Thursday, July 19th, 2007 by Adam Wagner
Littlefield’s Looneys - 2002
And so the second year began. The One That Says Uh showed that he did not deserve to be a GM right off the bat, signing Mike Williams to a two-year extension on the second day of the new year, with a club extension that could have potentially pushed the deal through 2004. Littlefield had already traded Williams for Tony McKnight and really wanted the rapidly more ineffective pitcher in the back end of his team’s bullpen again. Williams proved to have one more very good season in him, as he somehow rattled off 46 saves with a 2.93 ERA. The second year of the contract, however, the one where Williams was traded for the one and only Frank Brooks, proved to be a disaster. Littlefield gets a B for that move.
His next move was to extend spring training invitations to about ten players, including Salomon Torres. That moves deserves an A, simply because Torres proved to be ready to return to be a successful pitcher in the major leagues. Brian O’Connor, Kevin Tolar, Jason Rakers, etc? Not so much.
On January 22, Littlefield named two “Special Assistant[s] to the General Manager.” What does that job entail? Does anybody really know?
Littlefield’s next move was to invite another slew of relief pitchers to spring training, including Brian Boehringer, Al Reyes, and Chris Spurling. Adam Hyzdu and Louis Polonia were also included in this batch, as Littlefield seemed to be good at finding potential and then not letting it develop at this point in time, whereas he just doesn’t even bother finding the potential now.
On January 30 he made one of the largest free agent signings in Pirate history (doesn’t that say something about the franchise), as Pokey Reese inked a two-year deal. Pundits at the time saw this as a turning point for the fortunes of the franchise, thinking that by signing a decent second-baseman the Pirates were about to become a player on the yearly meat market that is free agency. This conception is obviously wrong, as Reese is still Littlefield’s biggest free-agent signing (not counting Raul Mondesi) during his tenure as Pirate GM. The signing was just another aberration from Littlefield in his first half-year as general manager.
Next came the annual act of signing over the hill pitchers to contracts and inviting them to spring training, including Pat Rapp, Ron Villone, and Josias Manzanillo. Manzanillo and Villone both made minimal contributions, unless you count Manzanillo’s ability to jump ridiculously high off of the mound after he struck opposing batters out. But, then again, they could have made a jumping bobblehead or had a Jump like Josias night . . . oh the missed promotional opportunities with that.
Littlefield’s next move was actually an intelligent one, but it came around to bite him in the butt as he signed Aramis Ramirez to a contract extension through 2004, buying out his arbitration years. The contract included, however, a $6 million salary in 2004, leading directly to the franchise’s cornerstone being dumped at the 2003 trade deadline.
On March 13, the Warren Morris experience came to an end as the former Rookie of the Year candidate was finally released from the pain and misery of being a Pirate farmhand and Pirate fans were released from having to hear the name Warren Morris over and over again.
Littlefield’s first trade of the new year occurred on March 27, as he sent Damaso Marte and a minor-league catcher to the White Sox for farmhand Matt Guerrier, a solid relief pitching prospect. This was the first sign of a Littlefield-type move, giving up a strength for more relief pitching. The Marte trade was the first sign that this man may not quite know what he’s doing, after all. Granted, Guerrier turned out to be a pretty decent pitcher (that will be detailed later in this series), but Marte was obviously somewhat valuable and showed the signs of at least becoming a solid relief pitcher.
March 30 signified the end of the Derek Bell Era, as Operation Shutdown was put out of business. One of my life goals is still to get Derek Bell as a boat guide some day and just heckle him about his Pirate career.
Not much happened until July in terms of personnel moves, outside of the usual disabled list shenanigans that occur on any given team over the course of the year. The only interesting development was Littlefield’s calling up and sending down Bronson Arroyo, who has stated publicly (SI magazine) that the Pirates’ minor league coaches tried to convince him to change his pitching motion, leading to much worse performance from the now All-Star pitcher. More great instruction by the Pirates’ staff.
July of 2002 was relatively uninteresting in terms of trades, especially by the Pirates’ standards. Only two established players were traded, with Mike Fetters going to Arizona for prospect Duaner Sanchez (a very good trade by Littlefield, who seems to have a knack for picking relief pitchers) and the Chad Hermanson Experience finally came to an end.
The Hermanson trade was particularly interesting, as the Pirates traded the player who had once been the future of the franchise for Darren Lewis. This trade is only noteworthy because it occurred on July 31, 2002. Darren Lewis retired on August 2, 2002.
Now, the trade was probably made so that Littlefield could have a roster spot for Armando Rios and so that Littlefield could be done with Chad Hermanson, but still. When a player is retiring two days after you trade for him, that is not a good sign.
The only other noteworthy move in August was the release of the Flying Pitcher, Josias Manzanillo, on August 14 after struggling for most of the season (7.62 ERA).
One of the more humorous/eye-catching events of Littlefield’s tenure occurred on September 8th, as Sean Lowe game up one run in one-third of an inning during a 11-1 loss to the Florida Marlins and was then promptly granted his release after the game. This is the type of accountability that the franchise needs today.
November was a very fun month for the franchise, as the Pirates named Gerald Perry hitting coach and Alvaro Espinoza minor league fielding coach. Espinoza is still around somewhere, but Perry left with Lloyd McClendon and is now the hitting coach for the Chicago Cubs. Good enough for Lou Piniella, but not good enough for Jim Tracy, eh?
On November 20, Littlefield purchased the contracts of several minor-leaguers, who have all become contributors to the team, but that group included Walter Young. In order to do so, he released Armando Rios, therefore surrendering half of the Jason Schmidt trade, and designated John Grabow for assignment. Littlefield did not view a pitcher who is now a staple of the bullpen as being good enough for the team back in 2002, but viewed Walter Young as being important to the team.
Littlefield made another one of his trades on November 25, sending minor league reliever Adrian Burnside and two players to be named later to the Tigers for Randall Simon, who will be forever remembered for hitting the sausage (view the Top Baseball Fights post), not for hitting a top of the ninth inning homerun in Cincinnati to win a 1-0 game in his final season as a Pirate.
The fun really got started on December 16, however, as Littlefield removed the ever-present specter of the blimp formerly known as Jimmy Anderson from the friendly confines of PNC Park. Even more interesting about that day, however, was the fact that the Pirates had two players (D.J. Carrasco and Chris Spurling) picked in the Rule 5 draft, a prelude to the 2003 debacle. Even more ironic is the fact that both pitchers were relievers, exactly the type of guy that Littlefield has kept around through thick and thin over most of his time in Pittsburgh. Even more interestingly, however, is the fact that Ronny Paulino was picked in the second round by the Kansas City Royals. Yes, Littlefield almost let the player who would become his starting catcher leave for nothing except for $50,000. Wow.
Two days later, Matt Stairs signed a one-year contract, which actually turned out to be a decent deal for the Pirates. Any potential good will incurred by that signing, however, was promptly lost two days later with the Matt Herges trade.
Or maybe it should be called the Chris Young trade, as the Pirates traded the 6-10 pitcher, the one with the 1.97 ERA, to the Expos for Matt Herges, a relief pitcher who was released shortly thereafter. The idea of trading a pitching prospect, particularly one who has shown the potential to become a very good starter, for a mediocre at best relief pitcher is simply a terrible idea and goes against all of the most basics tenets of how to run a small market team.
Littlefield began to show that he just doesn’t get it with that trade.
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