Click here to submit question.
By Dejan Kovacevic | 12:32 a.m. Thursday
We have Qs ...
__________
Q: I'm baffled by the Pirates' decision to option Jose Bautista to Indy. He seems to be a hard-working professional who does a capable, if not scintillating, job at third base and various other positions. What does he have to do to prove he belongs with the PBC?
Mark Vatavuk of Erie
KOVACEVIC: You know, without going overboard here because Bautista might only be down there a couple weeks, it does afford me the opportunity to share this: More and more, we are seeing familiar faces gone.
It was jarring when it happened to Ronny Paulino, maybe even more with Tom Gorzelanny. Then came the big trades. Others gone, too. Not saying those moves were wrong. Just that they were a significant break from how things were done in the past.
And they might be a break from the past in another way, too: This new management wants its own people, its own players, and that is becoming increasingly evident. A lot of them were given an extra year, from front office to scouts to the athletes themselves and even to the business end, but the weeding out clearly is underway. And I cannot imagine that too many people working for that company in any capacity are feeling comfortable.
As for Bautista, it is entirely possible that he was miscast as an everyday player. If he had come up through another system in a more competitive setting for jobs (such as the one Brandon Moss was describing to me regarding Boston last week), he might have placed all his focus on becoming the one of the best utility players around.
Then again, it also is possible that Bautista is right that he was not given a fair chance, at least within the context of 2008. It is difficult to label any franchise future-minded when it gives a 33-year-old first baseman platoon time at third with someone management was saying had a chance to be part of the future.
I know this much: Jose Bautista belongs in the majors in some capacity. If that does not happen in Pittsburgh, it will happen somewhere else.
__________
Q: Why are the Brewers (in their infinitely smaller market) able to not only sign ALL of their top draft picks, plus maintain a $70 million payroll with the big club over the past two years ($70,986,500 in 2007 and $80,937,499 this year)?
Wouldn't this mean that the Pirates have anywhere between $20M-$30M available to sign the best talent?
If the Pirates cannot commit to signing top players through free agency and will not do so in the draft, why on Earth should people in Pittsburgh support this team financially?
Chris Lach of Mt. Lebanon
KOVACEVIC: For all the complicated talks we can have about money, this is why I prefer simply to point to the Brewers. They are in a metro region two-thirds the size of Pittsburgh's, and they have the same potential for revenue streams. (Attendance is obviously higher now, but the product is much better. Switch products, and attendance probably would be comparable.)
There also is debt fodder to consider, but the Pirates sound happy with that these days.
Put it all together, and your likely answer is yes. That is how much the Pirates could spend. Could. But that would be, the way I see it, based on believing that the city would turn out for a good team and investing beforehand, rather than simply looking at the existing revenues and developing a budget off that.
It has much more to do with that, from what I gather, than the ability to spend.
As for whether or not you should support the Pirates, Chris, that is your call, not mine.
__________
Q: Dejan, who do you think the top 10 prospects for the Pirates are now, with all our new acquisitions? Where do Pedro Alvarez and Tanner Scheppers fit in that list if we sign them? The list has to be more promising than any time in the past 10 years.
David Edwards of Austin, Texas
KOVACEVIC: Depends on how one defines a prospect, David. Shortly after the trades, Neal Huntington made the rather striking statement that the eight new guys could all fit into the organization's top 10 right away. But, being that half of those guys are in Pittsburgh right now with no sign of a backward step, that seems off the criteria.
How about we make this simple and just choose guys who are in the minors right now? (Rehab guys exempt, of course. Gorzelanny, Paulino and Bautista, too.) And nothing scientific here, either, just top of my head based on random conversations and some eyeing of the stats:
1. Andrew McCutchen 6. Daniel McCutchen
2. Jose Tabata 7. Neil Walker
3. Ross Ohlendorf 8. Brian Bixler
4. Bryan Morris 9. Danny Moskos
5. Brad Lincoln 10. Shelby Ford
__________
Until tomorrow ...
Posted
Aug 14 2008, 12:32 AM
by
Dejan Kovacevic