In the 1980s, Pirate general manager Syd Thrift, an old Southern gentleman with a dry wit, looked at the rebuilding task in front of him and moaned, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t easy raising the dead.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Relatively speaking, Thrift\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s task was a breeze.\u00c2\u00a0 He took over a team that had a winning record two seasons earlier, and was just six years removed from a World Series championship.\u00c2\u00a0 By comparison, current Pirate general manager Neal Huntington assumed responsibility for a franchise that was not only dead, but also badly decomposed and turning to dust.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Huntington has been leading the Bucs\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rebuilding effort for two-and-a-half years, and it still isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t clear that the franchise is any closer to contending than it was in 1993.\u00c2\u00a0 Seventeen straight losing seasons are about to turn to eighteen, with no end in plain sight.<\/p>\n
To be fair, the man stepped into a disaster area.\u00c2\u00a0 Huntington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bumbling predecessor, Dave Littlefield, was arguably the worst general manager in baseball history.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0Even in the hands of the most brilliant franchise builder, it would take the Pirates years to emerge from the devastation wrought by Littlefield\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s malpractice and the benign neglect of departed managing general partner Kevin McClatchy.<\/p>\n
Huntington has unfurled a beautiful blueprint.\u00c2\u00a0 Under his watch the Pirates have bolstered their embarrassingly inadequate presence in Latin America, spent liberally on the amateur draft, and courageously traded a handful of popular veterans for a barrelful of youngsters.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0But whether his grand vision ever will be realized remains uncertain.<\/p>\n
The biggest unanswered question is whether this new regime can recognize talent when it sees it.\u00c2\u00a0 Among Huntington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first moves was to hire respected statistical consultants Dan Fox and Eddie Epstein, who brought a much-needed injection of brains and creativity into an organization that for years had been utterly confounded by modern baseball thinking. \u00c2\u00a0On the other hand, a significant number of Littlefield\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scouts and special assistants remain on the payroll to this day — perplexing considering the Littlefield front office couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell the difference between a baseball player and a curtain rod.<\/p>\n
For now, the best way to assess Huntington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talent evaluation skills is to examine his trades, and the early returns are not good:<\/p>\n
It is certainly possible some of Huntington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s acquisitions will take dramatic steps forward in 2010, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also not obvious that any of these guys will be significant contributors at the major league level, and that is an ominous sign.<\/p>\n
In a refreshing break from tradition, the Pirates have ranked among baseball\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s top spenders on the amateur draft under Huntington.\u00c2\u00a0 However, with the exception of 2008 first-round pick, Pedro Alvarez, who could be manning third base at PNC Park later this season, help remains many years away.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The Bucs\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 most promising pitching prospects are barely out of high school and still toiling in the lowest reaches of the minors.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first-round pick, Tony Sanchez, could supplant Ryan Doumit as the everyday catcher by 2011, but unless Tabata breaks out, no other impact position players are looming.<\/p>\n
Most analysts agree the Pirates have decent depth in their system now, but, as usual, few high-ceiling difference-makers.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0Huntington has whiffed on a few opportunities to bring more of those kinds of players into the fold.\u00c2\u00a0 He showed almost no interest in dazzling, young Aroldis Chapman, who signed with the Bucs\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 division rival, the Reds.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0The Pirates drafted Tanner Scheppers out of Fresno State in 2008 but refused to meet his asking price.\u00c2\u00a0 Scheppers signed with Texas in 2009 and now is considered one of the top pitching prospects in the game.\u00c2\u00a0 Pittsburgh had the inside track on Dominican shortstop prodigy Miguel Sano, but Huntington gave him a lowball offer, got into a silly personality conflict with Sano\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s agent, and lost him to the Minnesota Twins.<\/p>\n
The Pirate front office yammers about Alvarez and Andrew McCutchen being stars in the making who will shatter the cycle of losing.\u00c2\u00a0 In February, team president Frank Coonelly went so far as to declare, \u00e2\u20ac\u01532010 is the beginning of the next dynasty for the Pirates.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 But Pittsburgh has had individual talent before.\u00c2\u00a0 Bay, Brian Giles, and, for a time, Jason Kendall all were brilliant hitters; unfortunately, they were surrounded by overpaid geezers, AAAA stiffs, and meatball-lobbing pus arms.<\/p>\n
Playoff-caliber teams (and certainly dynasty-caliber teams) need more than one or two gifted players; they require a fairly high level of ability all over the diamond.\u00c2\u00a0 Assuming the best, which is that McCutchen and Alvarez blossom into all-star talents, where is their supporting cast going to come from?\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Where is the pitching going to come from?\u00c2\u00a0 In the most optimistic scenario, it probably will be 2014 or 2015 before any of the high school hurlers drafted in 2009 establish themselves in the majors \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and by that time Alvarez and McCutchen will be approaching their free agent years.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0Will Pirates\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 owner Bob Nutting, with his reputation in Pittsburgh as the town Scrooge, pay to lock up his stars long-term, and maybe even bring in a quality free agent or two?\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0Fans and media members who follow the team closely are skeptical.<\/p>\n
Although Huntington is slowly breathing life into the organization, the pulse remains weak, the vital signs unstable, and the outlook guarded.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 But at least there is a pulse, which is the most anyone has been able to say about this once-proud franchise in almost two decades.<\/p>\n
James Forr is the 2005 winner of the McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award and co-author of<\/em> Pie Traynor: A Baseball Biography, released in January 2010.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the 1980s, Pirate general manager Syd Thrift, an old Southern gentleman with a dry wit, looked at the rebuilding task in front of him and moaned, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t easy raising the dead.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Relatively speaking, Thrift\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s task was a breeze.\u00c2\u00a0 He took over a team that had a winning record two seasons earlier, and was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":734,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4111,21225,5890,5900,5782,5902,5894,5892,5889,5896,5898,525,5897,5886,5888,5901,2490,5887,5895,5891,5893,513,5899],"class_list":["post-4230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-amateur-draft","tag-baseball-history","tag-benign-neglect","tag-bucs","tag-dave-littlefield","tag-devastation","tag-disaster-area","tag-dry-wit","tag-eddie-epstein","tag-first-moves","tag-general-partner","tag-gm","tag-grand-vision","tag-huntington","tag-kevin-mcclatchy","tag-latin-america","tag-pirates","tag-raising-the-dead","tag-rebuilding-effort","tag-southern-gentleman","tag-statistical-consultants","tag-two-and-a-half-years","tag-unanswered-question"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t