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By Dejan Kovacevic | 12:11 a.m. Wednesday
HOUSTON -- We have Qs ...
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Q: Hi. The team's minor league coaching shake up is baffling. I know nothing about Trent Jewett other than what I read in your coverage. However, Jewett was respected enough by Neal Huntington that he was a top candidate for the Pirates' managerial job last year. Did Jewett's managerial skills decline so sharply this year that the team had to make a change, or are these minor league manager changes an example of cutting connections with the Dave Littlefield era?
Is there a sense the team is trying to fill the minor league coaching ranks with yes men?
I lack any proof, but my gut says yes.
My gut also said Jason Bay would still be on the team.
Kevin Hensil of Harrisburg
KOVACEVIC: There is no question that Jewett is considered a top Class AAA manager, and that sentiment goes well outside the Pirates organization. It was just a couple years ago that Baseball America, on a survey of scouts, rated him the most ready manager to move into the majors.
The answer to both of your questions, Kevin, is a yes, to some degree.
There is no doubt that the Pirates' development folks want the program that they have in place to be followed, and they want it followed religiously.
In the case of Jewett, by one firm account, part of the program prescribed to him back in the spring included a suggested lineup that the front office felt would be the best for the top prospects' maturation. Jewett -- to his credit, some might say - made clear that filling out the lineup is the responsibility of a manager, any manager anywhere. When a manager forfeits that duty, he gives up an awful lot of the feel that is necessary to have control of a clubhouse and many other situations, not the least of which is the respect the players have for the man in charge. And this is heightened all the more at the highest minor league level.
I have no reason to believe that singularly led to Jewett's departure. Nor do I know that it did not. But perhaps it serves as an example to address your second question.
What will be most telling, probably, will be who the Pirates hire to replace Jewett. If it is another 23-year-old recently retired pitcher, such as Brian Tracy getting the pitching coach's job in State College despite having no experience, you will have your answer about the "yes men." If it is a qualified -- and strong and respected -- manager fit to run a Class AAA franchise, then you will have a different answer.
Should be interesting either way.
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Q: How long is too long?
Sixteen years and counting. Think about it. There are high school kids who have no memory of a winning Pirates team. College kids who were starting school when they last won. Ballparks are built these days to last 30-40 years. So, in about 25 years, another bond issue will be floated to replace the current park. Many of the voters will be in their 40s and 50s, and have no fond memories of growing up with winning Pirates baseball. Maybe their yet unborn kids of that era will have experienced some winning teams, but will the adult voters at that time care enough to continue baseball in Pittsburgh for another generation?
If the current trend continues much longer, I fear the ultimate answer will be no.
David Gross of Whitehall
KOVACEVIC: Sprinkle in a little nuclear winter and a second Aramis Ramirez trade, David, and you win for most thoroughly depressing Q of all time.
I get it. Believe me, I get it. Been here the whole time.
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Q: Why have virtually all of the minor league suspensions for violations of baseball's drug/steroids policy involved Hispanic players?
About 25 more -- all Hispanic -- have occurred in the past few weeks.
Karen Rempel of Indiana, Pa.
KOVACEVIC: Yes, they have, Karen, and you are correct about the backgrounds. What you leave out, though, is that these players - almost all of them, by my recollection - were suspended in their home countries' summer developmental leagues. And that is an important distinction because it points more to those countries' culture of using performance-enhancing drugs and the lack of enforcement there until recently.
Put bluntly, many players there thought they could keep getting away with cheating, only to be surprised that, as of last year, their chances of continuing to do so has diminished.
Someone familiar with MLB's enforcement on this told me last December that MLB had markedly ramped up its enforcement in this part of the world, especially the Dominican and Venezuela, and the numbers you see are the result of that. On the list of 12 released last week, which included two 17-year-old Pirates prospects in Venezuela, all were from either the Dominican or Venezuelan summer leagues.
Again, though, I go back to the important distinction: If this were a problem with "Hispanic players," we would be talking about such players being suspended in the North American minor leagues and maybe even in the majors. There has been very little of that. (Humberto Cota stands out.) Rather, the problem is more with the players who are still playing in those countries.
I would expect more, too, as time goes on. Seldom are messes like this lessened quickly.
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Q: Hey, Dejan, how long did you have that story written covering the 16th losing season?
I'm sure you were writing this thing in your head all year long. Just curious.
Tom Keaton of North Fayette
KOVACEVIC: All year? No. I do think about it for a good portion of the summer, especially this year with the pro sports record being tied, and wonder if there is some different hook or angle I can take this time around. But the actual research and execution began shortly before leaving for San Francisco and, yes, about half of that story was planted in my C-drive the night before the game Sunday, just in case 82 came.
What helped this story was the awful manner in which the team lost, thus allowing for a much smoother transition between the background stuff and the descriptions of the game itself. That included the opening two paragraphs.
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Thing No. 108 that makes Pittsburgh great: The sweet symmetry in how the major arteries surrounding our Downtown was named after our first two major forts.
First major fort on the land that now comprises the Point: Fort Duquesne.
Second major fort: Fort Pitt.
Bridge connecting Parkway West to Downtown: Fort Pitt Bridge.
Identical bridge continuing that connection across to 279, 65 and 28: Fort Duquesne Bridge.
Four-lane road lining one edge of the Golden Triangle: Fort Pitt Boulevard, same side as the bridge
Four-lane road lining the other edge: Fort Duquesne Boulevard.
And nothing at all, anywhere, named after poor Fort Prince George, the tiny -- and original -- one built on the grounds of the Point before either of the above two.
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PHOTOS: Trent Jewett, MiLB.com; Fort Pitt model from Fort Pitt Museum lobby, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Posted
Sep 10 2008, 12:13 AM
by
Dejan Kovacevic