2012 has seen a remarkable resurgence for the Pirates. As the media and fans offer their recognition to the Nutting/Coonelly/Huntington team for their work in putting this Team together, maybe it is time to thank two other people for this resurgence - Kevin McClatchy and Dave Littlefield. You heard it right, McClatchy and Littlefield, the 2 guys who supposedly failed to develop the farm system leaving the current management team to have to "start from scratch" when they took over the reins following the 2007 season. A look at the facts reveals that without the players drafted during the McClatchy/Littlefield tenure, the current Club would almost certainly not be in first place and and, in fact, would probably not be in a position to end the nineteen years of below .500 baseball that has been the monkey on the back of this franchise for so long. Consider the following:
(1) five players on the current 25 man roster, including two everyday players - Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker - were drafted during the McClatchy/Littlefield era. The other three players - Brad Lincoln, Jared Hughes and Tony Watson - are all key pieces of what has become one of the best bullpens in baseball. You can also add Alex Presley to this mix as he is currently on the disabled list with a concussion.
(2) The three McClatchy/Littlefield (Walker, McCutchen, and Presley) hitters have a combined total of 30 HR's (over 1/3 of the Team's total of 89), 114 RBI (again over 1/3 of the Team's total of 330), 128 runs scored (almost 40% of the Team's total of 345) and their combined batting average of .305 far exceeds the overall Team batting average of .246. These 3 even have 29 of Team's 48 Stolen bases (60% of the total). As you can see the position players that the previous management had drafted and signed accounts for a large part of the 2012 teams offense, even though these two guys no longer have any major involvement in the team.
(3) The three bullpen draftees of McClatchy/Littlefield - Lincoln, Hughes and Watson - are a combined 10 wins and 0 losses! I am not a huge fan of win loss record for arms coming out of the bullpen but when a group of guys are a combined 10-0 its hard to ignore. Their combined ERA of 3.16 is below the Team's overall ERA of 3.47, nothing that special if you really think of it, but when you have the best bullpen ERA in all of the major league's like the Pirates do everyone coming out of that pen plays a big role.
In addition to the six players highlighted above, the best position player prospect in the Organization and the position player closest to the majors is Starling Marte, you guessed it, a player signed (out of the Dominican) during the McClatchy/Littlefield era. Also arguably the pitcher at AAA most likely to get the call if one of the five current starters is hurt or Bedard continues to struggle is Rudy Owens who, no one should be surprised to learn at this point in the post, is yet another player drafted by the much maligned McClatchy/Littlefield duo. In fact, with Bedard on a 1-year contract and Correia on the final year of his 2-year free agent deal, Owens is likely to make the Club in 2013 and with Marte a sure bet to be on the Team, it is likely that nearly 1/3 of the 2013 25-man roster will be players drafted by this "dynamic duo", with as many as 1/2 of the starting position players (McCutchen, Walker, Marte and Pressley) and 2/5 of the starting rotation with Lincoln and Owens joining Karstens, McDonald and.Burnett.
Those are the facts. If you are listening, McClatchy and Littlefield, the leftfieldloonies want to say Thanks to helping to make the 2012 Pirates contenders again and for building a farm system that laid the groundwork for the Club's current success. We urge Pirates fans everywhere to give a shout out to the two of you as well and maybe, just maybe, the current management team will thank you as well.
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