By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/?m=1
All was not lost on a day the Pirates dropped their 64th game of the season to fall a mind-blowing 30 games under .500.
Something might have been saved, actually.
Brad Lincoln.
Brad Lincoln throws in the second inning against the San Diego Padres during a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, July 25, 2010. Lincoln took the loss in a 6-3 Padres win.(AP)
The Pirates put him out of his misery Sunday by sending him back to Class AAA Indianapolis after yet another poor start led to a 6-3 loss to the San Diego Padres at PNC Park. The demotion is a brutal blow to the organization and its fan base because so many had expected so much from him after his call-up last month. But it's absolutely the right call.
Can you say Charlie Morton?
The Pirates kept starting Morton earlier this season. He kept getting his brains beat in. It wasn't until after his 10th start left him with a 1-9 record and a hideous 9.35 ERA that the team finally threw him a lifeline by getting him out of the rotation in late-May and back to the minor leagues.
The poor guy needed psychological help.
Really.
Morton still isn't close to being right at Indianapolis despite meeting with the organization's psychologist, standard procedure for all of its seriously scuffling players.
The Pirates weren't going to make that same mistake with Lincoln, who means too much to their future.
Lincoln, for one, is glad about it.
"For me, this is probably the best move. To keep going out there and struggling is not good for me and it's not good for the team. My head is not in the right place."
Before the game, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington blamed Lincoln's problems on too much respect for the opponents. "He's got good enough stuff to go after most hitters."
But after watching Lincoln collapse again after giving up a soft one-out single to Padres pitcher Wade LeBlanc and an even weaker bloop hit to second baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. in what turned into a 40-pitch, five-run third inning, Huntington sang a little different song. In what could be construed as a slap at pitching coach Joe Kerrigan, he said "some mechanical changes at the major-league level" have contributed to a significant drop in Lincoln's velocity. His fastball was tracked at 92-97 miles per hour at Indianapolis, the GM said, but just 88-93 mph with the big club.
"We think we can get him ... back where he was mechanically and back where he was mentality-wise [at Indianapolis]," Huntington said.
A big part of Lincoln's struggles was the timing of his promotion from the minors. Oh, he looked to be more than ready after dominating at Class AAA. But he made his big-league debut in Washington one night after the Nationals' young stud Stephen Strasburg made his by striking out 14 Pirates in seven scintillating innings. It was only natural to expect huge things from Lincoln -- the No. 4 overall pick in the 2006 draft -- after watching Strasburg, the No. 1 overall choice in the '09 draft.
"Very unfair," Huntington said. "There's only one Strasburg. There's no other prospect like him in the game. As much as we like Brad Lincoln, he's no Strasburg."
That doesn't mean Lincoln won't come back and be a quality major-league starter. His demotion certainly doesn't mean that. Not every young player races to stardom without hitting major bumps along the way. "Andrew [McCutchen] has spoiled us," Huntington said of the Pirates' center fielder, who had the look of a star from Day One last season and continues to shine brightly. Many more young players have hard times at first in the big leagues, go back down to find themselves and then see their careers take off. My favorite example is Mickey Mantle.
Now, that isn't to say Lincoln, 25, is guaranteed of becoming the Pirates' next Doug Drabek. It's just that he's not guaranteed of being their next Paul Wagner or Kip Wells, either.
"I don't deserve to be here right now," Lincoln said. "I need to go back down, work on some things and clear my head."
Said Pirates manager John Russell, "He'll be back here. He's got too good of stuff."
The organization is counting on it, counting on Lincoln being in its rotation for years. No one has written off Morton, either. Clearly, the Pirates need those guys to be successful to be successful. It doesn't matter how well rookie hitters Neil Walker, Jose Tabata and Pedro Alvarez are doing. The team won't be any good until it gets better pitching. Much better pitching. It's almost unfathomable that the Pirates' starters are 18-53 with a 5.46 ERA.
If there were any doubts about the importance of pitching, the Padres eliminated them during their weekend sweep here when they held the Pirates to eight runs in three games, lowering their staff's baseball-best ERA to 3.27. It doesn't take a genius to recognize that they have the National League's best record at 58-39 and the Pirates the worst at 34-64 for the very same three reasons.
Pitching, pitching and pitching.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com. Ron Cook can be heard on the "Vinnie and Cook" show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
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