Jim Tracy
I wanted to do a post about Tracy, but I don't really feel like it fits the same mold as the rest of the season preview stuff, so I'm just going to put it out there.
It's been over a year since Tracy's hire and I still don't know what I think about him, which has to be a bad sign. I started out as skeptical of him, mostly because I thought he came off as a dumbass in the media. Piratefest didn't help that perception at all, when he would give meandering answers to questions and always refer back to himself in the end. Still, he said all the right things in spring training last year and I was starting to come around on him. Then the season started. I don't want to dwell on the start of 2006 too much because I think it's bad for everyone's mental health, but April was awful, May started off a little better, and June was absolutely nightmarish with that 13 game losing streak and the Royals series (which is probably the lowest point in my life as Pirate fan and ironically, the traffic high point of this blog). Through it all, Tracy only made things worse by tossing players under the bus and insinuating that if only they would listen to him, things would get better fast. When the players would do something right, he would immediately claim credit for it. Everyone saw it, the blogs were all ripping him for it, Dejan was mentioning it in the PG, it was bad and getting worse.
Then, all of a sudden, it was like Tracy was reading all of his bad press and things immediately changed. Burnitz sat, Edwards disappeared, Jose K was relegated to the bottom of the bench, and Tracy began singing the praises of the players in the press. Of course they were playing better and by extension making him look good, but it still happened either way you look at it. I will admit that part of me thinks that maybe Tracy is just a phony bag of crap that changes in public depending on how his players play and how people see him, but I think there may be another explanation. Tracy was incredibly defensive the entire first half last year. He dumped the blame on the players quite often, but I think it may be because he couldn't dump it on his boss, who was the cause of his problems. Littlefield blew huge chunks of cash on Burnitz and Randa and wouldn't have listened to Walter Alston if he said not to play the two of them. The party line dictated that Tracy defend Burnitz in public, even though it went against everything he said in Spring Training (if I recall correctly, his defense of Burnitz for not running out a fly ball was somewhere along the lines of "We're not talking about this" which seemed bad at the time, but with some distance is not exactly a ringing endorsement). Despite all of my bitching about Tracy in the early parts of the year, Jose K only got 120 ABs with us, Mike Edwards hardly played at all, and even though I think Zach Duke might be TJ surgery waiting to happen, I think Tracy and Colborn handled the young pitching staff very well last year.
So where does that leave me with Tracy going in to 2007? I don't know. I know where Bones and azibuck stand (might have to scroll for the post) and I completely understand why. I'm just not so sure I'm there myself quite yet. It certainly does not speak well of Tracy that after a year I'm not exactly sure what I think about him, but I don't think it's fair to blame him for things that very well may be Littlefield's fault. Here's what I want out of Tracy this spring:
- A fair decision on the 25th man. Don't just give it to Jose K because (insert inappropriate relationship joke here).
- A fair decision on the Joses. If Castillo shows up fat and plays badly, don't just hand him the second base job (which I'm still afraid is going to happen).
- A fair decision on the 5th starter. I know everyone is convinced Armas is head and shoulders better than Chacon, but I am not. I want to see both of them pitch and I want to see Tracy make a decision based upon that and not upon who the off-season signing was.
- A quick trigger on Duffy. If he starts off 2007 like 2006, we can not afford to screw around with him. There is nothing worse than leading the lineup off with two black hole hitters and we all know Jack Wilson is going to bat second.
- Keep the players out from under the bus even if we don't start the season 15-5.
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