Littlefield and McClatchy on the state of the Bucs

In today's Post-Gazette, Robert Dvorchak hits just the right tone, I think, in this essay on Littlefield's offseason moves. It's good to know that McClatchy will admit he's made Littlefield's job more difficult with the order to pare payroll to the mid-30s:

"There were some moves we did for financial reasons. Dave's hands were tied at times," McClatchy said. "Nobody's ever denied there are constraints in a small market."

I admire McClatchy for not scapegoating Littlefield for these moves. If an owner can't support the GM and back him up when he is subjected to unfair criticism, then the franchise will never succeed in the long run. If I were Kevin McClathcy, I'd buy season tickets to the Steelers' games and do everything I can to learn how to own and govern a team from the Rooney family, who may be the best owners in the history of professional sports.

McClatchy has given his general manager, who is entering his third full season, what is tantamount to a vote of confidence. "I think I have the right guy. He's done an above-average job," McClatchy said. "One of my biggest charges to him was to improve our minor-league system. We rebuilt the last time without rebuilding our minor leagues. If anything, it got worse."

You know we agree with this. It did get worse, and the young players who came up through a disorganized, losing system looked at the big club as the height of disorganization and losing. That ain't right, and it's no way to groom a winning team that will rely heavily on homegrown talent of the star - but not necessarily superstar - talent. One of the reasons I like Littlefield is the fact that he learned from Bonifay's reign of error:

In fact, Littlefield sees it as a step in the right direction that not as many stopgap players will be on this year's team because the Pirates have been able to address some needs from within. "Comparing it to last year, we basically had the veteran as our best option and it was clear cut," Littlefield said. "We know we want to go to the younger guy at some point. But you have to be able to figure out when the young guy's ready. You just can't throw them out there to the wolves, because some of them will get chewed up and tossed back, and they never recover. That's always the scary part with the young guys if they're in over their head.

Littlefield also tells us that he doesn't think the whole team will be ready until 2005. I think they could make a serious run this year, but they'd have to be willing to keep Benson and Kendall for at least half a season, use Josh Fogg and Sean Burnett in high-leverage bullpen situations, promote and ride Van Benschoten as long as he pitches well, and demote Oliver Perez if he continues to struggle as he refines his mechanics. All of those decisions are not ones I expect to be made now that we know Littlefield is targeting 2005.