What excites Karstens most is 'that chance'

Pirates' near-perfect pitcher was buried in Yankees' system

By Dejan Kovacevic
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Friday, August 08, 2008

Nick Oza/The Arizona Republic

Jeff Karstens maps out a plan and sticks with it when he pitches. So far the results have been excellent since joining Pirates.

PHOENIX -- Those who follow the Pirates most faithfully might have difficulty not going overboard about Jeff Karstens' first two starts. And, after all that miserable starting pitching this summer, who can fault them?

Just do not expect Karstens to get caught up in it.

"Honestly, I'm just going to kind of roll with this, not think about it too much," he was saying not long after his momentous bout with perfection Wednesday in blanking the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-0. "There are a few people I'm going to call, I'll have some fun with my teammates but, when we get to Philadelphia, it's right back to business. That's it."

No surprise there.

For one, it would appear to be colossally out of character for someone with Karstens' blend-into-the-background personality to celebrate two starts, even if the sum of his work since joining the Pirates is two victories against first-place teams, zero runs and seven hits in 15 innings, and even if one of those of victories nearly enshrined him into eternal baseball lore.

For another, this is a guy who has been built up and knocked down enough times that he surely feels more comfortable somewhere in the middle ...

Karstens, two months away from his 26th birthday, is not so far removed from being the New York Yankees' 19th-round draft pick in 2003 out of his native Spring Valley, Calif., and the Texas Tech program, and it did not take long to rise through that rich system, reaching Yankee Stadium just three years later.

That was not nearly as smooth as it sounds, though.

To open the 2006 season, New York management entrusted Karstens to a spot in Class AAA Columbus' rotation. Looked great. Knocking on the door.

But Karstens went 0-5 and was bounced right back to Class AA Trenton.
The performance there was good enough he earned his major league debut in late August in Seattle, where he gave up three runs over 5 2/3 innings, then hung around to make five more starts with a 3.80 ERA. Looked really great. Now, he was in the house.

But Karstens, after a fine spring, opened 2007 on the disabled list with elbow tendinitis, then, a week after he was reinstated, went right back on it in excruciating fashion: It was April 28 at Yankee Stadium, and his first pitch of the day was lined right back at his right leg by Boston's Julio Lugo, fracturing his fibula and momentarily felling him in apparent great pain.
Remarkably, Karstens stayed in the game for five more pitches, gave up a single and, only after Yankees manager Joe Torre noticed a limp, was removed. He left the field without help.

It would take three months of exhaustive rehabilitation, regaining strength and confidence in the leg, before he could return.

"It was rough, my first time ever on the DL," he recalled. "But I think I really learned a lot from it."

Not without more ups and downs that year: He was rocked in three starts for the Yankees, demoted again, then sent off to compete for Team USA at the World Cup in Taiwan, where he dominated the competition.


Jeff Karstens delivers a pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the fourth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008 in Phoenix.
(AP Photo/Matt York)

Finally, things began to stabilize this past spring, but hardly how Karstens would have wanted: He now had little chance to break into New York's megamillions-rotation and, most ominous, he beginning to get buried among the Yankees' pitching prospects with Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes all surging to the forefront.

And, when he missed the first two months of this season to a strained groin, it probably felt like piling on.

But, as had happened every other time, Karstens found a way to rebound, and he put together 12 quality starts for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, going 6-4 with a 3.80 ERA and an outstanding strikeout-to-walk ratio of 55 to 15.

Still, no majors, which surely had to be raising doubt.

"There was never doubt, no," Karstens said. "It was just a matter of some thing needing to happen for me to get that chance. Believe me: I was very excited when I got the call that I was coming to Pittsburgh."

That call came about largely because general manager Neal Huntington has begun deploying his special assistants at levels other than the majors, and their reach has spread: His scouts saw four of Karstens' games over the past two years, including two last month, and there were additional analyses from others who previously worked for other organizations.

"We had a lot of very good reports," manager John Russell said.

So, when Huntington's New York counterpart, Brian Cashman, came calling about Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte, and talks ran deep, Karstens was one of the Pirates' final two choices to seal the deal that also brought pitchers Ross Ohlendorf and Daniel McCutchen and outfielder Jose Tabata.
By most accounts, Karstens might have the lowest ceiling of the incoming four, if only because of his less-than-dynamic stuff. But one American League scout, on the day the trade, said, "I like the talent of the other three, but I'm telling you, the guy I like -- and the guy I think Pittsburgh is going to like -- is Karstens. All he does is throw strikes and compete. He's not going to blow you away, but he'll battle you."

Small wonder, if Karstens genuinely is the least of the Pirates' return, that Cashman told reporters the weekend after the Nady-Marte trade that he was experiencing "buyer's remorse."

Caution, quite obviously, should be advised against anyone reading too much into two starts, or even five or 10 should Karstens finish strong. The majors are littered with pitchers who have poise and fearlessness but do not have the stuff to back it up.

But that raises the question: How is Karstens' stuff?

To begin with the easiest to measure, the fastball he generates with his wiry 6-foot-3, 180-pound build averages a ho-hum 91 mph, although he ratcheted that up to 94 mph Wednesday as needed.

He also has a changeup good enough that he heavily leaned on it to mow down the formidable Chicago Cubs in his first start with the Pirates last Friday. There is a sparingly used but effective curveball, too, and his slider -- other than the one the Diamondbacks' Chris Young ripped to end the perfect game -- does its job, as well.

Better question, perhaps: What matters more, the stuff or how it is applied?


Jeff Karstens delivers a pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008 in Phoenix.
(AP Photo/Matt York)

If Karstens were trying to strike people out, the stuff probably would not suffice. But his approach, as he has plainly shown, is to dissect hitters' weaknesses, keep them guessing and have them taking awkward swings. From there, let the defense do the work.

"I'm not one of those guys who's going to light up the radar gun," Karstens said. "I'm going to put the ball in play. That's just who I am."

"He pitches to contact, goes right after guys, and he has no problem with that," pitching coach Jeff Andrews said. "He has a plan, knows what he wants to do and attacks. If he gets hit, he keeps coming."

One other thing: He throws inside as necessary.

Sounds an awful lot unlike the nibbling the majority of the rotation has done this season, which surely explains why the everyday players have taken an instant liking.

"If you're in the field, you love to have that," first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz said. "He's competing out there with you."

That was evident in another way Wednesday: He had two hits of the Pirates' seven hits off the legendary Randy Johnson, meaning he had as many hits in the game as he gave up, a tremendous baseball rarity. And that was no accident, given that he was good enough as a catcher to have been originally drafted at that position by the Montreal Expos in 2000.

"The kid's tough," Andrews said. "He applies that mentality in every way."

Karstens freely acknowledges his early time with the Pirates has been "almost too good to be true" to this point, but he does little to downplay his delight at the trade itself.

"It means so much," he said. "Honestly, when someone trades for you, it makes you feel wanted. Not to say I wasn't wanted in New York, but there was an abundance of arms. To get out of there and come and have a real opportunity to pitch, I'll take it. And I'll take full advantage of it."

NOTES -- The Pirates signed outfielder Wesley Freeman, their 16th-round draft pick out of All Saints Academy High School in Lakeland, Fla. Freeman, 18, had signed a letter of intent with the University of Central Florida after a senior year in which he batted .478. But the Pirates are believed to have paid him a bonus in line with that of a fifth-rounder to get him to change his mind. Fifth-round bonuses in the draft last year averaged $226,556.... The team has signed 28 of 50 picks, including 11 of the top 18. ... Outfielder Chris Duffy and reliever Franquelis Osoria, designated for assignment last week, cleared waivers and were placed on the Class AAA Indianapolis roster.

Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com.
First published on August 8, 2008 at 12:00 am

The Karstens File

Name: Jeffrey Wayne Karstens
Position: Right-handed pitcher
Size: 6 feet 3, 180 pounds
Born: Sept. .24, 1982, San Diego
High school: Graduated from Mount Miguel High School in Spring Valley, Calif., in 2000, where he was team MVP -- as a catcher -- in his senior year. Was drafted in 45th round by Montreal Expos in 45th round as catcher that year, but did not sign.
College: Played two years at Grossmont Junior College in California, one year at Texas Tech. Was drafted in 19th round by New York Yankees in 2003 as pitcher and signed.
Minors: 44-31 record, 3.52 ERA, 533 strikeouts, 161 walks in 107 starts.
Majors: 5-5 record, 4.48 ERA, 27 strikeouts, 25 walks in 11 starts.
International: Played for United States that won 2007 World Cup in Taiwan, with 2-0 record, 1.37 ERA, 17 strikeouts in four starts.

Tomlin went too far with punishment

By Bob Smizik
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Friday, August 08, 2008

Under the watchful eye of Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin Casey Hampton goes through his morning workout yesterday.

Casey Hampton, the famously overweight nose tackle, has become a seldom-seen sideshow at Steelers training camp. Hampton is an alternative attraction for a few of the fans who make the pilgrimage to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe for afternoon practices.

Wednesday, for example, while the vast majority of the some 5,000 fans who attended had eyes only on the main field where all but one of the healthy Steelers practiced, a couple of dozen or so, by design or happenstance, wandered over to the far field where Hampton was doing punishment drills.

He was friendly and engaging to the fans who worked up the nerve to speak with him.

A woman approached him with a camera. When he nodded in the affirmative, the woman's husband placed himself next to Hampton and the wife snapped the picture. As they walked away, the man was telling the woman, "He was the starting nose tackle ..."

He gave a friendly wave to a young boy in a Ben Roethlisberger jersey, and to a man who posed a question as to why he was off by himself, Hampton answered, "Ain't no heavier than I ever came to camp."

And that is all the testimony necessary to prove that after 11 days of banishment, Hampton still doesn't get it. He has not fully grasped that in Mike Tomlin's second year as coach of the Steelers there are new rules in place. Bill Cowher kind of winked at Hampton's excesses, which may not have been wrong. Cowher's record as a coach speaks for itself.

Tomlin let a year slide by, but only one. He took over a team one year removed from winning the Super Bowl. He was willing to move slowly.
Now he has sped up the process. Hampton was told before camp he was expected to report at a specific weight. He didn't come close. One report had him at 40 pounds overweight, which would have put the scale closer to 400 pounds than 350.

With that, Tomlin placed Hampton on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list, which means Hampton can't participate in practices and isn't counted on the active roster. Good thing PUP doesn't stand for "punished until penitent." If that were the case, Hampton might never return to the team.

When Tomlin was asked at his news conference in advance of the game tonight against the Philadelphia Eagles if Hampton was making progress, he said, "The process is running its course. He is closer to being ready to contribute. We'll continue to monitor it. That doesn't mean he'll be participating [tonight]."

When Tomlin announced his disciplining of Hampton, it was met with much approval from the public. Everyone loves when a coach stands up for what's right, particularly when he's willing to challenge an established veteran.

The media, too, nodded in approval although in a somewhat different manner: Cowher, the thinking went, never would have done this.
That's right, Cowher never would have punished a decorated veteran contributor. But, in condemning Cowher for such an attitude, everyone is ignoring his record. He was enormously successful doing it his way. He has built a likely Hall-of-Fame career by being a players' coach. Cowher knew how to handle players. It was his strength.

So, if Cowher would not have punished Hampton, maybe Hampton didn't deserve the level of punishment Tomlin delivered.

Tomlin hasn't just disciplined Hampton, he has publicly humiliated him. Hampton is the poster boy for fat football players. He's going to be dogged by this story all year. When Hampton gets on the field, get set for a lot of profile shots of the belly.

The players have publicly voiced approval of Tomlin's tactics. What else are they going to say? No one is going to challenge the coach. But, in the back of their minds, they might not like this. Remember, most of the veterans came up under Cowher. They're not used to such punishment.

We're not suggesting Hampton didn't deserve to be punished. He did. He let down his teammates and coaches by reporting overweight. We are suggesting that Tomlin might have been a bit more discreet in his discipline.

Was it necessary to go public and single him out in such a manner? In doing so, Tomlin caused a distraction, and they are never good for a football team.

How this turns out will depend on if the message finally gets through to Hampton. If he returns to the team understanding what was done was for the best, all may be well and good. But, if he harbors a grudge, this distraction could turn ugly.

Tomlin was right to draw a line in the sand with Hampton. But maybe he didn't have to draw it so deeply.

Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com.
More articles by this author
First published on August 8, 2008 at 12:00 am

Karstens' poise brings taste of perfection

Pirates' new pitcher gives up hit in 8th, but blanks Arizona, 2-0

By Dejan Kovacevic
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Thursday, August 07, 2008


Matt York/Associated Press
Jeff Karstens waits for the baseball after Arizona's Chris Young broke up his perfect game with two outs in the eighth inning at Chase Field.

PHOENIX -- The cameras and microphones had just backed away, and Jeff Karstens sat at his stall, the arm still wrapped in ice, the iPhone vibrating up a storm in the background. And he confessed he had no clue what had just happened to him.

"To be honest," he said after a deep breath, "I'm just trying to let some of it sink in."

Good luck with that.

All Karstens achieved on this unforgettable afternoon yesterday inside Chase Field was perhaps one of the greatest pitching performances in the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's 122-year history, carrying a perfect game through 7 2/3 innings and, ultimately, shutting out the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-0, on two hits and a walk.

Chris Young's two-out double into the left-field corner ended the perfection.

"He was outstanding," manager John Russell said.

"Unbelievable," center fielder Jason Michaels said. "From where I was watching, there might have been no more than five times where he threw right over the middle of the plate."

Only 17 pitchers in Major League Baseball history have thrown a perfect game, none since Randy Johnson, Karstens' mound opponent for the day, did it May 18, 2004. No one with the Pirates has pitched a perfect game, though historians award an honorable mention to Harvey Haddix's going 12 perfect innings May 26, 1959, only to lose in the 13th.

Karstens seemed an odd fit for such company, to say the least.

He is a 25-year-old right-hander with fairly ordinary stuff, and he had spent all season with the New York Yankees' Class AAA affiliate until being acquired by the Pirates in the Xavier Nady-Damaso Marte trade two weeks ago. His resume: 11 career starts and six relief appearances in the majors, and an ordinary 44-31 record in the minors.

But there he was, pounding catcher Raul Chavez's unmoving mitt relentlessly with a fastball generally clocked at 91 mph -- 72 of 113 pitches were in the zone -- while he struck out four, walked one and reached a three-ball count to just four batters.

Why so little offspeed?

"Because I knew they'd watch tape of what I did in Chicago," Karstens said.

That was his Pirates debut Friday at Wrigley Field, when he pitched six innings of a 3-0 shutout of the Cubs. And yes, the Diamondbacks did watch that tape, as well as other material from the minors. But that did little to prepare them for his early repertoire.

"He mixed it up and threw us a bunch of fastballs early on," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "And we're a pretty good fastball-hitting team."

"The big thing was the control," Chavez said. "I knew he had all the offspeed stuff that he showed the Cubs, but I didn't know he could locate his fastball like that."

Totals since arriving: Fifteen innings, zero runs, seven hits.

"It goes to show what you can do with three or four pitches, if you throw strikes and go right after guys," first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz said. "Hopefully, some other guys in this room will pay attention to that."

Karstens entered the bottom of the eighth with the Pirates ahead, 2-0 -- Freddy Sanchez had homered off Johnson in the fourth, Mientkiewicz an RBI double in the top of the eighth -- and without a blemish. This despite several early balls plenty hard to the warning tracks of Chase's ultra-deep center field.

"Got a little bit of a workout out there," Michaels said.

"After the first inning, I thought it was going to be a long day," Karstens said. "I was lucky it's a big park, and I had J-Mike out there running them down."

The highlight in that span came in the seventh, when Orlando Hudson worked the count full, but Karstens nailed Chavez's mitt with an up-and-away fastball that Hudson chased.

Still, there was no show of emotion. Head down, head to the dugout.

"I was taught never to give in," Karstens said. "When you show emotion, the other team feeds off it."


Matt York/Associated Press

Jeff Karstens, center, is welcomed back to the dugout at the end of the bottom of the eighth inning - moments after he lost his no-hit and perfect-game bid at Chase Field.

Not from the remarkably even-keeled Karstens -- on and off the field -- and not from anyone other than a few fidgeting infielders. The Pirates' dugout, by this point, had established a routine where all of the coaches and non-starters for the day were standing on the top step of the dugout, none of them moving from their assigned spots.

Russell, too.

"I wasn't going to move for anything," he said.

Karstens got two quick outs to open the bottom half, a Chad Tracy flyout, and a groundout to third that Chris Gomez momentarily bobbled. That was 23 up, 23 down.

Young was next, and he took the first two pitches, one for a strike. But Karstens' next offering, a slider -- "More of a cement mixer," he said with a laugh -- was lined well over Gomez's head and into the left-field corner for a double.

"It was a quick head-jerk, and then, I thought, 'All right, we've got two outs. Let's go,' " Karstens said.

He promptly got Alex Romero for the third out.

"That showed me something right there," Russell said.

Karstens was back out for the ninth and walked Augie Ojeda, but Tony Clark bounced into a 1-6-3 double play -- one that required good footwork by Karstens -- and, after Stephen Drew got the second hit, Mientkiewicz made a fine play on Orlando Hudson's grounder to end it.

Johnson, who also pitched quite well in limiting the Pirates to two runs over 7 1/3 innings, knew Karstens from their common time with the Yankees.

"Jeff pitched an outstanding game, almost perfect," Johnson said. "He opened a lot of eyes."

All that, and there was this tidbit: Karstens got his first two major league hits off Johnson.

Ask pitching coach Jeff Andrews, and he will say that and the approach on the mound are interwoven.

"He was standing at the plate, not intimidated by Randy Johnson anymore than he was intimidated on the mound," Andrews said. "He goes right after guys. He's not afraid. Even after the way those first couple innings went, what did you see him do? He just kept pitching."

There was one downside to those hits, though: Chavez paid a visit during that hairy ninth and, in his words, "I wanted to know why he was nervous, finally. Why was he tired?"

"I told him I was tired from running the bases," Karstens recalled.

And how might he feel after checking all those messages and hearing and reading about his performance?

"This game has a lot of ups and downs. Right now, I'll take the ups. I'm going to have fun with this, have fun on the ride to Philadelphia with the team and go from there."

The Pirates' four-game losing streak ended.


Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com.
First published on August 7, 2008 at 12:00 am

Box score
Statistics
Standings

Tomorrow

Game: Pirates vs. Philadelphia Phillies, 7:35 p.m., Citizens Bank Park.

Radio: WPGB-FM (104.7).

Pitching: LHP Paul Maholm (7-7, 3.95) vs. RHP Joe Blanton (6-12, 4.94).

Hartwig brought in as free-agent center after Mahan struggles with vital role

Steelers Training Camp / Day 9 Saint Vincent College, Latrobe

By Gerry Dulac
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/steelers/
Tuesday, August 05, 2008

The position is one of the grandest in team history, manned by just a few in the past four decades, but performed with such excellence that historians can't even come up with a better lineage at one position in the annals of the National Football League.

Playing center for the Steelers is like singing tenor in Carnegie Hall -- not many get to do it but those who have are the best at what they do. For 31 seasons, from 1975-2006, the Steelers employed only three centers -- Mike Webster, Dermontti Dawson and Jeff Hartings -- players who combined to make 14 All-Pro teams and be selected to 18 Pro Bowls.

Now they are looking at having that many different centers in the past three seasons.

Peter Diana / Post-Gazette

Center Justin Hartwig looks for the defense during morning workouts yesterday at Saint Vincent College. Hartwig is the newest free agent brought in to play the tradition-rich position in the Steelers' offensive line.

The latest candidate is Justin Hartwig, signed as a free agent in the offseason after two injury-riddled seasons with the Carolina Panthers. He was brought in because the Steelers were dissatisfied with the performance of the center they signed to a five-year, $17 million contract after the 2006 season to replace the retired Hartings -- Sean Mahan.

The coaches think Hartwig is bigger (6 feet 5, 310 pounds) and tougher than Mahan, and better equipped to handle the bigger nose tackles that gave the Steelers so many fits last season.

"He's a bigger guy who has some strength and anchors pretty well," offensive line coach Larry Zierlein said. "He's a strong guy, a pretty physical guy."

The Steelers hope this experiment will work with Hartwig, who was signed to a two-year deal for $3,725,000. Like Hartings, a former guard who signed as a free agent in 2001 after playing five seasons with the Detroit Lions, Hartwig is a former tackle who spent six seasons in the NFL (four with the Tennessee Titans, two with the Panthers) before joining the Steelers.

For now, Hartwig has spent the first week of training camp alternating series with Mahan, who started all 17 games last season and usually begins practice as the first-team center. But, remember, the same thing happened last season when Mahan, despite his big contract, came to training camp as the No. 2 center and spent the first week playing behind Chukky Okobi.

"They basically told me they would open the spot back up for competition, that's why they brought me in," Hartwig said. "They watched me play, I started in the league the last five years, and they thought I could help the team out and potentially start. They didn't make me any promises. I was given an opportunity to come in and start, that's what it is. I felt good about what coach [Mike] Tomlin said. I'm not afraid of competition. That's the way it is every year."

Since Dawson, a seven-time Pro Bowl selection, retired after the 2000 season, the Steelers have attempted to man the center position through free agency.

They haven't drafted a center who became a full-time starter since Webster, a fifth-round pick in 1974. Dawson was a guard at Kentucky when he was selected in the second round in 1988 and actually played alongside Webster on the offensive line his first season with the Steelers.

Since 1988, the Steelers have drafted only four centers -- Chuck Lanza (1988), Kendall Gammons (1992), Okobi (2001) and Drew Caylor (2004) -- none of whom were full-time starters.

"The center has a lot of responsibility on this offensive line," Hartwig said. "We're responsible for calling out the defense and the defensive personnel, the linebackers, who's doing what, declaring the defense, we're pretty much responsible for all the blocking calls. Everybody has their own individual calls, but the center sets the tone and decides how we block the play."

The Steelers will settle for Hartwig merely blocking the nose tackle -- something they weren't always able to do last season.

The problems began in Week 10 against the New York Jets when nose tackle Dewayne Robertson had 2 1/2 of the seven sacks against Ben Roethlisberger. Worse, the Steelers and their No. 1 running attack managed only 112 yards rushing on 33 attempts against the Jets, who, statistically, had the league's worst rush defense.

After the game, Tomlin was critical of the way his team failed to handle Robertson. Later, he noted that opposing nose tackles were creating problems for the Steelers by lining up directly over Mahan, making it difficult to get double-team blocks on them.

The Steelers are hoping Hartwig won't need double-team help. He has added 15 pounds since signing with the Steelers and he said his body feels good after two surgeries in his first season with the Panthers -- one for a hernia a month before the start of the regular season and another in November for a torn abductor that ended his season.

"I have watched some film with coach Zierlein in meetings, and we need to get better all the way around," Hartwig said. "Sean was in his first year last year and they had different breakdowns all over in protection.

"The thing people don't realize about the offensive line, when there are a lot of sacks, they want to blame it on the five guys up front. Obviously, there are times when guys get beat, but we have to protect as an offense. Every single person on offense has a responsibility. It's the collective group that needs to get it done."

But, with the Steelers, it all starts with the center.

Gerry Dulac can be reached at gdulac@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1466.
First published on August 5, 2008 at 12:00 am

Pirates Notebook: To Moss, trade 'almost too perfect'

By Dejan Kovacevic
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/
Tuesday, August 05, 2008



Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press

Brandon Moss launched his first home run with the Pirates Sunday at Wrigley Field. Moss has done nothing but smile since being traded and getting a full-time job in the outfield.

PHOENIX -- To understand Brandon Moss' personality, one could absorb nothing more than this: When Boston traded him to the Pirates last week, his Red Sox teammate, Sean Casey of Upper St. Clair, shot him a quick text ...

"He told me I was going to love Pittsburgh, that it was just right for me," Moss recalled.

Another way to understand Moss: He calls just about everyone he encounters "sir" or "ma'am."

Take it from Bill Straight, whose family in Portland, Maine, housed Moss as a Class AA player for two seasons ...

"He is a very nice, polite and pleasant person," Straight said yesterday. "He lived in our house almost 1 1/2 years before I could get him to drop 'Sir.'"

Straight's favorite memory: When Moss' team was in the Eastern League final in 2006, he returned to the Straight house "totally dejected" because the team lost, even though he homered twice on his birthday. Next day, he had a poor game, but the team won the title.

"You would have thought he had won the World Series," Straight said.

Moss, the Pirates' new left fielder, has done nothing but smile since his arrival, and it is easy to see why: He was trapped in Boston's outfield behind Manny Ramirez and J.D. Drew, so much so that the Red Sox had him playing some first base with Class AAA Pawtucket, in an attempt to get his bat in the lineup more often.

"It almost hasn't sunk in," Moss said. "It's not like I was sitting there in Pawtucket saying, 'Hey, I should be playing ahead of Manny or J.D.' But you go from an organization where you're thinking, 'Man, one day, at best, if I stick around here, I'm going to be a fourth outfielder,' and, all of a sudden, you play every day. It's almost too perfect."

But he did recall, the night before the trading deadline last week, how he reacted when he first heard he might be traded to the Pirates.

"My family's pretty religious, so my wife and I said a prayer, left it up to God. The next day, it happened."

On the field, Moss' charm transforms into that of a football player trapped in a baseball uniform. And there is cause for that beyond his thick 6-foot, 205-pound build: He was a standout wide receiver and safety at Loganville High School in Georgia.

"I miss it, too," he said. "I loved football."

How Moss puts that power to use remains to be seen: He has a history rich with doubles in the minors, which many baseball people feel translate to home runs in the majors.

"I'm probably not going to hit 30, but I've heard the ballpark in Pittsburgh is deep in left-center -- never been there -- and that's great for me. That's where all my doubles go."

There is a perception that Moss will play with less pressure in Pittsburgh, but this should not be forgotten: Through all the Pirates' losing in the past decade-plus, the one position that consistently has had a star player is left field, first with Brian Giles, then Jason Bay, the player he is replacing. A little before that, it was Barry Bonds.

Expectations could be high.

"Wow, I don't even know what to say to that," Moss said. "As far as Bay goes, I only have heard great things about him. But I'm not going to try to be Bay or Bonds or anyone else. I'm just going to be me. And I'll play hard for you. If I didn't, I'd have a phone call from my father telling me about it. That's how I was raised."

Sanchez Returns

Freddy Sanchez was back at second base after missing seven days to back spasms, and manager John Russell immediately placed him atop the order, where he apparently will stay.

"For now," Russell said.

Russell clearly is keeping an open mind about moving Nate McLouth back to the top. McLouth was bumped down when Bay and Xavier Nady in an attempt to keep some RBI punch in the heart of the order, and to keep newcomers Moss and Andy LaRoche from being too burdened.

But Russell felt strongly enough about making sure that McLouth's fine season is not disrupted that the two met over the weekend to make sure "we're on the same page," Russell said.

"We'll look at this for two, three days and see where we are," Russell said.

Buried Treasure

• Ian Snell's lower back, which stiffened during his start Sunday, improved yesterday, he said. He and Russell expect he will take his next turn.

• First baseman Adam LaRoche remains on track to swing tomorrow.

• Tom Gorzelanny continues to improve at Class AAA Indianapolis: Last night in Buffalo, N.Y., he was charged with three unearned runs and six hits in six-plus innings. He allowed two runners in the seventh and was pulled for John Van Benschoten, who gave up the rest. He struck out four, walked none and threw 52 of 85 pitches for strikes.

First published on August 5, 2008 at 12:00 am

Pirates must sign top pick Alvarez soon

By Bob Smizik
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com
Tuesday, August 05, 2008

With their trades late last month of Jason Bay, Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte, the Pirates cut payroll by about $3 million for the final two months of the season. The total salaries for 2008 for Bay, Nady and Marte came to about $11.5 million. All three were replaced by players making the major league minimum or close to it.

The savings for 2009, with Bay and Nady off the roster (Marte never was expected back), will be about $13 million.

All of which means the team should be able to come to terms with Pedro Alvarez, their No. 1 draft choice. With this unexpected windfall, there is no reason for the Pirates not to be able to meet the demands of Alvarez's agent Scott Boras. The Pirates knew going into the draft Boras was the most demanding negotiator in sports, and often asks for the outrageous. Now the Pirates, with the money they cut from payroll in these trades, have the wherewithal to comply with his demands.


Pedro Alvarez, Vanderbilt

Team president Frank Coonelly will insist none of the recent deals was about the money and they were made to build a better baseball team. We believe him. We don't think Coonelly would have taken the job under the financial restraints of the past. But judging from the e-mails coming in, many fans do not believe him. There are many people out there who think these are the same old Pirates -- unloading players as soon as their salaries reach a certain level and making certain payroll stays on the low side of $55 million.

That's not an unrealistic belief. The case certainly could be made that these trades were economically motivated. After all, the Pirates are a worse team today than they were before the trades and in all likelihood will be a worse team next year. Why does a team purposely get worse unless it's for financial reasons?

We believe -- although we don't agree with his strategy -- general manager Neil Huntington made these trades to improve the team in the long term. Whether that happens remains to be seen.

In the best analysis we've seen of the Pirates trades, Jayson Stark of ESPN.com wrote: "... the word we heard used most to describe the Pirates return in these two trades was 'quantity.' Which isn't always a compliment."

The really, really annoying aspect of the trades was the insistence of some -- both pundits and apologists -- that since the team wasn't winning with Bay and Nady trading them was the right thing to do. That's the height of convoluted thinking. Such reasoning suggests Bay and Nady were the reason the Pirates were losing. The exact opposite is true. The team was almost winning because of Nady and Bay. They are not losing ballplayers, they are winning ballplayers and the fact that they now play for two of the most successful franchises in baseball is the ultimate proof of that.

The Pirates gave up two middle-of-the-lineup bats and one of the top left-handed specialists in the game for prospects. While they increased depth -- whoopee -- they lowered payroll and hope.

The Pirates could quiet many of their critics by signing Alvarez, and the sooner the better. Maybe he could get in a couple weeks of minor league ball, and accelerate his development, if a deal is reached this week.
As we wrote in this space last fall, the only downside of the widely hailed departure of the Dave Littlefield-Kevin McClatchy management team was that urgency was gone from the team's need to get better. The new management team, with new contracts in place, had the luxury of taking its time in reshaping the Pirates, and that's what they're doing.

But there should be an urgency to sign Alvarez, a third baseman with a power bat. If the Pirates don't sign him and they accept a high first-round draft choice next season as compensation, well, that surely would be reason to think nothing has changed. The public would have every reason to believe last year, when the previous management team passed on Matt Wieters (batting .354 with 21 homers and 70 RBIs on the high Class A and AA level this season) in the first round and selected Danny Moskos (7-7 with a 6.38 ERA in high Class A) is standard operating procedure for the organization.

Signing Alvarez is the best way management can show doubting fans it's serious about putting a winner on the field and that owner Bob Nutting is not just in the baseball business for the profit that can be made.

If the Pirates can't sign Alvarez, here's the question fans will be pondering on the eve of the trade deadline in 2010: What kind of prospects will the team get for Nate McLouth and Ryan Doumit?

Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com.
First published on August 5, 2008 at 12:00 am

CELEBRATING JOY OF SIX ON NADY'S DAY

By Jay Greenberg
New York Post
http://www.nypost.com
August 4, 2008

The odds of the Yankees coming back from 5-0 against John Lackey? One hundred-to-one? Five hundred-to-one?

The odds of coming back yesterday had Brett Gardner been in left field? Infinitesimal.

Nevertheless, the endless day forecast by Yanks starter Darrell Rasner against Angels starter John Lackey did not turn out to be nearly the length that Xavier Nady (two-run double and seventh-inning three-run homer to break a 5-5 tie) continues to restore to a depleted Yankees lineup.

It will be a long time, too, before you again see the Angels, who own baseball's best winning blueprint, drop fly balls (Gary Matthews Jr. before Nady's bomb); throw the ball into left field on steal attempts (Jeff Mathis); and botch double plays (Chone Figgins and Erick Aybar) during an astonishing eighth-inning meltdown.

Off the hook came Joe Girardi for having allowed Edwar Ramirez , who had loaded the bases with the Yankees up 8-5, to face Mark Teixeira in the top of the eighth. Mariano Rivera (back) was unavailable and Damaso Marte, who was being saved for lefty Garret Anderson, had lost five of six previous battles to the Angels' switch-hitting dynamo. So Teixeira was allowed to hit a grand slam off - what else? - a Ramirez changeup, putting the Angels up, 9-8.

All was forgiven at the end of the rousing 14-9 win, even Bobby Abreu for earlier getting thrown out at third before Derek Jeter could cross the plate with what would have been a seventh Nady RBI.

NEW YORK - JULY 30: Xavier Nady #22 of the New York Yankees bats against the Baltimore Orioles on July 30, 2008 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Well, perhaps unforgiven remains Mets GM Omar Minaya, who traded Nady to Pittsburgh for the pitching-personality-conflicted Oliver Perez, but Yankees fans thank Minaya, as well as Pittsburgh. Their team went off to Texas and 16 of the next 19 on the road having salvaged not only a split from the American League's best team, but also maybe their credibility as a team that can hang in the tough race ahead despite rotation problems.

"This win shows us no lead and no pitching staff should be able to stop us night-in and night-out like they have been doing," said Johnny Damon. "We know we can come back against a Lackey.

"That (Jose) Arredondo is dirty, too. Scot Shields. Those are tough pitchers."

Who now face six more games against a Yankees team jacked up by another power threat, this one coming in blessedly cold from the mass hysteria that too often has paralyzed pinstripe bats with runners in scoring position.

"[Nady] can hit anywhere in the middle of the order," said Girardi. "He has power, he's good in RBI situations and [has] been clutch all year in Pittsburgh and here."

In Pittsburgh, nobody knew it. Asked about the feeling of being back on the baseball map, taking curtain calls from 54,204 persons, Nady smiled and said, "There is more traffic (getting to games) here."

NEW YORK - AUGUST 03: Xavier Nady #22 of the New York Yankees watches his three-run home run in front of Jeff Mathis #5 the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on August 3, 2008 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)

Right, and until now the Yankees were suffering too much gridlock on the bases for lack of another guy who could clear them.

"I was one of the happiest ones here when we got the trade because I have seen him over the years being a pain in the butt," said Damon. "He's a great player, quietly doing his job."

Or not so quietly doing it yesterday, turning around the most unexpected win of the season. This one had more twists and turns than Yanks GM Brian Cashman performed on Pirates GM Neal Huntingdon's arm to get him to deal Marte and Nady for three serviceable arms and outfield prospect Jose Tabata.

Tabata, a year ago an untouchable five-tool talent and this year a head case, is the X-factor in the trade. Still not much of a price to pay, a delirious Stadium felt yesterday, for its new X-Man.

jay.greenberg@nypost.com

Interview: Sidney Crosby

Penguins superstar Crosby admits he's still learning as he goes

By The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Sunday, August 3, 2008

Sidney Crosby's offseason training gets serious Monday when he hits the ice. The only day he plans to take off between then and Sept. 17 -- the opening of Penguins' training camp -- is Thursday, his 21st birthday.

Yep, Sid's days as a Kid are numbered. He will celebrate with some junior hockey friends at a barbecue at his home in Nova Scotia.

"I can hold my own," Crosby said of his grill skills. "But one lesson I've learned is to keep it simple."

Rarely one to look back, Crosby did just that in an exclusive interview last week with Tribune-Review Penguins beat reporter Rob Rossi:

Q: What do you want for your 21st birthday?

A: I've thought about this because a lot of people have asked. Honestly, I couldn't tell you one thing that I want.

Q: What does turning 21 mean for you?

A: To be honest, it doesn't change anything on the ice. Off the ice, I'm able to drink. I look at it like this: At 19, I'm an adult in Canada. Now, I'm an adult all the way around.

Q: So what adult beverage does "Sid the Kid" drink?

A: Jack Daniels or Crown Royal.

Q: How did being under the legal drinking age in the United States limit your off-ice activities with teammates?

A: All the guys were great about that, actually. The good thing about being on a young team is that all the guys knew we had three guys under 21. Anything we did, we all could be a part of. I didn't miss out on anything.

Q: What will you do better at 21 than you did at 20?

A: Play a full season, for starters.

Q: Fair enough. How is the right ankle?

A: It needs to keep getting stronger, but it feels good.

Q: What did you learn during your first season as team captain?

A: That I'm still learning. I'd like to be a better leader. I really think it's a matter of recognizing things and using my experience from last year to recognize when something needs to be said or handled. There are certain moments when you have to be more of a leader. It's hard to explain, but last year helped make me more aware of that.

Q: How would you characterize your first three NHL seasons?

A: It's been a lot of fun. I've had a lot of experiences, that's for sure. We finished my first season 29th overall and worked our way up to the Cup final. It's been kind of up and down, but more ups than downs.

Q: What has been your greatest surprise?

A: How tough it was for us the first year. There was so much being said about how good we would be. We just struggled, and I didn't really expect that. I expected us to compete and have a chance. But a lot of things happened, and it was a big surprise because coming in, I expected to go far.

Q: What is your greatest disappointment?

A: Being so close and not winning the Cup is still hard to digest.

Q: Was it at all surprising to come within two victories of the Cup only two years after finishing 29th overall?

A: Well, we have a lot of guys that have been together since that first year, and we'd been growing. We earned that chance. It's great to see the attitude we have -- that we can be productive if we stick together. We've proved we can do well without a lot of experience.

Q: Of what you have accomplished before your 21st birthday, what stands out most?

A: Going to the final. We lost. It's not the best memory, but the whole journey -- at the time it was awful that we lost -- but it was fun and a great ride. That is something you want to go through as many times as you can.

Q: Of what you have yet to accomplish before your 21st birthday, what stands out most?

A: Not finishing the deal. It's hard not to think about it. Everybody I see brings it up. I'm reminded by it everywhere. You always see things on TV where guys had the Cup in their hometown. It's a constant reminder. The memory of losing is not something that just goes away.

Q: How much more motivated are you to win the Stanley Cup after losing in the final?

A: I thought I was motivated before. It's definitely more now. Being that close and not being able to do it -- it's just hard. The quicker you can get back and win it, the better.

Q: How did you react upon learning Marian Hossa would not re-sign with the Penguins?

A: I was pretty surprised. He told me that he really enjoyed it in Pittsburgh. He loved the team and the city. He never had one bad thing to say.

Q: Have you spoken with Hossa since he signed with Detroit?

A: We've played phone tag, but I haven't talked to him yet. I thought he liked it here. He was great to play with. It's too bad.

Q: What is your reaction when a former teammate that played alongside you in the Stanley Cup final says another team gives him a better chance to win the Stanley Cup next year?

A: To be honest, if you look at (the Red Wings), they haven't lost anyone. We came within two games, but they won, and they haven't lost one guy. Maybe on paper they have the best chance to win the Cup and, in his mind, that is what he thinks. If you ask anybody else, that's the way it looks. I'm not mad at him or anything like that. That's just the way it is.

Q: Do you derive any extra motivation from his comments?

A: We have enough motivation in the fact that we came that close and didn't win. Whether he said that or not doesn't matter.

Q: What is your assessment of the Penguins' offseason dealings to date?

A: It's been really good. It says a lot about the organization when it signs long-term deals with players that have been here. It sends a message to the rest of the team, too -- we have to do our part. That's important and encouraging.

Q: What should the expectations for the Penguins be this season?

A: Every team plays to win the Stanley Cup. That's what we want coming in, but there are a lot of things to be done before that can happen. Our goal should be to be better than we were last year. It's no given to reach the playoffs. You never look too far ahead. We have to keep that approach that we did last year.

Ward remains 'heartbeat' of Steelers offense

By Scott Brown
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Sunday, August 3, 2008

Steelers' Hines Ward signs autographs Friday, Aug. 1, at Memorial Stadium in Latrobe.
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review

Call him small, call him slow, call him (gasp!) a possession receiver.

Draw a connection between the 32nd birthday he celebrated in March and the career-low 10.3 yards he averaged per catch last season.

Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward thrives on doubt. He needs to be questioned. He needs to be dissed. He needs to be reminded that he is neither the biggest guy nor the fastest guy -- and not exactly the youngest, either.

"He thinks the coaches think he doesn't have it anymore because he got a little older," Steelers wide receiver Nate Washington said with a laugh. "Hines always feeds off of people thinking he can't do something."

The most prolific wide receiver in Steelers history doesn't figure to stop doing that now, especially since he is entering a murky phase of his career.

Going into his 11th NFL season, Ward is the unquestioned leader of the receivers corps. Whether he is still the Steelers' No. 1 receiver is another matter given his advancing age and Santonio Holmes' emergence as one of the top deep threats in the NFL.

Holmes said Ward is "still our go-to-guy," and, to be sure, the 6-foot, 205-pounder has a well-earned reputation for making tough catches over the middle and for making clutch, third-down grabs.

But to Ward, such descriptions aren't necessarily complimentary as much as they are a glorified way of calling him a possession receiver -- and, in turn, saying he doesn't have the speed to consistently go deep.

What makes Ward bristle at such a notion: He said he has never really gotten an opportunity to showcase what he can do in the deep passing game.

"You get frustrated, but I don't let it get to me," Ward said. "Just don't say that I can't be a deep threat or don't even send me deep at all. I did run away from the fastest man, D'Angelo Hall (in 2006), with one shoe -- so I've got to be fast enough.

Steelers' Hines Ward catches a pass during practice Saturday, Aug. 2, at St. Vincent College in Latrobe.
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review

"That's something I've always battled: 'How can he be called a deep threat if he never goes deep?' Have you ever seen me run a post route? It motivates me to go out there and say, 'OK, when the opportunity does present itself, you've got to go out and make a play.' "

Ward has long been a master motivator, particularly when it comes to himself.

He leads the Steelers in career receptions, receiving yards and touchdown receptions. But he has never forgotten that the Steelers used first-round picks on wide receivers in consecutive years right after they had drafted him.

Ward finds slights, real or perceived, as easily as he does the soft spots in zone coverages. While talk that he is perpetually overlooked can cause eyes to roll, no one can argue that the Heinz Field-sized chip Ward has fashioned over the years isn't a perfect fit on his shoulder.

His body of work is such that it will one day put him into the discussion for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

And the four-time Pro Bowler's value goes far beyond the numbers he has produced.

Ward has always embraced the grunt work that many at his glamour position eschew. He is considered one of the best blocking wide receivers of all time, and he sets an example for his teammates in others ways as well.

For instance, Ward said, he always runs a pass pattern at full speed, even if it is practice and the ball isn't going to him, just to impress the importance of doing so to the younger wideouts.

Washington, a fourth-year veteran, said he might not be with the Steelers if not for what he has learned from Ward. Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians said Ward is "still the heartbeat" of the offense.

"I've never been in a meeting room with a better veteran leader than Hines," Arians said.

Steelers' Hines Ward smiles as he gains yards after a catch during practice Saturday, Aug. 2, at St. Vincent College in Latrobe.
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review

Of course, Ward wants to be a leader on the field as well. That is why he has lobbied Arians to run more deep routes. He said his desire to do so stems from logic more than anything.

"I've seen a lot of coverages where Tone (Holmes) is the deep guy and Hines is the short guy, so it makes my routes a lot harder getting open when a guy knows, 'Well, this guy doesn't really go that deep,' " Ward said. "So consequently, (when) I have a corner who knows I don't go deep that often, he's going to sit on a lot of routes.

"If you sit there and say, 'Tone's a deep threat,' well he's going to get Cover 2 all the time. So you've got to have Tone on the intermediate stuff and sometimes put me on the deeper route just to be a more balanced offense and not to be so predictable.

"Santonio, we're starting to move him around. We're starting to be interchangeable, and it's only going to help our offense grow."

Ward said he is still growing as a wide receiver, which is why he is not thinking about retirement just yet.

The MVP of Super Bowl XL conceded that he could wake up one morning and tell himself that he's had enough. Or, he could play well into his 30s.

Ward and predictable rarely end up in the same huddle.

Said Washington: "I don't see him stopping anytime soon."


Scott Brown can be reached at sbrown@tribweb.com or 412-481-5432.

Pro Bowl LB earns his nickname of Steelman

Steelers Training Camp / Day 6 Saint Vincent College, Latrobe

By Ed Bouchette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Saturday, August 02, 2008

Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Steelers MVP James Harrison

The Steelers are going to kill their most valuable player if they don't watch it.

Their morning special teams practices at Saint Vincent College do not include most veterans. That is, unless you were the team MVP last season and a starting linebacker in the Pro Bowl.

James Harrison, an overnight sensation last fall at age 29, toiled through another special teams practice yesterday morning while many of his fellow starters slept in. It's the price you apparently pay when you do it so well -- Harrison first made his mark covering punts and kicks and he's still doing it.

Steelman, they should call him. He does not complain about the extra practices and playing on special teams.

"Hey, that's part of the game. Life ain't fair," Harrison said.

But he never comes off the field on defense, and he is 30 years old now. Perhaps the team's leading pass rusher from last season with 8 1/2 sacks might perform at even a higher level if he did not have to cover a kickoff before he lines up on defense.

"It's obvious it's going to take away," said Harrison, dripping with sweat after another morning special teams workout. "You're playing more downs. You're going out on a 70-yard sprint and then you're going straight to defense, so it takes a little wind out of you.

"We just have to have the guys we have at the backup position come in as needed and give us a break."

Or, maybe those backup guys could be the ones running under the kickoffs.

"Hopefully, we can get him off the field," linebackers coach Keith Butler said. "We'll see."

The Steelers even want more from Harrison this season on defense. They will give him the Joey Porter treatment, where he's permitted to freelance more and line up at different places on the field.

"Actually," Harrison said, "it's going to be similar to [what Porter did], and there's another package that's totally different where I could be lined up anywhere -- from almost at a corner position all the way to inside linebacker and rush or drop, whatever it may be.

"It seems like they're going to let our linebackers run a little more, rush a little more than last year, just looking at the defense going in right now."

That might help boost their sagging sack stats, which hit a lowly 36 last season, 11 fewer than two seasons earlier. The addition of second-year man LaMarr Woodley on the left outside should provide a boost and make offenses worry about the outside rush from both ends.

"I like LaMarr's pass rush," Harrison said. "He has a good speed rush and has a lot of strength and weight to go around the corner.

"He complements me, and I complement him. It's going to get to a point where, just by me and him rushing, offenses may have to keep two backs in just to keep us off the edges, and that helps out our covering DBs and inside linebackers. Everything rolls downhill."

They could use that because as the pressure eased on opposing quarterbacks, they also threw fewer interceptions -- just 11, down from 20 in 2006. Harrison did everything to hold up his end in his first season as a full-time starter. He had one of the best individual defensive games turned in by a Steelers player Nov. 5 against Baltimore at Heinz Field when he led the team with nine tackles, 3 1/2 sacks, forced three fumbles, recovered one and intercepted a pass and returned it 20 yards.

He and his coach predicted bigger and better things in 2008 now that he has put in his first season as a starter. "He'll be more consistent," Butler said. "He'll be a lot better."

"I'm striving to get that perfect gear, that perfect game, the perfect season," Harrison said. "I just want to do better than I did last year."

Taking him off special teams might help.

"That's where I got my start," said Harrison. "If they need me there, I'm going to go out and play."

Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com.
First published on August 2, 2008 at 12:00 am

Bay getting comfortable in his new state

By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell
Boston Globe Staff / August 2, 2008
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/

Don't look now but there's a Monster behind Jason Bay. Boston's new left fielder acquitted himself quite nicely in his debut, playing several balls off the Wall and even making a nice sliding catch. (Barry Chin/Globe Staff)

Yes, he plays left field. Yes, he's a righthanded batter. And yes, he is hitting in the middle of the Red Sox order. But any comparisons with Manny Ramírez can end there, thank you very much.

Newcomer Jason Bay, acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates at Thursday's trade deadline, plans to carve out his own niche in a Boston uniform. Last night against the Oakland A's at Fenway Park, manager Terry Francona put Bay in the No. 5 spot, behind third baseman Mike Lowell.

"It's inevitable," said Bay when asked about being sized up against Ramírez. "I know that. But I got traded to Pittsburgh [from San Diego] for Brian Giles, in essence [in 2003], and once again, it wasn't quite the grand scale of this one but it's something I can't control. I'm not going to be Manny Ramírez, I know that. I'm going to try to do what I can do. Kind of going through what I've gone through, I think I'm equipped to handle that. You've got to go out and play the game. I understand that that stuff is out there, but that's beyond my control."

Bay received a warm welcome when he landed at Logan Airport yesterday, saying numerous people tried to help him with his baggage.

"It was actually very, very . . . overwhelming, really," he said. "It's going to be something I'll probably never forget, that's for sure. I can't wait. Everyone says the best fans in baseball are here, and I can't wait to be a part of the home team."

Jason Bay is congratulated by teammates after scoring on a sacrifice fly by Jed Lowrie against the Oakland Athletics in the second inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston, Friday, Aug. 1, 2008.
(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

The wait was worth it as Bay received a sustained standing ovation when he came to bat for the first time with the Sox, and applause throughout the plate appearance as he drew a second-inning walk. He scored his first Boston run on a J.D. Drew double and a Jed Lowrie sacrifice fly. And the hosannas reached a crescendo in the 12th, when Bay tripled to center and scored on Lowrie's infield single, giving the Sox a 2-1 triumph.

Bay, who went 1 for 3 and scored twice, joked that the only thing better would've been if the ball made it out of the park, but he was grateful for the triple.

"If it had been a double, I don't know if I would've scored on that ball," said Bay, referring to Lowrie's hit. "When it left the bat [I thought it had a chance to be a home run], but then it started drifting on me a little more toward center field. So we'll take what we can get. That would've been something else."

He said the last couple of days have been a whirlwind with everything that has happened to him. He was just happy to have the game under his belt and have it come out a victory.

"Hopefully, we can do it in nine next time," he said. "But that was fun. It's definitely one of the better moments I've had."

After his introductory walk in the second, Bay was hit by a Justin Duchscherer pitch in the fourth and struck out swinging in the sixth and eighth. He walked in the 10th.

In the field, Bay was solid. With two out in the fifth, he saved a run when he made a sliding catch on Ryan Sweeney, stranding a runner at third. In the ninth, he made a catch on a sinking line drive by Daric Barton to end the inning.

Boston Red Sox left fielder Jason Bay, who was part of a three team trade that included the departure of Manny Ramirez from the Red Sox, steps onto the field for the first time in a Red Sox uniform, prior to facing the Oakland Athletics during batting practice prior to their MLB baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston, Friday Aug. 1, 2008.
(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

It hasn't really sunk in that he's joined a team widely considered one of the top contenders for the world championship.

"Pack a bag, get on a flight, get here, meet the entire team and an entire staff, and then go out there and play a game and all of a sudden just have it click that you've been [deposited] in the middle of a pennant race and you have a chance to win a ring," said Bay.

"I don't think it's going to resonate that quick. I think I might need a day or two to let it sink in. I fully intend to let it sink in."

Bay, who hit .282 with 22 home runs and 64 RBIs in 106 games with the Pirates, selected No. 44. There weren't a whole lot of choices.

"It was slim pickings when it came down to the numbers," he said. "Eric Davis was a childhood idol of mine and he wore No. 44, so why not?"

Bay, a native of Trail, British Columbia, whose father was a diehard Red Sox fan (Bay mentioned he still has a Red Sox onesie he wore as a baby), found out he was changing addresses about a half-hour after the 4 p.m. deadline. So instead of getting on a bus with his teammates to go to the airport for a trip to Chicago, he was rerouted here.

"It was pretty exciting," said Bay. "I just went home and packed my bag and got here at 1 o'clock."

For a while after the deadline, Bay thought he was staying put. There were myriad rumors, but he didn't think they'd turn into anything because he hadn't heard anything concrete.

"My head was spinning," he said. "My name was everywhere and the deadline passed and I thought, 'All that and nothing.' All of a sudden, a half-hour after the deadline, I get called into the office and they say, 'You've been traded.' If I was a free agent, I couldn't have picked a better place to go to, I don't think."

Jason Bay, right, crosses home plate as Oakland Athletics catcher Kurt Suzuki looks down the first base line, to see Jed Lowrie beat the throw for a game-winning RBI single in the 12th inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston, Friday, Aug. 1, 2008. The Red Sox beat the Athletics 2-1.
(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Bay faced the Red Sox during interleague play in 2005, and when he came to town with the Pirates, there was one thing he noticed above all.

"It's actually stupid, but I remember the stands singing 'Sweet Caroline,' " he said. "I thought that was kind of neat, just the way everyone got into the game."

General manager Theo Epstein believes Bay will be energized by his Boston opportunity.

"The nice thing about Bay's makeup is he knows who he is and he doesn't try to be more than that," said Epstein. "He's very comfortable with who he is as a person. He's not going to put on airs or try to change the way he plays the game, the way he acts, just because he's in a different environment.

"He's not an immature kid who is still searching for his place on a roster or his place in the world.

"There are no guarantees any time a player changes environments. There are no guarantees over a small sample size of a couple of months. But we feel like if anyone can come and step in and contribute to a winning club in this environment, Bay has the opportunity to do that."

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at marrapese@globe.com.

Pirates wait until final minute to trade Bay

Deal with Red Sox, Dodgers brings LaRoche's brother, three others

By Dejan Kovacevic
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pirates/
Friday, August 01, 2008

Peter Diana/Post-Gazette
Jason Bay

The cell phones and email inboxes were buzzing and blinking in the Pirates' PNC Park conference room within a minute of Major League Baseball's 4 p.m. trading deadline yesterday.

Jason Bay, the franchise player fussing in front of a clubhouse computer to learn his fate, stopped to pack his gear for the charter flight for Chicago, with the bus departing in 25 minutes.

"Is it on? Is it off?" Bay asked at the time. "Uncle, already."

He found out, and he and most everyone else involved would be stunned.

At a time general manager Neal Huntington described as "3:59 and seconds," the Pirates traded Bay to the Boston Red Sox as part of a three-team deal that netted four prospects. Boston sent superstar slugger Manny Ramirez and $7 million in cash to Los Angeles, and each of those teams sent two prospects to the Pirates.

Three of those four prospects are 24-year-olds who will join the Pirates this morning at Wrigley Field -- third baseman Andy LaRoche (brother of Pirates first baseman Adam LaRoche), outfielder Brandon Moss and pitcher Craig Hansen -- and 21-year-old pitcher Bryan Morris will be assigned to Class A Hickory.

"Wow," Bay said.

"Many, many people put many, many hours into how it ended up, too," Huntington said, referring to his scouts and other evaluators.

This was how it played out ...

The Pirates' focus for much of the week regarding Bay was on Tampa Bay because of that team's rich system, and that interest continued into yesterday. But the Rays steadfastly refused to part with any of their top four prospects, including shortstop Reid Brignac, highly coveted by the Pirates.

Meanwhile, Boston began making a serious push to move the disgruntled, often-controversial Ramirez -- "The Red Sox don't deserve me," he told ESPN Deportes Tuesday night -- and sought a left fielder capable of filling his formidable role in the lineup. The only available player approaching that criteria was Bay.

Low-budget Florida entered the mix as a surprising suitor for Ramirez and, by mid-day Tuesday, three-team talks were underway. A thin framework was established late that night where Bay would go to the Red Sox, Ramirez to the Marlins and outfielder Jeremy Hermida from Florida to the Pirates, with prospects sprinkled all around.

By yesterday afternoon, after several rejections, the Pirates agreed upon the three prospects they would receive. One was believed to be Florida pitching prospect Ryan Tucker, and the two from Boston were Hansen and an unknown. But the Marlins, according to one source, killed the deal when they asked the Red Sox to pay $2 million more than the $7 million remainder of Ramirez's salary for the season.

"It was all about money," the source said.

Doubts were raised as to whether Florida was serious in its negotiations, and the Pirates and Red Sox each turned elsewhere yesterday morning. The Pirates went back to one-on-one talks with Tampa Bay, but the Rays never budged. The Red Sox turned to Los Angeles, perhaps the only other team interested in taking Ramirez.

Then, not long after noon, Pirates worked through the Red Sox as a conduit and, somehow, just in time, the entire package was done.

It helped, according to one source, that the Pirates had done extensive scouting on the Los Angeles system in anticipation of a possible trade for shortstop Jack Wilson, when that seemed likely a month ago.

"It is something that took place relatively quickly," Huntington said of the trade, "even though the groundwork had been laid a while ago."

The Toronto Blue Jays, St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks and Oakland Athletics also placed calls regarding Bay but never became serious suitors. The Atlanta Braves, who made a strong attempt late last week, never came back.

Team president Frank Coonelly, who has final say on all of the Pirates' daily operations, said management felt "very strongly" that the ultimate offer was the best one.

Jason Bay sits on the bench with his bat during the third inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies in Pittsburgh Wednesday, July 30, 2008.
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Unlike earlier in the week, when Huntington identified Class AA outfielder Jose Tabata as the prospect with the highest ceiling out of the Nady-Marte trade, he declined to do so with the foursome yesterday.

"I'm not sure there really is one guy that we target as the anchor of this trade," Huntington said.

The short-term focus probably will be on Andy LaRoche. Largely because of a powerful swing and patient approach, he was ranked Los Angeles' No. 1 prospect entering the 2007 season, No. 1 going into this one. He has batted .294 in the minors but just .217 in 62 games with the Dodgers, missing large chunks of time to injury.

"Andy LaRoche was one of the best prospects in all of baseball, and we're thrilled to get him," Huntington said.

He should be the Pirates' third baseman right away, displacing Jose Bautista, and he will not be the only one getting instant duty: Moss, Boston's Class AAA most valuable player last season, will take Bay's place in left field. And Hansen, a hard thrower who has dazzled when not battling control issues, will go to the bullpen. Moss spent a total of 34 games with Boston, Hansen 74.

Morris, who will join Hickory today, might have the most potential even though he is not close to playing in Pittsburgh. The Dodgers' first-round draft pick in 2006, He has above-average velocity on his fastball and breaking pitches, and his statistics in Class A this summer have been highlighted by 72 strikeouts in 82 innings. Huntington projected he could be "a mid- to upper-rotation starter."

Hansen was Boston's first-round pick the previous year.

Huntington sounded plenty satisfied with the Pirates' take -- and that was echoed by most national analysts, unlike with the Nady-Marte trade -- but also expressed "mixed emotions" in what he gave up.

Bay, 29, is enjoying a revival season, batting .283 with 22 home runs and 64 RBIs, and he last month overtook Bill Mazeroski for eighth place on the franchise's home run list with 139. After coming to the Pirates in a 2003 trade with the San Diego Padres, he twice represented Pittsburgh in the All-Star Game, including the 2006 edition at PNC Park, where his introduction was met with one of the most deafening roars in stadium history.

He was among the team's leaders -- "The leader, on and off the field," catcher Ryan Doumit recently called him -- throughout his tenure. And he and his wife, Kristen, were among the most active of the Pirates' family in the local charitable community.

Before the team boarded the bus yesterday, Huntington told Bay of the trade, then addressed all players and coaching staff in the clubhouse to explain management's reasoning, and he acknowledged it was a tough sell.

"They've lost a friend, a teammate, a brother," Huntington said. "I think they understand the direction we're going in, and some even appreciate it. Right now, though, it's a shock. Jason Bay, above and beyond everything else, is a great person. He's what we hope all future Pirates aspire to be, a real model."

Bay had made known his wish to stay in Pittsburgh, particularly after he and hitting coach Don Long bonded as part of his revival.

"I've always been happy here, but I'm just glad it's over, one way or the other," Bay said. "It was a crazy couple of days."

For the Pirates, fifth in the National League's Central Division at 50-58 and suddenly stripped of two-thirds of the most productive outfield in the majors, a 16th consecutive losing season -- which would tie a professional sports record -- seems more certain than ever, even if the newcomers perform optimally.

For the general fan base, which has seen this type of trade repeatedly result in nothing more than additional losing over the past decade and a half, it likely will not be received well.

Coonelly, who had said when taking the post late last summer that he would "make the unpopular decisions if I have to," sounded braced for that.

"I understand there's skepticism based on the history, but I believe the fans will see very quickly that this isn't the same old story," Coonelly said. "We've made trades here based on sound baseball judgment and building a championship-caliber organization, not for financial reasons, and we're confident people will see that."

He cited, as part of his conviction, numerous times when the Pirates rejected trade offers, including yesterday.

"We said no time and again, and we were doing that right up until the final minute."

The Pirates also entertained offers for reliever John Grabow into yesterday, but no offer above one average prospect was received, and they decided to keep him.

No talks of any kind were held regarding Wilson in the past week.

Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com.
First published on August 1, 2008 at 12:00 am

Another trade going nowhere?

By Gene Collier
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pirates/
Friday, August 01, 2008

Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press
Andy LaRoche will join his brother Adam on the Pirates' 25-man roster today in Chicago.

Flipping through my ever-present compendium of weathered baseball axioms -- don't make the first or last out of an inning at third base, never intentionally walk anyone who represents the potential winning run, it ain't over 'til it's over, etc. -- it appears the entire volume is somehow bereft of the phrase "Two LaRoches are better than one."

But, in an elaborate three-team deadline deal of dubious necessity, the Pirates nonetheless added Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Andy LaRoche to their roster, meaning that not only does Andy LaRoche join older brother Adam LaRoche in the Pirates' infield, but PNC Park now becomes semi-officially a branch campus of LaRoche College.

Wisecrackers are cracking open "maybe with two LaRoches you can generate one decent season between them," but c'mon, Andy and this entire second wave of alleged prospects to join the Pirates' organization since last weekend deserve the reasoned and patient analysis to which the club's abused fan base has grown so hopelessly irritated.

The Pirates have been trying to assemble prospects in lieu of well-paid big leaguers for going on 16 years, and the result has been a record-breaking, soul-destroying slide of 16 consecutive losing seasons.

Not a coincidence.

Just for giggles, what were the odds that the seismic Boston Red Sox-Dodgers-Pirates shuffle yesterday would result in Manny Ramirez landing in Pittsburgh? About seven million-to-1, seven million being, coincidentally, what Boston will contribute in dollars for the balance of Ramirez's $20 million salary. No one should be surprised if Boston emerges the big winner in this deal. Who would you rather have, the resurgent 29-year-old Bay, the still-infantile-after-all-these-years 36-year-old Ramirez, or the two from Column A two from Column B Costco prospects package the Pirates toted away?

Personally, I'm not certain I would trade Jason Bay even up for the current Ramirez, and the Pirates didn't. They traded Jason Bay for Not Manny Ramirez. Funny how the top player in any trade involving the Pirates never seems to end up a Pirate.

Before we're too down the road with patient analysis, it should be noted at this point as well that any deal which results in even a minor respite in people saying "Manny being Manny," is a bloody Godsend. Why do I never hear this hideous construction attached to anyone else? When Iran boasts of greater nuclear capability than previously suspected, no one says, "Well, that's just Ahmadinejad being Ahmadinejad."

Anyway, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington, in his first summer at one of the worst jobs in baseball, has traded two-thirds of one of the most productive outfields in baseball (Xavier Nady and Bay) plus one of the top situational bullpen lefties in the game (Damaso Marte) for eight prospects on the theory that virtually all baseball life within Pittsburgh's minor league system has been wiped out by the Comet Littlefield.

If that's the situation -- and I'm not suggesting for a second that it isn't -- what good does it do to have Andy LaRoche, outfielder Brandon Moss, and pitchers Craig Hansen, Jeff Karstens, and soon Ross Ohlendorf on the major league roster? How is that strengthening a foundation of rubble?

Huntington and CEO Frank Coonelly will tell you they are adding depth, and the plain fact is, anyone who still cares has to take it on faith that they're right. Not only strategically, but in their ongoing evaluations. Results are due in 2010 or 2011.

Maybe Andy LaRoche, rated the Dodgers' second-best prospect before this season by Baseball America, will turn into the kind of corner infielder who is consistently productive, a player that is, you know, unlike his brother. Maybe Hansen, a former first-round pick with high-grade gas will turn into reliable power pitcher instead of just another Pirate lugging around a major league earned run average that's north of six. Maybe Brandon Moss and Jose Tabata will turn into outfielders with greater upsides than Nady and Bay. Maybe Jeff Karstens, who joins the rotation this afternoon, will get the consistent outs that eluded him as a Yankee. Maybe Bryan Morris, just 21, will emerge in two years as a top-of-the-rotation horse.

That's a lot of maybein'.

A week ago last night, when Bay and Nady and Nate McLouth all homered in beating the San Diego Padres, Bay said, "It's almost like someone wrote a script."

Not almost. Someone is writing it. Pirates management, in its various incarnations, has been writing this script for 16 years, an evident narrative arc to nowhere. Characters come and go, none fully developed, and they are replaced by others, far less developed. And, if you were chilled by Chapter 2008, wait until you see Chapter 2009.

Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283.
First published on August 1, 2008 at 12:00 am