Pirates Q&A with Dejan Kovacevic

Friday, July 21, 2006

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Q: Dejan, what's your opinion on the Bucs re-signing Sean Casey? I like the guy, but, as you've pointed out, Casey's lack of power at first make him a liability.

Ryan Kasun of Export

KOVACEVIC: I have never described Casey as a "liability" in any context, Ryan, but there is no question the Pirates would benefit from considerably more power at that position than he has shown.

If you are going to forfeit power at third, which the Pirates have to be willing to do with all else that Freddy Sanchez brings, and you are still uncertain about the power at second, there just has to be more than a monthly home run coming from that position.

I can see where Casey could bring other attributes to the team - not the least of which is a contact bat that has been impressive almost all year - but these Pirates need power there. Or at least the potential for power. (Ryan Shealy, kids?)

That said, it appears Casey's days of playing in his hometown are numbered. As I have been mentioning in the daily coverage for a while now, every day that passes without a contract offer makes it less and less likely he will be here beyond July 31.

Q: Dejan, you said in the Monday chat that the team prefers Jose Bautista at third base. Jim Tracy has compared him to Jim Edmonds regarding his ability to read the ball off the bat in center field. With this type of praise, do they really think he is that much better as a defensive third baseman?

Steve Foglia of Monongahela

KOVACEVIC: Well, to be kind here, no one would confuse Bautista's play in center over the past two weeks with that of Edmonds, so suffice it to say Tracy might have been guilty of some serious hyperbole with that particular assessment.

Third base? That is different. Bautista has played most of his professional career there and is a much more known commodity there. If you do not value the Pirates' opinion on his worth there, take the word of an American League scout with whom I spoke during spring training: He called Bautista a future Gold Glover at that position.

Now, how will they play him there?

Much tougher question.

Q: Dejan, just read Monday's chat transcript, and you mention management's concern with Freddy Sanchez's durability. Do you get the sense that, if he continues to perform well through the second half, they would consider him for short next year?

I guess what I'm asking is: what can he do to prove his durability to them, and what specifically makes management so skeptical?

Jeff Zapletal of Blacksburg, Va.

KOVACEVIC: I am thoroughly convinced, Jeff, the Pirates would rather not have Sanchez be an everyday shortstop, almost entirely because of lingering concerns about his durability. That goes back to the history he has with his foot back to childhood, as well as that long battle he had with that ankle trouble a couple years back.

At third, obviously, a player does not have to range or extend himself nearly as much as he would at short on a daily basis. That, management's thinking goes, will be best for Sanchez in the long run.

That also is why, by the way, in the plenty unlikely case that the Pirates are blown away by somebody interested in Jack Wilson, the team would insist on a shortstop in return.

Q: Why was Ronny Paulino's winning hit on Saturday scored as an RBI single? I thought a ball that bounced over the fence was automatically scored as a ground-rule double?

Greg Coulter of Morgantown, W.Va.

KOVACEVIC: First off, Greg, it turns out Paulino's ball never left the playing field. Watching it live, I saw it the same way you did. But a replay showed it bounced off that top level of padding and stayed in the yard.

But I can answer your question, anyway, because my first reaction upon hearing the scoring of the play was to ask Bob Hertzel, the official scorer that night (and esteemed former Pirates beat writer for The Pittsburgh Press), exactly what you asked me.

The answer is this: The only time such a hit is ruled anything but a single is when the player in question actually reaches the corresponding base for the hit, meaning second base for a double and so on. In this case, bases were loaded, and the game ended when the guy at third touched home and Paulino touched first. (Both have to happen, obviously.) So, even if Paulino's ball had bounced into the seats there, it would not have mattered. Or, if Paulino had kept running in a brazen attempt to pad his stats (he did not), that would not have counted, either.

The other well-duh scenario here is that, for an out-of-the-park home run, all the runs count.

Q: Hey, Dejan, you mentioned in your chat Monday that the Pirates don't have any prospects to play first base. I realize both are hurt right now, but do they consider Ryan Doumit and Brad Eldred answers at first next year? It seems to me a platoon of those two would bring some much-needed power to the lineup, or even Eldred at first and Doumit in right.

Jeff Cercone of Chicago

KOVACEVIC: The Pirates do have those players, of course, but each comes with question marks when it comes to being a starting first baseman.

Doumit's are obvious. He never has played the position and, as we saw in the Pirates' brief experiment this year, would need to pretty much spend the entire winter with Tom Emanski to master it for the major-league level. He is a major-league catcher, perhaps an outfielder, but first base will take work.

Eldred's issue is the key year he currently is losing to the broken thumb. He had troubles with his swing and pitch recognition, as just about no one will dispute, and he could ill afford to push back that development being that he will be 27 next year. My understanding is he will go to winter ball to try to make some of that up, but it will not be the same. And I just cannot imagine any level of proficiency that he could show in winter ball and/or spring training that would convince the Pirates he could be their first baseman to start next season.

However, that should not be interpreted to mean they have given up on him. I get quite the opposite impression, in fact.

Q: Dejan, being that the taxpayers paid to build the Nuttings a new palace under the impression that it would bring competitive baseball, has there been any talk of a class-action lawsuit on the part of the taxpayers against them?

They are clearly pocketing the additional profits, and one can safely say that the product has gotten worse. Couldn't there be a suit to recover some of the tax money?

Kevin A. Gray of Indianapolis

KOVACEVIC: There was a movement just a few years ago in Wisconsin among government officials to get the Brewers to be more forthcoming about how they spent their money after taxpayers built Miller Park. It proved to be successful, although the disclosure that followed also had much to do with Wendy Selig-Prieb's group putting the team up for sale. (No improprieties of any kind were found, by the way.)

Very obviously, there is no move afoot in Western Pennsylvania, either through government or the public, to get that kind of disclosure.

To get the kind of financial recovery you are talking about? Well, that is a step even beyond disclosure.

To do that, first off, you would have to prove that the money was not spent to its documented intent. That would be impossible, given that the documented intent was to build a stadium. I never read the fine print, but I have to be sure that nobody bothered to include language about how competitive the team's payroll might be.

Q: In your previous Q&A, you were discussing what I refer to as the "small-market myth."

If you look up the top 50 TV markets in the United States, you will notice that Milwaukee and Cincinnati are significantly smaller markets than Pittsburgh, yet each club maintains a higher payroll San Diego outspends the Pirates by $20 million in a smaller market than Pittsburgh. St. Louis is ranked exactly one spot ahead of Pittsburgh and the Cardinals have a payroll twice that of the Pirates.

No one can compete with the Yankees, but hiding behind this small-market facade is a lie. The market size is not the problem in Pittsburgh. The problem is an ownership group that would rather get fat than field a competitive team.

If Bob Nutting ever comes out of hiding, please ask him if he thinks he'll ever feel that he and his father have tortured Pittsburgh and its dwindling fan base enough.

Chris Wymer of Lehigh Acres, Fla.

KOVACEVIC: The chief problem I have with the term, Chris, as I pointed out yet again last week, is that it so often is incorrectly applied to places such as Detroit and Minnesota. (Oh, to have a dollar for every reference to the "small-market Twins" who only have a low payroll because of, depending on whom you believe, cheap ownership or an old facility.)

Your other points are ones I have made previously, too: I often field questions about how the Pirates can possibly expect to compete with big markets like St. Louis, and it is enough to drive you nuts. St. Louis is the same-sized market with the same number of professional sports teams in the same leagues competing for the same level of local fans and sponsorships. But, because the Pirates choose to spend less, the city of Pittsburgh somehow shrinks in size.

Incredible.

A final point, and this topic can go back in the barn for a while: None of my abhorrence for the term "small market" is intended to suggest that Major League Baseball's playing field is fair. How could anyone think that it is when payroll disparities are so massive and when so many other factors - international signings, interleague matchups - are designed to benefit New York, Los Angeles and Chicago? It is simply to point out that the term is misused.

Q: Sir: With pitchers Brad Lincoln and Jared Hughes and second baseman Shelby Ford here, I know for sure this is the first time the Pirates have sent players to Hickory in the same season that they were drafted.

Also, it seems like the Pirates might be promoting more minor-leaguers -- like Craig Stansberry and Brian Bixler -- during the season than before.

Does this indicate a new policy of fast-tracking players more than the Pirates have done in the past?

Gary Olinger of Hickory, N.C.

KOVACEVIC: It certainly seems that way, Gary, though management is not suggesting any change in policy.

What you are seeing at Hickory are three high picks the team feels confident can do well at that level right away. And, other than Lincoln's debut Wednesday, it seems like the other two have handled their own, judging by reports and numbers.

With Stansberry, Bixler, Adam Boeve, Wardell Starling and other guys, I have a feeling it is more a matter of getting some actual prospects playing at the upper levels of the minors. Between Indianapolis and Altoona, there have been some glaringly old rosters for much of this year.

Q: What do you think the chances are that Freddy Sanchez leads the NL in batting average at the end of the year?

Jon Shelly of Highland Park, Pittsburgh

KOVACEVIC: Do you want to join the very, very long list of people who said Sanchez was incapable of pulling off anything, Jon?

Q: Dejan: If Chris Duffy continues to make the positive strides we currently are seeing in Indianapolis and be called up to the parent club, is there any indication that Jim Tracy will leave well enough alone with regard to Duffy's approach to hitting?

Bob Mitchell of Indianapolis

KOVACEVIC: I have not heard anyone involved with the Pirates - Tracy included - express any sort of regret over any instruction Duffy was given in the offseason, in the spring or early in the regular season. What is more, one team official told me this week that the way Duffy was taught was no different than from any leadoff hitter and all the fuss that kicked up afterward was "overblown."

That probably answers your question.

I also get the idea, on a related note, that the Pirates are in absolutely no hurry to have Duffy back in Pittsburgh. No one has stated explicitly that they want him to prove his worth - and, perhaps, his desire - all over again, but that might not be a bad guess.

Q: Kevin McClatchy has taken a lot of criticism for the teams' performance. I'd like to switch gears for a minute to publicly thank him for his efforts in bringing the All-Star Game to Pittsburgh. It was a great week for the 'Burgh.

Mark Gloff of Ross Township

KOVACEVIC: The highest level of the Pirates' management has proven quite adept at building a fine ballpark and, now, at running a first-class All-Star Game. The reviews seemed unanimous nationally that the Pirates and the city were outstanding, and I can tell you first-hand that the praise I heard from the out-of-town media covering it was above and beyond.

Credit goes where it is due.

Now, there is that small matter of matching the other teams in the division in terms of payroll - or a similar commitment to elevate drafting and development - as well as that whole winning-season thing.

In closing ...

Who was it that coined the term "trade rumor?" When did the two words become inexorably linked, and why? Is it not possible for there to be an actual fact-based report that one team is talking to another about a certain player or players?

I had a handful of trade tidbits in some notebooks earlier in the week -- and will continue to have them through the deadline as they come up - and I received emails from readers asking me about the "rumors" that I described. I can assure you they were anything but, or they would not have seen publication.

Just an FYI, whether it is about trades or whatever: Even if you do not see the names of sources I use for a story, I am required to give them to my editors at the PG. From there, they determine if those sources are good enough to be considered dependable or if I have to go back out there and try harder to find some more.

Rumors never make the cut.

Until next week, by which time these Pirates and Marlins might have a matching average age ...

First published on July 21, 2006 at 12:00 am