Future Is Now For McClatchy's Pirates
Five-Year Plan A Memory
By John E. Sacco

Denny Neagle signs with the Colorado Rockies for $51 million over five years.

Rick Reed re-signs with the New York Mets for $21.75 million over three years.

Kevin Appier signs with the Mets for $42 million over four years.

They are all better than average starting pitchers in the current state of major league baseball. But none are anything more than that.

The Pirates would have liked to sign one of those pitchers this fall to help their fragile starting rotation. At those prices, however, Pittsburgh could not compete.

The Pirates pursued a handful of left-handed veteran relief pitchers including John Franco and Dan Plesac and right-handers Turk Wendell and Tom Gordon. All signed for a significant amount of money and years. Franco and Wendell re-signed with the Mets. Plesac returned to Toronto. Gordon signed with the Chicago Cubs.

The amount of the contracts all those guys signed left the Pirates on the sidelines. Pittsburgh could not compete.

The question in the minds of most who follow the Pirates, cheer for the Pirates and are concerned about the overall welfare and vitality of a franchise that has endured eight consecutive losing seasons - the second longest such streak in club history - is if the Pirates can't compete off the field, how can they compete on the field?

Many in baseball, and in Pittsburgh, do not think they can. The economic climate of the game is such that the Pirates can't win, according to many.

The consensus is that for the Pirates to have even a chance at contending in the National League Central Division or for a wild card spot, all the stars must align, injuries must be kept at a minimum and other teams must underperform. That's just to have a chance at contending.

Remember, in those eight losing seasons, Pittsburgh contended one time, that coming in 1997 when the Pirates overachieved and the remainder of the division underachieved. That said, the Pirates still finished second to Houston and four games under .500.

Owner Kevin McClatchy was part of a blue-ribbon panel that studied baseball's economic state. The conclusions were that baseball needed to make some changes in its structure to help the so-called small-market teams, which the Pirates are considered. Commissioner Bud Selig has spent much of the off-season testifying and talking about changes that need to be made.

But baseball owners had lavished more than $1 billion on free agents through mid-December and the astronomical contracts reached between shortstop Alex Rodriguez and Texas, outfielder Manny Ramirez and Boston, pitcher Mike Hampton and Colorado and pitcher Mike Mussina and the New York Yankees seems to have opened Pandora's Box.

"There's nothing I can do about it," McClatchy said. "I can't really worry about it. I can only worry about the Pittsburgh Pirates. We understand the mathematics and numbers and all of that.

"You can only worry about what is in your control. We are working hard to try and put together a good team. (General Manager) Cam (Bonifay) has worked very hard this off-season. We're excited about moving into the most beautiful ballpark in the country. We just have to focus on our organization and what is ahead of us."

The Pirates did manage to sign two free agents during the Winter Meetings last month, adding veteran left-handed pitcher Terry Mulholland and veteran outfielder Derek Bell. Both were mid-level free agents. Neither is close to being a superstar. But that's realistically the only kind of free agents the Pirates can sign.

Just look at the past five years. The Pirates have signed as free agents the likes of shortstop Kevin Elster, pitchers Danny Darwin, Todd Ritchie and Pete Schourek, infielders Mike Benjamin, Ed Sprague and Pat Meares and outfielder Wil Cordero. Not one is close to being anything more than above average.

In this climate, it seems Pittsburgh can only hope to survive.

And with a work stoppage looming after this season, the overall vitality of baseball in Pittsburgh is in question.

"When all the dust settles, baseball will be there," said Roger Noll, a Stanford economist who spoke as part of a panel that discussed "competitive balance and labor relations" at Smith College. "There isn't an agreement out there that would make everybody better off."

Of course, Noll has been a consultant to the players' association.

Selig admits that when spring training starts, "there no longer exists hope and faith for the fans of more than half" of major league baseball's 30 teams.

"It is my job to restore hope and faith," Selig said, as he pointed out that only three of 189 postseason games since the 1994-95 strike were won by teams that didn't have payrolls among the top half. "I can assure you this system will be changed."

For the good of the Pirates, Montreal Expos, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals, and the like, it better be.

The Pirates' Plight

McClatchy is selling PNC Park, which is scheduled to be opened for two exhibition games in March, a new, enthusiastic and confident manager in Lloyd McClendon, a payroll expanded by about $20 million, the team's long-term commitments made contractually to its two stars - outfielder Brian Giles and catcher Jason Kendall - and hard work.

No one wants to hear that their team can't compete. To a man, the Pirates are saying they can compete because they have a good nucleus. On the surface though, it looks pretty much like the same team that suffered through a miserable 2000 season, only having been tweaked.

Don't tell McClendon his Pirates can't compete.

"We cannot dwell on our limitations," McClendon said. "If we start to do that, it becomes a built-in excuse. I'm very comfortable with our starters if they are healthy. I'm comfortable with our team if it is healthy. Our problem is when we run into injuries. We can compete with anybody in baseball. The problem is the depth.

"That's why spring training is vitally important to us. We have to make sure each one of our players leaves there in the best possible shape they can be in. We have to make a statement and do everything we can to keep our players healthy over the course of a 162-game schedule.

"It can't be an excuse. I've heard it too many times, guys saying, 'well, their payroll is $90 million and ours is $35 million.' What the hell does that have to do with going out there and competing and playing the game from your heart? We can't worry about contracts. The game is played between the lines."

Because they can't go out and sign impact free agents, the Pirates' charge is to make their own players better.

Last season was a major setback for McClatchy's five-year plan. In what was the fourth year of the plan, the Pirates sunk to new depths.

The five-year plan hasn't been scrapped but no one seems to acknowledge it anymore. Bonifay, on the day former manager Gene Lamont was fired, said it's a one-year plan for the Pirates now. He said it's time to become a winning club, regardless of baseball's economic climate.

McClatchy and McClendon have backed that up ever since.

"They key to us is getting a couple pitchers [Francisco Cordova and Jason Schmidt] healthy," McClatchy said. "That would help us out quite a bit. You have to keep the core together and that's what Giles and Kendall are. You have to improve around that. We have some younger players who are going to get better.

"If anybody followed the Chicago White Sox a couple years ago, they didn't do that well. But some of their younger players started to develop and all of a sudden that team started playing a lot better. In our situation that's what you do. It's important to have star players locked up. It's important to the fans.

"There's no question people have to have better years this coming year than last year. I have talked to a couple players and they are working very hard in the off-season to improve their physical conditions. My hope is that folks like Meares and Kevin Young have better years. And players like Aramis Ramirez continue to improve. Adrian Brown has grown a lot. You have to count on guys getting better. It's no different than what they did in Chicago and some other places."

Bonifay is on record as saying the club is no longer looking at the future. It is looking at now. McClendon would have it no other way.

"The plan that was in place for five years is not there anymore," McClendon said. "We have to win. I was brought in for one reason. That was to win, not develop players. I want our players to know there's a sense of urgency. We have to go out and get it done.

"If you look at our season last year, we were as bad as we could possibly be. We won 69 games. If you put an attitude together and take the proper approach mentally and physically, and scratch and claw and do everything you can to win at least 10 more games, you're at .500. Now, it's up to the players to do something with another 10 games to win five or six of those. Win those, and you have a pretty good season. We're very excited about the possibility of what can happen this season."