Tuesday, August 19, 2003

It will take only 16 wins in their final 40 games for the Pirates to surpass their victory total of last year and mark their second consecutive season of improvement. Winning those 16 should not be difficult despite the number of key players who have been traded away in the past four weeks and the others who might go in the days ahead.

The team barely has missed a beat since the rebuilding process began. The Pirates are 32-26 since June 13, which, over a 162-game season, translates to 89 victories. They're 15-13 since trading closer Mike Williams to Philadelphia, 13-12 since giving away Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton to the Chicago Cubs and 8-8 since top starter Jeff Suppan was dealt to Boston.

If the bullpen hadn't crumpled early, if the offense had come alive a little sooner, who knows what might have been for the Pirates in this year of National League Central Division mediocrity? So cherish these memories because it might be a while before we see another season as good as this one.

With the upper levels of the minor-league system still mostly unproductive and with staggering financial losses forcing the selling of players, the Pirates promise to be awful next season, perhaps worse than their 100-loss 2001 edition.

Although Matt Stairs and Reggie Sanders say they want to be back next season, it's unlikely they will be. Players say that all the time. That's only half of their opinion. They want to be back, perhaps, but only if the price is right. How can the price be right when the Pirates have lost $30 million since moving into PNC Park?

Based on the season he's having, Sanders should be a desirable player on the free-agent market and clearly out of the Pirates' price range. Stairs won't be as heavily in demand, but he should be able to do better than the $800,000 the Pirates are paying him. In any event, it's doubtful either player wants to be part of what likely will be a team with no money and no players.

If Brian Giles and Jason Kendall are traded -- and the Pirates will desperately try to do so -- the only regular who figures to return is shortstop Jack Wilson. The Giles-Kendall trade to San Diego -- still the most viable option for unloading those contracts -- had some pitchers and minor-leaguers coming to the Pirates. One of those minor-leaguers, Xavier Nady, likely would become an every-day player. But from where will the rest come?

Either Freddy Sanchez or Bobby Hill, acquired in recent trades, likely will play second base. If Craig Wilson plays well enough over the final six weeks, the Pirates will keep him and plug him in at catcher, first base or the outfield.

The Pirates might have been better served if they had shown more confidence in Wilson when he was coming off a 16-home run season as a part-time player in 2002. Instead, they filled the positions Wilson might have played with veterans such as Sanders, Stairs and first baseman Randall Simon. Sanders and Stairs were positive additions. Simon was not.

In trading for Simon, the Pirates gave up three minor-league players, one of whom has major-league potential. That would be Kody Kirkland, who is fifth in batting, second in RBIs, first in triples, second in slugging and fourth in runs in the New York-Penn League. That's a long way from the majors, but Kirkland has better chance of making it than Ray Sadler, who the Pirates got from the Cubs in exchange for Simon.

The Pirates would have been better off with Wilson at first base and keeping Kirkland than with one season of Simon and Sadler.

General Manager Dave Littlefield and owner Kevin McClatchy feel confident that a low-price free-agent market will exist this winter just like the one last winter that enabled the Pirates to sign Sanders, Stairs, Lofton, Suppan, Jeff D'Amico and Julian Tavarez, all of whom have made important contributions.

Such a market probably will exist, but there is no guarantee the Pirates will be able to lure the elite of that crop, or, if they do, that those players will perform similarly to this season's group.

Outfielder J.J. Davis, coming off a good year at Nashville, will be in the mix, but, barring unforeseen events, the Pirates will struggle to put eight major-league caliber players on the field.

The losing is in its 11th season, and there's no end in sight.

E-mail this story   Print this story