Barnes: Pirates general manager Neal Huntington’s risks beginning to pay off

The Pittsburgh Pirates are in first place.

That’s right, for the second year in a row, the… The Pittsburgh Pirates are in first place.

That’s right, for the second year in a row, the Pirates find themselves in playoff contention in June.

Although last season’s squad fell apart down the stretch, its strong play through the first half — resulting in a brief stint atop the National League Central Division standings — gave fans hope that better times were on the horizon, despite the franchise’s ongoing 19-year streak of losing seasons.

So far in 2012, the Bucs are showing even more promise than they did last year. And the root of all this current success comes from a place that does not receive the credit it deserves: the same front office that Pirate fans have loved to hate for the past 19 years.

Heading into a three-game series against Baltimore this week, the Pirates find themselves tied with the Cincinnati Reds for first place in the division with a record of 32-27, and the team is coming off its first interleague sweep in a decade after defeating the Kansas City Royals in three straight contests. Currently in the midst of a 12-3 stretch, the Pirates also boast baseball’s best record since May 25.

The record itself demonstrates an improvement over last season. Through the same amount of games in 2011, the Pirates found themselves more than six games back of first place with a record of 29-30.

Led by blossoming young stars like outfielder Andrew McCutchen and starting pitcher James McDonald, there have been noticeable, positive changes on the field for the Buccos this campaign.

And with the fortunes of this once-proud franchise finally improving, it’s time for Pirates fans to re-evaluate their attitude toward the organization’s management, because some fans insist upon holding onto an attitude professing cynicism down to the last tenet and a desire to knock the Pirates’ front office at every opportunity.

Yes, there were some bad trades in the past that were made for financial, not talent reasons. And yes, there have been some questionable free-agent signings that may have conveyed an attitude to fans that suggested the team’s management isn’t committed to winning.

But those days are well behind us.

Much of the credit must go to Pirates general manager Neal Huntington, the man responsible for helping restore hope to one of baseball’s classic franchises.

Put aside his questionable free-agent signings, like Lyle Overbay and Clint Barmes, because Huntington’s best skill as a general manager isn’t in signing veteran free agents, but rather in developing a younger, more promising group of players.

Huntington’s efforts at restocking the Pirates’ minor league system through scouting and the Major League Baseball Draft is leading a change in attitude around the franchise that is necessary for the Pirates to become a contender again.

Recently, during this year’s draft, the organization sent a message to the rest of the league as a result of that attitude: regardless of the situation, the Pittsburgh Pirates are not afraid to choose the best prospects available.

As a result, the Pirates used their first-round pick on Stanford right-handed pitcher Mark Appel, a man considered by many to be the best overall prospect in the draft.

The reason Appel fell to the Pirates at No. 8 overall is most likely attributed to the pitcher’s agent, Scott Boras. Boras has become infamous throughout baseball with his hard-bargaining ways, and he seemingly always manages to wiggle a few extra million dollars out of teams for his clients’ services, making him a major thorn in the collective side of owners’ pocketbooks around the league.

This scenario reminds me of a similar situation that occurred a few years ago with current Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitcher Jered Weaver.

As I was living in California at the time, I remember watching Weaver, then a star pitcher at Long Beach State University, and thinking how great it would be if he would be drafted by the other baseball team I love, the Angels.

Unfortunately, I knew that was very unlikely to happen since he was such a world-class talent on the mound, and the Angels did not pick until the No. 12 slot in the draft. But the draft progressed, and Weaver kept dropping until the Angels picked at No. 12 and nabbed him. From there, he has become arguably one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Like Appel, Weaver was, and still is, represented by Boras and fell in the draft because of it. But the Angels took a chance on signing him — as the Pirates did this year with Appel — and, after managing to come to an contract agreement with Boras and Weaver, were rewarded mightily for their opportunistic draft choice.

The bottom line in baseball is that winning teams take chances, and the Pirates are beginning to take those chances.

In fact, Pittsburgh’s two best players at the moment, McDonald and McCutchen, are results of management taking chances on young, talented players who easily could’ve failed.

McDonald was acquired via trade from the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2010 with another prospect in exchange for the Pirates’ best relief pitcher, Octavio Dotel. At the time of the trade, McDonald was relegated to bullpen duty for the Dodgers and owned a horrendous 8.22 earned run average. Today, McDonald sports a crisp ERA of 2.39 — sixth-best in the majors — with 73 strikeouts in 75.1 innings pitched, a WHIP (walks and hits allowed per innings pitched) of 1.00, and he is the unquestionable ace of the Pirates’ pitching staff, as well as a likely choice for the National League All-Star team.

McCutchen was also a product of chance, with the Pirates drafting him No. 11 overall in the 2005 Draft, despite McCutchen already signing on to play baseball for the University of Florida. But the Pirates convinced him to join the professional ranks, and now McCutchen, who recently signed a new 6-year, $51.5 million contract with the team, is here to stay as the face of this Pirates franchise.

With his .325 batting average, 11 home runs and 36 runs batted in so far this season, McCutchen is even beginning to garner some early mentions across baseball for this season’s Most Valuable Player award.

More recently, Huntington and the Pirates have taken risks by selecting players like Pedro Alvarez, Gerrit Cole, Josh Bell and Jameson Taillon in the draft. Each of these players were surrounded with red flags stating they would be difficult to sign for the team brave enough to take a chance on them. But Huntington struck several last-minute deals to lock each one of them up, and he continues to brighten the Pirates’ future outlook with this strategy.

In the hopeful event that Appel signs with Pittsburgh and thanks to the risks Huntington has taken, Pirates fans can likely look forward to a potentially dominant pitching rotation consisting of McDonald, Taillon, Cole and Appel some time in the near future.

There no longer is a debate about it — this franchise is committed to winning.

The risks taken in trades and drafts by the Pirates’ front office, the efforts to sign key players like McCutchen to long-term contracts and the hiring of an experienced, charismatic manager like Clint Hurdle all have Pittsburgh’s baseball team finally headed in the right direction.

It may be another two or three years until the Pirates contend for championships, but there is legitimate hope that these Pirates are on the verge of becoming one of the great teams in baseball once again.

And all of that has started with Neal Huntington.