At least the Pirates know who they are. They became the last MLB team to fill its managerial vacancy by hiring AAA manager John Russell out of the Phillies' system. Russell was fired as the Pirates' third base coach following the team's 2005 season. The Pirates are perpetually a triple-A club trying, and mostly failing, to hold their own against real Major League teams. Russell's reputation is that he gets the most out of young players, which is the storyline out of Pittsburgh every year - that the Pirates might go .500 this year if everything goes well and their young players step up. Somehow every year that hope turns into about 69 wins.
In 2002, Russell was named minor-league manager of the year by Baseball America. He was tabbed International League manager of the year in 2006.
"My philosophy is hard work," Russell said. "We won't be outworked or outprepared. There's a right way to do it, and I know what it's supposed to look like -- attention to detail, accountability, preparation."
That was what Lloyd McClendon (losing seasons 11, 12 and 13) was supposed to have brought to the team, and he left saying that hard work is no substitute for talent, and not apologizing for getting mediocre results out of a mediocre lineup. He joined Leyland in Detroit and took a better lineup to the World Series.
The Pirates are riding a string of 15 consecutive losing seasons, one shy of the major-league record.
Make it 16. This hire confirms what fans already knew: the organization no longer even promises to win, only to play hard. Last year's marketing slogan had fans scratching their heads: "We will." Will what? Show up, rain or shine? Win about 69 games?
Good luck attracting free agents: "You won't win, but you'll sure work hard!"
3 comments:
DET is a good example of a recent team that turned a culture of losing into a trip to the World Series. FLA gets a lot out of their team every year despite no money and no fans. MIN went from talk of contraction to becoming a marquee club. And it is well documented how OAK finds ways to win on a moderate budget. Meanwhile, PIT overspends for the likes of Derek Bell, Kevin Young, and Matt Morris. This franchise is going nowhere until some serious changes are made from top to bottom.
There is a lesson about approach here that seems to be a problem of the organization and not the manager. Bring back Syd Thrift.
Wait! The New guy is better than Syd.
http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071101&content_id=2290860&vkey=news_pit&fext=.jsp&c_id=pit
:We are going to utilize several objective measures of player performance to evaluate and develop players. We'll rely on the more traditional objective evaluations: OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage) , WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched), Runs Created, ERC (Component ERA), GB/FB (ground ball to fly ball ratio), K/9 (strikeouts per nine innings), K/BB (strikeouts to walks ratio), BB%, etc., but we'll also look to rely on some of the more recent variations: VORP (value over replacement player), Relative Performance, EqAve (equivalent average), EqOBP (equivalent on base percentage), EqSLG (equivalent slugging percentage), BIP% (balls put into play percentage), wOBA (weighted on base average), Range Factor, PMR (probabilistic model of range) and Zone Rating."
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