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Monday, August 04, 2008
The dynamics of the Pirates
Love this article:
The Pirates had made up their minds not to trade Jason Bay six minutes before Major League Baseball’s trading deadline Thursday, general manager Neal Huntington said, rejecting two firm offers on their table.
But they left open one exception.
“At 3:54, we made the decision that we’re either going to wait for this Boston-Los Angeles deal or we’re holding onto Jason Bay and walking away from a couple other deals,” Huntington said by phone from Pittsburgh.
He did not divulge specifics, but one was known to be from the Tampa Bay Rays, offering shortstop Reid Brignac, pitcher Jeff Niemann and perhaps another lesser prospect. The Pirates preferred pitchers regarded more highly than Niemann.
The other was a variation of the deal that ultimately was struck, with Boston offering outfielder Brandon Moss and reliever Craig Hansen, Los Angeles offering third baseman Andy LaRoche and another prospect that did not satisfy the Pirates. By that point, the Pirates were communicating only with Boston, and it was the Red Sox who called to say that the Dodgers would include Class A pitcher Bryan Morris at 3:55. That sealed the deal at 3:59.
Sounds as if that might have been a fairly stressful span for a rookie general manager.
“Candidly, no, it wasn’t,” Huntington said. “I felt like we’d gone through so many what-if scenarios, we’ve gone through the clubs in such great detail that we felt like we knew what we had to have. If it wasn’t reached, we were ready to walk way. If it was, we were ready to move.”
Huntington credited his calm to the work done by his scouts and new statistical analysts, Dan Fox and Eddie Epstein, the latter armed with a database for every name tossed about in late talks.
“We definitely jumped into the deep end, involved with the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and being very deep into conversations with other clubs, too,” Huntington said. “But I came away very pleased with the process, with the dynamic in the room.”
‘Dollar figure’ on AlvarezHuntington did not call it a take-it-or-leave-it offer, but he did strongly suggest that the Pirates have placed an internal valuation on first-round draft pick Pedro Alvarez and do not wish to exceed it.
“We have put a dollar figure out there, and we’ll see what happens,” Huntington said. “We’re still optimistic he’ll sign. If not, we’ll have the third pick in the draft next year.”
The signing deadline is Aug. 15. As per rules instituted last year, if Alvarez, the No. 2 overall pick, does not sign, the Pirates will be awarded a compensation pick at No. 3 next year.
I am somewhat biased, and wish great things to all the MLB execs that have taken the time to interact with any of us, who are, among others, the Pirates, Indians, Cardinals, Rays, and a few others.