Lessons for young guns
First, the young Pittsburgh Pirates starting rotation had to learn how to compete.
Now, they have to learn how to win. And second-year pitching coach Jim Colborn will start trying to shorten that learning curve when pitchers and catchers report to Bradenton, Fla., for spring training in less than two weeks.
"It usually takes a long time at the big league level,"Colborn said. "I was talking to (Pirates broadcaster)Bob Walk, who spent 14 years as a major league pitcher, and he admitted he never truly understood how to win until late in his career.
"That's how I felt in my pitching career. So I'm trying to get these guys to 'get it' a little bit sooner."
They may be getting it a whole lot sooner.
Pirates starters Ian Snell, Zach Duke, Paul Maholm, Victor Santos and Tom Gorzelanny all averaged more innings per start in the second half of the 2006 season than they did in the first half.
The result?The Pirates were 30-60 in the first half, 37-35 in the second half. The same-season turnaround was the most drastic in the club's 120-year history and the above-.500 second half was the team's first since 1992.
Santos is no longer here. Then again, neither are Oliver Perez and Kip Wells."You gotta look at the fact that Perez continued his downward slide and Kip wasn't healthy in the first half,"Walk said. "That had a lot to do with that 30-60 record."With a rotation so young, those other guys weren't competitive right away. They repeatedly fell out of games early and the team just couldn't catch up."Duke was 8-2 with a 1.81 earned run average in 2005. He fell off to 10-15 last year with a 4.47 ERA. But his ERAwas 3.65 in the second half of the year compared to 5.17 in the first half."A lot of our pitchers have so much talent, and I probably gave them too much information when I first got here,"Colborn said. "I had to back off a little bit."Guys like Duke, Maholm, Snell — I've seen pitchers win the World Series, win 20 games, win Cy Young Awards with less ability than them."Duke, Maholm, Snell and Gorzelanny had 107 big league starts between them last year and will be in the rotation in 2007.The fifth starter will be a veteran right-hander, either Shawn Chacon or Tony Armas Jr. Chacon was 2-3 with a 5.48 ERAin nine starts with the Pirates a year ago. Armas, signed as a free agent Thursday, was 9-12 with a 5.03 ERAin 30 starts for Washington.
Veteran right-handers like Jon Lieber, Tomo Ohka, Jeff Weaver and Jeff Suppan all were on the Pirates' shopping list at some point during this off-season."That's OK,"Walk said of the failure to land any of those hurlers. "Weaver's ERAwas above six last year. I'm sure we've got guys who can do better than that, and we didn't have to give them $10 million."Armas will earn roughly $3 million this season with a one-year contract. He, Chacon (one year) and relief pitcher Damaso Marte (two years) are the only players on the Pirates roster not contractually committed to the organization for at least the next three years."We worked a long time to put our team in this position,"general manager Dave Littlefield said. "All of these guys are going to be around for a while."Colborn said the trade of closer Mike Gonzalez to Atlanta for slugging first baseman Adam LaRoche might not have happened had Salomon Torres not saved 12 games over the season's final five weeks."If Salomon doesn't do that, I think (Littlefield) would have taken a much longer look at that one," Colborn said of the trade."Salomon is the closer going into spring training, but all of our short relievers — Matt Capps, John Grabow, Marte and Torres — can close games. If Salomon doesn't work out, we'll just do something else."
Torres, 34, was a spot starter when he first joined the Pirates five years ago. He has since been a long reliever, set-up man and now the closer.His willingness to adapt to changing roles is a rarity in these days."I admire Salomon's ability to do all that, but he shouldn't be the exception,"Walk said. "Every pitcher should carry that approach. When the manager gives you the ball, your job is to be ready to pitch regardless of the situation."
