BRADENTON, Fla. -- The man brought in to salvage a team and an organization has a dreamer's eye set on the distant horizon and a realist's grasp of knowing that while some immediate repairs have helped the battered vessel, there are uncertain waters to be navigated.
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Pirates GM Dave Littlefield (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette photoillustration) |
As General Manager Dave Littlefield said when he took control of the Pirates last summer, he wouldn't be here if there weren't problems.
"The goal is to win the World Series," he said. "The plan is how to get there."
No, he hasn't been out in the Florida sun too long, and he's far from naive. He knows he's navigating a course in territory plied by luxurious Yankee clippers.
"I wish I could sit here and say everything's going to be cleaned up. As much as I'd like to say we're going to win 100 games this year, it's not going to happen," he said. "You just don't go from losing 100 and trading players and signing players at a lower-level scale and thinking that everything's all together now.
"It's easy to put a lot of superlatives in front of where you hope to go. But the fact is, this is a work in progress. This is not easy stuff. This is my job, and I'm game for it. But we've got some work to do. When you look at the numbers from last year, we were down in the bottom in ERA, fielding defense and runs scored. To address all those issues to the degree I want to, it hasn't happened. We're better, but it's something we're going to continue to upgrade. Eight months is not enough time to address all of our needs. We're still digging ourselves out of a hole."
Give him points for candor, which beats trying to bamboozle fans with a mirage of a five-year plan. That blueprint flopped so badly that the injury-riddled Pirates, who were supposed to be competitive last year, were eliminated from the division race before September. They were tarred with the seventh-worst record in franchise history and have tied the franchise record for most losing seasons in a row (nine). No non-expansion team has endured 10 consecutive losing seasons since the 1962 Chicago Cubs.
One sign the Pirates are better is their spring training record. Exhibition games don't count, but they're the only way to evaluate the team at this point, and it won more games this year than last. That counts for something, although going from horrible to bad or even mediocre is hardly an accomplishment.
Bud Selig told Congress last November what every fan outside of New York City has known for years -- the business of baseball is broken -- but nothing has been done to fix it. The Pirates say they lost money despite drawing record attendance in a new, publicly financed ballpark.
Unlike the free-spending New York Yankees of the world, Littlefield had to cut payroll and deal with duds such as Derek Bell and the albatross of guaranteed contracts doled out by his predecessor. That's like rowing and bailing at the same time.
And even though the Pirates rank among the top in money spent on player development, the farm system has underachieved in developing the talent required for a self-sustaining operation.
Yet Littlefield has made some deals that look like positives.
He traded his best pitcher to the Chicago White Sox for two starters -- Kip Wells and rookie Josh Fogg -- and a veteran swingman in Sean Lowe. He saved enough money in that deal and with the sale of Gary Matthews Jr. to the New York Mets to reacquire Mike Williams to close games.
He snagged free agent Pokey Reese to remedy the lack of production at second base.
He signed several six-year free agents who weren't wanted by other clubs and found an opening day starter in Ron Villone and a bullpen addition in Brian Boehringer. He also re-signed reliever Josias Manzanillo.
And he cleaned house in the front office while installing a new system for the minor leagues, opting to swallow some contracts to bring in people to turn a fallow farm system into a productive one.
"I've never looked at it in terms of a timetable," Littlefield said. "We want to get better as fast as we can. It's an improved team, but it's not where we want to be. This is just hopefully the beginning of continually making improvements and laying the groundwork for developing a real solid organization that will have a chance to compete year after year after year.
"It's an uphill battle to compete against those big market clubs. This is the big leagues. We're not facing 'B' squads anymore. We're facing the Leiters and the Piazzas, then we go to Chicago to face Leiber and Sosa. That's the reality of where we're at."
Tying Tampa Bay for the worst record in baseball will make you the target of scorn, derision and jokes. But there is one hard-won benefit -- the first pick in the amateur draft.
Littlefield has a new scouting director in Ed Creech and some new people in the scouting department to find the best player out there.
"I don't have any doubt pitching is the strength of quality teams, and we're going to have to have strong starting pitching," Littlefield said. "Starting pitching to me is the most important area, and that's the area I feel least comfortable about."
While he makes fixes at the top, Littlefield needs to improve the foundation. That's where Brian Graham, the new director of player development, comes in. The philosophy is to break the vicious cycle of rushing kids to the big leagues. The new thinking is to slow things down, giving prospects the chance to dominate at one level before they're promoted. And there will be a uniform standard for instilling fundamentals, from baserunning to bunt defenses.
The general consensus is that the Pirates are bereft of talent in the minors. It's true that no homegrown rookies have cracked the starting lineup this year, but the organization does have some talent in catchers Humberto Cota and J.R. House, pitchers Adrian Burnside and newly acquired Matt Guerrier and outfielder Tony Alvarez.
"My thought is this:Our Double-A and Triple-A players are already here," Littlefield said. "It's going to be another year or two before the Burnsides and the Houses and the Alvarezes and those guys get their way up to the major leagues. I'm hoping player development can get this next wave in order so that we find out what we've got for players. But the player development and scouting side takes a little time.
"Certainly, we're in a situation where we need players [on the big-league club]. But when you have really good players, they will tell you when it's their time. I would rather be conservative in the beginning on players as to where they go. In time, if they're really good, they're going to dominate. And you're going to say, 'Hey, we've got to get this guy to the next level.' It's going to be a no-brainer. It's just rare in my experience where we run into a situation where we're holding back players."
Go back to the last time the Pirates fielded a winner or the last time they won a World Series and you'll find a core group that was drafted and nurtured in the club's farm system. It takes trades and signings0 to add missing parts, but the foundation comes from within.
It's legitimate to wonder if the old-fashioned way can work when the feeling is the World Series now goes to the highest bidder. Littlefield isn't just trying, he believes he can succeed.
"Scouting and player development is the way to go," Littlefield said. "It's just a more efficient way to get things done in the market we're in. I don't see that there's any magic going on in any other organizations. We have to be more efficient. We have to make good decisions. We can do it."
Asked to put a word on the status of the Pirates, Littlefield said: "Improving."
In his first full season as general manager, that's the standard he and the Pirates will be graded on.
Dave Littlefield: The Pirates' Organization Man 
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