The New York Times
Published: February 24, 2008
Al Behrman/Associated Press
Pirates Manager Jim Tracy was replaced by John Russell, left, with new General Manager Neal Huntington.
BRADENTON, Fla. — Frank Coonelly, the new president of the Pittsburgh Pirates, was soaking up the sounds of bat cracking ball and ball popping leather on Thursday when a fan pierced the paradise.
“Hey, Frank!” the man yelped from behind a Pirates-gold chain guard. “Frank! Hey, we make a trade today with the Chicago White Sox?”
Coonelly turned his head, grinned and said: “I don’t think so. Was it a good one?”
“Nah,” the man grumbled. “We don’t make no good trades.”
The crowd around the fellow laughed, Coonelly walked over to absorb some abuse and offer some encouragement — “Just trust us,” and “We’re going to build with youth” — before conceding that for long-suffering Pirates fans, placation will come in wins, not words. This once-proud franchise has not posted a winning record since 1992. A 16th straight losing season this year would tie the major league record held by the positively wretched Philadelphia Phillies of 1933-48 — raising the hackles of Pennsylvanians everywhere, or at least Arlen Specter.
Sitting in his office several hours later, Coonelly considered the fan’s frustration.
“It isn’t discouraging, it’s encouraging,” Coonelly said. “He’s here in Bradenton on the second day of full training camp. He loves the Pirates, and he’s so passionate that he wants to yell at the club president. I take that as an encouraging sign that the fan base is not apathetic. They’ve heard a lot of this before, but they haven’t given up.”
Mining for good in the ghastly has become a necessity in Pittsburgh, which has not won anything since its obscure ace, Tom Gorzelanny, was in fifth grade. Regardless of its small-market status, the club has spent the past 15 years handing out horrific contracts, squandering draft choices and watching its top pitching prospects’ arms explode.
Last year’s Pirates celebrated their surprisingly competent first half by losing 14 of 16 games immediately after the All-Star break when they “just got complacent,” in the words of Jason Bay, one of the team’s few recognizable players. The Pirates finished 68-94, in last place for the fourth time in 10 seasons. If this were British soccer, they would have long been demoted to the International League.
“The city of Pittsburgh, I don’t know how much longer they’re going to wait,” the right-hander Ian Snell said. “The losing’s got to stop somewhere.”
Robert Sullivan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Since the Braves won the N.L. title in 1992, when Sid Bream scored past Mike LaValliere, the Pirates have not had a winning year.
Rather than blow up the roster, the Pirates detonated everything but. Coonelly was hired from Major League Baseball’s central office, where he had supervised all 30 clubs’ financial issues and contractual decisions. He selected the relatively unknown Neal Huntington to be the general manager, in large part because of his role in reviving the Cleveland Indians’ minor league pipeline. Manager Jim Tracy was replaced by John Russell, a minor league manager known for his intensive preparation, as well as an entirely new scouting and player-development staff.
It was no accident that most of Pittsburgh’s hires came from Minnesota, Oakland and Cleveland, operations that have succeeded despite limited revenue. Milwaukee and Colorado, two National League franchises that have rebuilt through astute drafting, also serve as blueprints.
Images of what the Pirates want to avoid lie closer to home.
Two regimes ago, signing the likes of Pat Meares and Kevin Young to bamboozling long-term contracts gummed up the payroll for years. The team spent its 1999 through 2002 first-round draft choices on pitchers who all later had major surgery, raising questions about the Pirates’ scouting and development approach. More recently, marginal veterans like Joe Randa and Jeromy Burnitz were signed to significant contracts when commitment to youth was called for, and the right-hander Matt Morris was acquired at last year’s trade deadline, despite having $13.7 million left on his contract.
Coonelly witnessed all of these debacles from his chair in the commissioner’s office.
“Looking at Pittsburgh,” he said, “my issue with the club was that at times it seemed as if there were a plan in place, and because of various pressures — fans, media — deviations were made to that plan that were costly.”
While teams like the Brewers and the Marlins have rebuilt by dumping any recognizable names they had for prospects and starting over, the Pirates are expecting their new management team to energize a disappointing 2007 group that returns almost unchanged.
The biggest news in Pittsburgh this winter might very well have been when the Pirates’ owner from a century ago, Barney Dreyfuss, was elected to the Hall of Fame; their roster’s somnolence is marked by how their most recent signee, pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim, is a virtual narcoleptic.
Gorzelanny (14-10, 3.88 earned run average) and Snell (9-12, 3.76) provide a young, decent front of the rotation, and Matt Capps (18 saves) has emerged as a promising closer.
The lineup, however, features more midcareer veterans than most floundering clubs typically prefer: Bay in right field, Jack Wilson at shortstop, Freddy Sanchez at second base, Adam LaRoche at first base and Xavier Nady in right field. The team considered trade offers for those players this winter but found few palatable deals.
The new front office decided to keep these players and try to inspire them by proving management’s commitment: The spring training complex in Bradenton is being rebuilt, for example, and a new Dominican academy will open next summer. Bill Mazeroski, Manny Sanguillen and Kent Tekulve, all members of the Pirates’ last three World Series champions in 1960, 1971 and 1979, respectively, are in camp as instructors trying to remind players that the team was not always horrible.
Some skepticism remains, though. Coonelly and Huntington addressed the players last Thursday and promised that their commitment to smart player development would not wane — recent history to the contrary — and were understandably met with some rolling eyes.
“The players are kind of looking at us like, ‘We’ve heard this before,’ ” Huntington said. “They’re right. Most general managers and front offices come in and say they’re going to win through scouting and development. We believe it’s the execution that’s going to set us apart.”
Bay, a former All-Star who has been a Pirate since 2003, said that while he had indeed heard the message before, this year’s “feels different — it’s hard to explain.”
“But different is good for us,” he said.
Bay insisted that the team was gunning for a division title this year in the relatively weak N.L. Central, but acknowledged that finally winning 82 games to finish over .500 would provide some relief.
“I’d like it so that we don’t have to hear about 16 or the record anymore,” he said. “But we’re not going to pop Champagne and have a party. No one aspires to be average.”
For inspiration, the 0-for-15 Pirates appear to have tapped none other than Aristotle, who knew a thing or two about potentiality. On a clubhouse bulletin board, a quote attributed to him begins, “We are what we repeatedly do.” Dangerous words for a not-yet-dangerous team.
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