Former Gator looking to regain his bite

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, June 26, 2001 | 10:13 a.m.

It's another homecoming this week for former Green Valley baseball star Chad Hermansen.

The 1995 USA Today national high school player of the year who helped pace the Gators to three state titles in four years leads the Nashville Sounds into Cashman Field for a four-game series against the Las Vegas 51s beginning tonight at 7:10. And while Hermansen is hoping some of his old high school buddies will stop by to say hello and he'll be spending the next four nights sleeping at his parents' Green Valley home, he'd just as soon keep the Las Vegas trips for the winter time from here on out, thank you.

"I was hoping my last baseball trip (to Las Vegas) was back in 1999," Hermansen said on Monday from his hotel in New Orleans. "But it's been a kind of weird career path for me. ... I wasn't expecting to still be here."

He isn't the only one.

The former first-round draft pick was rated the No. 1 prospect in the Pirates' organization by Baseball America prior to the 2000 season. And the 6-foot-2, 185-pound outfielder started in center field on opening day for Pittsburgh.

But Hermansen found himself back in triple-A again a few months later after hitting just .185 with two homers and eight RBIs in 33 games.

Baseball America, the same publication that was touting Hermansen for stardom just a year earlier, called him "an unequivocal bust" in its 2001 Baseball Almanac.

And going into Monday night's game at New Orleans, Hermansen was hitting just .222 with three homers and 22 RBIs in 58 games with the Sounds. He had struck out 69 times in just 194 at-bats.

So what went wrong?

Roy Smith, the interim general manager of the Pirates and the scout who signed Hermansen back in 1995, says Hermansen needs to improve his mechanics on his swing.

"We still think very highly of Chad," Smith said. "The ability is still there. Chad just needs to work on the mechanical things. Obviously, the results have not been what he's wanted or we've wanted so far. But sometimes when a player like Chad starts to click, it really clicks."

Smith also was quick to point out that Hermansen is still just 23 years old.

"He was only 17 when he signed," Smith said. "There's always been some kind of perception that he's been around a long time. But he almost always was the youngest kid in whatever league he played in every year. I mean, he hit 60 home runs in triple-A before he was 22 years old."

That awesome power display earned him a September call-up by the Pirates at the end of the 1999 season. And not so coincidentally, that's when Hermansen's troubles seemed to begin.

Despite dominating every level he had ever played at, a Pittsburgh coach wanted Hermansen to change his swing.

"It was kind of a weird thing," Hermansen said. "From a mechanical and mental standpoint, I figured I had a good approach with my swing. But once I got up there, within three games they wanted to change everything. Then when I wasn't hitting, it was kind of, 'What do I do now?'

"I really hate to talk about it because it sounds like I'm trying to make excuses. But they wanted to revamp everything. It's really been a frustrating two years for me. And, really, they've been the only two years I've struggled since I started playing baseball."

Hermansen refused to identify the coach who insisted he change his swing.

"What's the old saying, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it?' " Hermansen said. "They felt that my bat wasn't going through the zone long enough. I had just hit 32 home runs (in triple-A). I've got to be doing something right, right? But I was just 21 years old then. So you listen. You want to be coachable."

Now Hermansen finds himself working daily with Nashville hitting coach Jeff Livesey and roving instructor Milt May trying to find the magic again in his bat.

"I know there are a lot of people who have probably written me off," Hermansen said. "But I think there are still some people in Pittsburgh whostill believe in me."

Just how much faith the Pirates have in Hermansen will be put to the test next winter when he could become a six-year free agent.

"I'm out of options, so they either have to have me on their (major league) roster orput me on the waiver wire," Hermansen said. "So this is kind of a key year for me here. A lot of people have said they think a change of scenery might do me some good. They could be right. But there's that other part of you who wants to show the organization that drafted you that they were right. And it would be nice to play in that new stadium in Pittsburgh."

The next few months figure to play a key role in that regard.

"Chad was very disappointed to be back in triple-A but he's also a very professional and mature kid," Smith said. "He always managed to cope and fight back. But he also knows that it's a bottom line business."