Smizik: Mondesi stand-in depressing option
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As it became increasingly more clear the other day that Raul Mondesi would not be rejoining the Pirates, general manager Dave Littlefield considered his short list of replacements:
Daryle Ward, Randall Simon, Ruben Mateo.
What a depressing look at the future of the Pirates.
Yet another year and still nothing approaching a hitter of consequence coming out of the Pirates' minor-league system. No Albert Pujols, no Richard Hidalgo, no Lance Berkman, no Pat Burrell. Just another long list of castoffs the Pirates regularly use at the Class AAA level.
In the end, Ward got the call to join the Pirates. He's an intriguing guy. Anyone who can put the ball in the Allegheny River at PNC Park is worth a look. But Ward is not a prospect. He'll be 29 next month and the Pirates are his third major-league stop. He batted .183 last season with Los Angeles. If by some chance he does the job for the Pirates, so what? He'll be gone after the season, just like Reggie Sanders was last year.
What the Pirates need are young players on the cusp of stardom, not ones looking back at it or ones who never knew it. They need another Barry Bonds, another Bobby Bonilla, players they drafted and developed and who led them to championships.
We're not talking about the Bonds of today, the player who has become one of the greatest in baseball history. We're talking about the Bonds and Bonilla of 1986, their first years with the Pirates when they had the look of hitters about them and when the organization felt confident enough in them to play them every day.
There doesn't seem to be anyone like that today.
And by that we're talking about the top two teams in the Pirates' minor-league system -- Class AAA Nashville and Class AA Altoona. What's below that, Lynchburg, Hickory, Williamsport and Bradenton, would appear to be near meaningless. Trying to gauge the major-league potential of a player in Class A is like trying to measure the NFL potential of a player in high school.
Proof of that are Chris Shelton and Walter Young, who played at Lynchburg last season. Shelton hit 21 homers, drove in 69 runs and batted .359 before being promoted to Altoona. Young hit 20 homers, had 87 RBIs and batted .287.
The Pirates were so impressed they removed Young from the 40-man roster and kept Shelton off it. Young was claimed on waivers by Baltimore and Shelton by Detroit in the Rule 5 draft. Neither has done anything thus far this season to show the Pirates were wrong in their evaluation.
The only thing approaching a hitting prospect at Nashville is J. R. House, the oft-injured catcher. Although he's in his first season at Class AAA, he'll be out of options next year and must make the Pirates or pass through waivers, where he can be claimed, to be sent back to the minors. Considering Jason Kendall's virtually untradeable contract, House will have to learn a new position if he wants to play for the Pirates in the near future.
The prospects are better at Altoona, but not significantly.
Catcher Ryan Doumit is probably the best hitting prospect in the organization. He missed the early part of this season at Altoona with sickness, but had hit four home runs in 14 games since coming back. He's a switch-hitter who would appear to have a major-league target date of 2006.
Altoona's top two outfielders, Chris Duffy and Nate McLouth, have shown some offensive potential, but neither is a power hitter. Duffy is the prototypical leadoff batter and an outstanding center fielder. He was batting .265 and McLouth .283.
Second baseman Jeff Keppinger, currently out with injury, is batting .407 at Altoona. He hit .325 at Lynchburg last year. But he's not a power guy.
There is a player at Class A worth mentioning -- first baseman Brad Eldred. He's second in home runs and RBIs in the Carolina League with eight and 27. He's batting .250. In 115 games in the South Atlantic League last year, he hit 28 home runs and drove in 80 runs.
"He has as much raw power as anyone in baseball," said Brian Graham, the Pirates' minor-league director. "But he has to learn to hit before he can utilize that power."
As deep as the Pirates seem in pitching prospects, they seem to be that shallow with hitters. And that's nothing new. If you go back to 1992, you could probably count on the fingers of one hand the successful major-league hitters the Pirates have drafted and developed. Aramis Ramirez, Jason Kendall and Jose Guillen come to mind, and no one else.
Graham and Littlefield appear to be shaping a more successful developmental program. So things are bound to get better. The question is: When?
First Published May 13, 2004 12:00 am
