PIRATES

Sunday, March 30, 2008 B5 BASEBALL PIRATES ’ SEASON PREVIEW 08 — Compiled by Rob Biertempfel, Tribune-Review MEET THE BOSSES; new management sees a lot to like Q&A 4. WHAT WAS YOUR IMPRESSION OF THE FRANCHISE BEFORE YOU WERE HIRED, AND HAS THAT IMPRESSION CHANGED? COONELLY My impression was that there are a lot of good people here, some extraordinarily professional people, particularly on the baseball operations side. I found that to be the case. In terms of the vision of the organization, I saw instances in which a good plan was in place but we veered off from the plan in order to satisfy some certain goals that weren’t consistent with the plan. Of the people who have remained in the organization, we have some top-notch baseball people, both in the front office and on the field. I didn’t know Jeff Andrews at all before coming here. I was extraordinarily impressed by him during meetings. I came out of those meetings and said to Neal, ‘Who’s that guy who seems to know everything about pitching?’ So I was really very happy to hear that John Russell felt the same about him and wanted him on his staff. I didn’t know Tony Beasley before I came here — I didn’t know him personally, although I knew of him. I was very impressed with Tony during meetings and follow-up conversations. There were some very good people here who have stayed here. And with the new people whom we’ve added, I feel that we have a very exciting team. My impression was that it was a franchise that had a tremendous history, one that deserves to be among the better organizations in baseball. It’s a mid(sized) market, and there’s no avoiding that. But in this day and age, with the payroll structures the way they are, if you can manage your resources efficiently, you can win. The passion of the fans is greater than I anticipated. You see that 1.7 million and you say, Wow, that’s a great (attendance) number for a team that hasn’t done very well recently. But I hear the passion of the fans — and believe me, we’ve heard it a lot — and I realize that’s something I underestimated. That’s our best attribute we have going forward. I’m not going to comment on what’s happened here in the past. Everybody talks about the 15 losing years. You can’t put that on these guys’ shoulders. I do think there is a change in the way guys are going about it now. I think they are actually very interested and very excited about what we’re doing. I think the structure and the constant teaching is something they’re excited about. We won’t change as a staff. We’ll be consistent, whether we’re winning or losing. That’s one of the things people are starting to realize, that we’re not going to change what we’re trying to do. 1. WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THIS SEASON? COONELLY RUSSELL HUNTINGTON I’m very enthusiastic about what I see. The organization, the work effort of John (Russell) and his staff has been incredible. And the work ethic of the players has been outstanding as well. The enthusiasm level is different. I wasn’t here much last year, only at the end of the season, but everybody I talk to — players, staff, front office people — the enthusiasm and optimism on the field is much different than it has been in the past. I’m very enthusiastic to get started. I’m optimistic. I’m not going to put any number of (wins) on it, though. Our goal is to build a sustainable championship-caliber teams, it’s not to win 82 games. We want to compete for championships in 2008 and in the long term. I don’t really set expectations or goals, per se. It’s more about what we tried to accomplish this spring, telling these guys to give themselves a chance to win each night. We can’t worry about a quick start. We can’t worry about where we are in the standings at the end of July or August. We’ve got to concentrate on where we are each night and prepare for that game. To sit here and say, ‘Well, .500 is our goal or this or that is our goal,’ we can’t put that on these guys. That’s not the important thing right now. What’s important is to make sure we prepare them to play each night and give ourselves a chance a win. If we do that, good things will happen during the season. But right now, we can’t look that far ahead. The expectation is we’ll be better. We’ll play the game the right way. We’re going to improve individually and as a group. We’re going to be a more entertaining product on the field and we’re going to give ourselves a chance to win every night. TEAM MANAGER johnRUSSELL frankCOONELLY nealHUNTINGTON TEAM PRESIDENT GENERAL MANAGER 3. WHAT ARE THE FRANCHISE'S SHORTCOMINGS? COONELLY 2. WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN THAT MAKES YOU OPTIMISTIC THE TEAM CAN REACH ITS GOALS? HUNTINGTON We felt that, on paper, we had an outstanding staff. We’ve seen it be an outstanding staff. They’re holding these players accountable, they have a tremendous attention to detail, they’re great teachers and communicators. There may be some bumps along the way, but I think that over time our staff instruction ability and attention to detail is going to pay dividends on the field with our players. I think our players have understood that the environment’s different. Almost every player came to camp in the best shape he’s been in in a long time. We’re hearing from the players that they understand that the level and focus is different. Those are the two big indicators: our staff has followed through on what it said it was going to do, and I think our players are showing the results of that. RUSSELL HUNTINGTON One of the biggest things is our pitching staff seems to be coming together. We’ve got guys who can swing the bat. We’re not a monster power team, but we can do some things in situations. We’re preaching “give ourselves a chance,” and I know we didn’t win a ton of games down here, but we are doing that. We’ve been in a lot of games. In almost every game we lost, we’ve been in it right until the end. That’s all we can ask. If you keep doing that night after night, eventually games start turning in your favor. We’ve given ourselves opportunities to win games. I don’t think we’ll be able to gauge that until we get into the season. We need to find more ways to get on base. I’ve been encouraged by both (Nate) McLouth and (Nyjer) Morgan, in terms of their ability to take pitches when they should and get on base. I’ve been extremely encouraged by our ability to move over runners. But we need to get on base at a far higher level than we did last year. And we need to make sure that we have some pop in the lineup. That means that (Jason) Bay, (Adam) LaRoche, (Xavier) Nady, (Ronny) Paulino and (Jose) Bautista need to provide some more pop and run production. Overall, we need to keep improving in all phases. We’ve got some guys who are pretty solid defensively, but we need to work on making sure we’re in the right position, that we’re throwing to the right bases. We need to be better baserunners. We need to work on our approach at the plate of trying to work the opposing pitcher, get a good ball to hit. It’s going to be a constant progression for us. We can’t get complacent and say, ‘We’ve got it now.’ We can’t afford to get in a position where things are going pretty good so we just ride the wave. There’s always going to be areas of concern. That’s why we had the philosophy this spring of attention to detail so we can avoid those shortcomings. RUSSELL In addition to the enthusiasm level from the players — the buy-in level from the players — to what John and his staff are teaching, I see a lot of good things, particularly with the pitching. In this game, it all starts with pitching. I’ve been very happy about the efforts that our starting pitchers have given. I know there was a lot of concern about the bullpen, but I think we’ve seen some good things. Matt Capps looks to be in midseason form. Damaso Marte had a little illness issue, but it doesn’t seem to have affected him. (John) Grabow looks terrific. On the right-handed side, Frankie Osoria looks very good. We’ve made tremendous strides in scouting and development, both personnel- and systems-wise. The fact remains, though, that we don’t have as much talent as we need in the farm system to be a sustainable championship-caliber organization. That’s going to come through the draft, it’s going to come through Latin America. Unfortunately, there is going to come a point in time when some of it will come through those difficult decisions that result in trades of popular players. But in order to replenish this farm system, we need to do it in a variety of ways. COONELLY RUSSELL HUNTINGTON