By Dejan Kovacevic | 3:38 p.m. Thursday
The Pirates today optioned starter Ian Snell to Class AAA Indianapolis. A corresponding move will be announced before the game tomorrow.
Snell is 2-8 with a 5.36 ERA, each figure the worst on the staff.
Details to come.
UPDATE 3:55 p.m.: Snell just said that the decision to go to Indianapolis was his, that he approached management late last night with the idea. (Which explains why he was waiting outside John Russell's office after the game, as documented in this morning's Notebook.) His explanation basically came down to this: He sought a more positive environment: "Too much negativity. I want to be a positive person if I'm going to be here. I felt like I was going to be negative if I was going to be here, and I didn't want to ruin this team." He was asked to explain who actually made the call that he would go down: "I wasn't going to allow them to say what they want. I told them I wanted to go down. It's best for the team." I asked why he would do this, when three of his past four starts were quality starts. "There's a lot. I don't want to point fingers and make excuses. I just made a better decision for myself, my career and my life." I asked what he needs to do: "Nothing. You guys don't understand it unless you played baseball. You don't understand it, and the people at home don't understand it. I'm just going down there, get my thoughts together and do well."
4:06 p.m.: Virgil Vasquez, as expected, will be the pitcher coming from Indianapolis.
4:36 p.m.: Audio of Snell's gathering with the media.
4:40 p.m.: Neal Huntington just explained this to me: If Charlie Morton cannot pitch tomorrow night -- and that remains undetermined -- Vasquez will pitch Friday, Jeff Karstens Sunday, and Morton will skip a full turn. If Morton can pitch, Vasquez will pitch Sunday and Karstens will remain in the bullpen. Just ran into Morton, too, and he is adamant the tight left hamstring is feeling better. Either way, be sure that the Pirates are curious to see what Vasquez can do.
4:46 p.m.: Excerpts from Huntington's gathering with the media, on the Snell subject ...
> What happened? "We have talked about a lot of things over the past four or five days, really the last two weeks as a front office and a coaching staff. JR and Joe and myself trying to figure out what the best thing for us to help Ian reach his potential. We talked in depth last night, we talked in depth the night before. I had a conversation with Ian last night at which time he flet it might be the best thing for him to go out. It's one of those situations of who came to the conclusion first. It's really not important. What is important is that we are going to try to help Ian Snell reach his potential because it is still in there. We still see glimpses of it. It's why he has remained in the big leagues, it's why he has remained a player is because we do see the glimpses of it. It's still in there. How we reach it we are not quite sure just yet. I know we are going to continue to work hard."
> Time frame? "I think Ian Snell will show us how long it is going to take. As with any player that goes down to the minor leagues, it's up to them to make the necessary adjustments. It's up to them to be open to coaching. It's up to them to listen to why we think they need to do different things and how we think they need to make the adjustment to get back to the big leagues. It's up to them to go down and challenge themselves not to get the eight hole hitter of a triple A lineup out with a 3-1 fastball straight down the shoot. It's up to them to make good pitches and attack it as if they are trying to attack a major league lineup on a nightly basis."
> So, we are talking about small things we needs to do to get better? "We need to find the consistency. We need to learn how to attack hitters on the inner half of the plate. Two classic examples on our major league team right now of what happens when you do that are Zach Duke and Paul Maholm. Paul did it in his own last year. Zach is doing it again this year. They have had tremendous success as a result of that. That is probably the biggest key, and the other key is consistency and command of the strike zone, throwing quality pitches in quality locations on a consistent basis. If he does that, then he is a good major league pitcher. He does that over short stretches. We need to do that over longer stretches."
> How much of this is attitude-related? "It's a multitude of variables. It's a lot of factors going into it. Sometimes a player won't let his ability come through. Sometimes a player can be his own worst enemy. In this case, we have to find the right buttons to push to help Ian reach his potential."
> How has Snell felt about the atmosphere here? "I think when a player struggles, the best and most successful players block it out. The ones that aren't able to, it wears on them. I think in Ian's case for the better part of a year and a half now he has not felt like he has been supported by the fans because he has struggled, and he has not been able to block that out. I think it will be a big step for Ian as it is with all players to make that jump. You go see triple A baseball, and there are guys that have more talent than guys do in the major leagues. But you put that second and third deck on and self-imposed pressure begins to take over. We all have to deal with stress in our jobs every single day. Some people deal with it quickly."
4:48 p.m.: Bob Smizik is happy to see Snell heading down.
Posted
Jun 25 2009, 03:38 PM
by
Dejan Kovacevic