Bob Smizik: Don't give up on Pirates just yet

Pirates first baseman Adam LaRoche (foreground) collides with second baseman Freddy Sanchez, but holds on to Derrek Lee's popup in the first inning of Thursday's 6-4 win.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It's fashionable these days to bash the Pirates, and understandably so. Early season hope that the team might contend for a .500 record is slipping away. A 15th consecutive losing season looms. There's almost nothing to cheer about.

Slugger Adam LaRoche, the expected savior, continues to be mostly unproductive.

Freddy Sanchez has more the look of the utility player he began the 2006 season as rather than the batting champion he became.

Jason Bay, the team's best and most proven player, is not performing up to his usual high standards.

Chris Duffy has again succeeded in tantalizing fans with the promise of his speed and defense but is currently frustrating them with yet another meltdown.

Catcher Ronny Paulino has declined appreciably, offensively and defensively, from his outstanding rookie season.

Other than starters Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny, setup reliever Matt Capps and the torrid-hitting Ryan Doumit, there's little to cheer about.

The future appears to be almost as bleak as the past.

The franchise is being ridiculed by everyone: newspaper columnists, talk-show hosts, bloggers, letter writers, talk-show callers, the fans in the stands, the man in the street.

It's ugly, and there are no easy solutions. In such situations the talk invariably gets around to firing somebody -- usually the manager. But what's wrong with this franchise goes well beyond the manager. Let's not forget that Jim Leyland, acknowledged as one of the best, if not the best, manager in baseball, had four consecutive losing seasons before asking out of his contract. Gene Lamont and Lloyd McClendon could not produce a winner and thus far neither has Jim Tracy.

Tracy, in his second season, will not be fired. Not only does he not deserve to have his contract terminated, but he also is making about $1.2 million a season. The thought of owner Bob Nutting swallowing the more than $2 million he owes Tracy is incomprehensible.

The second in line to be fired is batting coach Jeff Manto, who is getting more and more criticism for the Pirates' abysmal offense. It doesn't register with his critics that Manto received little or no credit for Sanchez going from a lifetime .280 hitter to a batting champion or for Paulino going from an undistinguished minor-leaguer to a .310 hitting catcher in the majors. So why should Manto be blamed for what's happening this year?

If Manto were to be fired, it would be more the result of public pressure than logic or merit. What makes that unlikely is there's nothing in the previous actions of general manager Dave Littlefield or the Nutting ownership group that indicates they react to public pressure.

Since he became general manager July 13, 2001, and including the 6-4 win yesterday against the Chicago Cubs, in which Bay drove in three runs, the franchise is 396-520 under Littlefield. That's a winning percentage of .432, which translates to 70 wins and 92 losses a season. What could be construed as particularly alarming about the Littlefield era is the two worst seasons of his tenure are the two most recent: 2005 and '06.

Littlefield's contract was extended before the start of last season through '08, making he and Tracy a tandem. Littlefield doesn't make as much as Tracy and has a far worse track record. Still, the thought of Nutting paying Littlefield the $1 million to $1.5 million he has remaining on his contract is only slightly less incomprehensible than him paying off Tracy.

So expect no firings. It will be business as usual for the foreseeable future. The Pirates' hierarchy believes they're on the right track.

There's some merit to that thinking. The Pirates, who took two of three from the Cubs in Chicago, are three games under .500. That's not good, but it's not as calamitous as some seem to be suggesting. The team should get better because it's unlikely the hitting will continue to be so poor. LaRoche has a history that indicates he will begin to produce.

There is a decent core of players under contract through 2009. The Pirates need to add to that core. And they need to hope that St. Louis and/or Houston don't go on a free-agency binge after this season, as the Cubs did last offseason, that would catapult them far ahead of the Pirates.

All is not lost. If you were expecting a championship season, you came to the wrong place. If you're expecting a competitive team, you still might get one.


(Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com.)