Buy or sell the future of the Pittsburgh Pirates organization? As Clint Hurdle says: I’m All In

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As an avid baseball fan that happens to have grown up in the city of Pittsburgh, I have been compelled to
follow the Pirates. They are the hometown team of course! Unfortunately, being a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates for the last 19 years has been a losing proposition to say the least.  I mean the Pirates have not had a winning record since I was 5 years old! How has it gotten this bad? It hasn't been easy. Bad decision afterbad decision after bad decision.

Now I am not going to go through all the bad decisions the people who ran this organization have made, since Sid Bream destroyed millions of dreams. No, but someone really should write a book. So it can become the gospel for how not to run a professional franchise.  The worst thing an organization can do is alienate their fans, and this one did it too many times over!  The alienation has led to two factions of fans in Pittsburgh: the believers and the non-believers. Or what people are notoriously calling Pro-Nuttings and Anti-Nuttings on Bob Smizek’s blog.

The fundamental question of which side you are on has become ingrained with being associated with baseball in Pittsburgh at all. This is the saddest part about what these last two decades of bad baseball have done to the fans in this city. The Antis have become so fed up with this organization that they refuse to go to games or even compliment the organization. Many are fans of players and some coaches, but that is usually it. The Pros believe in the current front office’s direction and trust their path to bring this organization back to glory.

 Which side is right? Antis make it sound like Bob Nutting is diving in a big pool of gold like Scrooge McDuck at his headquarters in Seven Springs. He just wants to line his pockets with customers’ money for just the price of bobble-heads and fireworks. This was a better accusation a couple of years ago, but, lately, it has gone stale. That’s because of what’s been happening with this team for the last four years or so.  Okay folks, this is where the objectivity ends and I have to give my own opinions on this baseball organization.

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This is a very controversial statement, but Bob Nutting taking over as Chairman from Kevin McClatchy began the first step of this healing process. I know CRAZY! Call me a Pro-Nutting if you wish, but hear me out. Kevin McClatchy may have been the mastermind behind the best ballpark in America, but he had the worst baseball sense of any owner I have ever witnessed. Just look at the men he hired to run the baseball operations. 


First Cam Bonifay, who gave a singles hitting catcher, Jason Kendall, a 6 year $60 million dollar contract, also a 2 year $10 million dollar contract to malcontent Derrick “Operation Shutdown”Bell, and gave a 4 year $15 million dollar contract to Pat Meares after he got injured. Let me reiterate: after he was injured!!! McClatchy fired Bonifay in 2001, and then hired some guy named Dave Littlefield.

In my opinion, Dave Littlefield has got to be the worst general manager in modern sports history. It was almost like this guy read the baseball operations playbook and then decided to do the exact opposite. I argue that he has sent this organization at least 5 years further away from contention. There is only one way to compete as a small market team in baseball, and that is by developing your own cheap talent. You draft the players with the most potential; you sign the international teenagers with the most potential; and you make sound trades and free agent signings to supplement your major league team.  Dave Littlefield drafted players based on signabilty, offered the worst facilities and signing bonuses to international teenagers, and also traded for and signed washed up veterans.  Like I said, Littlefield went to the beat of his own drum.

           

 The heart of any baseball franchise, especially for small market ones, is its minor league system. It is needed to supplement, and or restock future rosters. Dave Littlefield believed in a win now approach, which did not stress importance of the farm system. He brought in over-the-hill veterans such as: Jeremy Burnitz, Chris Stynes, Randal Simon, Matt Morris, etc. But he refused to pay the likes of B.J. Upton, Prince Fielder, Zack Greinke, Matt Wieters, etc. Why would he do that? Because B.J. Upton, Prince Fielder, Matt Wieters, and other draftees would take money away from the pool to sign the precious free agents that were going to help the team win right away. Even if Littlefield would have hit on more free agents and put a winning product on the field, it wouldn’t have been sustainable. Littlefield put all his cards into ending the losing streak, and not developing a championship caliber organization. And that is why I believe he may have been the worst general manager in modern sports history.

           

Dave Littlefield’s debauchery of the baseball operations leads me back to the first positive outcome for the Pirates.  Kevin McClatchy resigned and Bob Nutting took over as the new chairman of the board.  As the new chairman, he fired Dave Littlefield and hired Frank Coonelly as new CEO.  Coonelly then led the search for the new general manager. He chose Neal Huntington from the then successful Cleveland Indians organization. I wonder if Huntington would have taken the job back in 2007 if he knew that he would be chastised this much by the media and fans. Say what you will about Huntington, but no one can say he is a coward. Far from it!

Right away, Huntington started trading everyone on the major league roster. Why would he do that? Because they weren't winning, and they had no chance to win with the pathetic farm system Littlefield left.  Huntington traded his veterans to stockpile more talent in the system. The one negative with his strategy is that he targeted trades of quantity more than quality because the farm was so bereaved of talent.  I am convinced this is a major factor in why his trade of Jason Bay has backfired.  No one can defend that move today, but at the time I understood it. Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris were considered good prospects at the time, and Brandon Moss was seen as at least a 4^th outfielder in the big leagues.  The Jason Bay trade is still the number one argument for Antis against Huntington today. 

I find it to be a little comical that Huntington receives more backlash than I ever remember his predecessors receiving. But then again, Bay wasn't just some player. Huntington was unsuccessful with his trade of Freddie Sanchez for Tim Alderson. Another one I agreed with at the time because Alderson was one of San Francisco’s top pitching prospects, but his velocity has since disappeared and is struggling to keep his career alive.  Those two trades have been the biggest blunders so far by Huntington, but he has had made many more positive than negative moves for this organization.

One trade that has turned out to be a steal for the Pirates and Huntington is the Nady-Marte deal to the Yankees in 2008.  In exchange for Xavier Nady and Demaso Marte, the Yankees sent to the Pirates: Jose Tabata, Ross Ohlendorf, Jeff Karstens, and Daniel McCutchen. After this season, how many Pirate fans will actually not know who these guys are? Other than Ohlendorf, all these players have contributed to the turnaround of this year’s team. The Yankees got a second half of Nady, then 7 games in 2009 because he needed Tommy John surgery. Marte helped the Yankees win the World Series in 2009, but he hasn’t done much of anything since. Tabata is member of the current core of offensive players in Pittsburgh, and the 3 pitchers are valuable members of the current pitching staff. You just don’t win trades like this anymore in major league baseball, especially when you are the team trading for the unknown commodities. Just as I chalk up the Bay and Sanchez trades as unlucky, I chalk this one up as lucky for Huntington. As expected in the trade department, Huntington won and lost some, but it’s what he has done in the amateur department that provides the true hope for this franchise.

           

I could not be a believer in this front office, if it did not put money into the organization. If they are going to shed payroll by trading veterans, they need to spend the money saved on those contracts somewhere else. Fortunately, Bob Nutting, Frank Coonelly, and Neil Huntington put the money where their mouth was. Finally someone working on the Pirates decided to follow the small market model of building by signing and developing top amateur talent. If Dave Littlefield would have done this, the Pirates would probably be competing today, just like the Rays and Brewers are. The best way to compete in Pittsburgh is to put your resources into the amateur player draft, scouting department, and the minor league system. I knew this front office regime was serious about turning this nightmare around, when they took Pedro Alvarez with their first pick in the 2008 draft. He was considered by the most the best player available, and the Pirates actually took him. That wouldn’t have been groundbreaking news for most organizations, but only one year before, the Pirates took Daniel Moskos over Matt Wieters because of signability. That pick made it official, the Pirates were finally getting serious. But who would have thought they would become the New York Yankees of draft spending???

That’s right! The Pirates have been the biggest spenders in the MLB amateur draft the last four years. In fact, Jim Callis of Baseball America made a list of the biggest spenders since 2007. Callis used 2007 as a starting point because that was the first year of the current collective bargaining agreement and was also the first year that the signing deadline was implemented. The Pirates have spent $52,057,400 on bonuses since 2007. The Nationals are the only team that really kept up with $51,084,600 spent since 2007. I’d also like to note that Washington picked first overall two of those years (Strasburg, Harper), while the Pirates only selected first overall once (Cole).  The Pirates spent $17,005,700 alone this year. The record before this season was Washington’s $11,927,200 spent on last year’s draft. The Pirates surpassed that with only their first two picks! First pick Gerrit Cole received an $8 million bonus, and second pick Josh Bell received a $5 million bonus. The $5 million bonus given to Bell is the most ever outside of the first round. Cole’s signing was expected all along, but Josh Bell was considered a lock to go to the University of Texas. The Pirates shocked the baseball world again and got their man. The 2011 draft has the chance to be the franchise changer the organization has been looking for a long time.

Now that I have established that the Pirates have been killing the draft the last few years, that’s still only one of the things they must succeed at. Remember to succeed consistently as a small market team, you have to draft and sign the right amateurs, develop them, and make the right trades to supplement the organization. Let’s look at the international market. The international market is where the best organizations make their mark. It takes great scouting, resources, and a great developmental strategy. 

Another major improvement with this organization is their commitment to Latin America. Latin America is so important because roughly 30 percent of major leaguer's are from there.  Latin America was not taken seriously by the previous regime. In fact, when Bob Nutting went down to see the facilities in the Dominican Republic in 2007; he could not believe what he found. What he found was a rough field and a building about the size of a closet! An interesting quote from a 2009 Rob Biertempfel Trib article: “It was not just a closet," Nutting said. "It was an un-kept closet.” So what did that miser Nutting do? Did he hire a janitor to keep the closet clean? NO. He opened up his check book to build a new $5 million dollar state-of-the-art facility. From all accounts, it is one of the nicer complexes in the Dominican. This facility and the hiring of well-respected Rene Gayo make the Pirates a serious contender in Latin America now also. There is no question that the Pirates are now true contenders for the elite amateur talent now.

          

  I commend the front office on the work they have done in bringing in the elite talent, but the true work is just beginning.  It is one thing to draft and sign the players with the highest upside, but it’s another to help them reach that upside. This is the major process the Pirates must excel at to succeed at the major league level. The major hurdle this organization has been unable to clear is the development of star players. The organization has developed useful major league contributors over the years, but has yet to develop star major leaguers. Just look at the current Pirates roster today. There are two above average starters (Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker) whom have been developed by the Pirates.  But Andrew McCutchen is the only true star on the roster. For the Pirates to truly compete for divisions, pennants, and titles, this is the key factor that must change. The Pirates are giving themselves a better chance of getting stars by drafting the higher end talent, but it is up to them to get the most out of those players. Unfortunately the other potential star player the Pirates are relying on is Pedro Alvarez.

Alvarez’s struggles this year are well-documented, but for many to call him a bust already is ridiculous. Mike Schmidt, whom many think is the greatest third baseman ever, hit just .196 in his first full season in the big leagues!  I will admit Alvarez is on a dangerous path toward being a bust, but he still is only 24 years old. This is the first opportunity the Pirates get to prove that they really know what they are doing with their development of amateur talent. Pedro was destined to be an above average power hitter at the major league level, so the Pirates must prove that they can help him get to those results. I cannot lie, if the Pirates don’t turn around Alvarez within the next year or so, I will really doubt their ability to develop Jameson Taillon, Gerrit Cole, Louis Heredia, Starling Marte, or Josh Bell into the star players they are projected to be.

So far, the Pirates have proven that they will spend the money on the talent. As documented already with the draft, and now with the contract extension discussions with some core major league players. The Pirates already signed Jose Tabata to “very” team friendly extension, and are reportedly in talks with Neil Walker. Those signings will be great, but McCutchen is the key. The Pirates should do what it takes to get at least one of McCutchen’s free agent years. It can and should be done.

The Brewers are a good example of what the Pirates should be emulating. Ryan Braun is their best and most popular player, so they signed him up long term. Andrew McCutchen is the Pirates best and most popular player, so they need try their best to get something done comparable to what the Brewers did with Ryan Braun or Arizona did with Justin Upton. The organization has already taken huge steps to competing again, but there are still a couple huge steps to take. To summarize, the Pirates need to prove that they can develop their star amateur talent into star major league talent. And then sign their stars to longer term deals, find bargain free agents and/or make trades to supplement their stars to be true championship contenders again. Can they do it? Time will tell. But I’m All In.

Ryan Godsey - http://twitter.com/#!/GoodSee24