Pirates Q&A with Dejan Kovacevic
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Just like the club, we can go an extra inning or six ...
Q: In the minor-league report yesterday, I saw that Sean Burnett pitched three innings of scoreless relief and got the save Wednesday.
In the future, is his role from the bullpen limited to a one-and-done setup man, or is long relief in his future?
I think a solid case could be made that the Pirates would have started out 5-3 with him coming out of the bullpen in place of either Evan Meek or Phil Dumatrait.
Chuck Neth of Cheshire, Conn.
KOVACEVIC: Burnett's statistics speak for themselves, as they have from the first day of spring, Chuck. He still has not given up a run since February, and no runs at all since becoming a reliever.
As for his role, the Pirates told Burnett upon his demotion that they wanted to see durability, including bouncing back on little rest. This past weekend, he pitched on back-to-back days, with one inning Saturday and two Sunday, and did fine. On Wednesday, as you noted, he pitched three innings. That tells you the Pirates want to see him do much more than be a one-out guy. They want him to be able to push for long duty.
As for the Pirates' record, simple math would seem to back your claim, that he could have made a difference for the parent club in the early going here, if only because one could reasonably project he would have thrown more strikes than Meek or Dumatrait. But comparisons between levels always come with asterisks.
Your sentiment, by the way, was echoed by many.
Q: Dejan, do you have any idea what impact (other than raising the blood pressure of you and your copy desk on deadline) all the extra-inning games will have on the team?
On the downside, it has to be burning up the bullpen early. Are there concerns about injuries?
On the other hand, they're clearly competitive with two of the top teams in the league, a Luis Rivas error or Franquelis Osoria catch from winning a couple of them.
Are they optimistic because they're so close?
Chris Stadelman of Parsons, W.Va.
KOVACEVIC: Really, Chris, I have no firm answer for this.
I have asked questions along this line since the club came home, about the challenge of stressing the positive amid a couple of difficult outcomes, about how long such a thing can be sustained without actual winning. Remember, the team under Jim Tracy a couple seasons ago got started out taking all those one-run losses and, despite constantly searching for silver linings, it beat them down before long.
Anyway, the answers I have gotten to these questions -- players and coaches alike -- have been ... well, as if it were crazy for anyone to ask.
Is that a sign that they will not accept that woe-is-us thinking?
Is that a sign of denial?
Hard to say. But I can attest that, yes, it does seem different now than at this time last year. The defiance then was limited and, perhaps, more a formality than reality.
Q: Dejan, hope you've gotten some sleep after another extra-inning affair. The new manager is supposed to be Johnny Fundamentals, and we're still running the basepaths like the same Clown Army that we've been for a few years now.
A buddy and I added up a half dozen baserunning gaffes in the first eight games, not minor ones, but ones that have cost us runs and wins.
This team can't afford to be throwing away rallies! Are the baserunning shenanigans being addressed?
Tom Nondorf of New York
KOVACEVIC: First off, you and your buddy are short a couple of outs. My scorebook shows seven men thrown out on the basepaths, plus two caught stealing for a total of nine runners lost through the first eight games.
Now, the Pirates have done a very good job of getting on base in the opening week, but the history of the various players involved would suggest that will not be sustained. And that would appear to make preserving those runners paramount, so I most certainly agree with your point that the Pirates can ill afford to be "throwing away rallies." And this is doubly true given that it is not a fast roster. Consider that the three players thrown out trying to stretch singles into doubles have been Xavier Nady, Ryan Doumit and Doug Mientkiewicz.
Where I will disagree with you is this: The difference between what you are seeing now and the "Clown Army" is that this has nothing to do with fundamentals. It is strategic. It is deliberate deliberate, as is detailed in today's Notebook.
That does not make it right, but that is an important distinction, as the Pirates are not being thrown out on the bases because they are bumbling or stumbling or misreading plays. They are being thrown out because they are trying for one base too many, each time appearing plenty aware of what they were doing. In the Nady, Doumit and Mientkiewicz examples, each came with one out and no one aboard in a close game, a thoroughly defensible situation.
The larger issue, I think, is whether the Pirates can afford to think so aggressively with the roster they have.
Again, go to the Notebook for more. Mientkiewicz became predictably animated when I brought this up with him yesterday.
Q: Hi, Dejan. Is Ryan Doumit now the starting catcher? So far, he's started six of nine games and is doing fairly well, it seems. Or is a stretch coming where Ronny Paulino will get a few starts in a row?
Jeff Tatusko of Arnold
KOVACEVIC: The Pirates continue to refer to the two as a "tandem," and circumstances seem to be dictating who catches almost as much as Doumit's .367 start. But one could begin to get the sense, before long, that the job is Doumit's to claim.
It is not easy to keep a productive, switch-hitting power bat out of the lineup, especially when the defense is either a wash between the two catchers or slightly favors the power bat.
Q: Dejan, I very much appreciated the insight on the Pirates' attempts to acquire power arms for the bullpen.
I got the sense from the article that this is common practice throughout the league and that the Pirates are late to this party. It occurred to me that this then might be another buy-high plan? Would it make more sense for the Pirates to look at a more undervalued commodity in the baseball market, such as pitchers with better movement or control? And does it hurt the team that they are so specific and public about this direction, such as the Braves maybe thinking they could take a softer throwing starting pitching prospect off the Pirates if they dangled an unwanted power arm?
Or are power arms simply the correct way to build a winning staff?
Joel Erb of Sacramento, Calif.
KOVACEVIC: Sounds like you are trying to apply the "Moneyball" theory of valuation to power arms, Joel, but I dare say it probably makes a poor fit.
For any baseball team to declare it is interested in power arms ... some might see that as tantamount to the Steelers saying they prefer linebackers who are large, fast and strong. There certainly is no company secret to be had there, much less industry-wide. Hence, the odds of the Pirates or any team attempting some sort of stealthy, buy-low approach with pitchers who do other things probably would miss the point: Power is needed. Not by the Pirates. By everyone.
At the same time, the Pirates' new people, particularly Neal Huntington, have made a point of stressing that, once a bullpen is assembled at the major-league level, having a variety of types of pitchers is a nice weapon for a manager, from sinkers to lefties to whatever.
But that does not preclude power, even within the variety-type bullpen. Salomon Torres was a sinker-baller for the Pirates, but he also could rear back for 96 mph on a good night. Tyler Yates a couple nights ago clearly did not have top velocity -- who can blame him? -- and leaned heavily on his slider. But he still has the heat for the hammer, even with the other stuff.
Q: Any chance that Major League Baseball will adopt a point system similar to the NHL where if you lose in extra-innings you still get a point?
Mike Calabrese of Ingram
KOVACEVIC: All I know is that, after my 17th rewrite Wednesday, I became a big fan of implementing the shootout in baseball.
And hey, if we had one in Atlanta last week, the Pirates and Braves each would have had a former elite-amateur hockey player in Nyjer Morgan and Tom Glavine.
Until Monday, when we chat from Los Angeles, and Tuesday, when the Q&A returns, Paul Meyer will cover your club for all three games of the weekend set against the Reds ...
First Published April 11, 2008 12:00 am
