Dejan Kovacevic's Pirates chat: 7/26/2010
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Dejan Kovacevic: Afternoon to one and all, in advance of this weeklong road trip to Denver and St. Louis that coincides with the trading deadline Saturday.
We'll get started in a couple minutes ...
Guest: Hi Dk. Why would the front office not simply admit that finances played a part in Donnelly's being DFA'd? What is wrong with saying "we did not want to spend a million plus dollars on a player who was not performing up to expectations and could better allocate those resources elsewhere"? Is this group becoming too sensitive to money issues?
Dejan Kovacevic: The Pirates acknowledge on a fairly regular basis when money is involved in their decision regarding any transaction. I think, in this case, their might be heightened sensitivity because Donnelly's contract escalators were structured in a way that the team could have known all along it would pull the plug once the deal reached a certain stage.
If Donnelly had been performing better than he was, that would have looked pretty disingenuous and would have kicked up much more of a storm than I think it will under these circumstances.
Mr-Xiaoqi: Dejan - When you make minor league assessments (such as the Pirates have no real middle IF prospects in sight) are these your opinions? - Or do you base this off of discussions that you might have with various scouts?
Dejan Kovacevic: Because of following the major-league team in Pittsburgh and around the country for 120-plus games each summer, my only first-hand look at the prospects comes from spring training. And even if that were not the case, I still would rely much more on actual baseball people for evaluations than my own eyes.
Put those two things together, and any pronouncements you'll read from me about the status of prospects, individual or collectively, and they're going to be based on feedback from people seeing them on a regular basis. And it's extensive feedback, including from people who I know to be straight shooters.
The Pirates are close to being completely bereft of middle-infield prospects, if one is viewing that category as everyday-type players.
NateRosboro: The Angels are rumored to be interested in Garrett Jones. Have you heard anything on this front? What the Pirates would want in return?
Dejan Kovacevic: I am told inside the Pirates that the Angels never have contacted them about Garrett Jones.
Brian: How could anyone other than maybe Hanrahan and Meek be upset about Donnelly's release? If a guy is not producing and you have an opportunity to get out of paying him a bonus, and therefore have more capital to spend on the draft...that seems like a solid business decision to me.
First Published July 26, 2010 2:47 pm
