By Dejan Kovacevic | 1:05 a.m. Thursday
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MILWAUKEE -- We have more Qs, as one might expect given the news of the day that Pedro Alvarez is a living, breathing human who speaks ...
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Q: Dejan, I am just curious as to why the Pirates did not have a formal press conference to announce the signing of Pedro Alvarez instead of just a conference call?
After everything that has happened, that is the least that could have been done.
Maybe it is because Frank Coonelly and Scott Boras have little use for each other?
Tom Gibson of Bristow, Va.
KOVACEVIC: It actually could be any number of things, Tom.
But I will start with the formal explanation cited in the main news piece, and that is that the team is on the road: Coonelly was in Bradenton, Neal Huntington here in Milwaukee and the traveling contingent of media is here, as well. So, there was kind of a scattered feel to the whole thing.
You could be right about Coonelly and Boras not wanting to rub elbows and swap stories, but Coonelly already was on his business trip before this signing unfolded, and Huntington long had planned to travel with the major league team most of this final month.
Beyond that, who can say?
Maybe the Pirates wanted to avoid what they probably knew - and, ultimately, they would have been right - was going to be something far different than the standard gosh-what's-it-like-to-put-on-the-uniform type of news conference.
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Q: Hi, Dejan, I've seen you mention that all Pedro Alvarez wanted was an opportunity for a fair negotiation. Isn't that what the two months between the draft and the Aug. 15 deadline are for?
I'm sure both sides are at fault, but it seems to me that, if Scott Boras wanted to fairly negotiate, he should not wait until the last second in a transparent attempt to have teams give in to his excessive demands.
Do you get the impression Boras will alter his policy of waiting until the last minute?
I might be missing something, but it seems to me that our PBC simply called his bluff and he cried foul and was very lucky to get a redo.
Mick Poole of Grants Pass, Ore.
KOVACEVIC: As I have done from the very beginning of this story, Mick, I will give both sides, and the opinion is up to you ...
Boras and the Pirates did have talks over those two months, but they were miles apart. Boras was in the $8.5 million range, the Pirates at $5 million. Depending on your view of which price was more fair, based on the market, then that is the party that contributed most to wasting those two months.
Also, bear in mind that on the critical Aug. 15, the Pirates did not phone Boras - it usually is the team that does the calling because only the team can offer money - until four minutes before midnight. So, it is entirely possible that it was the Pirates, if only on that day, who wanted to use the deadline to their advantage.
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Q: I'm somewhat puzzled as to the transaction to get Pedro Alvarez on the 40-man roster. Putting Tom Gorzelanny on the 60-day DL four days before the end of the season has me confused, as I thought the 60-day was for use during the season. Does Tom actually have to remain on this list for 60 days? This would take things to the end of November.
When does the 40 man roster have to be in place before the Rule 5 draft, as I thought there was a deadline sometime before the draft to establish the roster?
Bob Wagner of Slidell, La.
KOVACEVIC: Lots of Qs about this minor move, for some reason.
It means nothing. It is, as Neal Huntington just explained to me after this game, a "paper move." The moment the season ends, so does the 60-day DL. The real decision comes when Gorzelanny and Phil Dumatrait have to be added back to the 40-man, 15 days after the final game of the World Series. The roster is full.
None of this has any impact on Rule 5.
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Q: Dejan, thanks for another great season of reporting. I missed the Sunday game but was at the game and concert Saturday night. During that time, I observed something crazy from the ushers, and reading Marda Hook's question yesterday reminded me of it.
Throughout the game, people were up and down constantly while play was in progress. They never were impeded by ushers. In fact, during the second inning with the bases loaded and two outs, an usher actually brought down a couple and walked them through the full aisle to wipe off the seats. As has been discussed here many times, it makes it hard to enjoy the baseball game when you can't see the field.
However, what totally blew my mind: After the concert started, a whole crew of ushers came through the sections and made people standing and enjoying the concert sit-down. It happened in an obvious way and was clearly a coordinated effort.
Is the PBC management really saying it is acceptable to obstruct the view of the game, but not the view of the non-baseball circus they put on around it?
Graham Watkins of Shaler
KOVACEVIC: Maybe they were just doing to that to the people yelling, "Do Free Bird!"
I kid, but I appreciate your point and your calling attention to it. I have seen the Pirates completely disregard any possible policies aimed at allowing people to watch the game unobstructed since the ballpark opened and going back to Three Rivers. That did not change under new management this year, by all accounts. Not in the slightest.
As for the concert, not sure what to make of that. Not like anybody was going to rush the stage to get a piece of whoever those guys were playing under the Skynyrd banner. (Forgive me, but I bolted the moment the last quote was inserted into the gamer.) Maybe someone from the Pirates can shed some light.
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Thing No. 112 that makes Pittsburgh great: We have animals, right in our Downtown area, that some of your Pirates would like to hunt.
Mentioned to Adam LaRoche a good while back that there are wild turkeys living on Mount Washington (and they sometimes get around to Bigelow Boulevard and even as far as Washington's Landing), and his immediate response was: "Can you hunt them?"
Me: "Well, yeah, but people live up there and ..."
Him: "Hunting wild turkeys right in the city. Cool."
Maybe that should come as no surprise ...
If I haven't said this in a while, your first baseman is completely nuts.
Anyway, Saturday at PNC Park, the Pirates had just taken the field, with a few already tossing, when a perfect flying V of Canada geese goes overhead. I asked one player if he noticed. Nothing. Another, also nothing. Then, Brandon Moss trots by and asks, "Did you see those geese just now?"
Me: "Yeah, and ..."
Moss: "Wish I was hunting!"
OK, so this must be the genesis of the term sportsmen for those who hunt and otherwise enjoy the outdoors.
At any rate, what it makes me think of is how cool, to use LaRoche's term, it is that Pittsburgh has this kind of wildlife right in the heart of town. And this is to say nothing of the ducks that now live under all three of our Sister Bridges -- documented here intensely over the years -- as well as the bass, mega-sized catfish and other watery types now populating the rivers. My children even saw a very large turtle about a mile up-river from the ballpark just last month.
This probably says something about how the city has cleaned up, but I will leave that to the environmental writers. It certainly makes for a highly livable feeling.
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Until tomorrow ...
Posted
Sep 25 2008, 01:05 AM
by
Dejan Kovacevic