The wrath of Sheehan

Yesterday, Baseball Prospectus foreman Joe Sheehan damned the Bucs for signing "veteran stopgaps" that "block better options." He argues that Mondesi, Simon, Mesa, and Stynes are likely to have no trade value at the deadline, too. Then he drops the big bomb:

This franchise needs to start over with new management and new players before it replaces the Brewers as the butt of all baseball jokes. It may already be too late.

Yeah, Joe, nuke Fallujah! That will teach Pittsburgh to resist the generosity which is the unsolicited advice of the Baseball Prospectus staff of experts.

Sheehan may be right that none of the four will have a market three months from now. That said, there is a case to be made for not fielding an all-rookie team, and if the Bucs don't sign veterans, then they won't have them. They aren't keeping any of their own - at least not when they're signed at Cam Bonifay-negotiated salaries. That case may not be strong, but either way, it's not accurate to assume that flipping the vets for B prospects was the main or only reason for signing them at bargain rates in the first place.

Sheehan's assertion that "better options" - plural - existed before the signings is dubious. What better option did the Pirates have at third base? Jose Castillo? The bounty that is the current second base situation was unexpected and could be a spring mirage. What better option did the Pirates have at right field? OK, Craig A. Wilson, perhaps. There's no way J.J. Davis represented a better option when Mondesi was signed. What better option did the Pirates have at first base? Carlos Rivera? Maybe, but I doubt it. Chris Shelton? Give me a break. What better option did the Pirates have to close games? A random rookie, in a Brandon Villafuerte-type experiment? Josh Fogg? Why give up on Fogg as a starter until the Pirates have better options for the rotation? No one predicted - especially the BP team of experts, which you know if you read the 2004 book - that Van Benschoten and Burnett would look ready this spring. And if the Pirates had decided to convert Vogelsong to closing in lieu of signing Mesa, they would not only have a potential Villafuerte disaster, they would also not have someone that now looks like a most promising starter. To make a long story short, the Pirates did not have better options, they had one better option, Craig A. Wilson. Even if Sheehan disagrees, and thinks Castillo should have been given third base, Wilson right (where's he a better fielder), and Rivera first, that leaves the Bucs with inexperienced big leaguers at 1B, 2B, 3B, LF, CF, RF, and, if Kendall is dealt, at C. The Pirates would have no depth at any position. Imagine a team where Jack Wilson is the elder statesman! Would this strategy guarantee a playoff team in two years? It better, because only that kind of reward would justify indulging in this fantastic formula for losing 120 games.

Even if Wilson et al represented some other options, the Pirates were wise to think that they didn't represent enough options. Wilson can catch, and with a Kendall trade always in the works, it makes sense to think that the Pirates would need another 1B/OF to play Wilson's position if and when Kendall leaves town. And depth is another thing. You can't have too much depth for a 162-game season. Maybe the Pirates knew Jason Bay wouldn't be ready for the season, and maybe they didn't. Either way the Mondesi and Simon signings look wise considering that Wilson, Mondesi, and Simon are all on the field on Opening Day. Maybe Sheehan would hand a starting job to Jose Guillen Chad Hermansen J.J. Davis, and maybe that gamble would pay off, but few clubs would do that. Sheehan ranks the Phillies with the very best teams in the league. Did Larry Bowa break in Marlon Byrd any quicker than Mac has broken in Craig A. Wilson? Did the Astros find time for Jason Lane? Did the Cubs make room for Hee Choi and Bobby Hill? Did the Marlins hand a job to Ramon Castro? I seem to remember teams going with veteran options (Glanville, Biggio, Karros, Grudzielanek, Pudge) while those "better options" existed, and I don't see anyone suggesting that these teams need new management and new players.

Adding to the mystery of the wrath of Sheehan is his sunny optimism about the Tigers. The Tigers tried the all-rookie team and lost 120 games. Now they bring in veteran stopgaps. The Pirates of 2004 are damned for not being the Tigers of 2003, but the Tigers of 2004 are praised for being the Pirates of 2003. What gives? "At some point," Sheehan writes in his AL preview, "adding lots of average players matters." He predicts the Tigers will "not win anything" in the end - bold prediction, that - yet he foresees them hanging around .500 and competing for first in the AL Central for much of the year. He guesses Detroit will be one of the season's "interesting" stories.

For sure, the Pirates, like a lot of teams, need all the constructive criticism they can get. For sure, they have made some mistakes. But this doesn't explain or justify Sheehan's conclusion that Pittsburgh needs "new players" and "new management" before they will be an "interesting story" and a team that at least flirts with a .500 record.

Why does Joe Sheehan hate the Pirates?

If Sheehan is from Pittsburgh, I would diagnose the problem as win deprivation and prescribe plenty of scotch and other patience-inducing drugs. If Sheehan is not from Pittsburgh, the wrath of Sheehan is far more intriguing. Did Lloyd McClendon laugh at his hideous tie at some ballgeek dinner? Did David Littlefield steal Sheehan's high school sweetheart? Did Kevin McClatchy run him down with his Hummer, crushing all the bones in Sheehan's right foot and forcing him to walk with a cane? Inquiring minds want to know.