Monday, July 9, 2012

X Marks the Spot

Waaaay back in September of 2007 Frank Coonelly had a vision. (Or at the very least a fair idea). The Pirates president was searching for the man who could lead his team to the promised land. Coonelly desired a GM with a vision of success and the tenacity to accomplish it. The new GM was to be a baseball-minded executive, with strong leadership skills. Coonelly also wanted someone with an unwavering passion for baseball and for the city of Pittsburgh. After a two week search that winded through the scouting trails and dirty areas of baseball development, he settled on Neal Huntington.

Neal came with some pretty hefty credentials. He had spent 16 seasons in baseball player development (a place where the Pirates SEVERELY lacked), starting out with the (then) Montreal Expos and moving to the Cleveland Indians for ten seasons. He managed to work his way up the ladder of the Indians system culminating in his hire as special assistant to the General Manager. How much Neal is truly credited for in the rise of the Indians organization is open to debate. What can be said is that he was certainly involved (or at least a witness) in several key moves that helped launch the Indians into contention. The most laudable being the acquisition of Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips and Grady Sizemore in a fleecing of trade with the aforementioned Montreal Expos at the very end of the 2002 trade deadline. At the time Colon was in the midst of a stellar year, he finished 2002 with a combined 20-8 record and a 2.93 ERA, including 76 earned runs with 70 walks in 233.1 innings, three shutouts, and eight complete games. The fans and press at the time flayed the Indians front office for the move. Before the season began they had unloaded Roberto Alomar, perhaps the most beloved Indian ever. First year GM Mark Shapiro new going in that he was going to have to make some unpopular moves, and if the Alomar trade didn't clue in the media, the Colon trade sure did. Fans and media alike lambasted the Indians front office for what, at the time, was perceived as a salary dump. (Deric McKamey of BP wrote an excellent article on this trade, which you can find here). In the end we all know what happened: Cleveland was horrible at first before their prospects carried them to contention in the AL central.

Right now you might be thinking you know the direction I'm heading with this piece. You may be thinking right now that I'm going to compare the Indians front office with Huntington in the mix to the current Pirates front office... In effect you're right, I am. But not quite the way you think....

When Huntington took over at the end of the 2007 season, his first order of business was to completely revamp the way the Pirates approached player development. He fired Jim Tracy, who at the time wasn't much of a folk hero (though Pirates 'fans' would later use this as ammunition after the Rockies climb to the World Series), which was expected. The intriguing part of all of this was Huntington's philosophy:

"We are going to utilize several objective measures of player performance to evaluate and develop players. We'll rely on the more traditional objective evaluations: OPS, WHIP, Runs Created, ERC, GB/FB, K/9, K/BB, BB%, etc., but we'll also look to rely on some of the more recent variations: VORP, Relative Performance, EqAve, EqOBP, EqSLG, BIP%, wOBA, Range Factor, PMR and Zone Rating. That said, we will continue to stress the importance of our subjective evaluations. Succinctly stated, we believe that a combination of quality objective and subjective analysis will allow us to maximize our probability of success and to make the best possible decisions."
99.999% of the people in Pittsburgh had never even heard the letters V-O-R and P together in a sentence, let alone in a meaningful anagram. Right off the bat Huntington was viewed as a quack, a numbers only GM completely out of touch with the pulse of baseball in Pittsburgh.

Flash forward to the present. Baseball in Pittsburgh is in the midst of a renaissance. Andrew McCutchen is being viewed as legitmate superstar by peers and pundits alike. With every homerun chants of MVP echo around the ballpark and fireworks night is no longer just a way to get fans into the stadium, they are a celebration of sorts, a booming chorus of triumphs several years in the making.

So hats off to you Mr. Huntington, you stuck to your guns, got bloodied as the first man over the wall always is. Yet you have given this city a summer nearly 20 years in the making. A dream like spectacle that no one can ever take away from you. What makes this even sweeter is that as enjoyable as this thing, this foray into the realm that is competitive baseball, might be... the future is even brighter... because of you.

22 Second Half Baseball Truths from the Crystal Ball

Roto Wizard gazes into the crystal ball and sees ...

22. Andrew McCutchen wins the NL MVP. The city of Pittsburgh names 22 of it's 3,468 bridges after him.
21. Justin Upton salvages his fantasy season by hitting 16 homeruns and stealing 11 bases in the second half ... for the Pirates.
20. Roy Halladay pitches a perfect game in his first start back from injury. He then returns to the DL after suffering internal bleeding from being mobbed by his teammates.
19. R.A. Dickey will not win the NL Cy Young ...
18. ... Clayton Kershaw will ... again.
17. The Pirates will finish the season with 104 wins (including the post-season) ...
16. ... Bob Smizik still finds cause for complaint.
15.  Every team in the AL East finishes over .500 ...
14. ... only one makes the playoffs.
13. Andrew McCutchen will finish the season with 33 home runs, 33 stolen bases and a .333 AVG.
12. Mark Appel refuses to accept the Pirates offer and chooses to re-enter the draft next year... in a much deeper draft he is selected 11th overall and ends up being offered less money. This process repeats itself for 14 years until Appel decides to retire from baseball despite never throwing a pitch.
11. The Nationals lose the division race on the last day of the season but still win a wild card spot. They then lose the 1 game playoff ...
10. ... while Strasburg watches from the bench, due to reaching his innings 'cap'. In the off season he tears his rotator cuff while playing 'catch'.
9. Billy Hamilton finishes his MiL season with 188 stolen bases. Citing the economy, his opponents demand that he return them.
8. Adam Dunn will win the ML HR crown with 49...
7. ... while hitting under .200.
6. Albert Pujols hits a home run and proceeds to trot around the bases in reverse order. The Angels release a statement citing bad circuitry as the culprit.
5. The Angels attempt to trade Vernon Wells and his ridiculous contract. After every GM in baseball declines, the Angels hire a hitman.
4. Tim Lincecum inserts his virtual self into the Giants rotation for the rest of the season. He spends his summer surfing in California. The locals come to know him as "Snaggle-Tooth Tim". Virtual Tim finishes the season with a sub 2 ERA.
3. In an effort to overcome their horrendous starting pitching the Twins decide to carry just 10 position players and 15 pitchers, all of them relievers. Their success with this strategy in the second half sparks a revolution
2. Jason Kipnis becomes the top ranked fantasy second baseman in baseball. I spend the offseason gloating to anyone who makes eye contact with me.
1. During the off season, in order to make exhibition games mean something, MLB decides that spring training win/loss records determine the order of the June amateur draft.