- 1965 - RHP Mark Petkovsek was born in Beaumont, Texas. A 1987 first-round pick of the Rangers in 1987, he came to the Bucs as a free agent in 1992. He spent a year at Indianapolis, then got a shot at the big club in 1993. Petko went 3-0 in 26 outings from the pen (he had been used as a starter prior to the call-up) but posted a 6.96 ERA/1.608 WHIP and was released after the year. Petkovsek came back with the Cards in ‘95 and tossed through the 2001 campaign, closing it out where he began with the Rangers.
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| Brett made the cut - 1988 Fleer |
- 1988 - The Pirates filled their 40-man roster to the brim by adding minor league pitchers Stan Belinda, Brett Gideon, Willie Smith & Mike Walker, OF’s Moise Alou & Jeff Cook and 3B Jeff King. To clear space, they released IF Al Pedrique & RHP Dave Johnson and sent RHP Vicente Palacios, who had August rotator cuff surgery, to AAA Buffalo. Also off the roster were recently declared free agents RHP Bob Walk, OF Gary Redus and LHP Dave LaPoint. It was the last day to set the roster before the minor league draft. They also named Cam Bonifay Director of Scouting; in five years, he would end up as GM.
- 1991 - RHP Jameson Taillon was born in Lakeland, Florida. The high school righty was the second pick of the 2010 draft behind Bryce Harper after the Pirates FO debated on whether to select Jamo or Manny Machado. JT zoomed through the minors, and the Pirates had him slated for a 2014 debut. Instead, he had TJ surgery, followed by a sports hernia operation. Despite missing all of 2014-15, he arrived in Pittsburgh on June 8th, 2016, and claimed a spot in the rotation. 2017 continued his rocky physical road as he fought off cancer, but still put together a line of 8-7/4.44 in 25 starts. He broke out in 2018 after a slow start, going 14-10/3.20 with a streak of 22 starts giving up three earned runs or fewer starting on May 27th and running through the end of the year. But he got off to a slow start in 2019, and with good reason - he required another TJ surgery, and missed 2020.
- 1992 - The Pirates began to clean up their 40-man roster and simultaneously cut salaries in a three-day frenzy. The first to be set free were RHP Vicente Palacios, who joined the Padres, and OF Gary Varsho, who inked a deal with the Reds. The Bucs then released OF Cecil Espy (Cincy took him, too) and RHP Roger Mason, who signed with the Mets, the next day. LHP Bob Patterson was given the Friday heave-ho, landing with the Rangers. They were among the dozen 1992 Buccos to date who found a new address via the expansion draft, free agency, trade or release.
- 1997 - The Pirates lost P Jason Johnson to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays while P Clint Sodowsky and 3B Joe “The Joker” Randa went to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the expansion draft. Randa returned to the Pirate fold for his last MLB season in 2006, while rookie Johnson tossed 10 MLB seasons (albeit only one with an ERA south of 4.00) and Sodowsky worked one full campaign and three games in 1999 to finish his stay in the show.
- 1998 - The Bucs sent LHP Ricardo Rincon to the Tribe for OF Brian Giles. In five campaigns with the Pirates, Giles would put up a line of .308/.426/.591 with 165 HR and 426 RBI and was twice named to the All-Star team. That deal began a chain reaction of swaps that eventually led to the Pirates acquiring Jason Bay, Ollie Perez, Xavier Nady, Jose Tabata, Jeff Karstens, Ross Ohlendorf, Daniel McCutchen and Bryan Morris; the trade tree grew when Connor Joe, who was selected as a draft pick obtained by Morris’ trade, was sent to Tampa for Sean Rodriguez before it finally quit bearing fruit.
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| Brian Giles - 1999 Pacific Revolution |
- 1999 - The Pirates shuffled the 40-man roster a bit, adding RHP Bronson Arroyo, C Humberto Cota, OF Tike Redman and IF Rico Washington to the list and DFA’ing pitchers Greg Hansell & Javier Martinez, along w/OF Ray Montgomery, to clear space.
- 2004 - OF Jason Bay and LHP Mike Gonzalez were named to the manager-selected Topps MLB Rookie Team. Bay was on a roll; he had already won the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year award after hitting .282 with 26 homers despite missing the early weeks of the season with a bad shoulder. Gonzo went 3-1-1/1.25 with 55 whiffs in 43-1/3 IP, appearing in 47 games after a late May call up from AAA Nashville.
- 2011 - The Pirates added a half-dozen ball players to their 40-man roster. OF Starling Marte & SS Jordy Mercer became starters while LHPs Justin Wilson & Rudy Owens were rostered and eventually flipped to other clubs for C Francisco Cervelli and LHP Wandy Rodriguez. Two lesser lights moved to the list were RHP Duke Welker, who was part of the 1B Justin Morneau trade, and Matt Hague, who was waived after the 2014 season after hitting .222 as a Bucco. Duke tossed for the Giants AAA club in 2016 in his last stop while Hague last played in the Nats’ organization in 2018.
- 2014 - Free agent C Russ Martin officially signed a contract with the Toronto Blue Jays after spending two playoff years behind the dish for the Bucs. Born in Toronto, it was a homecoming for the 31-year-old Martin, sweetened by a five-year, $82M contract. He played for the Dodgers in 2019 and is again a FA.
- 2014 - Manager Clint Hurdle was given the Brooks Robinson Community Service Award and All-Star Josh Harrison was named the MLB recipient of the Heart and Hustle Award at the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association (MLBPAA) 15th annual Legends for Youth Dinner. Hurdle was recognized for his work with the Prader-Willi Association, while Harrison’s award was given to “an active player who demonstrates a passion for the game and best embodies the values, spirit and traditions of baseball.”
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| J-Hay, Heart & Hustle - 2014 Topps Heritage |
- 2019 - Ben Cherington, whose appointment had been leaked earlier as Neil Huntington’s replacement, was officially named as the Pirates GM. Cherington told the media “I have always appreciated the passion of Pittsburgh sports fans...Pittsburgh is the ideal opportunity for me, and the only one I was interested in exploring. The four pillars that will drive our success are elite talent identification, acquisition, development and deployment.” And so started the second chapter of the Bob Nutting era, this one driven by Cherington/Travis Williams, after the original 2007 Huntington/Frank Coonelly tandem had faltered.
My assessment of Neil Huntington was that while he was demonstrably competent and certainly an improvement over his most recent predecessors other than Ted Simmons, he still underperformed when all was said and done. People forget that he had essentially an unlimited, Steinbrenner-esque budget when he did his first amateur draft. He picked Pedro Alvarez, and while I would not call him "a bust", exactly, I WOULD say that he was as poor a player as a guy can possibly be without actually being a bust, if that makes sense. From there, he certainly made the Pirates' farm system better, but not nearly as good as it could have been and should have been given the resources he had with which to work. MLB of course soon closed the loopholes that small market teams were using to overspend on the draft, but that only highlighted Huntington's shortcomings even more. He simply wasn't particularly good at identifying the right players or in developing the ones he did draft to their maximum capability.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is that the three wildcard teams were not entirely his. Several of the most important players on those teams were in fact holdovers from the Littlefield years, notably Andrew McCutchen and Neal Walker. Nor did Huntington develop even a single impact pitcher for the starting rotation throughout his entire tenure. There were guys who contributed, certainly, but they were all mid-to-back of the rotation types, 3rd starters and, most often 4th and 5th. The only team that was truly Huntington's that did anything at all was his second to last squad, and even that version finished with just 82 or 83 wins (no time to look that up just now).
I'm sorry, but most GM's could have posted a resume like that. There was simply nothing exceptional about Huntington's tenure. I know he had some restrictions operating in Pittsburgh (notably Coonelly looking over his shoulder) but even so, he just wasn't particularly good at his job. He was, in short, "just a guy" as a GM. I would give him, at best, a B-minus and probably more like a C-plus overall.
BTW, I think Russell Martin would look very good as our number two catcher slash mentor-competitor for Stallings, as well as a clubhouse policeman and throwback to the Wild Card teams.
ReplyDeleteTough to tell on Huntington w/o knowing the parameters he worked under. Personally, I disliked going for MLB average guys in the draft rather than high ceiling players after the pool system began and his failure to upgrade rather than shuffle. As for Russ, a vet C wouldn't hurt; but I think they will have pocketbook questions until the arb guys sign, and still have to determine a building process to move ahead and what time frame that entails.
ReplyDeleteHope u came through the year OK, Will, it's been a tough one on many levels, and have a great holiday season/New Years if I don't get to chat with u before then.