12/21/24
October 05, 2010
Pirates fire manager John Russell, retain G.M. : The Pirates responded to one of the worst seasons in franchise history Monday by firing manager John Russell and retaining general manager Neal Huntington. Russell, 49, was hired Nov. 5, 2007, and finished 186-299, a .383 winning percentage that was ninth-worst of any manager in Major League Baseball history over three years.
posted by tommytrump to baseball at 03:49 PM - 8 comments
"We've had a lot more guys exceed expectations than not meet expectations."
Makes you wonder what expectations were, doesn't it?
It's a tough climate in the small-market towns of MLB these days, and there's all kinds of reasons that it is difficult to compete with the high-dollar franchises. The bottom line is, however, that the Pirates have been spectacularly inept for an extended period of time while other similarly situated teams (Cincinnati, Tampa, Milwaukee) have been relatively competitive. I know there needs to be a sort of perfect storm of homegrown talent developing simultaneously for a team to compete with the big boys, but with as many rebuilding years as the Pirates have had, you'd think that at least a .500 season would have been doable somewhere along the way.
posted by tahoemoj at 06:14 PM on October 05, 2010
Stories like this about the Pirates' profitability are sad to read. I hate to see loyal, deserving fans taken advantage of.
At least I got to see them when they had it going. In their heyday, they provided baseball fans with a lot of memorable moments.
There's a ton of franchise heritage and pride being continually tarnished with the way that club is currently being run.
posted by beaverboard at 07:46 PM on October 05, 2010
Article from Slate that outlines the Pirates business situation. While they have been an unmitigated puddle of suck recently, they were profitable (or at least were two years ago). So, why decrease profit to marginally increase wins?
If that's the idea, then, firing the manager makes sense. The manager failed to do his job of winning ballgames, while the GM did his job of keeping salary costs low.
posted by Bonkers at 11:42 PM on October 05, 2010
The best is last week, the Pirates fired the AA manager also. This after he won his division and manager of the year with no explanation other then disagreement in philosophy. Obviously the disagreement had to do with allowing the players a smooth transition into losing when the move up to the bigs.
Next years motto: Praying for mediocrity in 2012
posted by Debo270 at 08:49 AM on October 06, 2010
They have no direction and are poor at evaluating talent.
I don't think this has been true for a couple of years. The new GM does seem to have a solid plan in place, at least from what I'd read in the off-season. They've found a cornerstone player in their 3rd baseman and have some talent in the pipeline.
posted by yerfatma at 08:53 AM on October 06, 2010
The team has a nice solid young core but NO pitching. The question is, when the contracts come up and players want the money, will the Pirates keep them or trade them for more pitching prospects and another bag of magic beans. If you look through the last few years, all the PIrates are is a farm club for other teams.
posted by Debo270 at 09:09 AM on October 06, 2010
The real sad part, is we have one of the nicest parks in baseball, but its empty most nights. The way Pittsburgh fans are, if they put any type of team out there that was not matimatically eliminated by the end of July, they would fill that park every night.
We had this conversation about a year ago when the Pirates set the record of longest losing streak in all of pro sports
posted by Debo270 at 09:12 AM on October 06, 2010
The Pirates, as a organization, are clueless. They have no direction and are poor at evaluating talent. Granted, they are a small market, but until they learn to recognize talent and who can ultimately develop into decent major league talent, they'll continue to be horrible. Why they didn't dump their G.M. too is beyond me.