Notes: Three decisions left for Bucs

03/27/2006
SARASOTA, Fla. -- With less than a week remaining in Spring Training, the Pittsburgh Pirates have the majority of their Opening Day roster set for their April 3 lid-lifter against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.
The starting lineup -- including the platoon of catchers Ryan Doumit and Humberto Cota, three of the four bench jobs, four of the five starting rotation spots and six of the seven bullpen slots have likely already been locked up. This would leave three big-league jobs remaining for 13 players.
The most intriguing position battles left would seem to be between Brandon Duckworth and Victor Santos for the final starting rotation spot, Jose Hernandez and Jose Bautista for the utility infielder/outfielder job, and Giovanni Carrara and perhaps the loser of the fifth starter competition for the last spot in the bullpen. Nate McLouth, who has had a sensational spring, is also making a push as an extra outfielder.
Duckworth (1-1, 2.08 ERA) has posted better statistics than Santos (0-1, 5.02) thus far this spring, but numbers alone won't necessarily be the determining factor in who makes the team. Santos was selected in the Rule 5 Draft from the Kansas City Royals and he would have to be offered back to Kansas City if he does not remain on the 25-man roster throughout the season. The Pirates could choose to have Duckworth begin the season at Triple-A Indianapolis and bring him up later in the season should another starter falter.
Pirates manager Jim Tracy was asked about the final opening in his starting rotation prior to the Bucs' exhibition game Monday night against the Reds.
"There are things that play in to that that I am not going to get overly involved in at this time," said Tracy. "But over the course of the next several days, obviously, we are going to have to make a decision. We are going to make a decision that is in the best interest of this organization. That's the decision that we have to make. That's the prudent thing to do."
While the veteran Hernandez would seem to have the inside track on the utility job because of his experience, Tracy was not ready to count Bautista out of the mix. Bautista has been one of the Pirates' most productive hitters this spring, and he's shown tremendous versatility by playing third base, shortstop, second base and all three outfield positions during Grapefruit League action.
"If Jose Bautista was not still a candidate to be a part of this club, then I don't know that on March 27th he would still be out here participating," said Tracy.
With the next round of cuts expected to occur early this week, the Opening Day roster should become much clearer in the coming days. The Pirates currently have 35 active players in camp, not including injured pitchers Kip Wells, John Van Benschoten and Bryan Bullington.
Snell tuneup: Knowing that he would be facing the Cincinnati Reds again on April 6 in his regular-season debut, Pirates right-hander Ian Snell was careful not to unveil his entire bag of tricks Monday night.
Snell intentionally kept his game plan and pitch selection as simple as possible.
"I didn't show them too much today. I just kept everything away, away, away," Snell explained. "I didn't show my changeup or slider much, it was mostly my curveball."
Snell was charged with four runs on five hits and two walks in five innings in his penultimate outing of the spring. The big blow was a towering two-run home run by Ken Griffey Jr. in the third inning.
All in all, Snell was pleased with his outing, even if the final results weren't all that sparkling.
"Unfortunately, Griffey hits the home run. But it doesn't really matter. I got my work in. There were some hits here and there. I think I had a pretty good outing."
As he had predicted prior to the game, Snell was able to deliver a base hit at the plate when he singled up the middle in the second inning.
Strikeout pitchers? Tracy, when discussing the need for his starting staff to make use of the defense behind them, singled out Snell as the only starter who could rely upon strikeouts to shut down the opposition.
"We don't have strikeout pitchers. We have one guy that possibly could. Ian Snell, on a given day with his good stuff going, he can strike some people out," said Tracy. "The other guys, that's not their mission. Those three left-handers [Zach Duke, Oliver Perez and Paul Maholm], their mission on any given day when they are going to be really, really good will not be to go out there and strike out 12 or 13 guys. That's not the kind of pitchers that they are."
Tracy's omission of Perez as a "strikeout pitcher" was curious in that Perez led all Major League starters in strikeouts per nine innings in 2004 while fanning 239 batters in 196 innings.
However, Tracy's comments do fall in line with pitching coach Jim Colborn's insistence that Perez does not have to pile up the strikeouts in order to be successful.
Perez, whose fastball regularly reached 96 mph in 2004 but has topped out in the high-80 mph range this spring, saw his strikeout rate decline along with his velocity in 2005. Perez fanned 10.97 batters per nine innings in 2004 and 8.48 per nine innings last season. He has six strikeouts in six Grapefruit League innings thus far this spring.
Bucs bits: Maholm, who won't make a regular-season start until April 7, will stay behind in Bradenton to pitch in a Minor League game at Pirate City on Sunday. He'll rejoin the Pirates in Milwaukee on Monday. ... Southpaw reliever Damaso Marte, who has been sidelined by a sore left shoulder since returning from the World Baseball Classic, will likely see his first Grapefruit League action Tuesday against the Devil Rays. Marte expects to be ready to for the start of the regular season. "I feel good. I'm ready to go," said Marte. ... Pittsburgh's 7-4 loss Monday was its sixth in the last seven games. The Pirates are 0-4 in night games this spring.

Source: http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/