases and RBIs in 2005, and who also just happened to be a slugging left-handed first baseman, but also because Atlanta's lineup is not exactly short on thumpers with Andruw (41 homers, 129 RBIs), Chipper (26, 86), Jeff Francoeur (29, 103) and McCann (24, 93).
Gonzalez was available mostly because LaRoche was available, and though Gonzo converted all 24 of his save opportunities last year, Littlefield rightly figured that if LaRoche might dramatically increase the number of those opportunities, it doesn't matter quite so much whom they fall to.
As it happens, the Pirates' closer will be Salomon Torres on a short leash, with Matt Capps the ready alternative.
All of that, of course, was the easy, logical, matter-of-fact part of an extended psychodrama that climaxed at baseball's annual winter meetings last month. Not only did Gonzalez-for-LaRoche fall apart there in Orlando, Fla., but the Braves also leaked the suspicion that Littlefield's capabilities weren't suitable or fluid enough for such a deal to take place. Though he bristled publicly, the general manager kept his poise and his persistence and, for that, deserves some portion of the credit needed to offset the continuing criticism of a stuck-in-neutral administration soon to enter a seventh summer.
LaRoche is more than an impressive acquisition; he's the kind of player for which the Pirates' ballpark is built but never seems to put on stage in a starring role. Only 27, he becomes not much less than the key to the Pirates' future, the critical additive on a roster where Sanchez, Bay, Ronnie Paulino, Jose Castillo, Jack Wilson, Chris Duffy, Jose Bautista and Xavier Nady are all between 26 and 29. LaRoche finished tied for seventh in the National League in slugging percentage last year (.561), when he hit 32 homers and drove in 90 runs. He hit .323 after the All-Star break.
But here are the numbers the Pirates somehow have to make relevant: LaRoche is a .320 hitter in the postseason, going 8 for 25 in eight division series games against the Houston Astros in 2004 and '05. He hit two homers, one a grand slam.
How long those numbers remain unchanged depends on what else Littlefield and the Nuttings can do. And there's plenty left to do.
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(Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283. )
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