February 20, 2015
Friday Insider: Pirates push pen competition
Maximizing efficiency, two coaches hit infield practice while another tosses balls Thursday. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
BRADENTON, Fla. — Roundup of a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our teams …
• No competition in spring training?
That’s undeniably true among the Pirates’ position players and starting pitchers, barring health issues, but management and the coaching staff have taken concrete, including behind-the-scenes, steps to ensure it doesn’t apply to the bullpen.
Yes, the picture looks almost as airtight there: Mark Melancon, Tony Watson and Antonio Bastardo are locks. Jared Hughes and John Holdzkom are near-locks, and I separate those two mostly because both have options and could be demoted with a decisively discouraging spring. If they fare well, they’ll fly north.
That would appear to leave two more spots, but it’s really just one.
As Neal Huntington laid out for me Thursday in stark detail, “We anticipate that the odd man out of our rotation, assuming Charlie Morton’s health, will be one of our multi-inning relievers.”
That’s a clear reference to Vance Worley and Jeff Locke, one of whom will be bumped to the pen if Morton recovers from hip surgery for opening day. More on that later.
“We also feel good about the addition of Radhames Liz,” the GM continued, “as a starting or multi-inning pen option based on our multiple quality reports from the Dominican this winter. A spot in our bullpen is his to keep.”
Whoa. Hadn’t seen that coming. A Friday Insider two months ago pegged Liz as a pitcher to watch immediately, but a ‘spot to keep’ is some show of faith. It will be fascinating to see how that plays out. Liz, 31, hasn’t pitched in North America since 2009.
As for that other spot …
“There is one clearly open spot,” Huntington said, “and we are always open to players forcing our hands with good production.”
“I’m going to work hard to get it,” Brad Lincoln was saying earlier Thursday. “That’s why I’m here, to compete for a spot on the big-league roster. You never know what could happen, but I’m here to do my best and be part of this again. I’ve been gone three years, but it’s been amazing to watch from afar what’s happened.”
Lincoln is one option, though he’d need a space cleared on the 40-man roster, so the climb looks harsh. Stolmy Pimentel and Arquimedes Caminero both throw hard, and both are out of options, but Pimentel was a bitter disappointment in 2014, and Caminero has made only six appearances in the majors. Don’t think for a second the Pirates are married to either on the 40-man. And don’t forget Bobby LaFramboise, the big lefty Clint Hurdle liked enough to use in the playoff loss to the Giants. The coaches really like him, and Hurdle doesn’t believe in lefty overload. LaFramboise is on the 40, too.
As if that layout isn’t enough, I’m told that management and the coaches have made sure that all concerned are fully aware of the scenario so that no one enters camp — as they undoubtedly will at other positions — thinking there’s no shot.
• Morton completed a 30-pitch bullpen session Thursday as part of the first day of workouts for pitchers and catchers, and he continues to declare he’ll be ready for the opener. As you can read above, Huntington isn’t ruling that out.
At the same time — and not to be a downer here — I’ve heard definitively that the Pirates’ default stance here is to not open the season with Morton just to play it safe. They’ve got two off-days in the first 11 on the schedule, which means they easily could skip the fifth starter twice. And if it takes longer, it takes longer.
Rushing Morton is not part of the plan.
• I don’t care who this ticks off: If the bullpen battle comes down to Hughes vs. Holdzkom, and conditioning has anything to do with it, Hughes will win running away.
• Don’t take Neil Walker’s recent extension offer too seriously. I’ve heard it barely cut into his free-agency years. That’s nothing more than an arbitration buyout with a pretty bow.
• This wouldn’t be much of an Insider if I never took you inside anywhere. Here’s the Pirates’ spanking new weight room at the Pirate City complex, which was shown to a group of us reporters Thursday afternoon, via this 15-second video …
If it looks big, yeah, that’s two stories and 12,000 square feet, and it’s pretty spectacular, from the all-new machines, to the state-of-the-art sound system to a special flooring system costing deep into six figures. Even more impressive, McKechnie Field’s new clubhouse — to be unveiled Tuesday — includes its own ridiculously big weight room with all the same bells and whistles.
And yes, to answer the next question, the Pirates, with the noted cheapskate Bob Nutting’s enthusiastic approval, paid big for it: I don’t have exact figures, but I’ve heard the combined cost of both ventures was $8 million.
If the team signed an $8 million player, some in the city would want to throw a parade. But this is an equally real $8 million investment in the franchise’s future, even if it won’t merit more than a mention or two back home.
• Jung-Ho Kang has been visibly engaging his teammates despite the language barrier, keeping a translator nearby even during batting practice to ensure he can communicate at all times. That’s been fun to watch.
Surprising on that front: Only 3-4 Korean media members are here daily. The last prominent player the Pirates brought from the Far East, Japan’s Masumi Kuwata, had 25-30 and actually had to conduct daily press conferences in a special tent the team erected at the edge of one of the fields at Pirate City. That said, Japan has a phenomenal amount of daily sports newspapers, and competition is fierce. Most of those publications station baseball writers in the U.S. year-round.
• Not to digress, but that reminds me of the spring afternoon in 2008 when Kuwata retired here in Bradenton with a riveting traditional ceremony, making for one of the more compelling events I’ve ever covered. This was my coverage.
Sidney Crosby and the Blue Jackets’ Brandon Dubinsky fight Thursday at Consol. — GETTY
• Fighting can represent leadership in hockey. Antiquated as that sounds, it really can. But a far more resonant brand of leadership can come from simply doing the right thing for the team in a given situation off the ice.
I don’t care who this ticks off, either: The differences between how the coaching staff feels about Chris Kunitz’s play and how Sidney Crosby feels about it could not be more extreme. It’s easy to see who’s winning that one.
Same applies to the power play. More than you might think. Frighteningly so.
Coaches need to coach, and players need to play. Superstars, too.
• I can’t be the only one noticing Gary Agnew holding the dry-erase board during breaks when the Penguins are trailing. Agnew’s written role is to coach the defense.
• There can’t be any doubt after recent games, including this latest egg against Columbus, that these Penguins are soft. Or, as a great man once put it …
I broached this — delicately, of course — with one of the few players on the team who doesn’t have a hint of soff to his game, and his sole response was to cite positive examples among players long since returned to Wilkes-Barre.
Ouch.
• Somebody at some level needs to take charge. Someone needs to coach. Someone needs to lead in the locker room. Both are voids at the moment.
• Nothing about Jim Rutherford’s deadline focus has changed: If he gets to make only one major trade — and that’s basically all his cap space affords, it will be for a defenseman, preferably one with size and range. But that mindset, I’ll caution, is based on Kunitz holding his own with the top line. We’ll see. As I wrote from Calgary, one wonderful game that night wasn’t going to cut it.
• Size is big, at the risk of going all punny on you. One look at the recent Cup finalists shows that in, uh, a big way. Especially on the Western side of the bracket.
I asked Brooks Orpik, now of the Capitals, if a team like his new one might be better equipped than most on the Eastern side because of all their bulk.
“The game’s not just about size anymore, but it’s a factor. Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn’t know the game,” he replied. “We’re fortunate to have it here, and it’s a good feeling. You go out on the ice feeling like you can do what you want, make your own space.”
• For all the talk about Paul Martin’s pending free agency, there’s also been no movement on the Blake Comeau front. Expect that, like Martin’s, to wait until after the season. And expect the Penguins to try very hard to keep him. Almost as hard as Comeau will try to stay. He was plenty unhappy in previous stops.
• Here’s my understanding of the Steelers’ draft approach, from a positional standpoint: They’re confident they can get a corner early. But if there’s a better outside linebacker than corner when No. 22 comes along, they’ll go OLB.
Yes, again. Because the further thinking is that there are enough corners overall to get one, even two more in the next couple of rounds.
I know, I know. I won’t like it, either.
• Ryan Clark wants to retire a Steeler?
There really ought to be a higher line of demarcation for that.
• Is anything more transparent than the ridiculous joint announcement by the Raiders and Chargers that they’d both like to move near Los Angeles in a shared stadium?
Funny thing is, the NFL will play dumb, even as it purports to tell the Rams they can’t unilaterally follow through on their own plan to move back to L.A. That’s how the game works. Play every single card until every city has agreed to fund public stadiums for a league that could build 32,000 stadiums without breaking a financial sweat.
Here’s how it’ll wind up: Oakland and San Diego will pony up, and Oakland will be forced into doing likewise for the A’s. The Rams will, in fact, move. And the Jaguars will move to London, which would be fantastic.
• Even though you didn’t ask, here’s how the NHL’s own roulette will play out: Las Vegas and Seattle will get expansion teams to create a 16-16 balance in the conferences. And the Panthers will flee Sunrise, where they’ve already made great progress in ditching their lease, for Quebec.
• Baseball will be back in Quebec, too, based on one brief chat I had here Thursday. Not soon, but it will happen.
• There might not be a better story around Pitt athletics than the way Sheldon Jeter rebounded from Jamie Dixon’s early benchings to become all the Panthers could have hoped. And maybe a little more. Dixon correctly recognized that Jeter was “basically a freshman even though he’s a sophomore” in terms of big-time collegiate experience, and he developed the kid accordingly.
Jeter didn’t like it. He still doesn’t like that it happened, trust me. But he and the program will be all the better for it in the long run.
• Haven’t enjoyed many scenes this year more than watching some of Pitt’s coaches stand in a hallway outside the press conference room to hear Roy Williams’ remarks on the Panthers beating North Carolina last week. The respect was palpable.
• Good dude: Francisco Cervelli.
He might hold one of the toughest jobs in Pittsburgh this summer, having to replace Russell Martin. But I can tell from even just a couple days of observing his easygoing demeanor, as well as his professionalism, that there isn’t much chance he’ll buckle. He might not be as good as Martin, certainly not the 2.0 version of 2014. But he won’t try to be anyone he isn’t, and he won’t worry beyond that.
“Honestly, he’s perfect for this,” A.J. Burnett said.
I probably should have saved this for a full column. Still might write one.
I’ll be back at Pirate City today and the next four days, as well.
