Meeting with the Pirates VP

by Kosstic518 on Feb 23, 2008 12:48 PM EST

Most of you probably haven't seen me around the site as I rarely post, but I always check the site daily for news. I am a student at Penn State main campus and on Monday Feb. 25th the Pirates VP of Baseball Operations, Larry Silverman, is coming to speak to a group of students in the business school. He will be running a mock arbitration trial and then opening up the floor to question and answer.

I was considering asking a bunch of questions based on sabrmetrics and quant analysis but I'm not sure I want to embarrass the guy. (We all have seen the past administrations lack of respect for these types of analysis and this guy is a hold over from the Littlefield administration.) Basically what I want to know is what sort of questions I should ask this guy and I wanted to see if anyone had any good questions they would like me to ask. All of your input is appreciated.

Go Bucs.

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Larry Silverman

is a tool. He has been their in house lawyer for a few years, and is the guy who negotiates player contracts with agents.

The idea that they actually let him sit in on meetings involving baseball decisions is insane. He was seen on a video clip of Dave Littlefield at work shown on one of the local stations, two or three years ago, chirping "let's go get a right handed power hitter" every time Littlefield suggested they might want a right handed power hitter.

If you want to ask him anything, ask him what he thinks the team needs to become a championship caliber enterprise. I can't wait for the answer.

Here is his bio:

Larry Silverman joined the Pirates organization on February 1, 2002 as Vice President and General
Counsel. In his role, Silverman assists General Manager Neal Huntington in contract negotiations, arbitration cases and other player-related matters. He also provides general legal services to the club.

Prior to joining the Pirates organization, Silverman worked for the Pittsburgh law firm of Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, P.C. During
that period, he also provided legal services to the Pirates on a variety of player-related matters. He was a shareholder at Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote for 15 years and spent 21 years with the law firm.

PERSONAL: Larry was born on 4/16/52 in Pittsburgh, PA...He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Pittsburgh
in 1974 and his law degree from Duquesne University of Law in 1978...Larry and his wife, Marcia Cooper, reside in O'Hara Township
and have three children; daughters Abby and Emily and son Matt.

by RichieHebner on Feb 26, 2008 8:20 PM EST reply actions

You're gonna have to wait for an answer.

And wait. And wait. And wait and wait and wait.

Dude was at PSU yesterday.

by Luke the Drifter on Feb 26, 2008 9:37 PM EST up reply actions

Larry Silverman

The event was held yesterday, about 60-70 people showed up which was about 59-69 more people than I figured would show up.

The event smarted with some comments from Law and Statistics Professors and then a mock arbitration trial held by four law students concerning the Freddy Sanchez case. Obviously the case was theoretical because Freddy agreed to his deal. I didn't expect the law students to do much in terms of statistical or quantitative analysis and they were using stats like Rs and RBIs to compare Sanchez to other players. They even used players like Adam LaRoche and Alexis Rios as comparable players (most of you know these guys don't play 2B/3B). After the trial was over the opened up the floor to questions and I was able to ask one.

Here is a word for word account of what took place.

Me - "With the recent advances in Sabrmetrics and Quantitative Analysis I wanted to know what level of research you would do going into an arbitration trial. For instance, it is commonly accepted that statistics such as runs and runs batted in are very poor indicators of a players overall production while statistics like gross production average, park factors, defensive efficiency rating and on base percentage may be more indicative of a players performance. What sort of statistics would have you used in arbitration cases?"

Larry Silverman - "We never use statistics beyond what is commonly accepted. The arbitrators don't like being snowballed by high level statistics that have not been proven indicators of a players worth. Some of what you mentioned may be used in player evaluation BUT I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THAT (he didn't scream I was just highlighting an important point). In my portion of the business we basically stick to the statistics you saw in the mock trail, not statistics like 'Zone Rating' or anything Bill James uses."

Needless to say I'm not surprised by his answer, there is a reason we have lost 15 seasons in a row. I'm really sorry to bring the horrible news but I felt like you guys would want to know.

God Bless the Pirates, lets hope for more clearing in the front office.

by Kosstic518 on Feb 27, 2008 12:15 AM EST reply actions