Bucs Dugout

Danny Moskos Bombed in AFL Rising Stars Game

2009-11-08T22:39:50Z

First, the good news from last night's AFL Rising Stars game: Chase D'Arnaud and Jose Tabata both went 2-for-3. Neither of Tabata's hits left the infield, and the first of D'Arnaud's was a shallow fly that no one could get to, but Tabata looked good on the basepaths, and D'Arnaud's last hit was stung.

Daniel Moskos, though... the poor guy has nothing. The announcers said that the stadium gun had him as high as 92, but they also said that Tanner Scheppers hit 99 at least once. Scheppers looked great, mostly throwing fastball after fastball, but I'm still betting that gun was a little hot and Moskos was topping out at something like 90. Then there was the mystery of Moskos' supposedly brilliant slider, which he never seems to throw when I'm watching him pitch. What he does seem to throw are a couple of different fastballs, a terrible curveball that doesn't break much, and a change that has a bit of late movement and is actually a pretty good pitch. Now, boundaries between pitches aren't absolute, and so I suppose it's possible that someone might see what I saw as the curveball or the changeup and call it a slider. That's fine. But to say he has a good slider? I'm sorry, I just don't see it.

I admit it might have been a little harder than usual to tell last night, since opposing batters swung at and made hard contact with almost everything Moskos threw. Overall, he allowed four runs on five hits, including three doubles and a homer, in two thirds of an inning. His defense didn't really help him, but opposing batters were still just destroying him.

Tabata, D'Arnaud, Moskos to Play in Rising Stars Showcase

2009-11-08T00:32:46Z

Jose Tabata, Chase D'Arnaud and Daniel Moskos will be in the AFL's Rising Stars Showcase here soon (at 8:15 EST), and it'll be free to watch at MLB.com.

Since I've been sick all week I've rented about nine movies, which is nine more than I did in the past three months or so before that. I stumbled into one called Sugar that I was shocked I didn't know about. Maybe most of you are familiar with it already, but since it missed me I figure it missed some of you too.

It's an excellent film about a 20-year-old Dominican pitcher, Miguel "Sugar" Santos, who gets called up from the Dominican academies to the spring training camp of a fictitious major league franchise, impresses the team's coaches, and skips the rookie leagues on his way to his team's Single-A franchise in Iowa. Called the Bridgetown Swing, it's a barely disguised version of the Quad Cities River Bandits, a real-life Cardinals affiliate--the Swing play their games in Quad Cities' ballpark.

There isn't much about the movie that doesn't feel real; the first half hour or so is set in the Dominican, and many of the coaches there are actual Dominican coaches (such as former Nats special assistant Jose Rijo, who ironically was fired around the time the movie came out, for skimming bonuses). The outstanding lead actor of the film, Argenis Perez Soto, was a hotel worker (and amateur baseball player) in San Pedro. Some of the actors obviously aren't great baseball players, but the in-game scenes mostly look about right. There were a few details that seemed strange (such as the idea that a team would allow a talented but raw pitcher to throw six-plus innings in his pro debut), but overall it really looks like the writers knew what they were doing.

The plot is complex, in a great way--this isn't a formulaic sports movie by any means. Most of it focuses on Soto's character's difficulties adjusting to life in Iowa. He lives with host parents who are sweet and love baseball, but aren't incredibly culturally sensitive and won't miss him much when he's gone. He struggles to order anything other than French toast in restaurants. Hoping to finish building a house in the Dominican for his mother, he puts tremendous pressure on himself, then comes apart when he starts to struggle. There's an interesting contrast in the film between Miguel and Brad Johnson, a black American player on Miguel's team who was recently drafted in the first round out of Stanford. If baseball doesn't work out, Brad muses that he'll probably rely on his Stanford history degree and teach. Miguel has no such backup plan.

Anyway, this is a great film if you haven't seen it--full of intriguing little tidbits for the minor league fans among you, but worth seeing even if you couldn't care less about the minors.

Virgil Vasquez, Eric Hacker, Steve Lerud Booted From 40-man

2009-11-06T22:21:09Z

More photos » by Matt York - AP

3 months ago: Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Virgil Vasquez delivers against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the second inning of a baseball game Sunday, July 26, 2009, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Browse more photos »

These are all fairly logical choices with Evan Meek and Jose Ascanio still on the 60-day DL and several prospects still waiting to be added before the Rule 5 draft, as well.

At 27, Virgil Vasquez is little more than a vaguely convenient guy to have on your AAA roster--homers ate him alive in his 14 appearances with the Pirates this year, just like they did in his major league debut in 2007. There's no real reason to think that will change.

I liked Hacker a little when the Bucs acquired him from the Yankees for Romulo Sanchez, but he didn't do much with the Pirates to justify my continued interest. His line at Indianapolis (132.3 IP, 4.49 ERA, 94 K, 50 BB) was boring enough to place him squarely in that group of pitchers in their mid-20s who are nice to have, but only because they can start. He's another Vasquez, in other words.

As for Steven Lerud, the reason he was on the 40-man in the first place was not really because of his performance, but because catchers, and especially left-handed catchers with power potential, were in high demand. This season he made strides in controlling the strike zone, but the power mostly disappeared, and he continued to struggle hitting for average. He now has a career minor league average of .228, which means that unless he improves that and fast, he'd struggle to crack .200 in the majors. If he doesn't wind up in an another organization next year, he'll probably be back at Altoona for a third season.

Kevin Polcovich honored

2009-11-06T19:29:46Z

Kevin Polcovich honored

The former Pirates shortstop is being inducted into his high school's Hall of Fame.

Pirates Deal Chavez for Iwamura

2009-11-04T05:51:55Z

More photos » by Gail Burton - AP

FILE - Tampa Bay Rays' Akinori Iwamura throws out Baltimore Orioles' Brian Roberts (not shown) during the first inning of a baseball game in Baltimore on May 13, 2009.

Browse more photos »

The Post Gazette reports that Pittsburgh acquired 30-year-old IF Akinori Iwamura in exchange for RHP Jesse Chavez..

Iwamura is coming off a season in which he posted a .745 OPS before tearing his ACL. Chavez, 26, was one of the lone bright spots in the Pirate bullpen last year.

More from Charlie once he has better access to the internet.

UPDATE by Charlie: Iwamura seems like a perfectly reasonable answer at second base, but to give up a guy who was one of the team's only semi-reliable relievers and would have been under team control for several more years strikes me as a bit strange. Iwamura basically is Andy LaRoche but without the upside, and Pedro Alvarez will presumably be ready to play in early 2011 if not sometime in 2010, so this seems like a move aimed squarely at this year. Which seems like something everybody loves, but of course it doesn't make any sense at all for the Pirates to play for this year, since they just finished cleaning house a few months ago.

This isn't a huge deal, though, and Neal Huntington's stated explanation--basically, that relievers are fungible because their performance varies a lot--makes sense, to a degree. The odds are against Chavez developing into a consistently excellent reliever, especially since he wasn't all that impressive last year, even for a Pirate. I'd generally rather the Pirates didn't send off decent players with years of team control remaining, but I think I can live with it this time--second base was a big hole.

On the DL

2009-11-03T19:51:46Z

I think I might have swine flu. In any case, I've been as sick as I've been in about a decade. Give me a couple days to get back on track. My apologies for the lack of updates.

Shortstop – Jack Wilson, Pittsburgh and Seattle Wilson won’t win a Gold Glove this year. Just like ...

2009-11-02T15:53:04Z

Shortstop – Jack Wilson, Pittsburgh and Seattle
Wilson won’t win a Gold Glove this year. Just like Mark Teixeira didn’t win one last year. He split time between leagues, and the Gold Glove voters don’t know which league to put him in. Not so with The Fielding Bible Awards. Jack Wilson was the best shortstop in baseball last year. Period. We don’t care which league he played in. He led all shortstops in Run Saved by a wide margin (27 runs saved to Brendan Ryan’s 19) and has taken over the MLB lead for most Runs Saved over the last three years (51). Mr. Wilson is the Fielding Bible Award winner at shortstop for 2009.

The Fielding Bible - 2009 Awards

Pirates Can't Learn Much From Phillies

2009-11-01T22:05:52Z

More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

Philadelphia Phillies' Cole Hamels throws against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Tuesday, July 28, 2009, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Browse more photos »

John Mehno has the right idea in this Beaver County Times column about the differences between the Pirates and Phillies--it's not primarily about spending, it's about building by acquiring amateur talent. But while the technique of comparing some great Phillies draft picks (Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and so on) to picks the Pirates botched at similar points in their drafts is effective for an article written with a word count for a general audience, it doesn't quite tell the whole story.

The Phillies' case is really weird. If you look at their drafts under previous GM Ed Wade (that's basically the time frame described in the Beaver County article), it's very surprising they've been so successful. Working backwards, the best player they got in 2005 was current Athletics reliever Josh Outman; they also got current Reds reliever Matt Maloney. That was it. In 2004 they got J.A. Happ in the third round, Jason Jaramillo in the second, and Lou Marson in the fourth, but they also took Greg Golson as a dubious tools pick in the first round and got nothing in the later rounds. In 2003 they had no first- or second-round pick; they got Michael Bourn and Kyle Kendrick, and that was it.

In 2002 the Phils took Cole Hamels in the first round, which was obviously a great pick, but they got absolutely nothing else. In 2001, it was Gavin Floyd in the first round and Howard in the fifth, and absolutely nothing else. In 2000, they got Utley, Taylor Buchholz and nothing else. In 1999, it was Brett Myers, Marlon Byrd and nothing else. (They also drafted Joe Saunders, but didn't sign him.)

Now, maybe this doesn't sound too noteworthy to some of you. Maybe you think that if you get one good player out of a draft, that's great, and to a certain extent that's true. In this case, the results speak for themselves. But what's odd to me about the Phillies' drafts under Wade is how incredibly thin they were. Wade seemed to get a star player and almost nothing else every year for several seasons in a row. That's strange.

To see what I mean, let's take a look at Wade's first draft for the Phillies in 1998. He took Pat Burrell with the first overall pick (a bit of a no-brainer), but he also got several moderately useful players later on, such as Jason Michaels, Geoff Geary and Nick Punto.

In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter that much if you fail to identify the next Nick Punto in your draft, but it does raise the question of why, if the Phillies are supposed to be a good example of intelligent drafting, they were able to identify so many star players but so few other future productive major leaguers.

Here's an example. In 2000 the Phillies got Utley, who single-handedly made the draft a very successful one for Philadelphia. The same year, the Pirates got Chris Young, Nate McLouth, Ian Snell, Jose Bautista and Sean Burnett. I'd say the Pirates actually did a much better job in that draft, even though it turned out worse--Dave Littlefield stupidly traded away Young a couple years later, and first-rounder Burnett's career was derailed with a ton of injuries. Drafting players who will stay healthy and helping them stay healthy involve skills, of course, and it certainly helps to not take a pitcher in the first round every year like the Pirates did. But there's luck involved too. For example, the Phillies were notably lucky that, for example, high school draftee Hamels basically made it to the majors with his elbow and shoulder intact, particularly after he missed huge chunks of his minor league career with injuries.

In 2001 the Phillies got Floyd, later sent to the White Sox in the Jim Thome trade, and Howard. That was all. Again, the Pirates had a much more robust draft, grabbing a number of moderately useful players in Zach Duke, Chris Shelton, Jeff Keppinger, Chris Duffy, Jonathan Albaladejo and Rajai Davis. (They also might have had some shot of signing 11th-rounder Stephen Drew if Littlefield, who was hired shortly after the draft, hadn't dropped the ball.) The Pirates royally messed up their first-round pick, John Van Benschoten, and that was their fault, but again, I'm not really convinced that Wade and the Phillies had a better idea of what they were doing.

Of course, Littlefield and his team started drafting in 2002, and after that all bets are off. There's no defending much of anything Littlefield did. My point, though, is that I'm not sure the Wade-era Phillies are a particularly good model here. In fact, it looks to me that they repeatedly got very lucky with about one pick each year and totally bombed the rest of their drafts under Wade, with the exceptions of 1998 and 2004. I don't mean to take anything away from the Phillies, who have generally been pretty well run since Wade left. But If there are things the Pirates can learn from this, they are the very basic points that, first, it's generally very important not to screw up first-round picks, and second, that it's important to build a core of homegrown stars. Beyond that, the Phillies' example doesn't tell us a whole lot.

Trent Jewett Returns to International League

2009-10-31T19:01:38Z

Trent Jewett Returns to International League

Longtime Pirates AAA manager Trent Jewett has been promoted from Class A+ Potomac to the Nats' AAA affiliate in Syracuse, so he'll be managing against Indianapolis next year.

Pirates Claim Justin Thomas From Mariners

2009-10-31T00:19:25Z

Like Vlad in the comments to a fanshot on this subject (and thanks for taking care of that for me; it's been a busy workday), I wonder how long newly acquired lefty reliever Justin Thomas will still be on the 40-man roster. The Pirates claimed him off waivers from the Mariners, and while he's a fairly interesting player, he might not need to be on any team's 40-man right now.

Thomas was drafted in 2005, but he was already 21 when drafted, so he was a bit old for most of his levels. Still, he zipped through the low minors with very good strikeout rates. Unfortunately, he doesn't have blazing stuff--he relies very heavily on his slider and on changing speeds with his fastball, which leads me to guess that his solid numbers at the low levels had more to do with maturity and with low-minors hitters' general inability to hit breaking balls than with talent.

Thomas took a long time to adjust to AA--his entire 2007 season there was awful--and he had a terrible season at Class AAA Tacoma in 2009, walking 40 batters in 60 innings in his first full season as a reliever. Maybe the Pirates' scouts see something here they like, and since Thomas throws tons of breaking balls he might someday be an adequate LOOGY (lefty one-out guy) in the bigs. But that seems unlikely without more time in the minors to work things out, and "adequate LOOGY" isn't the sort of upside one wants from a guy who's taking up a spot on the 40-man without contributing immediately. So Vlad might be right that at some point this winter, the Bucs will quietly try to send Thomas to the minors and hope no one claims him. He'd be a nice player to have at Indianapolis--they need lefties right now.

* * *

A little unrelated administrative note: I'd really, really appreciate it if people would stop using "PBC Blog" as a slur. I'm certainly not going to ban or officially warn anyone for that alone, but it's happened enough here that it's 1) a cliche and 2) it seems very strange to attack posters for having knee-jerk opinions by knee-jerkingly telling them to go to the PBC Blog. There are better ways to disagree, including either ignoring the post that bothers you or substantively responding to it.

Freddy Sanchez re-ups with Giants

2009-10-31T00:11:10Z

Freddy Sanchez re-ups with Giants

Freddy Sanchez comes to agreement with the San Francisco Giants on a two-year, $12 million contract.

Pirates name Carlos Garcia 1B coach/Infield Instructor

2009-10-30T20:42:24Z

Pirates name Carlos Garcia 1B coach/Infield Instructor

Promoted from within as he had been serving as the minor league infield coordinator. Has some past major league experience with the Mariners.

Pirates to Move High-A Affiliate to Florida State League

2009-10-28T19:04:54Z

Pirates to Move High-A Affiliate to Florida State League

I guess convenience won out for the Pirates in this case. One doesn't attach much to winning in the lower minors, but given that all hope for Bucs fans seems to stem from the players who were part of a championship in Lynchburg, I wouldn't have minded the High-A affiliate staying there.

UPDATE by Charlie: The Pirates' A+ affiliate will move from Lynchburg in the Carolina League to Bradenton in the Florida State League. This is a natural move for the Pirates for all kinds of reasons, obviously. There's been a trend toward regionalizing farm systems--trying to get all of one's affiliates as close to the big-league city as possible. But because of the way the Class A+ leagues are aligned (there's one based around the Carolinas, one in Florida and another in California), there wasn't a way for the Pirates to get a team closer to Pittsburgh. Lynchburg is pretty remote. So for the Bucs to have a second team in Bradenton, where they have Spring Training, makes sense.

It'd be natural to call them the "Bradenton Pirates." Their rookie-league team, also in Bradenton, is already called the Pirates, but the Reds had two teams in Florida last year called the Reds, so there's precedent.

So, just to clear up any confusion, it will be

Indianapolis Indians (AAA)
Altoona Curve (AA)
Bradenton ???? (A+)
West Virginia Power (A)
State College Spikes (A- short season)
Bradenton/GCL Pirates (rookie)

Two teams in Bradenton, and my guess is that both will be called the Pirates.

The Florida State League plays as a more favorable environment for pitchers than the Carolina League. Some folks have complained, here and elsewhere, about it being tough to get a good read on prospects as a result of a move from a neutral league. There is a legitimate complaint here, but the FSL isn't nearly as extreme an environment as, say, some of the hitter-friendly ballparks in the Mountain West and California that really do wreak havoc on prospects. The pitcher-friendliness of the FSL is something we'll have to keep an eye on, but I don't think it's that big a deal. Of course, it remains to be seen how Bradenton's park will play in the summer.

Unfortunately, cincinnati.com points out that the Sarasota Reds drew less than 1,000 per game last year, way less than the Hillcats, who drew over 2,000.

Thanks to WHYGAVS. And condolences to Tim at Bucco Fans, who did all kinds of good work in Lynchburg this year.

UPDATE 4:11 PM: Cincinnati.com is the only source reporting this. If it's happening, I don't know why no Pittsburgh sources have reported it.

UPDATE 12:30 AM: Lynchburg's paper has an item on this, describing it as "likely." As Cincinnati.com suggested, this isn't official yet, but I bet it will be soon.

Huntington: We Will Try to Keep Tyler Yates

2009-10-28T05:13:47Z

Thanks for your patience while I was away. I'm done traveling until Thanksgiving. Incidentally, I'm about 95% sure I saw Jay Mariotti, looking sort of dapper in a sport coat and jeans, at a Hudson News in O'Hare today. I didn't say anything to him, just walked by the store a couple times to make sure it was him. Most of the things I think about that guy are things I'd be ashamed to say out loud. I texted a few people and got a bunch of suggestions about things to say. It goes without saying that most of those would be inappropriate to share here, but most people seemed to agree that fake adulation would have been the way to go.

Anyway, when a general manager says that he'd love for a player who's been recently cut to return, it's often wise to just chalk that up to the GM being polite. But in this case, I think Neal Huntington really would love for Tyler Yates to come back. Since there certainly wouldn't be a major league contract involved, I suppose there's no problem with it, but I'd frankly breathe a sigh of relief if Yates were gone forever. He's 32 and has had one major league season (2006) in which he's been any good. He also has big-time control problems and puts way too many batters on base, to the point that back in 2008 I was arguing that the Pirates just shouldn't put him out there at the start of an inning, lest he walk the first two batters.

Yates is also well past the age at which his good fastball should be interpreted as a sign of things to come. He's one of many relievers who Neal Huntington has acquired seemingly purely on the basis of his stuff. It's true that you can't teach velocity, but it's also true that after a certain age, the results have to speak for themselves. If you want to take a 24-year-old Evan Meek on the basis of his stuff in the Rule 5 draft, that's one thing. If you want to trade for a 30-year-old Yates and stick him in high-leverage situations over and over again despite mediocre or poor results, that's another.

This season, John Russell inserted Yates in high-leverage situations well past the point when it was obvious he had nothing. To be fair, Russell didn't have a lot of options. But I don't want him to be given that choice again. The line between Yates and obvious cannon-fodder like Denny Bautista is relatively thin, even when Yates is healthy.

McCutchen is Baseball America's Rookie of the Year

2009-10-26T20:59:01Z

Baseball America has named Pittsburgh Pirates' outfielder Andrew McCutchen it's 2009 Major League Rookie Of The Year. McCutchen is on the cover of the magazine and is joined on the All-Rookie team by first baseman Garrett Jones. It's nice to see these two get some national recognition. I'm excited to see what these two can do over a full season in 2010.

UPDATE by Charlie: Pedro Alvarez was recently on BA's cover as well.

Pirates reliever Yates requests free agency

2009-10-26T20:39:31Z

Pirates reliever Yates requests free agency

Per Rob Biertempfel at the Trib, Tyler Yates has been released. The team put him on waivers, and after clearing he elected to become a free agent. The move leaves us with 38 filled spots on the 40-man roster, plus two players (Meek and Ascanio) on the 60-day DL.

The player for whom Yates was acquired two years ago, soft-tossing righty SP Todd Redmond, spent 2009 with the Braves' AAA affiliate in Gwinnett, posting a 4.41 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, and 6.6 K/9.

Danny Moskos Hit Hard in AFL Appearance

2009-10-26T05:30:41Z

-P- Daniel Moskos got rocked for two runs in an AFL inning Saturday. To his credit, he's stayed in control in the offense-friendly AFL with bunches of strikeouts and grounders. Still, I've read some vague compliments of Moskos from people like Kevin Goldstein recently (subscription required), and while Goldstein's comment was hardly over the top, I have to admit I don't really see anything here yet. Moskos struck out barely more than four and a half batters per nine this year in a league in which he wasn't particularly young. Even accounting for the grounders and for improvement throughout the year, that just isn't enough. (And the solid ERA doesn't predict much without other good stats to back it up.)

To say that he has the requisite hint of upside you get when you take a failed starter and put him in the bullpen is basically true, but still gives him too much credit. Most successful relievers who fit that profile are guys that throw hard but have control issues, or even guys who have success as minor league starters but whose organizations believe are best suited to relief anyway. (I'm thinking here of someone like Jonathan Broxton, who posted excellent numbers as a minor league starter but burst onto the scene as a member of the Dodgers' bullpen, and stayed there.) Moskos doesn't have much of anything--he doesn't have great stuff, or great strikeout rates, or even great control. There aren't even injuries that might explain some of his poor performances, the way there was for Sean Burnett, another former top pick who became an uninspiring lefty reliever. All Moskos has are grounders, and the fact that he's a lefty.

Credit where credit is due, though--he's been very good since August or so. And at least I was able to get through two paragraphs about Moskos without mentioning a certain Orioles catcher.

-P- The Padres have hired Red Sox assistant Jed Hoyer as their new GM. Hoyer interviewed for the Pirates GM job when it was open two years ago, and he inherits a desperate situation in San Diego, so it'll be interesting to see how his GM career parallels that of Neal Huntington.

Ross Ohlendorf Participating in Department of Agriculture Internship

2009-10-23T15:26:50Z

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

4 months ago: Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Ross Ohlendorf works against the Colorado Rockies in the first inning of a baseball game on Friday, June 19, 2009, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Browse more photos »

If you haven't heard what Ross Ohlendorf is up to this offseason, well, wow:

One week after the season ended, Ohlendorf began an eight-week internship with the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. It's a highly unusual endeavor for a professional baseball player, but to those who know Ohlendorf well, his plans to conduct research in conjunction with the National Animal Identification System comes as no surprise...

How Ohlendorf ended up in D.C. is an interesting story in itself. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture [and former fringe presidential candidate] Tom Vilsack grew up in Pittsburgh as a Pirates fan. He was invited to PNC Park this summer to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, which, fittingly, was caught by Ohlendorf, who asked to receive the pitch once he learned that it was Vilsack who was taking the mound.

Ohlendorf talked to Vilsack briefly that day and later contacted him again to ask if he could be put to work this fall...

Ohlendorf will work 20 hours each week, giving him plenty of time to work on his conditioning.

-P- Stephen Strasburg was rocked in his second pro start in Arizona. Among Pirates prospects playing there, Jose Tabata, Donald Veal, Daniel Moskos and Anthony Watson have all played well, while Chase D'Arnaud and Brian Friday have struggled so far. None of them have played more than a handful of games.

New monument for 'Suitcase' to be unveiled Saturday at West Hill Cemetery

2009-10-22T20:26:25Z

New monument for 'Suitcase' to be unveiled Saturday at West Hill Cemetery

Any readers from Georgia may be interested in attending an event 11 a.m. this Saturday in Dalton, where the city will be dedicating a new monument in honor of ex-Pirate Harry "Suitcase" Simpson in West Hill Cemetery. Simpson, a former Negro League player and an All-Star with the Royals in 1956, lived in Dalton and began his professional career there. Appropriately enough, the monument will be located on Suitcase Simpson Drive.

Perry Hill Speaks Out

2009-10-22T01:54:41Z

More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

3 months ago: Pittsburgh Pirates first base coach Perry Hill (8) and St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, left, come to the aide of a fan who was hit by a foul ball down the first baseline in the seventh inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh Friday, Aug. 7, 2009. Pirates's Garrett Jones was the batter. The fan was taken by paramedics from the field, and his condition is not known. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Browse more photos »

I'm honestly not overly interested in the scene that has unfolded around Perry Hill's departure, but since the Post-Gazette has another item on it today and Buster Olney is running with it...

As dramas go, I find this one to be pretty thin gruel, and it's very surprising to see that ESPN.com thinks the loss of a first-base coach is interesting. Right off the top, the reason this is still in the news is that Hill has spoken up to dispute Neal Huntington's comment that Hill "has decided he does not want to coach." Hill says he does want to coach, just not with the Pirates right now.

It's a distinction without a difference, even if we grant that Huntington meant that Hill doesn't want to coach at all, which isn't at all clear from what Huntington actually said. The fact is that the Pirates have Hill under contract next year, so by leaving them behind, he is effectively opting not to coach. If there was anything wrong with Huntington's comments, it's that they were a little bit ambiguous.

I'm not sure I understand why this story would be national news. A coach refusing to honor his contract is, I suppose, unusual, but since Hill is just a first-base coach, I'm not sure why any non-Pirate fan would care.

It's unfortunate that the Pirates lost him--he has a good reputation. But it's not really clear to me that his loss will be felt much. Hill's greatest value lies in his reputation as an infield coach, and it's true that the Pirates made big strides in their defense last year. But most of that improvement was in the outfield, not the infield, as good defenders like Andrew McCutchen, Nyjer Morgan and Brandon Moss (and, if you believe the numbers, even Lastings Milledge) replaced mediocre or outright bad ones like Jason Bay and Nate McLouth. Hill may well deserve some credit for Andy LaRoche's good play at third, and the Delwyn Young experiment at second turned out better than I thought it might have (although it was still pretty bad). But improvement in the infield was a small percentage of the overall improvement. Hill will be missed, but a coach is just a coach.

* * *

I'm on the road tomorrow through next Tuesday. I suspect I will have some internet access, but I'm not sure how much, so please hang tight if the updates aren't as regular as you'd like.