By Paul Meyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pirates starter Tom Gorzelanny delivers against Reds at PNC Park last month.
CHICAGO -- Overlooked in fans' frustration -- perhaps even their furor -- over Adam LaRoche's slow start in his first season with the Pirates is the fact that there is another left-handed hitter who's doing even worse offensively.
But nobody boos him. Ever.
And that despite the fact this left-handed hitter -- well, left-handed batter -- doesn't have a major-league hit. Not this season. Not ever.
This guy is 0 for 32 lifetime. With 19 strikeouts.
Pathetic.
Shouldn't this guy be receiving some boos by now?
"When he comes to the plate? Absolutely," LaRoche said. "I mean, 0 for 32? I don't know how you could be that bad. This is a guy we count on to drive in runs for us, and he's not doing it. The poor guy."
LaRoche paused. He couldn't continue the setup for this story. He shook his head.
He laughed.
Tom Gorzelanny, sitting a few feet from LaRoche in the Pirates' clubhouse with his cover blown, smiled.
In his own way, Gorzelanny is feeling the same pressure as is LaRoche. It has just gone unnoticed outside the clubhouse because of his success on the mound.
After all, Gorzelanny will take a 4-1 record and a 2.97 earned run average to the mound at Wrigley Field in his hometown tomorrow night.
Pitching is his job. Hitting is LaRoche's job.
But that hasn't stopped LaRoche from making a mysterious bet with the offensively challenged Gorzelanny.
The stakes?
"I'll tell you when it's over," LaRoche said. "He has four more starts to get a hit."
Which could be a tall order.
"I've been working with him a little bit -- as you can tell," LaRoche said with a grin. "That's why he's still 0-for. But I told him, 'Honestly, I hope I lose. I want to see you start getting some hits.' "
Getting one -- that elusive first one -- tomorrow night in Chicago would be something for Gorzelanny.
"It would be awesome," LaRoche said.
For his part, Gorzelanny isn't particular.
"It would be a cool to get a hit in any town," he said. "I don't care where I am. I just want to get a hit. It's very frustrating for me. A lot of guys say, 'Aw, don't worry about it.' And I don't worry about it. I don't take it out on the mound or anything, but it's just one of those things where I want to do my part at the plate as well.
"Plus guys kid me about it all the time."
Gorzelanny came close to getting his first hit in his start in Milwaukee Thursday night. Twice he hit decently struck bouncers to second base. A few feet to the left or right and -- bingo!
"His bat path is fine," Pirates hitting instructor Jeff Manto said. "I think his timing is fine. He'll ask, 'How did that look? Did that look all right?' I say, 'Yeah, fine. Just keep on swinging.'
"Something's going to fall. I know this -- he's not going to retire without a hit."
"It's a work in progress and I'm getting better," Gorzelanny said. "My last few games I've had better at-bats."
Sounds a bit like LaRoche, who was 5 for 11 in Milwaukee to hoist his batting average from .132 to .167.
But the difference between LaRoche and Gorzelanny is only one of them has been productive throughout the first month of the season.
Gorzelanny has pitched at least six innings in all six of his starts except his first. And he has yielded three earned runs or less in all of them except his fifth.
He and Ian Snell, tonight's starter, have been the Pirates' most consistent starters by far.
And in Gorzelanny's case, that consistency has been there despite a spotty spring.
In fact, there were some people who thought left-hander Sean Burnett, whose spring numbers were much better than Gorzelanny's, should have made the season-opening rotation.
But Gorzelanny never had to fear for his spot -- primarily because of what he did in his final nine starts for the Pirates last season. In those, he compiled a 3.25 earned run average.
"We saw a guy come up here [from Class AAA Indianapolis] and compete extremely well, throwing three pitches for strikes," manager Jim Tracy said. "He has a real feel for pitching.
"And there was his competitive nature. From what I've seen of Tommy, he takes it as a personal challenge each time he goes out there. He does not like to not do well."
But the Burnett factor?
"Something I was told a long, long time ago," Tracy said, "is that when you have an opportunity to compare and contrast things you see during a championship season vs. what you're looking at in spring training, there are a number of times where if you allow yourself to be led in that direction, you can be fooled very, very badly by things you see in spring training.
"[Gorzelanny] did not have a good spring, but in assessing the situation, you know one guy [Burnett] is going to pitch for us probably at some point this season, but he's one year removed from [rehabbing from] a couple surgeries and had a season you'd expect that first year back."
Last season with Indianapolis, Burnett was 8-11 with a 5.16 earned run average in 24 starts.
"You're going to get this," Tracy said, moving his left arm up and down, "a roller coaster-type effect. You're going to get a good start, a couple bad ones, then another good one, and that's exactly what we saw last year with Sean. This year, you're hopeful that it levels off and you see an extreme measure of consistency."
But was there ever a point in spring training where Tracy even remotely considered picking Burnett over Gorzelanny?
"It was intriguing," Tracy said. "But the thing that always grabbed a hold of me is, this is a player that a year ago went through ups and downs that you'd expect and you're just going to say that he's completely ready to go after 112/3 innings pitched in spring training?
"Why not allow the process to continue and let him put together a string of real consistent starts and continue to see him throw the ball where it's coming out of his hand like you remembered it when he was a rookie [in 2004]?
"See that on a regular basis and then move on it instead of being too quick on the trigger and end up bringing him up here [out of spring training].
"You wonder about this, too -- what would have been the psychological effect if he comes up here and those 112/3 innings end up going in the complete opposite direction and now you have to call him in and send him out?"
And bring up Gorzelanny, who might not have been in the best of moods had he begun the season with Indianapolis.
"Exactly," Tracy said. "You show the confidence in the Tom Gorzelanny you saw in the regular season instead of just pretending like you didn't see what you saw for a number of starts last year and potentially mentally lose him. He loses faith -- 'They don't trust me.'
"So you get a very good Tom Gorzelanny, who knows that even if he didn't get it done in the early part of the 2007 season, well, 'They gave me the opportunity to right myself. And I'm aware of that so if I had to go back, it's because of me."'
But what about Burnett's mood when he was told late in spring training that he'd begin the season with Indianapolis?
Burnett was highly upset the morning he got that message in Tracy's McKechnie Field office.
"You expect that," Tracy said. "But one thing you feel pretty good about is that you are upfront with your players and you tell them exactly the way it is, and that's exactly what we did with Sean.
"During the conversation, I said, 'Hey, you're upset. You don't like it. And you know what? I'm OK with that right now. But at some point in time, get over it. Figure out a way to get over it and get done what you need to get done and force our hand and force us to be in a position where we say, 'Hey, we've got games to win at the major-league level and this guy can help us. Let's get him up here.'
"You're hopeful you end up with two very brilliant projects here eventually."
Gorzelanny can empathize with Burnett, who's 3-2 with a 3.86 ERA in six starts for Indianapolis.
Gorzelanny had a decent spring in 2006 but didn't make the rotation.
"I knew I wasn't going to make the team," Gorzelanny said. "I just wanted to show them that I'm ready to make a statement. I wanted to show them who I am -- tell them who I am -- and [then] go to Indy and have a good year there and get called up as soon as possible."
"He was kind of in a similar boat last spring," Tracy said. "He was pitching great. He was a little bit disenchanted when we sent him out.
"I told him, 'Hey, you go down there, you do your thing, you come back up here and maybe this will be the last time we have to sit down and talk about something like this.' "
Gorzelanny followed that script perfectly.
In 16 starts for Indianapolis, he was 6-5 with a 2.35 ERA. The Pirates brought him up June 30.
Burnett can only hope something similar happens with him.
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