2008 Pittsburgh Pirates Preview
Bucs Brass Thinking Long-Term
By Jim Lachimia

The fact that Pirates' General Manager Neal Huntington didn't make drastic changes to the team's roster during his first six months on the job disappointed many fans in Pittsburgh. Then there were others, who became downright angry.

How in the world did multiple heads from a team that finished 68-94 last year NOT roll? As spring training began, that question was still being asked-often loudly-and Huntington had to deal with the fallout from such public sentiment.

"Believe it or not, I appreciate and respect that reaction," he said. "The worst thing any professional sports organization can have is apathetic fans. The fans in Pittsburgh are tremendously passionate, and that's why we're working hard every day to bring them back a winner. But we have to do it the right way. We can't make moves to appease the fans. Even though they're the cornerstone, and they're why we're here, we have to do what we believe is right. It would've been easy to come in and just wipe the slate clean. But frankly speaking, that probably wouldn't have been the best thing for the organization."

So although there will be tweaks to the bench and the bullpen, the starting position players and starting pitchers will remain the same - for several reasons.

First of all, Huntington and his boss Frank Coonelly, the Pirates' new president, believe the same basic group of players is capable of performing much better this year. In fact, it was Coonelly who bluntly stated that "no team in baseball underperformed more than the Pirates in 2007." The two men are not HOPING the team will improve under new skipper John Russell, they consider it a reasonable expectation.

"Hope is a very bad strategy," Huntington said. "We're not in the market to HOPE that things go well. There are pieces in place here and things to believe in. There are reasons to be optimistic. If we didn't believe we had a chance to be better in '08, it would have led to a decision to make a lot of changes. But because of the belief that we will be better, it wasn't the right time."

Huntington called the free agent market "one of the leanest and most overpriced I've seen in a long time, if not in my 16 years in the game."

So that was another part of the equation, as was the fact that some of the Pirates' most tradable players-such as outfielder Jason Bay-were coming off subpar seasons and their value was down as a result. That made it easier for Huntington to resist any urge that may have existed to make changes just for the sake of making changes.

So the starting position players set to return include catcher Ronny Paulino, first baseman Adam LaRoche, second baseman Freddy Sanchez, shortstop Jack Wilson, third baseman Jose Bautista, leftfielder Jason Bay and rightfielder Xavier Nady. With the exception of Nady, all of those guys-even the man known as "Steady Freddy"-had months where they struggled mightily at the plate.

"Offensively, we had guys at both ends of the spectrum, and what was difficult was the inconsistency," Huntington said. "We had guys that were just awful for two or three months and then terrific for two or three months, instead of being a little bit more towards the mean. For us to be successful, we need our guys to be more consistent. We need less extremes, and I think through maturity, another year of experience, and improved instruction from the manager and coaching staff, the extremes will be less, and as a result, we'll see better performances."

Starting pitching is a critical element of any team and this Pirates' ballclub will be no exception. Huntington believes the rotation that figures to be comprised of Ian Snell, Tom Gorzelanny, Matt Morris, Paul Maholm and Zach Duke can and will be pretty formidable.

"The game revolves around pitching and with two great young starters like Snell and Gorzelanny, Morris being a veteran who's going to give us a chance to win nearly every time out, and Maholm and Duke-and even behind that with John Van Benschoten, Bryan Bullington, Sean Burnett and Luis Munoz-we feel like we have some good options. If our starting pitchers can keep us in the game every night and give us a chance to compete, we feel like there's enough offense here to make things interesting."

So what sense is Huntington getting from the players? Are they are looking at entering 2008 with essentially the same roster from a glass half-full perspective: the organization believes in them, believes they can do better, and believes they can win? Or is it more of a glass half-empty perspective: pining over the fact that the front office didn't bring in more outside help to improve the ballclub?

"Prior to mini-camp (in January) and prior to the first week to 10 days of spring training-before the players really had a chance to understand John Russell and his staff-I think it probably was more on the glass half-empty side," Huntington said. "But since we've been here (in Florida), a number of players have come up to me and John, and talked about it being different. They've talked about the energy level being different. They've talked about the expectations being different. The focus, the attention to detail and the quality of the work being done. It's different, and so I think the glass is now half-full. How it will play out over the course of the season, only time will tell. It all comes back to the players. It comes back to how we can get the most out of them and what they're actually capable of."

Everyone in Pittsburgh, Huntington included, wants the Pirates' unenviable streak of 15 straight losing seasons to come to an end. But the organization is being careful not to put too many eggs in the short-term goal basket.

"We're certainly not out to win 81 games this year to get the monkey off our backs," Huntington said. "We're out to win the right number of games for the right reasons. We're out to build a sustainable championship-caliber organization. The last thing and the worst thing for this organization would be to win 81 games this year, but to do it at the cost of the '09, '10, '11 and '12 clubs. We have to do what we think is best for the long-term gain as well as being cognizant of the short term impact. We have to build this organization the right way.

"We have a vision. We have a philosophy. We're putting systems in place. We're putting great personnel in place. Even though our activity level at the major league level might not have been what the fans wanted, with what we've done in scouting, what we've done in development - we are building a foundation upon which a championship organization can and will be built."

The Pirates' situation is like one of the lines from the rock group Semisonic's 1998 hit Closing Time, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

Onward and upward, gentlemen. Please.