Commentary
Bucs could trace Benson by end of July PITTSBURGH-Kris Benson may yet develop into the No. 1 starter the Pirates thought he could be.
If he does, it increasingly looks like he’ll do that for another team.
Benson is in the midst of missing a start to work on mechanical problems that he thinks are the cause of some recent bad outings.
Last season the Pirates carefully nursed Benson through his recovery from reconstructive elbow surgery. By the end of the season, he was the kind of pitcher the Pirates thought they were getting when he was the first overall pick in the 1996 draft.
There was reason to believe Benson was finally ready to step up and be a consistent winner in 2003.
This season, though, Benson hasn’t been at that level and hasn’t been consistent. His velocity is down and his command hasn’t been good.
When Manager Lloyd McClendon curiously chose to challenge him to step up and be a true No. 1, Benson seemed to regress even more.
His stock has quietly been falling with the Pirates.
There are teams that want Benson and there are reasons to trade him. Don’t be surprised if that’s what the Pirates do before the end of July.
The Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals, legitimate contenders in need of starting pitching, have an interest in Benson.
Benson is signed through next season, after which the Pirates would have to decide if he really is the leader of the staff. His salary, a staff-leading $4.3 million this season, will then take an even bigger leap because he’s closing in on eligibility for free agency.
As of now, Benson trails only Brian Giles, Jason Kendall and the soon-to-be-departing Kevin Young on the Pirates’ pay list.
There are a lot of people in the Pirates’ power structure who think Kip Wells is more likely to achieve the success once projected for Benson. They’d prefer to invest those dollars in Wells, who is eligible for arbitration this winter.
Wells has a great arm and a nasty arsenal of pitches. He’s never had major surgery on his arm and he’s two and a half years younger than Benson.
If the Pirates can get the right package of prospects for Benson, they won’t hesitate to make a deal, figuring that Wells can move up and another pitcher – Ryan Vogelsong?
Dave Williams? – can take a spot at the back of the rotation.
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How much does a manager mean to a baseball team?
Consider the Seattle Mariners, who had a winning percentage of .574 last season under Lou Piniella.
Piniella left Seattle for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays last winter.
Bob Melvin, who had never managed in the major leagues, took over the Mariners. At the start of play on Tuesday, the Mariners had a winning percentage of .676, the best in the major leagues. Piniella’s Devil Rays were 20 games under .500 with a winning percentage of .343. Last year their winning percentage was .342.
Which seems to demonstrate again that a team’s success is dictated primarily by the talent of the players, not the manager.
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People who complain that McClendon doesn’t let starters complete games miss the point. Nobody completes games these days.
Through Monday, there had been 548 games pitched by National League teams and 35 were complete games. Eleven of sixteen teams had two or less. The Atlanta Braves, like the Pirates, have no complete games.
The St. Louis Cardinals have six, which leads the league.
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With all the rain at Pirates games, it seems like last year.
Wait a minute … that’s more like every year.
Sports correspondent John Mehno can be reached online at: johnmehno@lycos.com.