Pirates: A season in review Highlights and lowlights Players' report cards and status

The simplest way to dissect what went awry for the Pirates in 2005 would be to shuffle through the usual what-if scenarios.

What if Jose Castillo had come through with the bases loaded in the 10th inning June 12 and put the team over .500? What if umpire Tony Randazzo had not blown that call at Yankee Stadium three days later? What if Craig Wilson had not injured the same hand twice? What if Oliver Perez had not kicked that laundry cart? Or Kip Wells had not kicked himself after so many cameo starts?

There is another approach, too.

Step back and ask this: What if the Pirates actually got lucky?

What if they, unwittingly or not, ended up better positioned for the future because all that misfortune prevented them from sticking with the status quo?

For years, this team's management has followed a spinning-wheel course of plugging holes with journeymen, of being reluctant to start youngsters and blaming them for defeats when they did, of seemingly embracing mediocrity rather than striving for the next level.

Perhaps this was because of the undying sting of former general manager Cam Bonifay's much publicized five-year plan and the resultant fear that another youth movement would turn off the public. Or that some genuinely felt the ideal model for building a winner in Pittsburgh was to roll the dice on rent-a-players each spring.

Or it might well be, as the Pirates have maintained, that they simply were working with the material at hand.

Whatever the case, the youth movement came this past summer.

First was catcher Ryan Doumit on June 5. Next, pitcher Zach Duke on June 26 to replace Perez. Then, center fielder Chris Duffy on July 17 when Wilson was hurt a second time. By August, those three and pitcher Ian Snell, first baseman Brad Eldred and outfielder Nate McLouth were bumping older regulars from their positions. Matt Lawton was traded. Daryle Ward and Tike Redman were benched.

It was the type of takeover unseen in these parts since the late 1980s, and it brought a justifiable enthusiasm for the future that had been missing just as long.

It served another purpose, too, perhaps no less valuable.

"For me, the biggest thing was just getting all the wows out of the way, and that was mostly stuff like the new cities and stadiums and facing a certain great pitcher here or there," Duffy said. "Better to do it now than next year. We want to be winning right off the bat."

To win that quickly, though, much will have to go right for the Pirates after a 67-95 finish. And much will have to change.

The direction

The commitment to winning, as with any sports franchise, starts at the top. Managing general partner Kevin McClatchy's recent pledge to increase the payroll limit to a range of $46 million to $49 million will not significantly alter the Pirates' low ranking in Major League Baseball, but it represents progress.

How -- or if -- that money gets spent is up to general manager Dave Littlefield. He had roughly $4 million in unspent payroll this past season. Free-agent outfielder Jeromy Burnitz turned down a January offer for that much, then Littlefield decided to preserve that cash for a more important time.

A variety of factors suggest that time is now.

For one, Littlefield will have a new manager and, most likely, an all-new coaching staff. He owes it to them -- and maybe to himself, with two years left on his contract -- to field the best team possible as soon as possible.

For another, he and director of player development Brian Graham have succeeded in producing a young core of talent that has minimized the holes to be filled at the major-league level. A big-name acquisition or two might have been window dressing in the past, but not now.

Finally, Pirates fans have persevered through 13 losing seasons and, despite that, are expected to turn out in large numbers at PNC Park next summer, mostly because of the lure of attending the All-Star Game. Why not try to captivate the captive audience?

Littlefield has identified third base, first base, right field and right-handed relief as his targets for offseason acquisitions. The primary pursuit is for power, but the free-agency pool is not attractive in that regard. That means trades will be the primary route. He has seemed reluctant in the past to part with his main commodity, a bounty of left-handed pitching, but that surely must change to land everyday players of value.

The decision to makeover the staff no doubt came as the result of poor performance, as Littlefield has stated. But it also came with fortuitous timing, in that the Pirates' young players could be poised to take the critical step from succeeding individually to doing it as a team. Having the same faces around to instruct and motivate them, no matter how qualified, might have muddied that.

Still, Littlefield can do more to facilitate this step.

One way would be to install a system to deliver advance scouting on upcoming opponents.

This is routine across professional sports -- the St. Louis Cardinals paid Jim Leyland to sit at PNC Park all year and file reports on the Pirates -- but the Pirates do not practice it. Before the team's series at Wrigley Field last week, the scouting reports the Pirates gave their coaches had blank spots next to the categories of "hitting weaknesses" and "defensive weaknesses." That is the type of information best culled from first-hand accounts, and every minuscule advantage is needed for a team that finished a league-worst 15-28 in one-run games.

Also, a realistic goal is needed. This, too, is best set by Littlefield.

When the Pirates reached .500 June 11, he and others in management greeted it with a shrug, even as Pittsburghers semi-celebrated it. His reasoning was sound, in that no franchise should set a bar so low. At the same time, a winning season is the next realistic progression for these Pirates and, if they should pull it off next year, it would mean at least a 15-game leap in the standings. No shame in that.

When Milwaukee ended its string of losing at 12 seasons last week, Brewers manager Ned Yost said: "How do you get to the top of the stairs without getting on the first step? It's a building process, and your first major step has to be playing .500 baseball."

Athletes feed off goals. Why not pin 82 numbers on the clubhouse wall and have the players tear one off with each victory? It would mark the first management-mandated team goal of any kind for the Pirates in quite some time.

The delivery

For all the intrigue created by the Pirates' young talent, they still will enter next season with more questions than answers.

They might be forced to have an all left-handed rotation, something no team in history has tried.

They have no firm closer. Salomon Torres and Mike Gonzalez auditioned for the role in September and did well, but Littlefield considers the job open.

They have a young first baseman in Eldred capable of hitting the ball a mile but equally capable of striking out four times a game. Should he learn in the majors or return to the minors, where he has little to prove?

They covet a power-hitting third baseman more than anything, but what to do with Freddy Sanchez? He was their second-best hitter this past season and even better defensively.

That said, the Pirates also are fortunate to have more positions solidified or filled with promise than at any point since the early 1990s.

With Jason Bay in left, they have one of the game's premier offensive performers the past two years. With Duffy, they have their best defensive center fielder since Andy Van Slyke and, maybe, a leadoff man. With Jack Wilson and Jose Castillo, they might have the best middle infield in the National League. With Doumit, they could have that rare switch-hitting, power-hitting catcher. And the pitching staff shows promise in all facets.

Putting it together will be the task of the new manager, and it will be a challenge, especially in developing a heart of the order to protect Bay. Newcomers should help, but there might be an urge, too, to maximize the intriguing power potential of Castillo and Doumit.

The new man also must walk a thin line between winning and teaching. Young players who fail not only must be back on the card the next day but also taught on the job. As Lloyd McClendon and Pete Mackanin learned, that can be exasperating.

The determination

Few who watched the 2005 Pirates would accuse them of not giving their best effort, right to the final, meaningless out. But that does not always translate into a team determined to win.

Three weeks ago, when pitcher Dave Williams was asked if he felt satisfied with being the staff leader in victories, his response was indignant: "To say that you've had a good season or not is kind of irrelevant. If you look at the whole picture, we didn't get the job done. Success is based on the team."

For this clubhouse, it was a rare reflection on the whole rather than the individual. Most players seemed to focus on personal goals, especially as the season wore on.

This was understandable in ways. The standings meant nothing to the Pirates from July onward, and the makeup of the roster meant most players were fighting for future employment. Why ground out to the right side to advance a runner when it will lower the batting average?

Regardless, this must change next year. Part of that will come if Littlefield fulfills his objective of adding some veteran component to the team, but the rest must come internally.

"When you first come up, you have to prove you can stay here. Once you've established that, the next thing has to be, 'OK, how can I help the team today?' " Duke said. "That's how I look at it. I don't play to lose. I want to win every game my name is involved with, and that's any game this team plays."

One commodity this perky pack of Pirates does not lack is confidence. That stems, in large part, from Duke, Doumit, Duffy, Eldred and Snell having had winning or championship seasons at every level of the minors before arriving in Pittsburgh.

"They believe in themselves," Jack Wilson said. "For some of us, that's been kind of hard to do over the past few years. We're feeding off them."

That confidence is evident after spending no more than a few seconds with Doumit, who is as free to speak his mind as he is in his approach to swinging.

"We've won every year in the minor leagues. That doesn't happen by accident, right?" he said. "They've always said we were the future, and the future is now. We're all here. Let's go. Let's get it done."