PITTSBURGH (AP) -There’s only one lineup position to fill, maybe only one job open in the rotation. Yes, the Pittsburgh Pirates are nearly ready to open the season.
What’s curious is they have yet to start spring training. The Pirates are coming off a 94-loss season and 284 losses over their past three seasons, yet the team that opens camp Friday is nearly the same one that ended the season in September.
Jason Bay is still in left field, with Xavier Nady in right. Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez form the middle infield. Adam LaRoche is at first, Jose Bautista is at third. Tom Gorzelanny, Ian Snell, Paul Maholm, Matt Morris and Zach Duke form the rotation, and Matt Capps is set to be the closer.
No major league team of recent vintage lost so many games yet returned the following season almost intact, yet the Pirates’ biggest change is that Jim Tracy is out and John Russell is in as manager.
traight losing seasons. They must convince their fans and, perhaps, their own players, that they can be a lot better with only a new manager.
The major focal points this spring will be deciding who starts in center field, Nyjer Morgan or Nate McLouth, and who joins Capps and left-handers John Grabow and Damaso Marte in the bullpen.
“I think they have more faith in the team we have now,” said Snell, a 14-game winner last season. “Sometimes you wish that they do make changes, but maybe they see something we don’t. I think the fans probably feel the same way, they’re upset, too. But we’ve got a lot of potential here.”
New general manager Neal Huntington had little option but to leave the team unchanged. The player who would have brought the most in return in any trade- Bay – was coming off a down season and thus wasn’t as prized as he would have been the previous two offseasons.
Trading some of the young starting pitchers, none of whom is close to free agency, would have brought only less accomplished prospects in return.
“I understand Neal’s position, you just can’t come in and make that happen and be like, bam, infuse millions of dollars and make all the trades you want to make,” Bay said. “Those things take time and that’s part of the game.”
The question is how much time their new leadership, starting from team president Frank Connelly on down, believes is necessary to pull off what has become one of the most challenging turnaround projects in pro sports.
There is little to suggest the Pirates can stage a dramatic turnaround with their current group, yet a massive overhaul and commitment to youth might extend their streak of losing seasons.
“Everyone used to tell me, ‘Man I feel sorry for you, going from a first-place team (the Mets) to the last,” said Nady, who was traded late in the 2006 season. “You get sick of hearing it. You tell everyone, ‘We have a good group,’ but will we have more than one year to see if we click as a group? Or will they have a better understanding of what we’ll need to have some success on the field?”
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