Pittsburgh Sports Report - Arms Dealing. Pirates' Rebuilding Plan Has Doubters By John E. Sacco

Pittsburgh Sports Report
April 2004

Arms Dealing
Pirates' Rebuilding Plan Has Doubters
By John E. Sacco

The prospect of power pitching must be one of the few things that gets general manager Dave Littlefield through the maddening process of rebuilding the Pirates into a winning team.

If all goes right, by 2006 the Pirates could have a bevy of major-league ready pitchers to help the ailing franchise rid itself of that disgusting loser tag.

But it will take much more than a bevy of young, unproven pitchers to help transform the Pirates into contender status.

That's why it is imperative the organization's rate of success with their young pitchers be better than scouts, coaches, managers and general managers typically expect.

"I've heard the baseline thought that if you get three solid players out of each draft and they are achievers, that's a quality draft," Littlefield said. "You continually want to have drafts like that. You want to get to the point where every year, you are promoting players from your system to the big leagues."

In Littlefield's wildest dreams, two years from now, the Pirates' starting rotation would include Oliver Perez, John VanBenschoten, Sean Burnett and perhaps some combination of Bryan Bullington, Paul Maholm, Cory Stewart, Ryan Vogelsong, Kip Wells or Josh Fogg. The emergence of the young pitchers would allow the team to deal Wells or Fogg or both to gain help for the offense.

The organization is virtually bereft of young talent at third base and first base. In fact, most experts don't think the Pirates have an impact position player in their farm system.

Some even say the organization will suffer from taking Bullington, projected as a No. 3 starter in the big leagues, with the No. 1 pick in 2002 instead of shortstop B.J. Upton, considered the best player in the minor leagues. Upton , drafted out of high school, could reach the majors for Tampa Bay before Bullington reaches Pittsburgh .

That said , the Pirates are being built with pitching. And the thought is, if they have enough of it, they'll be able to fortify other parts of the team by trading some of the excess.

"We do have an issue about having more pitching than position players," Littlefield said. "We'd love to be able to coordinate and try to gain a better balance. We realize it's unbalanced right now. Nobody has too many pitchers. If these guys are legitimate and we do have a lot of pitching depth, there's no doubt we'd consider trading some of it. I lived that with the ( Florida ) Marlins. We traded a lot of high-profile players and got a lot of prospects in return. Then we ended up packaging three pretty good pitching prospects to the New York Yankees for Mike Lowell, who helped them win a World Series."

Impact Over Depth

Baseball America ranks the Pirates as having the 11th best minor-league system in the major leagues.

Jim Callis, executive editor of Baseball America , said that has more to do with the depth of the organization than it does impact players. That fact may not allow the Pirates to become as good as some people might be expecting.

"We like their system," Callis said. "But you win with impact players more than you win with depth. If you look at the best teams, they have stars. I question whether the Pirates have a pure No. 1 starter among their prospects.

"VanBenschoten really projects as a No. 2, Burnett as a No. 3. That doesn't mean they are going to be 2s or 3s, but they're not Mark Prior or Kerry Wood.

"Those guys can be good pitchers but not ones to carry a team."

Callis said Bullington's stuff was better as a collegiate senior than as a minor-leaguer in 2003 and he still projects no higher than a No. 3-type starter.

Callis added that before the Pirates make solid plans to strengthen their offense through trading pitching, they need to develop their pitchers at a better than average rate.

"I can't think of too many teams capable of trading away pitching to help themselves in other areas," Callis said. "You have to fill a rotation before you can have a surplus to trade. Sometimes, you'll create more holes than what you fill."

In addition to their high draft picks, the Pirates have other pitchers they remain high on, including Ian Snell, who could be a starter or reliever, Blair Johnson and others.

"In an ideal world, the Pirates will have enough pitching depth to add to their offense," said Jonathan Mayo, a writer who follows the minor leagues for mlb.com. " There's plenty of models out there - Minnesota , Oakland and Florida - that feature pitching talent to feed the major league team and to be used as trade bait.

"If the Pirates continue to concentrate on pitching, and those guys come through, some day they might be able to trade for that third baseman."

Positioned For Success?

While it's no secret that the Pirates are short of positional prospects, they do hold some hope for infielder Jose Castillo, catcher/first baseman J.R. House and second baseman Freddy Sanchez to provide help between now and 2006.

"The key component to getting better is players," Littlefield said. "We need better players. We're finally getting into position where our prospects are closer to the big leagues."

Callis questions just how much Castillo or House will help the team. He does think Sanchez, if he can overcome his ankle injury, will be a solid hitter for the Pirates.

"I never been a huge Castillo fan," Callis said. "He had a big year at Class A Lynchburg in 2002 but he was repeating the league. His numbers went down last year. He wouldn't hold a contender back but isn't a guy who will make much of a difference. House can hit but he has to stay healthy. I'm not convinced he's a big-league catcher, maybe a first baseman."

Mayo is more optimistic about House being able to find a position so the Pirates can make use of his hitting ability. He also thinks the Pirates will have enough pitching depth to add offensive pieces by 2006.

"They need a little help everywhere, with maybe the exception of starting rotation" Mayo said. "For the Pirates, everything is based on pitching. They haven't had to rush anybody and that's a good thing."

Littlefield said bringing a quality third baseman into the organization will be a priority between now and 2006. If all goes well, he'll have a couple pitchers to dangle in front of some team.

"It's hard to find third basemen," Littlefield said. "They're hard to find. There's not many in the industry. We're always on the lookout for a third baseman.

"We need more position players and part of our approach is to fill that void."

John E. Sacco has covered the Pirates and major league baseball for PSR since October 1998. Previously, he covered the team from 1986-1992 and is a former member of the Baseball Writers Association of America Pittsburgh chapter.