Spring Training Has Begun

Yes, Spring Training has been underway for one week now, and you are probably wondering, "Why hasn't The Grandstander  written about the Pirates yet?", or maybe you aren't wondering that, but the fact is, I am having a tough time getting my usual jolt of springtime optimism when it comes to our favorite baseball team.  The reason for that can be laid at the feet, I believe, of the Pirates themselves.

Consider that following a season when the team took a 20 game step backwards and which featured a trade deadline deal where the team gave up two highly touted prospects, not to obtain a key player to help them win games, win championships, or even get better, but to dump a salary (I am speaking of the Francisco Liriano to Toronto salary dump trade, in case you forgot), this is what transpired over the Winter Hot Stove Season:

• The team spent most off their time trying desperately trying to trade Andrew McCutchen, probably their most popular player, and easily their best player over the last ten seasons or so.
• Re-signed pitcher Ivan Nova, who despite two good months (5-2, 3.06) with the team, is still a pitcher with a career ERA north of 4.00.
• Signed free agent pitcher Daniel Hudson.  Hudson, who has had two Tommy John surgeries in his career, may well be a good pitcher, but at this point he is destined to be a seventh or eighth inning set-up guy.
• Obtained a bunch of no name pitchers in hope that Ray Searage can turn water into wine with them.
• Had to deal with a DUI incident involving Jung Ho Kang.  That's not the team's fault, but it sure has cast a pall over the off-season nonetheless.

That's it.  That's the list. If I left out any big blockbuster that inspires visions of overtaking the Cubs and Cardinals in the NL Central, I will be happy to be corrected.

Now, Spring Training has begun, and the main story seems to be gearing up all Pirates fans for what will probably be  final season, or maybe even the final half-season, of McCutchen's tenure with the Pirates.

Yep.  That ought to have people storming the PNC Park tickets windows.

And today, we have been treated to stories detailing Bob Nutting's annual address to the team, and his various tete a tetes with the media.

Of course, McCutchen's status is still Topic A, and Bob assures us that he "loves" Andrew, and hopes that he will "always be a Pirate", but well, you know, business is business, and sometimes things just don't always work out the way you want them.

Don't get me wrong.  Yes, Cutch underperformed last season, but at the age of only 31, I'd say he deserves the benefit of the doubt before he's written off as being done.  Also, no player should be untouchable, and if the team can be made better, anyone could and should be subject to being traded.  However, how confident are you that value on a par with what McCutchen has given the Pirates will ever be received in a trade for him?  And no matter what, he deserved better treatment than being dragged through the public prints and airwaves all winter as so much excess baggage that the team needs to jettison.

And one other nugget from Bob Nutting's interviews.  Since he has taken over as Chief Bigdome at 115 Federal Street, he has never, not once, taken a salary from the team. What a prince!

Oh, I am sure that the fires will still burn within me.  I think that the first televised game from Florida will be sometime next week, and I am sure that I will be planted in front of the TV set when it comes on, at least for a couple of innings, but it's going to take the players that they have - Marte, Polanco, Bell, Harrison, Cole, Taillon, and, yes, Andrew McCutchen - generating excitement for me on the filed of play to stoke those fires, because all the Front Office has done since last October is throw buckets of water on them.

Spring Training Thoughts

Spring Training opens for our beloved Pittsburgh Pirates in three days, and it occurs to me that The Grandstander has been very quiet on the subject of our favorite team this off-season.  In fact, in checking the archives, I see that I have written only one extensive post on them and that was back on December 14:
http://www.grandstander.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-tepid-hot-stove.html

Of course, others have been commenting extensively on the team's off-season, and not in very positive terms.  The comments have run along the lines of....Marlon Byrd is gone....no one to play right field....no one to play first base....what is going on with A.J. Burnett....and, the old standard, Nutting is cheap, doesn't want to win, and only wants to make money.  (As to that last statement, I will grant you that Bob Nutting does want to make money, he may very well be cheap, but I don't buy that he doesn't want to win.)  All of this hand-wringing and sturm und drang has led many to believe that (a) the Pirates have taken a step back, (b) 2013 was a fluke convergence of fate, and (c) the losing seasons will return beginning in 2014.

Well, as I have stated before, the Nutting-Coonelly-Huntington Management Team, and particularly Neal Huntington, bought themselves a lot of credibility with me last season, so I am not ready to replace my Jolly Roger with black crepe just yet.

Of course, there are questions:

Right Field. Looks like this spot will be manned by a Jose Tabata and Travis Snider.  I am hoping that the stuff being floated by the team about Snider's bad toe slowing him up last season is true, and that good things can be hoped for now that he is fully healthy.  If so, then perhaps this platoon could be an effective for the Bucs.  Maybe not All-Star caliber, but serviceable and productive.  And if not, we all know that Gregory Polanco awaits in Indianapolis and predictions of super stardom envelope him.  Even Huntington, who seems to never want to talk about bringing his prospects to Pittsburgh, has hinted that Polonco is "ready", and will probably be playing in PNC Park this season.  If nothing else, that should light a fire under the backsides of Tabata and Snider.

First base. Right now, it looks like it will be a platoon of Gaby Sanchez and Andrew Lambo.  Personally, I would love to see what Sanchez would produce playing strictly against LH pitching.  As for Lambo, well, that IS a question mark, but the guy was their minor league player of the year in 2013, so he deserves a shot to see what he can do.  Given the poor year of Garrett Jones last year, you might say that the Pirates are no worse off than they were for the first five months of last season.  That is damning with faint praise, to be sure, but I think that if most fans think this, then I am sure that NH does too, and that the situation at first base is far from a closed book, and the team doesn't play a game that counts for another 49 days.

Pitching/Burnett.  As of this morning, A.J. Burnett has not retired, has not yet signed with any other team, and will probably sign with the team who - get ready for this now - will pay him the most money.  If this surprises anyone, I can only ask, why?  He is 37 years old, and the Pirates are simply not going to give him a multi-year deal.  I know that the Pirates made him an offer of $10 million for one year.  That seems to be their limit, and they have been criticized for it, and a case could be made that they should open the vault and give hem whatever he wants.  It's easy to spend other people's money.

The fact is, however, the Pirates would be a better team on the first day of Spring Training if Burnett was on the roster, and if he does not return, someone is going to have to make up for those ten wins, 191 IP, and 209 K's. Who that might be will be a big question for Clint Hurdle and Ray Searage as they put the staff together to head North.  That pitcher could be Jeff Locke, presumably recovered from a back injury that made him all but disappear in the second half of last season.  It could be free agent signee Edinson Volquez, who everyone hopes that Searage can rescue his career as he did Francisco Liriano's last season.  It could be a healthy Wandy Rodriguez.  Or it could be June call-up Jameson Taillon, who some in the front office feel will be an even better pitcher than Garrett Cole.

No, the Pirates aren't the Cardinals or Dodgers, and perhaps not even the Washington Nationals (who, by the way, did not make the Playoffs last year), but I am far from convinced that a losing season is inevitable.  Yeah, there are questions, but those questions will make for an interesting and exciting Spring Training.

Can't wait for it to start.

Spring Training Begins

Other than a post on the changing of the team's Jolly Roger logo in 2014, I have come to realize that I have not issued a Grandstander post on the Pirates since the calendar turned to 2013.  Unbelievable.  However, today is the day that the Bucco pitchers and catchers reported to Pirate City in Bradenton, so I am compelled to write one today.  I will attempt to do so without once using the phrase "hope springs eternal."

So, what do you write about after 20 losing seasons, and after two seasons that started so promisingly only to see the team collapse, and to collapse in an historical fashion, in the final months of each of those seasons?  Part of my current anger with the Pirates as led by Neal Huntington has been their ability to suck all of the optimism right out of me, even at the dawn of Spring Training when hope spri....oops, sorry about that.

The Pirates off season was highlighted by major publicity gaffes when the minor league brain trust of the NHR (Neal Huntington Regime) issued deranged internal memos and led the minor leaguers in a series of Navy SEAL-type drills that may or may not have led to injury to some of these key young prospects.  This, along with that aforementioned collapse led to a comprehensive top-to-bottom one man review of all team operations by top man Bob Nutting, aka, Capt. Nuts, after which nothing much happened to change things other than than the hiring of some 70-something year old scout from that Yankees as a special advisor to GM Neal.  Oh, and the SEAL-type drills have been discontinued.  Maybe.

On the personnel side, the team traded All-Star closer Joel Hanrahan because he was headed for arbitration where he would have been awarded a $7 million salary.  They signed a catcher, Russell Martin, who hit .211 for the Yankees last year, and in what is to me a perfect symbolic metaphor for the entire history of the NHR player development and acquisition strategy, they signed Francisco Liriano, a free agent pitcher with a broken arm.

On the face of it, I have no real problem with the Hanrahan trade.  A "closer" will emerge, be it Jason Grilli or someone else, who will get the job done.  Four players came to Pittsburgh from Boston in the deal and none of them overwhelms you.  If nothing else, "organizational depth", a battle cry of the NHR, will be enhanced. (Nice to know that the Indianapolis Indians will be strong this year.)  Martin, whatever he might have left in his tank, will be an improvement over Rod Barajas.  As for Liriano, who knows (a) when he'll be able to pitch, and (b) how effective he will be when he does?  According to Jim Sproule (Official American League Scout for The Grandstander), he's pretty much garbage.

But enough of that.  What can we look forward to and be excited about?  Let's break it down by position.

Outfield.  As with everything with the Pirates, you start with Andrew McCutchen.  He's the best player on the team.  He was an MVP candidate last year until he leveled off a bit in August and September.  No reason to think that he will be anything less than the All-Star caliber player he has been the last two season.  Starling Marte should get the job in left field from the get-go, and I think that he could be a quality major league player.  Right field becomes a guessing game....Jerry Sands, Travis Snyder, Jose Tabata, even Garrett Jones.  Snyder was a key acquisition at the deadline last year, but he was injured and didn't show a whole lot.  I think he gets first crack at keeping the job.

Infield.  Pedro Alvarez was the key question coming into last season.  He is not a question this year.  He hit 30 home runs last year and he will not be a "bust", and that was a strong possibility as recently as April of last season.  He needs to be more consistent and avoid those 2-for-40 stretches that seemed to always follow amazingly torrid stretches when he'd hit six homers in eight games.  It would be nice if he cut down on the strike outs, but if he hits 30-35 HR's and gets a bit more consistent, I'll live with the K's.  At first base, Garrett Jones had a coming out year last year when he was used as a platoon player (only 74 of 475 AB's were against lefties), and he produced big time.  The team needs to find the complimentary RH hitting first baseman to platoon with him.  That could be Gaby Sanchaz, Sands, or one of the several dozen or so "outfielder/first baseman" they seem to have on the roster.  One cautionary note:  Jones is up for arbitration and could be headed for a $7 million or so salary, which means he could be sent packing by GM Neal at the orders of Capt. Nuts.  Neil Walker had a terrific year last year until a back injury put him pretty much on the shelf for the last six weeks or so of the season.  Not so coincidentally, this is when the team started going in the tank, too.  I know a little bit about bad backs, so I worry about Walker and his health situation, and I hope that this is not the beginning of a downward spiral for him.  At short stop, Clint Barmes returns.  Whoopee.

Catcher.  In his blog today, Bob Smizik points out that the Pirates have not drafted a catcher who has played in a single major league game, since the Cam Bonifay Regime drafted Ryan Doumit in 2000.  THIRTEEN YEARS AGO!!!!  Sorry, but that is just pathetic.  Anyway, Russell Martin now becomes the overpaid, multi-million dollar stop gap. Maybe he'll succeed where the likes of Barajas, Chris Snyder, Benito Santiago and other forgettable backstops failed. 

Pitching.  Here we go, here's the basket where the NHR has placed all the eggs.  Some bullet point thoughts:

• I'd love to believe that A.J. Burnett, at 36, will duplicate the season he had last year, but will/can he?
• I'd love to believe that First Half J-Mac and not Second Half J-Mac is the real J-Mac, but is he?
• Nice that the team was able to re-sign Jeff Karstens after he was DFA'd, but why weren't 29 other teams anxious to sign him as a relatively cheap free agent when they had the opportunity? 
• I am excited about having Wandy Rodriguez for a full season.  Really.
• Charlie Morton, who showed signs of being a really nice pitcher in 2011, comes back from Tommy John surgery, probably in June.  What kind of pitcher will he be?
• Liriano, from what I've read, may not be ready to pitch until June.  Maybe he'll be the young phee-nom he was with the Twins all those years ago, but I'm thinking if he's as good as Kevin Correia was last year, the Pirates will be lucky.
• Kyle McPherson and Jeff Locke, two of the young gun prospects, may fight it out for the fifth starting spot.  These are the kinds of guys who come up through the system and HAVE to make good for the "Plan" of the Pirates to work.  In brief major league tries so far, they haven't shown the goods yet.
• Bullpen.  Something will emerge here.  This is one thing that Huntington appears to be able to do each year.  If Grilli can't do the job that Hanrahan has done, someone will emerge to get those last three outs when needed.
• You notice that I have yet to mention Gerritt Cole, the Overall #1 of two years ago.  No matter what happens in Spring Training, I fully expect Cole to start the season in Indy, but if he shows anything, anything at all in Indy, I expect that Cole will be the first guy called up to start when someone falters or is injured.  Even then, there is always the chance that the Pirates, in an effort to delay Cole's arbitration eligibility, will NOT bring Cole up, even if it is obvious he should be called up.  If THAT happens, my frustration will reach the breaking point, and I may burn tickets on Federal Street at the foot of the Stargell statue!

So, in the end, am I excited that Spring Training has started and we'll soon be hearing some Grapefruit games on the radio?  Of course I am!  Will this be the year the losing streak stops (and say it with me now, "the longest losing season streak in North American professional sports history")?  I will wait until the conclusion of Spring Training to attempt to give an answer to that question.  As I have said before, the fact that I can no longer generate unbridled optimism at the start of Spring Training is perhaps the biggest wrong that has been perpetrated upon me by the NHR.

Spring Training...and Other Travlin' Thoughts

For those of you who may be wondering where I have been for the last several days, the picture above should tell you all you need to know. Marilyn and I took off last Tuesday and headed down to Long Boat Key, a barrrier island situated halfway between Sarasota and Bradenton, Florida, and took in some Spring Training baseball.

Thanks to Bucco Prez Frank Coonelly, we had prime seats for the Pirates-Blue Jays on Wednesday and Pirates-Orioles on St. Patrick's Day. Second row, right behind the Bucs dugout. You could almost reach out and touch the batters in the on deck circle, as the pictures below will attest.

And if you are lucky enough to be a Grapefruit League game on March 17, you can see the Bucs wearing their once-a-year green caps. You may even get the new Skipper to tip his hat to you!

As for the games themselves, we were fortunate to see the Pirates start their Opening Day line-ups both days, including starting pitchers Paul Maholm and Ross Ohlendorf. In fact, the only projected regular we did not see was catcher Chris Snyder, who was sitting out both games with some sort of tweak. (On the bright side, we did see Snyder field a foul ball hit into the dugout and then roll it over the dugout roof to a kid with a glove sitting in front of us. So, kuddos the Snyder for this fan- and kid-friendly gesture!)

We also got to see Neil Walker belt a home run and Andrew McCutchen lace a gap shot double in one game. Watching Cutch steaming around the bases is one of the more fun things you can see at a ball game. Unfortunately, we also saw Maholm give up a four run inning to the Jays and Ohlendorf yield a six run inning to the O's, and both of these innings led to Pirates losses.

As we left McKechnie Field on Thursday, Marilyn said she wondered if what we saw was a preview of what we would be seeing at PNC Park in the season ahead. Unless the Pirates can manage to score about eight runs a game, I do fear that the mediocrity of the starting pitching could indeed cause us to see much of the same as we saw in Bradenton last week.

But, hey, what the hell...these were spring training exhibition games!!! Who really cares if you win or lose? It was just great to be at baseball game in gorgeous Florida sunshine!

Speaking of that Florida sunshine, we could not have asked for better weather. Temps in the high 70's each day, breezy, and not a cloud in the sky. Chamber of Commerce perfect!

Some other comments and observations about the trip....

• We flew on AirTran for the first time and give them a solid "A." All four flights (Pgh-Atlanta, Atlanta-Sarasota each way) were on time. No delays. Perfect.
• When checking our bag (which cost us $20, btw) on the flight home, we were found to be six pounds overweight. We could have checked it through for an additional $49. Instead, we made quite a picture at the Sarasota Airport check-in opening our suitcase and pulling stuff out to cram into our carry-ons. We made it with a half-pound to spare!
• Forty-nine bucks! It would have been cheaper to pack a second bag and pay whatever they were extorting, er, excuse me, charging for a second bag!
• It had been 18 months since we've traveled by plane, and AirTran's good performance aside, air travel really is a pain. I understand why this is so in these times we live, but it is still a pain.
• We stayed at the Hilton Resort Hotel on Longboat Key, which we learned is the last actual hotel on Longboat Key. The rest of the place is now given over to luxury condos.
• Very nice pool at the Hilton, but we did encounter a Sopranos-like moment. Early one morning as we sat on the side of the pool, two ducks flew in and landed in the pool! As soon as I got home today, I made an appointment for myslef with Dr. Melfi!!
• Friday evening we decided to walk up to the beach to sit for a spell, and when we opened our room door, we almost collided with a young lady in a wedding dress. Turns out there was a wedding on the beach about to take place! I wish I knew where the happy couple lives, because I got some great pictures of the Happy Event.
• Had some great meals down there, but our favorite was in a little bar in Bradenton Beach called the Bridge Tender Inn. Open air seating, ice cold beer, great food, a guy with a guitar singing 60's era music. An absolutely perfect seashore place.
• It also happened that the Bridge Tender is owned by a guy from Wisconsin and the place is covered with Packers memorabilia. I told the guy that we were Steelers fans but we were going to stay and eat anyway! Ended up having a nice conversation with the guy, and that just added to the zietgiest of the moment.
• As for the singer, if you travel to beach towns like this, you have seen the same kind of guy. He was in his 50's with a David Crosby mustache and a gray ponytail. There are hundreds of guys like this. What is his story? Is singing Jimmy Buffett and James Taylor songs for tips how he supports himself? Or, did he play in a band forty years ago and now works in a square 9-to-5 office job, and singing in a bar with a tip jar is how he recaptures his past when he was REALLY happy?
• We watched the sun set into the Gulf of Mexico for four nights in a row. Spectacular!
• I found myself to be hopelessly out of it by traveling without either an iPad or a Smart Phone of some type. It seems that everyone is now connected all of the time.
• That included the jackwagon at the pool one morning who was kind enough to share his office conference call with everyone at poolside. There oughtta be a law against that.
• Coming home last night, we had a three hour layover in Atlanta, which we learned is now the busiest airport in the world. Talk about people watching heaven! You wouldn't think an airport would be all that busy from 7:30 to 11:00 on a Saturday night, but Hartsfield Airport sure was.
• Contrast that scene to arriving at 12:15 on a Saturday night/Sunday morning in Pittsburgh. I believe that we were one of two flights arrriving at that time. It was ghost town.
• A word about Frank Coonelly here. As CEO of the Pirates, he takes a lot of heat, and not without some justification, for the performance of the team, but he could not have been nicer to Marilyn and I during our trip. I've gotten to know Frank due to my SABR connections, and let's face it, that is just a glorified fan club. Yet Coonelly was giving us the same kind of treatment - almost - as he was also giving during one game to Sy Holzer, Chip Ganassi, and Tom Reich, guys of considerably more import to the Pirates than Marilyn and Bob Sproule. There are a lot of reasons that I root for the Pirates, and not the least of them is being able to see Frank Coonelly succeed!
• At the risk of slipping into an advanced state of Geezerhood here, I note that there was no loud, ear-splitting music during every stoppage in play and between innings at the games at McKechnie, and the absence of this was absolutely delightful.
• I enjoyed running into SABR buddy Ed Luteran at the game on Thursday. Ed now lives in Winter Haven and works as an official scorer for Florida State League games. Ed is hoping for a visit to Pittsburgh in the fall, which could call for an impromteau Hot Stove Night for some of the SABR guys.
• Having a Kindle sure makes travel easier for the reader. On the down side, you have to turn it off when the airplane is taxiing, taking off, and landing.
• Read a thriller called "They're Watching" by some guy named Gregg Hurwitz. Don't bother with it.
• Started reading the new book "56" by Kostya Kennedy about the Joe DiMaggio hitting streak. Am about 25% into it, and it's a good one. I'll give it a fuller review when I'm finished with it.
• All in all a great trip, but, as always, it's good to be home once again. It is even better to be home from vacation and not have to worry about getting up for work tomorrow!