A Q&A with new Pirates farm director Kyle Stark

By Andy Bitter

Published: May 17, 2008

When the Pirates completely overhauled their front office in the offseason, they tabbed 29-year-old Kyle Stark, a do-it-all member of the Cleveland Indians’ organization, to be their farm director, replacing veteran minor league manager/evaluator Brian Graham. Stark sat down with the News & Advance for a Q&A when he was in Lynchburg last week.

Has this job been what you expected so far? Well, there has been a lot of travel and the biggest thing is just trying to get a feel for everybody and everything and seeing if what we set out to do is getting done.

Is that what it has to be the first year? Do you have to take stock of what you have? Yeah, and I think we were probably a little more proactive, because I think that there are some things that I wanted to get done, regardless. But you still have to get a feel for the people who are here, you have to get a feel for staff, a feel for players. Ultimately, you’re only as good as the players you’ve got. So you have to get a feel for what you’ve got. And you’ve just got to get a feel for what you want to get done, whether it’s getting done or not.

You have a law degree and an MBA and you decided to go into baseball. Yup. I had wanted to go into baseball. It wasn’t go get a law degree and an MBA and then figure something out. I wanted to get into baseball, so I just thought that having not played professionally that I should do things that separate myself and that was the route.

Was there somebody who advised you to go that path? No, I kind of took it upon myself. I talked to some people and I knew the law degree would make sense, just with contract negotiations, labor law, those type of things. And then the MBA actually was something where I wanted to go coach. And when I coached (at St. Bonaventure), I just went ahead and got it.

That was your first college coaching experience. What was that like? I think that it was a good experience, because it was an under-funded program. It was a low-budget program, Division I though, so a chance to compete with some decent clubs. But not having a whole lot of money, not having a whole lot of scholarships and not having a whole lot of resources, you’re forced to do a lot of different things.

How does that experience help you in your current position? When you coach, you’ve got to wear a lot of different hats. You’ve got to evaluate, you’ve got to be able to help players get better, you’ve got to deal with personalities, you’ve got to deal with administration. You’ve got to do a lot of different things. And that’s ultimately what the farm director has got to do. You’ve got to wear a lot of different hats.

How did you get to the Indians? I was doing a clinic at St. Bonaventure, and one of the kids who was there, his dad was the project manager of Jacobs Field. And he said, I can’t get you in, but I can at least get your résumé in front of some people. So I started talking with the front office there and an opportunity presented itself.

How did your role begin there in 2004 and how did it expand by the time you finished? I started as an intern doing some different things in baseball operations and it evolved. The one thing I really took away from Cleveland was that it’s an open environment. That if you can help them get better, then you have free reign to do it. So I was allowed to do a lot of different things, ranging from being involved with the draft to player development to coordinating our Pacific Rim scouting to doing our advanced scouting, being involved with the major league club, doing some legal work to being involved in contract negotiations. All those different things I was exposed to.

Was there a part of it you enjoyed more than the rest? I think it was being involved in the game. I was exposed to a lot of different things, but the more you’re removed from the game the less interesting it is for me. So the chance to work with coaches and develop plans to help players get better or scout opposition or scout players and say what you think they’re going to be, it’s the closer you get to the game is what’s appealing.

They called you ‘Oz’ because of the behind-the-curtain stuff you did there, correct? They did. I think it spoke volumes about what they thought of me. We’re human. It’s always good to hear good things about you. But ultimately, the opportunity to be exposed to those things is what was the greatest joy for me.

What did you think when this Pirates position originally came open? I think it’s a situation when any time you get an opportunity to oversee a department, it’s intriguing. It was definitely a step up in terms of responsibility and a chance to have some different challenges. I had a good situation in Cleveland. It was a successful organization that won at the big league level. Doing a good job of signing and developing players and I was getting a chance to be exposed and have a hand in a lot of that. And it was more comfortable. You’re winning. You’re just keeping something going. But here’s a chance to go do something and be a part of something special to help restore this franchise to where it should be. And there are just more significant challenges here.

What is the biggest challenge of coming into a situation like this where the big league team has not had a winning record in 15 years? I think, and I’ve said this a number of times, when you’ve lost 15 years in the big leagues, there are a lot of things that need to get better. So to say, ‘Hey, this is one thing that we can fix it and move on,’ there’s been a lot of good baseball men who have been in this environment before and Pittsburgh is still where it’s at. So it’s not something where, ‘Hey, we’ll fix this and we’re good to go.’

You’ve talked a lot about developing a Player Plan to follow. This sounds a lot like the same thing the previous regime talked about as well. How do you do it differently to make it succeed? I think ultimately it’s making sure it’s as practical as it is theoretical. While there are things that sound good, do they really help the process and do they tie in with everything we do? Every decision, we make it lined up with what we’re trying to accomplish, so every decision we make lines up with that.

Cohesiveness is a word that’s been used a lot. What is it like knowing the GM you’ve worked with for all these years and being on the same page with his decisions? (Pittsburgh general manager) Neal (Huntingdon) and I have a pre-existing relationship (from Cleveland), and there is a lot of consistency and value in his philosophy. So there’s a comfort level, I think, him with me and me with him. There isn’t the history, but that has happened almost immediately with (scouting director) Greg Smith as well. We’ve got a relatively small front office, but it’s fairly tight knit. And I think all of us being there without our families, we’ve spent a lot of time together, so it kind of happened. But the challenge then is it’s one thing to have four or five people be on the same page. It’s another thing to have the entire organization.

You say be on the same page. What specifically do you mean by that? When we talk about cohesiveness, we talk about that whatever is being said on Field 1 is the same thing being said on Field 4 and 5. Whatever is being said in Lynchburg is the same that’s being said in Pittsburgh. And we recognize that Pittsburgh is a developmental step. It’s about whoever talks to a player, that the message is consistent, whether it be me, whether it be a staff member, whether it be a coordinator, whoever it is, that when we address that player, that message is consistent. Because that is credibility. It’s about a consistent teaching philosophy. It’s about just a consistent philosophy in general and ultimately it’s about winning in Pittsburgh. And everything we do in scouting and development should be geared toward helping us win in Pittsburgh.

Do you have stat-specific goals like you did in the Cleveland organization, where you had to average a walk every 10 at bats to earn a promotion? We have some specific things in mind in terms of what a player should be able to do at each level, but they’re not tied to results. It’s going to be process-oriented, things that players can control. And this game’s results-oriented enough that we don’t have to add to that. Are there certain things, criteria that guide our decisions? Yeah. But it’s not hard, fast rules, especially ones that deal with results.

I read that once Pirates manager John Russell was hired, you sat in on the interview process with some of the major league coaches. Was that surprising to you? Surprising, no. Because of my relationship with Neal and what he’s trying to accomplish. But surprising, yes, because it’s something I don’t think many farm directors do. So maybe a farm director is an assistant GM as well, but not just a farm director. Everybody talks about being on the same page, but are you really trying to do things that way? And the fact that I sat in on those meetings I think further exemplified that.

Is it unusual for a person of your experience and your background to be a farm director? Yeah, definitely. And I’m very blessed to have been in the right place, the right time to have this opportunity. But I think you’ve talked with some good baseball men who have been put in that spot, and I think regardless of where guys came from, ultimately the skill set’s got to be somewhat similar. And some guys have strengths in other areas, but ultimately there’s got to be an ability to make sure that everybody is on the same page and we’re making players better.

You retained five of the six managers in the Pirates’ minor league system. Coming into this situation where you don’t know too much about the players, do you listen to their advice en more? I do, but it has nothing to do with the fact that they’ve been here for a while. I believe that if you’ve got someone working in an organization, there’s a reason why and you better trust them to do their job. They trust what they see and trust their ability to get better. Nobody’s got all the answers and nobody can do anything, so if you’ve got someone working for you, you might as well use them and rely on them.

There seems to be two camps on evaluation these days, one that relies more on in-person scouting and one that leans more to the statistical side. Do you lean one way or another? For me, there is no one way. Our job is to gather as much information as we can on a player, regardless of where that comes from. I’m sure I get labeled a certain way. The reality is, yeah, I trust my eyes more than I do the numbers, but at the end of the day, any piece of information that I have, we need to factor that in. And what a guy does on that field is what he’s done on that field. And that needs to be factored in significantly. We joke around in the office about all forms of information. And that’s what we’re after.

Is it difficult to change the culture of an organization? Yeah. I think cultures are cultures for a reason. It’s ways of practice, ways of operating that get ingrained. It doesn’t happen overnight. The reality is you’re not going to flick a switch and it’s going to be different. It’s saying things differently, it’s doing things differently, it’s being consistent with that and sticking with that regardless of how hard it gets.

One of the first changes you made in the spring was to move first-round pick Daniel Moskos from being a reliever to a starter. What was the reasoning behind that? The reasoning behind it was that we felt like the best way to develop pitchers is you identify your best arms and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to start them.’ Now, hopefully we’ve got more than five, so there’s other things we can do to help develop those guys. Because ultimately it’s about giving them innings, it’s about giving them a routine, it’s about giving them consistent side work between outings. That’s how guys get better. So that’s what the focus was. My goal, the organization’s goal is to make Danny Moskos the best pitcher he can ultimately be at some point in the big leagues, and it’s not necessarily the best pitcher on May 8 in the Carolina League. So that’s what drives the thought process.

What kind of progress has 2006 first-round pick Brad Lincoln made coming back from Tommy John surgery? Brad actually had an outing (in Bradenton, Fla., on May 8). He went five innings and 80 pitches and he’s progressed very well. The strength is good. The delivery has been solid. We’re still challenging him to work on a couple things, but he’s been good. We’re getting real close to him being out and progressing up north.

Where will he start the year? I think we’ve got an idea of what we would like to do. We’re probably going to walk him through that before we walk everyone else through that. The thing I’ve tried to stress to Brad is my short-term goal for Brad Lincoln is that he’s pitching healthy at the end of August. So where he starts at the end of May is really not the important thing.

I’m sure once you were hired you got a crash course on the number of arm injuries that have befallen Pirates pitchers taken in the first round of the draft in the last decade. What steps do you take to minimize that risk? I think it’s not any one thing or any one person’s effort. Ultimately it’s a coordinated effort between targeting the right players, toward putting in a pitching program in place to keep them healthy and that develops them to reach their potential. It’s a long-term, big-picture perspective. And then a strength and conditioning perspective to make sure they’re strong and conditioned to go out and execute what we expect from them. And then ultimately a medical perspective to keep them healthy.

I’ve read that you’re planning on sending pitchers to the American Sports Medicine Institute to look at mechanics and possible risk factors in their deliveries. Whose idea was that? Have you done that in the past? I’ve been exposed to it. Neal has been exposed to it. I think it’s, again, all forms of information. It’s looking at, hey, maybe this is another way to get some information on a pitcher and factor that in to whatever plan we have for that guy. It’s another avenue for us to consider how to make guys better. We haven’t talked to any specific players. My experience in the past is that players welcome it. I think they want to know more too. Ultimately, a player wants to know how you can make him better and how you can help him achieve his goals. And I think that’s what our responsibility is.

So the pitch count rule is you reach 30 in any inning and you’re done for the day? There’s a number that’s put on it and I’m sure if you dig enough, you’ll figure it out. I haven’t met someone who can give you a magic number, whether it be by inning, whether it be by game, whether it be by season. Ultimately, it’s about, hey, this is what we’re trying to accomplish. Let’s see what’s the most logical number to accomplish that.

What is your philosophy on mid-season promotions? Do you like to see a guy have a certain amount of success for a length of time before you consider moving him? I get asked this quite often. Fast track. Slow track. Is he a fast mover? Is he a slow mover? Ultimately for me, it’s identifying what a guy should be able to do at a level. And if he does it consistently, then it’s time to move him. If it’s at the middle of the season, if it’s at the end of the season, whatever that may be. It’s having a framework to operate within, but also recognizing that we’re dealing with human beings. There are no rules. There’s no science. There’s got to be some common sense and some feel to it.

Looking at your Triple-A roster with Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker and Steve Pearce on the cusp of the big leagues, would you like to time that so they all make the transition to the majors at the same time? I think you want a core group of guys who mature together and grow together and can ultimately win together. But you need waves coming behind too. I think again, we’re dealing with human beings, so each guy is going to progress at his own pace. I think the biggest thing is at the end, are we all in the same spot, winning in Pittsburgh together?

— Andy Bitter