Reruns, Retreads, and Rejects, Part II
Can you name the Pirates Director Of Scouting?
His name is Ed Creech and he has been the Scouting Director since 2002.
In Part I of this series I told you about another scouting director by the name of Jack Zduriencik who has received a lot of praise for rebuilding the Brewers and who some think should be the next General Manager of the Pirates.
But not me.
Creech and Zduriencik are both responsible for building their organizations through the draft and since Zduriencik has been a scouting director with the Brewers since 2000 and receiving all the praise in Pittsburgh media circles lately, I thought I would look at the impact each organization has received up to this point from each organization's drafts between 2000 - 2003.
For the record, Mickey White was the Pirates Scouting Director for the 2000 and 2001 drafts, and Creech drafted in 2002 and 2003, although the board in 2002 was probably still mostly White's work as he was with the organization into February.
I decided I would limit this evaluation to the first 10 players in each of the four draft years of 2000 - 2003 so that I minimally included all of the toolsy players who were selected in the hopes of becoming impact players.
In order to make this meaningful, I used Career Win Shares from The Hardball Times and I didn't care if the player had been dealt to another team because that is out of the hands of these men.
Both teams had 39 selections during the four years and here are the totals (the organization's average draft position is listed as well):
CWS #Players Ave Pos Brewers 96 6 8 Pirates 107 1 0 9
I bet that's not what you were expecting to see.
The Brewers not only had a better average draft position, they failed to see as much productivity from those they did draft. Here's my player list:
Brewers Pirates Krynzel Burnett Hardy Young Sarfate Van Benschoten Fielder Keppinger Weeks Duffy Gwynn Bullington Eldred Capps Maholm Gorzelanny
And if we compare Creech to Zduriencik head-to-head in 2002-2003 we get:
CWS #Players Ave Pos Brewers 68 3 4.5 Pirates 45 5 4.5
So the Pirates haven't had as much impact in these last two years, but when you look down through the rosters of the players that were drafted and how they are doing, Creech's picks easily run away as superior, in my opinion. It will just take more time to build career win shares with his pitching selections.
And neither man can help if a player gets hurt after being selected as that's out of their control, albeit it is a potential indicator of the risk each organization is willing to take building through the draft.
For instance, despite the higher career win shares achieved by the Pirates over the four years, their organizational philosophy was to take more risk by drafting mostly pitching in the higher rounds. Subsequently, three of their four first round picks ended up on the disabled list with injuries.
On the other hand, the Brewers took mostly toolsy position players with their first round picks and it has paid off with two of the four picks becoming impact players on their current roster, and why some believe Zduriencik is now a savior.
But when you look at the bottom line, the only players Zduriencik has had make the big show from the first 10 rounds with a career win share of 3 or higher over those four years of drafts, has been two first round picks and two second round picks - that's it.
In fact, of the 21 pitchers Zduriencik drafted (16 high school or junior college players and 5 college), none of them have contributed to the team in a meaningful way yet.
And you thought the Pirates were having problems developing pitching?
Of the 21 pitchers the Pirates drafted, seven of them have made the show and racked up 82 career win shares to date. Unfortunately for Pirates fans, Dave Littlefield gave away Chris Young (38 CWS), Blair Johnson, Sean Burnett, JvB, and Byran Bullington all went under the knife, and a few others didn't sign or have been ineffective.
So while the two organizations differ in drafting philosophies, there is no question the Pirates stand at least as solid, if not in better position, than Zduriencik's Brewers do. Especially when you consider the rising costs of starting pitching compared to position players.
Now you can see why I feel Zduriencik is ridiculously overrated and why I think it's silly his name is even being mentioned in the same sentence as Pirates General Manager in some media circles around Pittsburgh. In fact, I'm of the opinion Creech is doing a far superior job than Zduriencik is and would keep Creech if I had to pick between the two.
I'm betting you didn't expect to hear that either.
OK Jake, I have several comments to make here. I will say first that I read every one of your posts, and have for the past couple years. This is because I am a die hard Pirates fan since the late 70s and simply cannot get enough of their coverage. But there are several areas you need to tighten up on.
1) If you're going to tout yourself as the best Pirates blogger, and credit yourself for being better "connected" than true journalists, you could at least make sure your grammar is correct before posting. 3 examples:
a) If you want to put a mark next to Bonds' name now that he holds the record, it is called an ASTERISK, not an asterick.
b) If a batter is stuck in a horrible slump, it is called MIRED, not mirrored. A mirror is something you look into in the morning.
c) If a bench player comes in to run for a player that just got on base, it is called PINCH run, not pitch run. Same thing when they hit.
2) So much for your philosophy of our guys wilting in front of 40,000+ in the stands, as we just swept the Giants in front of a packed house all weekend.
3) So much for your "red flag" on Gorzy. Since he came back, he has thrown 16 innings allowing only 2 runs. His velocity was outstanding in Arizona and was slightly down in SF. And to say he was not sharp yesterday simply trying to make your weak point, he didn't allow a hit after the 4th and retired the last 17 in a row. Come on man, we're not idiots here.
4) So much for your adamant stance about Van Benschoten being sent to the bullpen instead of Indy. He has started 3 games since being sent down and has only allowed 1 run in 19.2 innings. Pretty **** impressive.
You know, you are allowed to admit when you're wrong, but nothing from you about the above "mistakes".
and 5) PLEASE get off your Castillo high-horse. He is a mental midget, making careless mistakes in the field, on the basepaths, and usually at the plate. He was clearly on the trading block at the deadline, but we couldn't get a can of corn (isn't that your line?) for him. I guess your response will be that you're smarter than all of the GMs in MLB. Sanchez has had a **** of a year, and is rated very highly defensively at 2nd. I guess you'll pull up some obscure stat to refute that.
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Recruiting -- With all due respect, your point number 4 really backs up Jake's point. If he is a tweener, lights out in AAA and failing in MLB, then he has learnt enough to beat AAA hitters but not MLB hitters. Keeping him in AAA will not further his progression toward a MLB Pitcher. Allowing him to figure out MLB Pitching from the pen __may__ help further his progression. He is old enough to take his lumps in the majors.
My $0.02,
Tom
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I'd like to address the above commenter with the alias "recruiting". I am also a long time Pirate fan and like you read Bucco Blog. I am just getting tired of people like you flaming Jake. After all, it is Jake's blog and he does a very good job posting stories for us Pirate junkies to read. I can reliably read "his take" on things each morning. As far as the typos...forget about it. You talk about getting "off your high-horse"...you've got a lot of gall. Are you so **** that you can't get the intent of the post's content without ripping into Jake about that? This is Jake's blog and it is his OPINION. Whether I agree with him or not is my choice. I certainly wouldn't flame him for it. You are not the only commenter who instead of engaging debate you flame. Why don't YOU try writing a blog each day in an engaging style with OPINION? What engaging story line would you use? Statistics can be used many ways to prove different points and Jake chooses to use them to prove HIS points. Why can't you allow him to do that without flaming him on it? Whether Gorzolanny is injured or not...Jake can say what he thinks because this is his blog. I question Jake's opinion on a number of things but must say that the guy tries real hard (and mostly succeeds) to post an engaging and entertaining blog. I for one appreciate the time and effort it must take to do the things he does. I don't know anything at all about him but I respect what he does for Pirate fans. Is it plain vanilla mainstream style media? NO, it isn't. If you want that...go read the PG. Jake, I for one thank you for the job you do. Keep it up. For every one person who rags on you I bet there are 10 of us that you give us pause to ...just consider...your opinions.
i12rok
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recruiting - my degree wasn't in English - it was in fun. The wife has the brains - I have.. have.. well, I carry the beer around. ;)
As for Gorzy and JvB, thanks for your thouhts as always. Those are my gut feelings as I've said here - nothing more. But I think it's clear JvB should have gone to the bullpen in Pittsburgh - he had nothing left to prove in Indy and his only fear right now is MLB hitters.
And hey, I like Casty and think he's a late bloomer that should be playing because of it. True, his mental lapses are hard to eat at times but that's part of his maturity issue. But looking down the 40-man...
As for being wrong,*****, I'm wrong all the time. But don't forget, this is a blog - not a newspaper.
As Dave and company would say, thanks for your interest!
:)
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Excellent analysis that goes to the heart of the issue Jake. Well done.
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