Pittsburgh Pirates Interview

I recently was able to interview the Owner and Head Writer of Bucs Trade Winds, Dave Harrison. This will be the first post of our new segment, 30 Blogs in 30 Days…Enjoy!

Scott: What would you say is your personal biography involving the Pirates? When did you become a fan? Greatest and worst moments?

Dave: My personal biography, I am a married father of three boys who lives in Iowa.   I was born and raised just outside Pittsburgh in Turtle Creek.  All my life I have been a Pittsburgh sports fan, but I have always loved baseball.

Easily my greatest moment as a fan was taking my oldest son to his first MLB game at PNC Park with his grandfather.  A close second would be attending the World Series back in 1979 with my father and grandmother.

The worst moment as a fan: watching Sid Bream beat the tag at home in 1992.  I still cringe and feel a need to puke when I see that highlight.

Scott: Bucs Trade Winds….Tell me some more things about your website.

Dave: BTW was started as an outlet for a frustrated Pirates fan who now lives in Iowa.  I started the site in December 2006 when an old friend called and we discussed the Pirates for a few hours, the conversation ended with us starting a blog about the Pirates.  He has yet to write a single word on the site.  There aren’t too many Pirates fans where I live, or so I thought, when I started the blog.  Amazingly I have met dozens, okay maybe a dozen, of people here in Iowa who actually read the blog.

Since starting the blog I have developed some relations with people back in Pittsburgh who find out stuff and share it with me, they will forever be called my sources.

Scott: I’ve heard great things about your ballpark, PNC Park. What is your opinion on the stadium and could you give us a brief review of it? What would you rate it out of 10 stars?

Dave: PNC is a ballpark that really has to been seen to be fully appreciated.  Like a lot of the modern throwback stadiums, it has a warm feel and plenty to explore.  There are a few thing that set it apart from other stadiums starting with a truly spectacular view of the city.  For anyone who makes the trip to Pittsburgh for a game, it is highly recommended to park in the city an walk across the Clemente Bridge.  Much like the awe inspiring entrance to the city of Pittsburgh from the south, there is no other stadium that has such and inspiring trip to the stadium.  Even though there has not been a winning team at PNC, that walk across the bridge, seeing the statues outside the stadium, simply taking in everything that is part of Pirates baseball, you can’t help but sense the nearly forgotten great history of the Pirates.

Make sure you arrive early for the game so you have a chance to wander around the stadium inside and out.  I would easily rate PNC a healthy 9 on a scale of 1 to 10.  I have yet to see a park that I would rate higher, the only reason I drop PNC to a 9 has been the poor quality of a product that has been put on the field since its opening.

Scott: Recently it’s been in the news that Penguins owner Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle wanted to purchase the Pirates, what is your thoughts about this?

Dave: I really am torn on the subject.  I think ownership by Lemieux and Burkle would increase the payroll of the team and bring in some MLB talent to compliment the young core the team is developing.  I also think such an ownership group would do everything needed to keep the talent the Pirates have beyond just their arbitration years.  Unfortunately, with new ownership brings new management in most cases.

This is what causes my dilemma.

I really think the jobs Neal Huntington and Frank Coonelly have done has been extraordinary.  They have been able to take a shoestring budget, a depleted farm system and a group of players that would be nothing more than complimentary players on championship teams and turned those pieces into a much improved farm systems and a talented but inexperienced team that should grow together over the next few seasons to bring the Pirates back from being the joke of MLB.  The only drawback to keeping Huntington and Coonelly is the continued ownership by the Nutting family.

Scott: A prospect that many people, including I have heard about lately is Pedro Alvarez. Can you tell us a little bit more about him, when do you see him on the Major League team?

Dave: Pedro Alvarez, turns 23 February 6th, has the type of power not seen in Pittsburgh since the days of Dave Parker and Willie Stargell.  Some may think I am forgetting about Barry Bonds, but his power was still developing when he left Pittsburgh for San Francisco.  Bonds never hit more than 34 home runs during his time in Pittsburgh.

After a slow start to his professional career in 2009, Alvarez hit 27 HR’s while driving in 95 runs between high A and AA for the Pirates last season while batting .333.  He was drafted number 2 overall in 2008 out of Vanderbilt University.  He was born in New York and attended Horace Mann High School, I just point that out to give a little New York feel to the answer.

Currently, he is the future 3B for the Pirates and carries the weight of the fan base and the organization on his shoulders.  Depending on his conditioning coming into spring training, which is said to be phenomenal, he should start the season at AAA Indianapolis.  For a player of his size, 6-2 225, he is remarkably agile with an excellent arm.  He bats left handed which plays very well with the short fence at PNC park in right field.  I expect to see Alvarez and David Wright regularly battle for the NL All-Star spot at 3B in the near future.

If he handles AAA with the same ease he handled AA and high A, he could be called up in late May or early June.  The thing to watch with Alvarez is where the Pirates play him during his stay in AAA as many scouts feel he will eventually be moved to 1B.  Where he eventually lands on defense will determine what the futures are of current Pirates Andy LaRoche at 3B and Garrett Jones at 1B/RF.  If Alvarez is moved to 1B, Jones would be permanently moved to the outfield.  If Alvarez is kept at 3B, Andy LaRoche could be moved to 2B in the long run.

Scott: Once Nate McLouth was traded Andrew McCutchen became your teams starting CF. Most people have never heard of him until then and he played great. How do you see is future as a Pirate?

Dave: Before Alvarez, Andrew McCutchen was the one marquee player in the Pirates system.  This was one of the few draft picks previous management got right.

McCutchen, 23, was drafted in 2005 as the 11th overall pick out of Fort Meade High School in Florida.  In a little over 4 seasons in the minors, McCutchen stole 105 bases while batting .286.  He projects to have some good power based on his tremendous bat speed as demonstrated by his 12 home runs after being called up to Pittsburgh last season.  McCutchen is a true 5 tool player who the Pirates see as eventually dropping down from the lead-off spot in the order to batting 3rd in the order.  His speed reminds many of Deon Sanders, only batting right handed.  The man has another gear on the base paths that he hits about 3 steps after rounding first.

Defensively, McCutchen can cover ground unlike anyone I have seen in recent years.  He won’t make many highlight reels with his glove because he makes even the most difficult drives into the gap look like routine catches due to an excellent route to the ball and his blazing speed.  He did struggle some last season in CF when he was getting adjusted to the larger stadiums at the Major League level, but the adjustment came quickly.

Between McCutchen and Alvarez, there will be many All-Star games in the next 6 years that will have multiple Pirates on them, not the token roster spot, but roster spots earned on those teams.

Scott: Speaking of Nate McLouth, your team has gone through a complete rebuild period, practically all of the big names are gone now. Does it disappoint you knowing the team doesn’t plan on contending?

Dave: With the young talent on the verge of arriving in Pittsburgh and those already there, the future looks very bright for the Pirates.  While I have not drank enough Kool-Aid to think this team will contend in 2010, the team is finally heading in the right direction.  For the first time in a long time there is depth in the system with young players like OF’s Jose Tabata, Gorkys Hernandez, Lastings Milledge and Garrett Jones, young pitchers Ross Ohlendorf, Brad Lincoln,  Zack Von Rosenberg and Tim Alderson and last years first round pick catcher Tony Sanchez.  There is some really good talent only a year or two away.  The key is for all the players to come together in the same season.

To answer the question, the excitement of seeing these young players so close and those who have already arrived makes it an easier pill to swallow knowing the team may not contend this season, maybe not even next year, but we fans can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel that isn’t an oncoming freight train.  Getting to see this team grow together makes it a little easier to handle right now.  This isn’t something that could be said over the previous 17 years.

Scott: Probably your biggest acquisation of the offseason was 2B Akinori Iwamura. Does he fit in well with this team?

Dave: Iwamura will fill in the gap left behind by the trade of Freddy Sanchez.  If anything, his bat will be a nice fit in the 2 slot in the order.  His defense should be comparable to what Freddy Sanchez had done with the Pirates.  The one area the Pirates need to address for organizational depth is the middle infield.  The only true middle infield prospect the Pirates have in their upper system is Chase D’arnaud who may start the season at AA.  As I mentioned earlier, if Pedro Alvarez is called up and takes over at 3B, current 3B Andy LaRoche will likely slide over to 2B.  I don’t expect to see Iwamura to finish the season on the Pirates roster.

Possibly the bigger addition of the winter has been Octavio Dotel as the closer.  Huntington completely revamped the bullpen over the off-season finalizing it with Dotel.  Dotel should solidify the closer role previously held by Matt Capps.  Capps was not a closer who missed bats, something Dotel brings to the table.

Scott: Finally, 5 years from now it’ll be 2015. As long as the world is still here how do you picture the Pirates Major League team?

Dave: Five years from now I see the Pirates being mentioned with the Twins as being smaller revenue, I hate the term small market, teams that are doing things right.  I see the Pirates with a deep and talented farm system and an excellent owner who savors World Series victories as much as he savors Stanley Cup championships.  I see the third leg of the City of Champions finally joining the Steelers and Penguins in the hearts of Pittsburgh fans everywhere.  I may be wrong, but hope is all I have had for the last 17 years when it comes to Pirates baseball, and I am hoping I have a future as a fortune teller.

——

I hope everyone enjoyed it! Next up: New York Yankees.