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01-21-2003, 01:38 AM
Finder on the Web: Littlefield still looking for answers to Pirates' problems
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Five questions with David Littlefied, the Pirates' general manager.
All right, so there were a few more than five. It's all about playing with the numbers and trying to squeeze the most from limitations and making it fit into a small, neat package. Littlefield knows that game well.
1. A couple of players reportedly had "Visa problems" before getting to minicamp this past week. Hey, we all have "Visa problems." How do the Pirates solve theirs, by paying those players' bills?
We're actually PNC MasterCard guys, how we do business. [But seriously folks ... ]
This year, with all the political turmoil in Venezuela, there are more issues. So we had to be cautious. Spring training, every team seems to have one guy late due to visa problems. We have quite a few people working for us [in the Caribbean] who help us, do a lot of the background work, set up appointments. ... With the aftermath of 9-11, there has been a lot closer eye on how things are done, so we really have to dot our I's and cross out T's.
2. Now that you've signed Cuban Rolando Arrojo, can you get him to convince Jose Contreras to defect from that Evil Empire, the New York Yankees?
We'll certainly do whatever we can to get somebody like Contreras. Rolando is somebody we hope can help us either starting or in the pen. It's interesting: Euclides Rojas, he had played on the Cuban national team quite a few years along with Arrojo and played with the coach who defected with Contreras. Rojas worked with us as an instructor in the minor leagues. So he helped us [in landing Arrojo]. But the Red Sox, around Christmas, hired him as a bullpen coach ... which coincided with their recruitment of Contreras. Obviously, the Yankees wound up winning that.
(Writer's note: The Pirates likewise signed Ariel Prieto, another former Cuban defector, to a minor-league contract. So maybe one of them will have to teach Lanny Frattare how to announce, en Cubano, "Smoked 'em like one of Fidel's cigars.")
3. Speaking of the Yankees, George Steinbrenner reputedly was hacked about having to pick up half the tab on Raul Mondesi, putting a kibosh on that rumored trade with the Pirates. What's the deal? The Boss would have to pay out money in luxury tax, anyway? So why not fund the smaller-market clubs directly?
[Long pause.] How the Yankees do business is up to them. And they've obviously been successful at it.
4. This was the week last year when you snagged Pokey Reese as a bargain-basement free agent. And you seem like a buy-suits-on-sale kind of guy. Not that blue lights are spinning over players' heads, but ... Are the next couple of weeks the critical juncture with the final few free agents remaining, such as potentially signing a pitcher or a certain center fielder?
No doubt that there are people out there looking for jobs. We have some opportunities. ... Whether it's guaranteed contracts or building up an excess where you can trade, leading into spring training or the trading deadline, you have to take all those things into account. There is the flexibility to do some small things. The bottom line is, at the end of the year, people don't want to hear about budgets. They want to hear about wins.
5. If you had to, could you choose one: center fielder or pitcher? You can never have too much pitching, right? And has everyone in Pirates management left open the possibility that Tony Alvarez could be ready for center field this season?
The first three starters -- Kris Benson, Josh Fogg and Kip Wells -- are more established this year. Salomon Torres and Brian Meadows at No. 4 and 5 had a nice month or two, and we hope they can show the same things over the course of 2003. But experience tells you that people who are out and around [unsigned], they see that as an opportunity. If we can match up with them, that's something we want to do. I feel that same way in the outfield -- we'd like to get another bat in the outfield. I'm definitely trying to do both. We're talking free agents, we're talking trades.
Yeah, I definitely think Tony in center field is a possibility. He did a solid job when he came up in September. He had a good year in Altoona. However, your experience in baseball tells you that not many people go from [Class AA] to the major leagues, and stick. In our situation in the outfield, it would be the ideal thing to happen. Whether it's platooning, whether it's Tony playing full time, I don't know. And the final piece of the story is, we're trying to get better. It makes a nice fit, but does that one-year-removed-from-[Class AA] player help you catch up to Cincinnati, Houston and St. Louis?
(Writer's notes: The problem is, a center fielder won't come cheaply. Trade-bait Carlos Beltran has rich tastes, having turned down $7 million-plus-a-year from Kansas City. And Jose Cruz Jr., a free agent from Toronto with good power, more than adequate defense, base-running skills and a baseball pedigree, also carries a pricey tag -- he made $3.7 million last season. The Orioles supposedly are wooing him with similar money, but a short-term deal. The longer he lingers on the market, though, the more of a Reese-like chance the Pirates have with him. The same with pitchers, where former Arizona hand Rick Helling and Royals cast-off Jeff Suppan are two thirtysomething-or-less fellows who meet the Pirates' criteria of a starter who works 150-plus innings. One such candidate, Dustin Hermanson, fell out of the running Monday by returning to St. Louis for the paltry -- read: Pirates affordable -- sum of $900,000 for one year. So there's still hope on the Littlefield little-budget market watch.)
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Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1724.
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Five questions with David Littlefied, the Pirates' general manager.
All right, so there were a few more than five. It's all about playing with the numbers and trying to squeeze the most from limitations and making it fit into a small, neat package. Littlefield knows that game well.
1. A couple of players reportedly had "Visa problems" before getting to minicamp this past week. Hey, we all have "Visa problems." How do the Pirates solve theirs, by paying those players' bills?
We're actually PNC MasterCard guys, how we do business. [But seriously folks ... ]
This year, with all the political turmoil in Venezuela, there are more issues. So we had to be cautious. Spring training, every team seems to have one guy late due to visa problems. We have quite a few people working for us [in the Caribbean] who help us, do a lot of the background work, set up appointments. ... With the aftermath of 9-11, there has been a lot closer eye on how things are done, so we really have to dot our I's and cross out T's.
2. Now that you've signed Cuban Rolando Arrojo, can you get him to convince Jose Contreras to defect from that Evil Empire, the New York Yankees?
We'll certainly do whatever we can to get somebody like Contreras. Rolando is somebody we hope can help us either starting or in the pen. It's interesting: Euclides Rojas, he had played on the Cuban national team quite a few years along with Arrojo and played with the coach who defected with Contreras. Rojas worked with us as an instructor in the minor leagues. So he helped us [in landing Arrojo]. But the Red Sox, around Christmas, hired him as a bullpen coach ... which coincided with their recruitment of Contreras. Obviously, the Yankees wound up winning that.
(Writer's note: The Pirates likewise signed Ariel Prieto, another former Cuban defector, to a minor-league contract. So maybe one of them will have to teach Lanny Frattare how to announce, en Cubano, "Smoked 'em like one of Fidel's cigars.")
3. Speaking of the Yankees, George Steinbrenner reputedly was hacked about having to pick up half the tab on Raul Mondesi, putting a kibosh on that rumored trade with the Pirates. What's the deal? The Boss would have to pay out money in luxury tax, anyway? So why not fund the smaller-market clubs directly?
[Long pause.] How the Yankees do business is up to them. And they've obviously been successful at it.
4. This was the week last year when you snagged Pokey Reese as a bargain-basement free agent. And you seem like a buy-suits-on-sale kind of guy. Not that blue lights are spinning over players' heads, but ... Are the next couple of weeks the critical juncture with the final few free agents remaining, such as potentially signing a pitcher or a certain center fielder?
No doubt that there are people out there looking for jobs. We have some opportunities. ... Whether it's guaranteed contracts or building up an excess where you can trade, leading into spring training or the trading deadline, you have to take all those things into account. There is the flexibility to do some small things. The bottom line is, at the end of the year, people don't want to hear about budgets. They want to hear about wins.
5. If you had to, could you choose one: center fielder or pitcher? You can never have too much pitching, right? And has everyone in Pirates management left open the possibility that Tony Alvarez could be ready for center field this season?
The first three starters -- Kris Benson, Josh Fogg and Kip Wells -- are more established this year. Salomon Torres and Brian Meadows at No. 4 and 5 had a nice month or two, and we hope they can show the same things over the course of 2003. But experience tells you that people who are out and around [unsigned], they see that as an opportunity. If we can match up with them, that's something we want to do. I feel that same way in the outfield -- we'd like to get another bat in the outfield. I'm definitely trying to do both. We're talking free agents, we're talking trades.
Yeah, I definitely think Tony in center field is a possibility. He did a solid job when he came up in September. He had a good year in Altoona. However, your experience in baseball tells you that not many people go from [Class AA] to the major leagues, and stick. In our situation in the outfield, it would be the ideal thing to happen. Whether it's platooning, whether it's Tony playing full time, I don't know. And the final piece of the story is, we're trying to get better. It makes a nice fit, but does that one-year-removed-from-[Class AA] player help you catch up to Cincinnati, Houston and St. Louis?
(Writer's notes: The problem is, a center fielder won't come cheaply. Trade-bait Carlos Beltran has rich tastes, having turned down $7 million-plus-a-year from Kansas City. And Jose Cruz Jr., a free agent from Toronto with good power, more than adequate defense, base-running skills and a baseball pedigree, also carries a pricey tag -- he made $3.7 million last season. The Orioles supposedly are wooing him with similar money, but a short-term deal. The longer he lingers on the market, though, the more of a Reese-like chance the Pirates have with him. The same with pitchers, where former Arizona hand Rick Helling and Royals cast-off Jeff Suppan are two thirtysomething-or-less fellows who meet the Pirates' criteria of a starter who works 150-plus innings. One such candidate, Dustin Hermanson, fell out of the running Monday by returning to St. Louis for the paltry -- read: Pirates affordable -- sum of $900,000 for one year. So there's still hope on the Littlefield little-budget market watch.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1724.