Management's task monumental

By Bob Smizik
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Monday, September 29, 2008

It's a good thing the Pirates have "the single-best management team in all of baseball." They're going to need it. Never in their 16-year streak of losing has the outlook for an upcoming season been so bleak. Not even when the Pirates lost 100 games in 2001 was the immediate future so depressing.


Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Maholm throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008, in Milwaukee.

The Pirates closed out their season yesterday with a 6-1 win against the San Diego Padres to give them a 67-95 record. But that's not the real story. The real story is this: Since the trade of Xavier Nady July 27, which was closely followed by the Jason Bay trade, the Pirates won 19 of their final 60 games. Over the course of a season, that translates into 111 losses.

That's what the Pirates and their fans have to look forward to in 2009.
As bad as 2001 was, it offered more hope at the end of the season. That team finished poorly, but not as badly as this one -- winning 22 of its final 60. What's more, the best players hadn't been traded out from under that team.

The 2001 team had established All-Star caliber players such as Brian Giles and Jason Kendall returning for 2002. It had one of the best young power hitters in the game in Aramis Ramirez. It had an outstanding young defensive shortstop in Jack Wilson. That team had something to build on -- although the Pirates were not able to do so.

What do these Pirates have to build upon?

No question that Nate McLouth, Ryan Doumit and Paul Maholm had very good seasons. But one season, as followers of the Pirates well know -- see Warren Morris, Ronny Paulino, Zach Duke, Tom Gorzelanny -- proves nothing. McLouth and Doumit declined appreciably in power in the second half. The belief here is both will be solid major leaguers. Whether they are middle-of-the-lineup bats, as Giles and Ramirez were, remains to be seen. The same for Maholm. He has the look of a quality major league pitcher, but not necessarily one who belongs at the top of the rotation.

The 2009 Pirates also will have Adam LaRoche, a first baseman with potential power but one who, because he'll be a year from free agency, will be actively shopped after midseason.

And that's another reason to have no hope for this franchise.

Pittsburgh Pirates' Adam LaRoche follows through on a fifth inning grand slam off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Chad Billingsley in a baseball game in Pittsburgh Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008. Catching is Dodgers' Russell Martin.

This column has for some time defended the Pirates' low payroll with the following reasoning: It was impossible to have a high payroll until there were players on board worthy of high salaries.

When general manager Neal Huntington traded Nady, who had one more season of arbitration, and Bay, who had one more year on his contract, that theory blew up. With a chance to show the fan base they were willing to go beyond a $50 million ceiling, the Pirates blinked. Trading Nady, a client of Scott Boras and not likely to re-sign in 2010, was understandable. Trading Bay was not.

Why should anyone believe the Pirates will do anything different when Doumit and McLouth approach free agency, which will be after the 2011 season? By that time, Doumit will be 30 and McLouth 29. If the Pirates felt they needed to get younger talent for Nady and Bay, both 29 at the time of their trades, why wouldn't they feel the same about McLouth and Doumit?

Yes, much can change between now and then. But the Pirates have done little to indicate the franchise will compete differently.

When Bob Nutting -- the man who called Huntington and team president Frank Coonelly "the single-best management team in all of baseball" -- was announced as the Pirates' principal owner in January 2007, he was asked about raising payroll to keep key players. He said, "I'm not going to commit to a number and I'm not going to commit to individual players. That's not prudent."

In other words: he ducked the question. But it was answered some 19 months later when Nady and Bay were traded.

Will Nutting ever commit to keep a key player who commands an eight-figure salary, which a team must have to compete?

Huntington is talking about securing a power hitter, a starting pitcher and a right-handed reliever in free agency. Good luck.

Since the Pirates have said they won't be in the bidding for high-end free agency, that just about eliminates any hope of getting a legitimate power bat. There will be middle-of-the-rotation starters and right-handed relievers available. Whether the Pirates can compete in the bidding or whether the players will want to be a part of a team looking at its 17th consecutive losing season remains to be determined.

Huntington and Coonelly are not the best management team in all of baseball but they have shown promise. Their problem is this: The job in front of them is monumental and is many years away from being corrected.

Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com. More articles by this author
First published on September 29, 2008 at 12:00 am