Pirates Q&A with Dejan Kovacevic
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Been a weird couple of days here, to hear the people in St. Louis so down on the Cardinals. Not booing or anything like that. Just depressed.
When one guy was complaining to me about how terrible it has been, I gently reminded him about the team I cover and how it was not months but decades removed from its last success. And his reply was: "Well, that's different. No one in Pittsburgh's expecting your team to be any good. We expect it every year."
Onward to more of your lofty expectations ...
Q: Dejan, how many of Zach Duke's problems might be traced back to Jim Colborn's tinkering with his delivery in the spring of 2006? Is this still an issue for him? If it is, at some point, doesn't it become obvious that we're not seeing results from the changes the coaching staff was pushing?
I'll take funky and good, over smooth and bad.
Kirk Mueller of Gaithersburg, Md.
KOVACEVIC: It is impossible to tell if the changes made then had a detrimental impact at the time, much less if they continue to this day. But the mere fact that there was a change instructed in the after math of an 8-2 record with a 1.81 ERA, I suspect, will raise questions like yours -- and those from many others -- for a long, long time.
Whatever the case, Duke seems to be in a pretty deep hole with no end in sight. As I wrote in the game story yesterday, you can toss out the record and even the ERA and just focus on that opponents' batting average -- .357! -- and the amazing lack of swings and misses. It might be easy to forget now, but the rookie Duke, while still being mostly a pitch-to-contact guy, was able to get more than his share of strikeouts and keep hitters guessing at his stuff. Now, it looks like the hitters are licking their lips waiting for it to arrive.
It is going to take quite some doing and, although there has been no indication to date of a demotion, numbers like that tend not to keep a guy in the rotation.
Q: OK, enough is enough. It's time to send both Duke and Maholm to Indy and bring up John Van Benschoten and Sean Burnett. It's time to send a message that these performances are not acceptable and that results are to be demanded. I mean, what can you lose at this point? The fans? They're gone. Pride? That left a decade ago.
If anything, maybe Duke and Maholm find success and rebuild their confidence while simultaneously rewarding players who have worked hard to get back from serious injuries and found some modicum of consistency this season.
Russell Ryan of Bloomfield, Pittsburgh
KOVACEVIC: Argh.
No matter how many times I print Burnett's numbers, it seems it is never enough. For the record, Russell, Burnett is 4-3 with a 3.81 ERA in nine starts, has walked 27 against 21 strikeouts, and has given up a staff-high 57 hits. I remain confident Burnett has the talent to pitch in the majors again someday, but to mention him ahead of Bryan Bullington -- 6-2 with a 2.96 ERA -- is wholly unjustified.
That out of the way, if the Pirates do make a move involving starters going up or down, one would hope it is for an infinitely more important reason than to "send a message" to the players or to the public. The idea is to have the best players performing at the major-league level and, as I have written many times now, all of the Pirates' pitching depth does them no good if it goes unused.
Q: Would it make sense to bring back Craig Wilson? He seemed to excel as a pinch-hitter, then was forced into the starting lineup. He can still hit a fastball and you could send out Humberto Cota and Wilson would then offer you an emergency catcher with experience?
Dave Frank of Erie
KOVACEVIC: Unless I am missing something, the Pirates do not have a player on their bench who batted no lower than .260 and had an on-base percentage no lower than .350 over the past five years. And this one is available for $200,000 less than Cota is making.
Q: Hi, Dejan. I know what management's line of thinking is with promoting Shawn Chacon. But isn't this just another example of the team blocking their young proscpects with older players?
Anyone who thinks Chacon is in the team's long-term plans must have just crawled out from under a rock. We have three first-round picks in Class AAA and not one of them gets the fifth spot in the rotation! How long can you really sit there with them in Class AAA? Eventually you have to use them or trade them. They need to make a decision soon, in my opinion.
Kevin Strafalace of Troy Hill, Pittsburgh
KOVACEVIC: First, Kevin, although Chacon has been in the majors for a few years now, his age is 29. That makes him two years older than Van Benschoten and even Bullington, who turns 27 later this year. This is not about old vs. young.
I do see your point, though, about giving those players a chance. Thing is, I get the impression that might have happened already for either Van Benschoten or Bullington (not Burnett, who you seemed to include) had they fared better in the past couple of weeks. The Pirates did send extra people to Indianapolis to watch them pitch and that, coincidence or not, was when Van Benschoten and Bullington had their performances dwindle.
Regarding Chacon: Be quite sure that Tracy was reluctant to take him out of the bullpen and put him in the rotation. He made no secret of that. He liked having Chacon right where he was. That lends further credence to the thinking that the Pirates made the only move they felt was available.
Thing No. 34 that makes Pittsburgh great: Made a big mistake in taking the children down into Panther Hollow a month ago. Now, they want to go every day.
For anyone who wants a picture of how much of the city proper is committed to parks -- and why city tax collectors are so depressed -- check out all the green on a map. And none of the major parks seems more overwhelming than Schenley, mostly because of the Hollow.
By the time you head down any one of the multiple trails, it takes no more than about three or four minutes of walking, and you might as well be in Elk County. Sure, there are other walkers or joggers, depending on the day of the week. And you can tell that some conservancy groups come down to plant stuff, clear the fallen trees and care for the many arched stone bridges. Otherwise, it is about as serene as one can get in a city of 300,000-plus.
The lake itself is ... a little strange. Some people like it, I am sure, but I have little use for a cement-lined, not-all-that-clean body of water down there that seems of little use to anyone. But, for anyone who is interested, it can be accessed not only from the Hollow trails but also from the much more traveled Jail Trail that runs from Downtown (and, soon, the South Side).
My view of that whole area is that it is better off untouched by human hands, at least the ones that came after whoever built those arched stone bridges.
Until tomorrow ...
First Published May 23, 2007 7:45 pm
