A Letter from Neal Huntington
Dear Pirates Fans,
As Spring Training gets underway, I wanted to take a moment to personally
thank you for your sup****t, as well as update you on the progress we have
made in implementing our vision of building a sustainable champion****p
caliber organization.
While some have questioned the level of our player personnel activity this
offseason, I want to assure you that we have hit the ground running and
have
worked very hard to restore the pride and passion of the Pittsburgh
Pirates.
Indeed, the Pirates are a fundamentally different organization today than
at
this time last year. Beginning with Bob Nutting assuming control of the
ballclub a little more than a year ago, this organization has taken
orderly
steps to improve our internal operations and build a ballclub of which you
can justifiably be proud.
Shortly after my appointment as General Manager, I worked with President
Frank Coonelly on an in-depth *****sment of our baseball operations
department. We decided to change the leader****p of each of the three major
areas - major league manager/coaching staff, scouting and player
development. We then worked extremely hard to identify and hire the
talented
baseball men who now form a strong, cohesive leader****p team.
The key difference in this leader****p team, and what will make us
successful, is the how. As an organization, we are taking a process
oriented, systematic approach to everything we do at every level of our
operation.
We have completely revised our system for evaluating players and are now
using the same system to evaluate talent at every level of baseball,
including the amateurs we scout and the minor league and major league
players in our system as well as other organizations. We have added to the
number and quality of our amateur scouts to allow them to focus more
intensely on a smaller geographic area and to permit the organization to
get
multiple looks at a large majority of the amateur players we scout while
enhancing the professional growth of each of our evaluators. We are also
increasing our level of international scouting and development, including
the significant financial investment we are making in the new Pirates
training complex we are building in the Dominican Republic.
We are also implementing an individualized written development plan for
each
player throughout our system. To execute these development plans, we have
retained and hired some of the top talent in baseball. These talented
instructors will work throughout our system teaching our young players how
to play "Pirates Baseball" from the entry level through the Major Leagues.
On the major league side, we simply cannot and will not repeat the same
mistakes this organization has made in the past by making trades and/or
free
agent signings simply for the sake of making moves. We chose not to trade
players at their lowest value or to trade away our talented, young players
just for the sake of making changes.
We are also not going to overspend on a marginal free agent just to secure
a
favorable story in January. Unfortunately, this organization has proven
many
times in the past that the short-term bump in excitement over an expensive
free agent signing is far outweighed by the long-term negative impact on
the
club's ability to allocate these resources to build a strong and deep
core.
Everything we do will be well thought out, rational and for the benefit of
improving the club's on-field performance. We have the necessary resources
to make sound baseball decisions as we build this major league team for
the
present and future.
I am eager to see how our young players will respond to the leader****p and
direction of our new manager John Russell and his staff. John has
instilled
a sense of discipline and accountability in the clubhouse. He will foster
an
open line of communication so our players know exactly what is expected of
them both on and off the field.
Our optimism about the 2008 club begins with our young starting rotation,
which some believe could be the deepest starting rotation in our division.
Ian Snell had a second consecutive strong season in 2007 and is poised to
become a consistent winner in 2008. Tom Gorzelanny emerged as one of the
top
young starters in the National League in 2007 and is poised for a quality
2008. Paul Maholm has demonstrated his toughness and durability; we think
that he can become a more consistent winner as he enters his third full
season. The veteran presence of Matt Morris for the entire year should be
a
stabilizing force for the entire rotation. Zach Duke has worked hard this
off-season and we feel he is on the verge of re-establi****ng himself as a
solid major league pitcher.
Concern has been raised about the depth of our bullpen, but we are
fortunate
to have a bullpen anchored by one of the best young closers in the game in
Matt Capps and left-handed set-up men Damaso Marte and John Grabow. We
declined this offseason to allocate valuable resources to multi-year
contracts for free agent middle relievers. Clubs that have built bullpens
with such signings have been almost universally disappointed with the
results and were hamstrung by unproductive long-term commitments. Instead,
we are building our bullpen through a variety of options that will give
John
a number of different looks, power levels and experience that will allow
him
to match our pitchers' strengths to a lineup's weakness.
Around the diamond we should be strong up the middle with Jack Wilson,
Freddy Sanchez and Nate McLouth or Nyjer Morgan. On the corners we are
looking forward to healthy and productive seasons from Jason Bay and
Xavier
Nady and continued development from Adam LaRoche and Jose Bautista. Our
bench will be anchored by versatile veteran Chris Gomez and we will have
solid, versatile major league caliber options for our manager to use as he
deems necessary. Additionally we look forward to the continued development
of exciting young players like Steve Pearce, Andrew McCutchen, Neil
Walker,
Brian Bixler and others.
This community was excited about this team last year and we believe that
this club will be better than it performed in 2007. Our focus is putting a
club on the field that will respect the game, play the right way and give
itself a chance to win each night.
In closing, I want to personally thank you for your continued sup****t of
the
Pittsburgh Pirates. Your loyalty and sup****t is very much appreciated. I
look forward to seeing you at PNC Park for what I believe will be an
exciting 2008 season.
Sincerely,
Neal Huntington
Senior Vice President, General Manager
Pittsburgh Pirates
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