Pittsburgh
Sports Report October 2004 |
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| In-Depth:
Twenty-second round picks are long shots at best. But baseball's first-year player draft is not an exact science. First round picks often never make it to the big leagues. Players virtually ignored by scouts can turn out to be major league contributors - even stars. Even Rookie of the Year. Bay, acquired by the Pirates in August 2003 as part of a deal that sent Brian Giles to San Diego, missed the early part of this season recovering from shoulder surgery. After returning from a rehabilitation stint at Class AAA Nashville, Bay did nothing less than sparkle in left field and at the plate for the Pirates. He set a new team rookie record for home runs, besting the previous standard of 23 shared by Johnny Rizzo (1938) and Ralph Kiner (1946). He also broke the home run record (22) for a Canadian rookie, a mark held by Pete Ward (1963) of the Chicago White Sox. 'I've really come from obscurity,' the 26-year old Bay said. 'People always said I was older while playing in lower levels of professional baseball. After I was put on the Padres' 40-man roster, I stopped worrying about what other people said. I felt I had a shot.' Bay seems to be the leading choice to win the National League Rookie of the Year award, although some in the national media favor San Diego Padres' shortstop Khalil Greene, who missed the final few weeks of the regular season with a broken finger. Bay and Greene are former teammates and remain friends, but clearly, Bay would love to win the Rookie of the Year award. He understands what winning would mean to the Pirates, who have never had a player so honored. No Canadian has ever won it either. 'I just can't believe a Pirate never won it when you consider who has played for this team,' Bay said. 'It's really amazing. I know what it means to the organization, Canada and myself. I'm going for the double-whammy, I guess.' Passed Around Bay took a rather circuitous route to Pittsburgh. He was drafted by Montreal in June 2000. Less than two years later, he was part of a trade to the New York Mets for journeyman infielder Lou Collier. Just four months after landing with the Mets' organization, Bay was shipped to San Diego. He finished that season with the Padres' Class AA affiliate in Mobile, Ala., hitting .309 in 23 games. Bay opened 2003 with Class AAA Portland and was promoted to San Diego in May - but he was hit by a pitch in his first plate appearance and fractured his wrist. After months of trade rumors and almost constant denials by Padres' general manager Kevin Towers, Bay was dealt to the Pirates in August, along with pitchers Oliver Perez and Cory Stewart for Brian Giles. If he wins the Rookie of the Year, Bay will become only the second player in the history of the major leagues to be traded three times and then win the award since its inception in 1947. Lou Piniella, AL Rookie of the Year for the Royals in 1969, is the other. Former Mets' general manager Steve Phillips was one of three GMs to trade Bay. Phillips included Bay in a deal to acquire San Diego's Steve Reed, who was enjoying a career year. While he hadn't seen Bay play, the reports were that Bay would probably only be an extra outfielder at the big league level. Yet, Phillips, who now works for ESPN, said he is not totally surprised at Bay's performance. 'He showed some flashes last year of this kind of ability when he came up,' Phillips said. 'He absolutely swung the bat and looks like he's going to be an offensive force. I think quite a few people are pleasantly surprised by his development and growth.' Phillips said the fact Bay was traded three times had more to do with scouting projections and circumstances than his own talent. '(The Mets) acquired him from Montreal in a small trade,' Phillips said. 'We didn't have great reports on him. But we knew he won the batting title in the Midwest League. He was a little older playing at the A-ball level. The reports on him considered him more as an extra outfielder as opposed to an everyday player in the majors. Clearly, nobody saw that he was going to progress to this level now. There's no question he is an everyday player. The question is how good is he going to be?' Jim Callis of Baseball America said one of the reasons Bay was traded the first time was that former Expos' ownership took all scouting reports with them when they left Montreal, and Expos' new GM Omar Minaya was left with nothing. 'I don't think that (Montreal) had any idea what they had in Jason Bay,' Callis said. 'At the time, Omar wanted a utilityman. It turned out to be a flat-out bad trade, especially for Lou Collier.' Thank Jason Grove Callis said it was just about a fluke that Bay was drafted by the Expos anyway. He recalled that Bay, while playing for Gonzaga in the spring of 2000, was pretty much an afterthought for scouts, who were focused on Washington State star Jason Grove. 'The Expos told me they had two people there scouting Jason Grove,' Callis recalled. 'In the meantime, Bay showed some aptitude. It wasn't like either guy was overwhelmed by him. But they liked Bay and kind of talked each other into it. That's how he got scouted and drafted.' Grove was a third-round choice of the New York Yankees that year (98th overall). He recently completed his fourth professional season and second with the Yankees' Class AA affiliate. Bay and Grove played summer ball together in British Columbia. 'I remember them being there,' Bay. 'Going to Gonzaga, it's not like Arizona State or USC. There's not 20 scouts at every game like for those schools. I don't remember what I did in that game.' The Pirates and their fans will surely remember what Bay did in the summer of 2004. John E. Sacco has covered major league baseball for PSR since 1998. He is a former member of the Baseball Writers of America Association. |
Chances were that Jason Bay
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