Uneviable Task
Littlefield Focused On Bringing Pirates Back
Pirates' GM Offers No Excuses, None Accepted
By John E. Sacco

His charge and challenges are among the most unenviable of all major league baseball general managers.

Not everyone would even accept the massive responsibility of overhauling the once proud Pirates' organization and redirecting the course of history when recent history and economics itself suggest that failure is much more likely than success.

But Dave Littlefield is not like a lot of guys. He eagerly accepted the challenge of reviving the Pirates and he continues to do it with a smile on his face.

He's only been with the Pirates since mid-July but Littlefield's fingerprints are all over the organization and team.

About the only thing he hasn't changed is his personality and personable nature.

How many general managers in the big leagues come out of their office, walk down the hall and greet an inquiring beat writer, give him 45 minutes of uninterrupted one-on-one interview and then escort the writer out of the office, down the hallway to the elevator, all the while talking about how special it is for a little child to throw his or her arms around you and call you daddy?

That is Dave Littlefield.

Man In Charge

Littlefield was hired by Pirates' Owner Kevin McClatchy July 13, 2001.

Loyal Pirates' fans and follower hope that is the day the fortunes of the franchise turned.

Littlefield, the assistant general manager for the Florida Marlins, was chosen to replace Cam Bonifay as Pirates GM after McClatchy fired Bonifay in June.

Since his hiring, Littlefield has made an extensive examination of the Pirates' organization. He has worked tirelessly since his hiring to change what he didn't like.

Littlefield gutted the Pirates' front office, ridding it of nearly all of Bonifay's assistants and confidants. In most circles, that's exactly what he needed to do.

He has brought in a number of former Florida executives and scouts, including Jax Robertson, Bill Singer and Al Avila to be special assistant to the GM. He hired Ed Creech as scouting director and Brian Graham as director of player development. He also made changes in the Pirates' minor-league coaching staffs and brought in former New York Yankees' hitting coach and long-time minor-league manager Chris Chambliss and former Pirate Gary Redus as roving minor-league instructors.

"Just being new to the position and getting to know the organization and its players is important so that when you go into the process of talking trades or signing free agents or attending the general manager's meeting you have a grasp on what you're dealing with," Littlefield said.

"Some things take a little time. That's why you have to rely on your scouting people and player development staffs. Nobody cares about transition for our staff or me. There are no misgivings on my part. This is all about getting this team and organization better. This is about wins and losses. We can sugar coat all we want about me being a new guy on the block or still getting used to the job or team. The fact is there are 29 other GMs out there trying to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates. If they sense we don't know who players are, they're going to jump all over us.

"There are no excuses in this business. The report card comes out everyday and that's the standings. We've made a significant amount of changes as far as staff, the front office, scouting in the major leagues and international scouting."

A Big Pick

The Pirates own the No. 1 pick in the June amateur draft.

Littlefield knows that signing that draft choice is a must. But it will not be easy.

The scenario would be much better for Pittsburgh if no player emerges as a clear-cut No. 1 pick. That would give the organization some room to procure a real good player and sign him at the same time.

"Having the top pick is great from standpoint of being able to acquire talent," Littlefield said. "There have been some dynamite No. 1s through the years.

"We want the best guy out there. But we also want to acquire the best player out there who will sign with us. It will not do us any good to draft somebody No. 1 and he not sign with us."

The Pirates have held the No. 1 pick in the draft two other times. The club selected Jeff King in 1986 and Kris Benson in 1996. It took King awhile but he eventually became an everyday player for the Pirates and had a couple nice seasons. Benson, who is recovering from "Tommy John" surgery and is expected back in the major leagues in May, has shown tremendous potential and if he can overcome his arm injury and subsequent surgery, could be the staff's ace.

The Pirates also have made some other high first-round picks in the past with mixed results.

In addition to making the two No. 1 picks, the Pirates have been in the top 10 seven other times since 1982.

Those selections produced shortstop Sammy Khalifa (seventh in 1982), outfielder Barry Bonds (sixth in 1985), outfielder Mark Merchant (second in 1987), pitcher Kurt Miller (fifth in 1990), shortstop Chad Hermansen (10th in 1995), outfielder J.J. Davis (sixth in 1997) and pitcher Bobby Bradley (eighth in 1999).

Considering the Pirates' financial plight, making the right pick this year seems imperative.

Littlefield relishes the challenge, trusts his scouts and is confident the Pirates will come up with a player who will help them.

"It's obvious that the level of our revenues and ballpark are going to help us," Littlefield said. "The commitment is there. That's one of the misnomers about the Pirates. We have a level of payroll and level of spending in player development and scouting that is strong in the industry.

"The fact is, we're paying some of our players a significant amount of money. We've paid some draft picks a significant amount of money. My analysis has been that we need to allocate our resources better."

Talent Matters

Before he became vice president and assistant to general manager Dave Dombrowski in Florida, Littlefield spent parts of three seasons as the director of player development for Montreal. He was a national crosschecker and east coast supervisor for the Expos prior to that. He also worked three years in the Detroit Tigers' organization as an area scout and east coast scouting supervisor.

If the 41-year-old Littlefield has learned one thing above all else in baseball it is this: "I think there are certain things that matter and the biggest one is talent. Talent wins. Granted you want camaraderie, good chemistry and all those things. A lot of teams that lose have bad chemistry. Not many teams that win have bad chemistry. I also know that a lot of teams lose because they don't have as much talent."

Littlefield has worked diligently to improve the Pirates' talent base.

Last season, he traded veteran pitcher Jason Schmidt and John VanderWal to San Francisco for outfielder Armando Rios and pitcher Ryan Vogelsong. Unfortunately, Rios and Vogelsong were injured after playing in just two games for the Pirates. Rios is expected to be the team's right fielder this season while Vogelsong will work to recover from Tommy John surgery and eye 2003 for a return.

Littlefield also traded closer Mike Williams to Houston for pitcher Tony McKnight, who struggled for the Pirates in the last two months of the season. Williams was signed as a free agent this winter and returns to his role as closer. McKnight is one of 10 candidates for the starting rotation or could be used in a bullpen spot.

But the biggest move Littlefield made to this point are an offseason trade of veteran pitcher Todd Ritchie to the Chicago White Sox for pitcher Kip Wells, Sean Lowe and Josh Fogg. Some think Wells can be a big winner. Lowe is versatile and effective. Fogg is an intriguing prospect who could make the deal a landslide if he reaches his potential.

In addition to that deal, the free agent signing of second baseman Pokey Reese was important in filling a huge void at second base and also to add speed to the lineup and a defensive presence that hasn't existed at the position since Jose Lind ranged there.

Littlefield also relied heavily on the information gathered by his scouts to sign a number of veteran big-league pitchers and inviting them to spring training as non-roster players. Even if only two or three of them come through and provide much needed experience and savvy to the pitching staff and allow younger pitchers to continue developing in the minors, Littlefield will have increased the talent base and accomplished his mission of making the major-league team better while improving the minor-league system.

"This is a process," Littlefield said. "We've got to get better in a lot of areas and we still have a lot of work to do. It's kind of a point in time. I don't want anybody to think we're done (making moves). We're working every day to get better.

"We've made some improvements. I think it's important to put as good a major-league team out there as we can. With the Pirates, we're always going to have some young players in the mix. But you can't have too many at the same time. We needed to establish some competition for jobs."

Littlefield admits that while progress has been made, the team needs to score more runs and play better defense. And he remains concerned about starting pitching, the one area that can make an average team better or a below average team, at least, average.

"I'm not going to lie," he said. "The area I'm most concerned about is the youth in the starting pitching and lack of experience. We've done some things to help in that area. But we need to improve there."