Pirates Notebook: Capps relieved, but knows hard work still ahead
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MILWAUKEE -- It really hit Matt Capps here sometime Saturday night as he looked around his hotel room and saw nobody else in the room.
Scouting Report
Opponent: Milwaukee Brewers.
Site: Miller Park.
Times: 2:05 p.m. today, 8:05 p.m. tomorrow and Wednesday.
TV, radio: Today on FSN Pittsburgh; all games on KDKA-AM (1020) and Pirates Radio Network.
Starting matchups: LHP Oliver Perez vs. LHP Doug Davis, RHP Victor Santos vs. LHP Chris Capuano, LHP Zach Duke vs. RHP Tomo Ohka.
Season series: First meeting.
Three things to know about the Brewers: 1. They are forced to open without ace RHP Ben Sheets, but Davis is nearly as proficient in some ways. He ranked third in the National League last season with 208 strikeouts. The Pirates might benefit from some patience, though. Davis' total of 93 walks was second to Kip Wells' 99. 2. Few had a hotter spring than 3B Corey Koskie, a winter acquisition who batted .362 with five home runs and 15 RBIs. 3. Watch out for 2B Rickie Weeks, who homered four times in 27 at-bats against the Pirates as a rookie last season.
The Pirates' key to success: Heed Jim Tracy's call to put the ball in play, run the bases wisely and put pressure on the defense. The Brewers led the National League with 119 errors last season.
The intangible: While the Pirates have been careful to declare any numerical goals for the season, the Brewers have no such reservations. Manager Ned Yost said last week of his team that finished 81-81 last season: "I'm looking at 90 wins, somehow. How do we get to 90 wins?"
On deck: Four games in Cincinnati, leading up to the April 10 home opener.
-- Dejan Kovacevic
"No roommate," Capps said. "I had my own hotel room."
In the major leagues. To start the season.
"I was thinking, 'I could still be in Florida right now, and if I went to Triple A, I'd still have a roommate come [tonight]. Being in the hotel room by myself was nice."
The difference in the meal money was another thing Capps noticed.
"That's nice, too," he said with a laugh.
Beginning today, he gets $83.50 per day for meals. If he were with Class AA Altoona, he would get $20 per day.
That's a pretty good raise, although Capps realizes he isn't guaranteed that raise forever.
"I'm unproven," he said. "I've still got the hardest part ahead of me."
And that's to establish himself in the major leagues, a process that could begin as early as today when the Pirates open the 2006 season.
Capps, 22, pitched in four games for the Pirates in September as the team tried to decide whether to put him on the 40-man protected winter roster.
But if he pitches in the game today -- or tomorrow night -- the circumstances will be much different and the stakes a lot higher.
That's why manager Jim Tracy brought Capps into a game against Boston Wednesday with Manny Ramirez at the plate, two outs and nobody on in the sixth inning with the Pirates ahead, 2-1.
"That's a pretty good test," Tracy said. "He's facing maybe the best right-handed hitter in the game. He struck him out in about a nine-pitch at-bat."
Perhaps more important, though, is that Capps didn't walk Ramirez.
"It strongly suggests to me that when you bring this guy in from the bullpen, you can pretty much expect that he's going to throw the ball over the plate," Tracy said. "That's a very comforting thing for a manager."
Tracy saw Capps' uncanny control all spring. And he noted that in 2005, in a total of 77 2/3 innings with Class A Hickory, Altoona and the Pirates, Capps walked only six batters.
"The thing about Capps is, you know when you bring him into a game -- regardless of when it is -- he's not going to be the least bit shy about throwing strikes," Tracy said. "That's something [a manager] can continually encourage, but the player has to take hold of it and master it."
So far, Capps has. And that's why Tracy told him Friday that he would be heading north with the team.
Capps yesterday recalled the moment when Tracy summoned him to his office at McKechnie Field in Bradenton.
Pirates
?Brewers
Chris Duffy, CF
Brady Clark, CF
Jack Wilson, SS
J.J. Hardy, SS
Sean Casey, 1B
Geoff Jenkins, RF
Jason Bay, LF
Carlos Lee, LF
Joe Randa, 3B
Prince Fielder, 1B
Jeromy Burnitz, RF
Rickie Weeks, 2B
Jose Castillo, 2B
Bill Hall, 3B
Humberto Cota, C
Damian Miller, C
Oliver Perez, P
Doug Davis, P
"I went in kind of expecting the worst and hoping for the best," Capps said.
Tracy and general manager Dave Littlefield told him to close the door and take a seat.
"My heart started pounding," Capps said. "I thought, 'Well, is this it? Am I going [to the minor leagues]?"'
Seconds later, Tracy told Capps he made the club.
"The goosebumps started, and the grin came out," Capps said. "I thanked him for the opportunity. I was just grateful."
It still seems unlikely that Capps, at his tender age and with only 24 innings of experience above the Class A level, can make this jump successfully.
"But there are those who can," Tracy said. "Let's challenge the kid and let's find out. This is a strong enough individual that if it doesn't quite work out or if there's still more growth that has to take place, he'll be able to handle [being sent down].
"He's a strong-willed kid. He's a fearless competitor. He really doesn't care who's standing up there with a bat. He just knows he's going to do everything he can to try to get him out."
Lineup change
Tracy, who usually will have right fielder Jeromy Burnitz bat in the fifth spot and third baseman Joe Randa bat sixth in the lineup, probably will flip-flop those two today against left-hander Doug Davis.
"I'm strongly entertaining the thought of having Randa hit fifth and Jeromy hit sixth [today] because it makes sense," Tracy said.
Against Davis lifetime, Randa is 8 for 19 with a home run. Burnitz is 3 for 12 with three strikeouts against Davis.
Just a game
Tracy is not going to put a lot of emphasis on today's result -- win or lose.
"In 2002, we lost our first three games and were outscored, 22-3, by the San Francisco Giants and I'm having my morning coffee and reading about how I potentially could be managing the worst Dodger team ever -- whether in Los Angeles or Brooklyn," Tracy said. "We finished 92-70."
Then there was last season.
"We started 12-2," Tracy said. "And we finished 71-91."
So don't you read much into today's outcome, either -- positive or negative.
"We'll get up [Tuesday] and have another game to play," Tracy said. "And on Wednesday we'll play another. [Today's] game is just one game. We'll have 161 more games to play."
First Published April 3, 2006 12:00 am
