I wasn't going to post on this article published earlier this week by Dejan Kovacevic, but Charlie made a great post about it at Bucs Dugout and then Wilbur Miller followed it up with a great comment. Their two points in tandem jogged my memory a bit and it gives me an opportunity to talk about something I've been meaning to talk about for some time.

What both Charlie and Wilbur reminded me of was a Sports Illustrated column written by Joe Posnanski about two months ago in which he discussed the plight of the Royals with Bill James, who grew up a Royals fan. You should read the whole thing, if you've got the time, but what really resonated with me was James' point that teams like the Pirates and Royals and Reds have failed so consistently over the past fifteen years because they're terrified of doing anything that might be perceived as "amateur," given the small-market reputations of the franchises.

In baseball, he thinks the pursuit of professionalism has made teams like the Kansas City Royals second-class. The Royals don't have enough money to compete the same way as the Red Sox, Angels or Tigers. A short boxer cannot win using the outside jab. A quarterback with a weak arm will not win by throwing deep. A 5-foot-10 basketball player cannot make it to the NBA with a back-to-the-basket game. The one sure way that the Royals will lose is by using the same blueprint as the New York Yankees.

That perfectly encapsulates the Littlefield/McClatchy era for me. Decisions were repeatedly made that were counterproductive to making the Pirates successful in the long-term because they made the team seem more "professional." Each trade that was made was made for "Major League ready" players, because that made each trade seem less like fire sales, which are "amateur."

Think back to the winter of 2004. Jason Kendall was coming off of a season in which he'd put up a .399 OBP and while his skills were clearly dwindling a bit and he was obviously owed too much money, he was still pretty clearly a useful player for the Pirates. The Pirates, though, were looking to deal Kendall because a team like the Pirates just couldn't afford to pay a player like Kendall $10 million. Instead of agreeing to bite the bullet on a large chunk of Kendall's contract and shipping him off for some minor-league types, Kendall was traded to Oakland in what was essentially a payroll swap. The Pirates took Mark Redman, a pitcher in his third year of arbitration, Arthur Rhodes, a reliever making $3.7 million, in exchange for Kendall and about $5 million. Two "Major League ready" players instead of prospects. Rhodes was then immediately swapped to Cleveland for Matt Lawton, who in turn played well for the Pirates for 100 games and was traded to Chicago for Jody Gerut.

The saga doesn't end there, though. Redman was terrible for the Pirates and traded to Kansas City for the Jonah "The Accelerant" Bayliss and someone named Chad Blackwell. So the Pirates' long-term return on Kendall was essentially Bayliss and Gerut's massive knee brace. Meanwhile, the Cubs fell out of contention and immediately flipped Lawton to the Yankees for Justin Berg, at the time a 20-year old pitcher for the Yankees New York/Penn League affiliate. Berg is now 25 and used his sinker to pitch his way to Chicago bullpen at the end of this season, where he followed up a nice Triple-A showing with a good performance in his September call-up.

Littlefield's insistence on "Major League ready" returns for both Kendall and Lawton was borne out of a need to do things "professionally." As a result, the Cubs ended up with a more useful long-term return on that series of deals than the Pirates did. That one trade was hardly a trend; almost every single one of Littlefield's major trades culminated in "Major League ready" players as the main return, with varying success.

Huntington, in contrast, has gutted his Major League roster with seven major trades in two seasons (Nady/Marte, Bay, McLouth, Morgan, Wilson/Snell, Sanchez, and Grabow/Gorzelanny). In at the very least four of those trades, the main return was a player well below the Major League level (Tabata for Nady, Hernandez for McLouth, and Alderson for Sanchez -- I also think you can also argue that the Pirates saw Morris as the main return in the Bay trade and the three pitchers as the main return in the Wilson trade, but I'll play it close to the vest here). As a reward for attempting to restock the farm system Huntington is reviled by a large part of the Pirates' fan base and the Pirates are a national punchline on Saturday Night Live.

During the Littlefield era, people would find out that I was a Pirate fan and response, "Really? I wasn't sure the Pirates still existed." Now, the response is, "How can you still cheer for a team that always trades away all of its best players?" That's Huntington couldn't care less about projecting a facade of "professionalism," and he's instead focused on rebuilding the Pirates the best way he sees fit. There are still a lot of questions to be answered and until the Pirates start competing Huntington hasn't actually accomplished anything, but all told I certainly prefer his approach to the prior one.

Comments (13)

North Side Notch said:

I'll start the slow clap - Clap. In all seriousness, though, excellent post, Pat. I live in the Cincinnati market so I am exposed to the Reds A LOT...way more than I want to be. However, this has caused me to know a lot about Reds baseball. At first it seemed like Jockety had a plan, but now he is going away from it with deals like the Rolen trade (which started this whole thing). I said to myself when that happened, "This is exactly what Littlefield would have done." Now, all my Reds fan friends think they are WS competitors next year because Scott Rolen helped them finish strong. However, the way I see things, the Reds, if they continue to see themselves like that right now, will be in worse shape than the Pirates. The Reds have a 9-year streak of consecutive losing seasons. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that grows and beats whatever the number is we set.

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October 09, 2009 | url
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PaulL said:

	... It doesn't help that they are terrible at evaluating talent both in players and managers/general managers.
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October 09, 2009
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JerryG said:

That SI article made me think of..... The 2009 Draft. Specifically, Tony Sanchez. It seemed like going in to that draft, everyone in the Pirates "blog-o-sphere" had a preferred pick, like Aaron Crow, Grant Green or Alex White. There was no clear cut favorite since Dustin Ackley was taken with the 2nd pick. Neal Huntington and Greg Smith took a first round pick that had the majority of the fan base up in arms. But that pick immediately signed and went on to hit .316/.415/.561 in 41 games with the West Virginia Power. What would the Pirates had done if they were afraid of looking "amateur"? They probably would have drafted someone with salary demands that didn't lineup with their ability, haggled with them until August 15th and then have to wait until next season to start their development. Now then if there's a great player, like Pedro or Wieters or Strasburg available, they should take them, but when there's no clear cut favorite, maybe the Pirates should dare to be different. They did this past year and it paid off for them pretty fast. Of course nobody can tell what will happen long term, but if Tony Sanchez becomes the Pirates next full time catcher, especially if he can hit for average and power, the Pirates found a real steal, "professionalism" be damned.

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October 09, 2009
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ExileInDC said:

... Is there any middle ground? Did NH have to make EVERY one of those deals? I watch a lot of Nationals ball in person, and that is a team as messed up and possibly even more irrelevant than the Pirates. However, instead of making seven trades, they made just three. Meanwhile, like the Pirates they're trying to maximize good arms from the draft. It will be interesting to see whether the Nationals contend before the Pirates. Not predicting it, just wondering. How strange would it be if Nyjer Morgan made it to the playoffs before his old team? Or Tom Gorzelanny? (Dare I say that Hart was picked up as a "Major League ready" arm.)

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October 09, 2009
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JerryG said:

	If the Cardinals looked like Pirates last night.... The Twins are playing like Pirates tonight. Joe Nathan is out there pitching like he went to the Matt Capps school of closing. Of course going in and facing Teix, A-Rod and Matsui was not an easy job. I'm clearly not going to get my dream World Series matchup of Minnesota and St. Louis.
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October 09, 2009
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andy coulter said:

	... Has anyone heard that our hero, Mr. Van Slyke, is not going back to the Tigers next year. The Associated Press wires are saying he's "pursuing other options." Wondering if that's Detroit's way of saying "don't come back." Besides, aren't we now looking for a first base coach??? Not sure but it'd be a nice homecoming!
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October 09, 2009
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matt w said:

@ ExileinDC To be crude, I think in this case "middle ground" means "half-assed." Once Huntington makes the first deal, he's basically committed to the idea that he's not going to try to maximize wins in 2010 and probably 2011. 2012 and thereafter are when the Pirates are going to, hopefully, have a lot of talent hitting the bigs. So why keep around guys who won't be helping the team in 2012? Not every prospect pans out, so for the plan to work you need a lot of prospects. The only guys we traded who could've really helped then are McLouth, Gorzo, and maybe Morgan and Burnett. Now, I don't agree with the idea that if you don't contend it doesn't matter how many games you lose -- sometimes expressed in terms of Billy Beane's "If you aren't going to win 90, you might as well lose 90." In a really important sense, none of this matters. But as fans, we feel better when the team wins, even if it doesn't make the playoffs. Everybody felt like crap when the team tanked September, and was happy when they managed not to lose 100 games. (Well, almost everyone.) But I agree that there's no point in aiming for mediocrity. That means if you're rebuilding, rebuild all the way. Apropos of nothing, Yuck the Fankees.

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October 10, 2009
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matt w said:

	in fact This caption on an MLB.com chart is ridiculous: Mark Teixeira hit the 11th walk-off homer in Yankees postseason history 'cause they left off this important part of Yankees postseason history:
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October 10, 2009
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Fred Thayer said:

Great Point Pat! Pat, You make a great point. For me it's tough living here in Wisconsin and having to listen to all the Brewer fans talk about how great they are. I had to survive the losing streak against the Brewers and the whole Dave Kerwin ordeal. My response to the Brewer fans when they ask how or why I'm a Pirate Fan. (well first I tell them that when I was growing up in PA, I thought that the Pirates only played the Phillies or Mets.) Is that...well we are finally in a full scale rebuild. That we have suffered through 15 years of half ass dreams of just being competitive. Most of the Brewer fans still kick back with the fact that the Pirates still suck. Once we get to that point in every conversation. I just point out that the Brewers have never one anything, and that the current group in Milwaukee might never win anything either. Sorry about the ramble. Back to your point. I think that the new F.O. actually have a plan. I got to watch a few games live this year. (all be it at Miller Park) They are a young team. I felt old watching them and I'm only 29. I thought that this year, that they just needed to get on a hot streak and they could have made a run. Just like how the Rockies did back in June. It's not like the pitching staff wasn't good enough. Well the 2010 season should be interesting. I hope that the fire sales is over. Although I still think that they might move a few players. (possibly Maholm, Dommit, and/or Capps) We still have some holes on the major league team...ie 2nd base and 1st base/Right Field. Young isn't the answer and the combo of Cruz/Bixler won't work at 2nd either. Thanks again for all your efforts with this blog and I look forward to your take on the team going forward.

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October 10, 2009
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bucdaddy said:

	... Damn my eyes, I can't read that plaque.
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October 10, 2009
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Wizard of Woz said:

	... Clap Clap. Awesome post. The facade of professionalism angle is one I never thought of, but makes my defense of the new FO a little easier. As to the fire sale being over, I think that a few more pieces may drop this year (Doumit, Caps, maybe Duke), but we are getting close to contention. I can tast it. It tastes like Carrot Cake with walnuts and raisins and a cream cheese icing.
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October 10, 2009
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matt w said:

bucdaddy It's not just you -- it's hard to read. I'm sure you know what it is, but FTR: "This marks the spot where Bill Mazeroski's home run ball cleared the left center field wall of Forbes Field on October 13, 1960, thereby winning the World Series Championship for the Pittsburgh Pirates. "The historic hit came in the ninth inning of the seventh game, to beat the New York Yankees by a score of 10-9."

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October 10, 2009
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TheTaxidermist said:

... I am so sick of talking to people about the Pirates. I should say, talking to people who don't even pay attention to the Pirates, talking like they know exactly what's going on. They can't see the big picture with those deals. They just see players who (for the Pirates) were big names, getting traded away for nothing. What they don't see is that the Pirates, like you pointed out Pat, are not going to win by using the Yankees blueprint. They need to use a blueprint that is proven. You have got to build through the farm system. There is just no way around it. But of course, know-it-alls don't like to think positively about anything related to the Pirates. They just don't CARE to know. Of course, when the Pirates finally do improve, they will be hopping on the bandwagon. Meanwhile, they weren't there to support them when things were rough. It sickens me. I can't wait to say "I told you so" when or if the Pirates compete.

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October 11, 2009
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