Saturday, January 19, 2008
Four young arms in a
five-man rotation give the National League team
some hope.
VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT
YOUNGSTOWN — Will a major administrative shakeup and an on-field managerial change help Pittsburgh’s Major League Baseball franchise in 2008?
Not even the Pirate Parrot could answer that one.
That’s when you ask Neal Huntington, the new general manager, who was hired Sept. 25 to replace David Littlefield.
“We think this club will be better. Why? Because we’ve got a group of young players who, arguably as a unit, drastically underachieved last year, under-performed,” he said. “We can’t tell you who’s going to get better, but we can tell you that, because they’re on the upside of their prime, they are going to get better.
“How much better? Time will tell.”
Huntington, who spent 10 years with the Cleveland Indians — most recently as special assistant to GM Mark Shapiro, was the highest-ranking Pirates organization official on hand for Friday’s Winter Caravan at the Butler Institute of American Art.
With the black and gold Caravan bus parked outside, the contingent of new manager J.R. Russell, right-fielder/first baseman Steve Pearce, pitcher Paul Maholm and a late-arriving Nate McLouth — along with team broadcasters Greg Brown and Steve Blass — made the luncheon crowd feel comfortable.
But it’ll take on-field improvement of a 68-94 record to steer anyone other than diehard fans toward PNC Park in 2008.
Although the franchise’s “We Are Family” days have become “We Are Futility,” there’s still room for optimism after the housecleaning at the end of 2007.
“We’ve put together an outstanding leadership group,” Huntington said of a new scouting director, new director of player development and new director of baseball operations. “We bring experience, maybe not in years, but in roles held and responsibilities held. We bring a vision and a plan to create a sustainable championship-caliber atmosphere in Pittsburgh.”
Once spring training begins when the pitchers and catchers report Feb. 15, the new GM’s job will be player evaluation first-hand.
“It’s one thing to read scouting reports, it’s another thing to watch video, but it’s a third to put together the club as our manager sees it, as we see it from a front-office standpoint — to try to put the best 25 players out there to help our manager be in a position to have that team win,” he said.
Huntington’s outlook for 2008 is tied to young starting pitchers Maholm, Ian Snell, Tom Gorzelanny, Zach Duke and veteran Matt Morris.
“That starting rotation gives us a chance to compete every game,” Huntington said. “We’re looking at a bullpen led by Mike Capps and some issues which give us multiple options. Then our manager is going to do a great job of matching our pitcher strengths against lineup weaknesses.”
Offensively, the team needs to be more patient and grind out at-bats, get deeper in counts and drive the ball to the middle of the field.
“Don Long our hitting coach is an advocate of that,” the GM said. “If our hitters have that ability he’ll get that out of them. Defensively, we need to play sound, fundamental baseball. We need to be in the right places at the right times, we need to make the right decisions with the baseball and, certainly, to make the plays that we’re supposed to make.”
After Adam LaRoche’s recent $5 million one-year contract and agreement on a one-year deal with third baseman Jose Bautista, Pittsburgh most recently struck deals with two of three more arbitration eligible-players.
Friday was the filing deadline.
“Basically, you file a number,” said Huntington. “It doesn’t necessarily alter the negotiation process, it doesn’t definitely mean that you’re going to arbitration. You can settle with a player up until you enter [the hearing room]. So, today [Friday] is, theoretically, an important day, but we’re continuing to work hard to settle the remaining case. Arbitration really doesn’t benefit anybody, unfortunately. If we can, we’d like to avoid it, but we’re also prepared to go if we absolutely have to.”