Pirates’ ownership continues to look foolish
PITTSBURGH – Monday marks the second anniversary of the single-most utterly ridiculous comment ever made by someone connected with the Pirates. Owner Bob Nutting, in the aftermath of the Pirates thinking they had signed first-round draft pick Pedro Alvarez, had this to say on Aug. 16, 2008: “We have the best management team in professional sports.”
That was a laughable statement then and sounds even more inane now that the Pirates have chased down the seemingly uncatchable Baltimore Orioles for the worst record in the major leagues. The Pirates were 39-76 going into Saturday night’s game at Houston and had lost five in a row for the SEVENTH time this season.
To show just how foolish Nutting’s proclamation was, Major League Baseball eventually ruled that the Pirates’ signing of Alvarez was invalid. The agreement had come after the Pirates had unethically circumvented agent Scott Boras to make a deal with Alvarez and was reported to MLB’s offices after the Aug. 15 midnight signing deadline for signed draft picks.
However, that is only a small part of why Nutting’s comment was so ludicrous. He did not have to look outside Pittsburgh to understand that the Pirates’ management team is just third best in a three-sport market, let alone the entire spectrum of professional athletics.
Do you think Frank Coonelly is a better team president that the Steelers’ Art Rooney II or the Penguins’ Ken Sawyer? Of course, he isn’t. Rooney and Sawyer run successful franchises without micromanage even the most insignificant parts of their operations.
Do you think Neal Huntington is a better general manager than Kevin Colbert or Ray Shero? Colbert has two Super Bowl titles to his credit and Shero has a Stanley Cup championship on his resume.
Although in fairness to Huntington, those men don’t have their superiors looking over their shoulders around the clock.
Do you think John Russell is a better leader than championship coaches Mike Tomlin and Dan Bylsma? Even with the caveat that he has had little talent to work with, Russell’s record in three seasons is 168-270 for a ghastly .384 winning percentage.
The facts are the facts, talent level aside.
The most discouraging part about “the best management team in professional sports” is that the Pirates’ record keeps getting worse under their watch.
The Pirates were 68-94 in 2007. Since the Coonelly-Huntington-Russell triumvirate took over, the Pirates have gone 67-95 and 62-99 in two full seasons are on a pace to finish 55-107 this season.
That would be the most losses by a Pirates team since the 1952 Rickey Dinks went 42-112. Ironically, the GM of that team, Branch Rickey, is in the Hall of Fame because of his work with the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers.
Somehow, it’s hard to envision Coonelly, Huntington or Russell being immortalized in Cooperstown. It’s even harder to imagine Nutting with a plaque, even though he is the man who put together “the best management team in professional sports.”
Herald-Standard sports correspondent John Perrotto is the editor-in-chief of BaseballProspectus.com.