I’m hearing that Frank Coonelly may have finally figured out he made a mistake in extending Neal Huntington and John Russell. That’s the possible good news. The bad news is, it doesn’t look like Coonelly is going to make any changes in the immediate future.
Now for my own opinion –
Bob Nutting and Frank Coonelly were the victims of a brilliant stratagem played out by Neal Huntington back in September 2007 which — in part – led to Huntington landing the GM position. It was such an oddball hire that many in the baseball community were surprised and, as word of the stratagem circled the game, quite a few people were shocked at how it all played out. A few even angry.
One thing that was odd about Coonelly’s GM selection was that Neal Huntington wasn’t exactly known as a “strong” baseball man… good perhaps, but not strong. One prior front office person told me during the GM search: “[Frank's] very likely to hire a strong baseball guy as GM to complement his own skill set, since that’s his greatest weakness.” So after Huntington was hired, Chuck Tanner was brought in as Huntington’s consultant and later Bill Lajoie was also added in the same role — both men being “strong” baseball men to help raise Huntington’s bar.
As the years have unfolded it has become clear that neither Tanner nor Lajoie enjoy a strong voice in Huntington’s circle and consequently many of Huntington’s decisions have resulted in staggering losses for the organization, as well as ownership.
When we look back to Coonelly and Nutting’s decision to hire Neal Huntington, you can’t help but to wonder how much the “John Hart influence” had on their decision to select him. For those that don’t remember or know, Hart had rebuilt the talent devoid Cleveland Indians in the 90′s and lead them to six division titles and two world series appearances. Among the men that had groomed under Hart during their run were Neal Huntington, Josh Byrnes, Mark Shapiro, and Paul DePodesta.. all very educated men and somewhat sabermetrically inclined.
And all of them catastrophic failures in a GM leadership role up to this point except for Shapiro, who was also the beneficiary of Dan O’Dowd (Hart’s top lieutenant) and John Hart’s network when he succeeded Hart as the club’s GM. As the story goes, when Shapiro was interviewed by Hart in 1992, Hart outlined his “Blueprint for Success” for rebuilding the Indians and Shapiro bought in and was hired. Seventeen years later, Huntington and Coonelly unveiled a similar plan – the Pittsburgh Pirates Blueprint in late 2009.
But there is a huge difference in the two blueprints — Hart surrounded himself with exceptionally strong baseball men and listened closely to what they had to say. In Pittsburgh, Neal Huntington surrounded himself with few good baseball men, many unproven rookies, others who are neither rookies nor ever been very good baseball men, some paycheck guys, and, it appears, all the while refusing to listen to the few strong baseball men he had at his disposal. But there is also one other huge difference… the stratagem Huntington played out in 2007 had come back to haunt him.
The Pirates Blueprint — to me — represents a public relations ploy instead of a meaningful set of goals undertaken to achieve a desired result. It’s pretty, it’s well thought out, but it’s unachievable with the personnel in place in development, in scouting, and in our front office.
Simply start by looking at the Pirates 25-man roster and their recent play.. it’s not that they are losing at historical rates, it’s the way they are losing.
“[John Russell] has evidently lost the respect of his players.” – as told to me by an ex front office person on June 27, 2010.
The problems began in the offseason when management, including John Russell, blamed the players for underperforming after the deadline trades. The players took exception to management’s account believing, as one person close to the players put it to me, they ‘never had a fighting chance’ with the roster they had to play with. The problems escalated when the players learned there would be no infusion of capital to bring in additional veteran talent – it was up to them.. a core group of guys who had never played together before. Even then the players took it all in stride and did the best they could but ran up against a mental and physical brick wall more often than not because every pitch of every game had become stressful.. their margin of error was too fine.
Then management started to come at them demanding a little bit more, next players who were obviously management ‘buds’ were starting to infuse their own opinions on the group, and it has grown to the point you see today. They are one very frustrated group of young men trying to perform day-in and day-out at levels well beyond their natural abilities while management wants even more. The team isn’t a ‘team’ anymore – it’s become a divided group.
Something has to change.. it’s broke, it’s busted, it’s out-of-order.
Frank Coonelly has a real problem. While it’s easy to fire John Russell and that might solve some of the immediate internal problems while also putting the fans at ease for a short period of time, it’s not going to solve the bigger issue he has of a rebuild that is out of control. He and Bob struckout in September 2007 and it’s taken too long to realize just how badly they missed putting the bat on the ball.
Coonelly’s first order of business has to be ownership’s interests and I think we see that playing out with Lincoln and Alvarez still in Pittsburgh. And perhaps that is exactly what woke Coonelly up - that his new development system was unable to take Lincoln and Alvarez to the next level forcing him to start their clocks to finish them off at the risk of failure? Ownership has given Coonelly a plan and all we can do is guess at what it says, but I suspect at the top of that list is the word ‘credibility’ because without it, there won’t be any fans.
Coonelly’s second order of business should be to take control and show the remaining fan base that he has enough vision to see not everything is going as drawn up three years ago. I would suggest that he start forcing Huntington to run all opportunities through Lajoie and Tanner with a majority rule type of governance, and the final decision then sent to his office for review. Once the August 15th signing deadline has passed, Coonelly needs to immediately terminate Huntington and start the process of finding a talented GM who passes the sniff test, not the Hart test.
In the meantime, the players have to be held accountable while at the same time be able to see light at the end of the tunnel too. John Russell should have been fired a month or more ago and having him held over like this only shows weakness by Coonelly and the Nuttings. Now isn’t the time to be showing weakness. Varsho is the obvious interim solution and then let him make his own decisions from there.
The worst thing Connelly and Nutting can do right now is continue their apathy. Striking out is one thing, refusing to get back in the box is quite another.
Related posts:
I seriously doubt anything will be done. Nutting doesn’t care about winning. Nuttings been stealing revenue sharing money for years and paying down debt. Until new scouts and player development people are hired, then expect the same old thing. Stiffs like Vuckovich and Strange remain not to mention Jeff Bannister.Who in thgeir right mind would even want to manage this team knowing the owner is Robert Nutting?
Jake – spot on with your comments and it’s refreshing that you point out what a terrible job Shapiro has done in Cleveland!
I especially liked this comment about the Pirates: it’s unachievable with the personnel in place in development, in scouting, and in our front office.
You’re right, it’s not the Pirates strategy, it’s the execution that’s failing!
With you 100% here, Jake.
At some point, the bottom line is the bottom line. The team on the field at PNC is bad beyond belief, and it is the direct result of Boy Wonder Genius Sabremetric Wonk’s machinations. If ever there was an Exhibit A for how sabremetrics has distorted the perception of many baseball executives (and fans), Huntington is it.
The thing is, when you’re The Guy, the buck stops with you. Even if it’s not entirely “fair”—quote, unquote—somebody has to fall on their sword when things reach the depths that they have reached in Pittsburgh. Huntington must go. It will only extend the carnage to keep here here any longer.
Great post as usual Jake. I do agree that sabermatics can work, proven by billy beane, when it’s used and evaluated corectly. Billy Beane shows us that. Obviously so many more things have to happen for it to work properly and efficiently. However, I wouldn’t say Hunington and dan fox ever used it.
Jake my question to you is this, Does Coonelly need to go? It’s obvious that Huntington duped everyone and can’t evaluate talent or bring talent around him. Ditto with Russell. But Frank should have a sharper business mind. How could he not see the return on his investment. Did guys like Tanner & Lajoie not ever have a chance to speak to Frank? You’ve made it clear that Frank had to approve most of neal’s doings, don’t you think he should have or did talk to those baseball minds and get their opinions? Was he so far removed from the circle of the game because he was in selig’s office that he never heard any of the rumblings around the leauge? I think Frank needs to go down with the ship as well.
Even though we know the real problem lies with ownership. Just look with cincy did in one year. Bringing in Jocketty, risking on Rolen, spending on Chapmin, driving up their payroll and look at them now. It can be done.
I do think most MLB players DONT want to play for PGH. But I would think that a great GM would welcome this challenge. Jake do you think GM’s don’t want our job the way players don’t, because of our ownership? Do you think the nuttings pay GM’s what everyone else in the game gets?
If we had a gm that wasn’t a rookie gutting a roster we just might have had a team right now or at least one in AAA.
Doumit for Jeremy Hellickson and another good prospect from the Rays? Or maybe just Meek for Hellickson straight up?
Doumit for Hellickson and another prospect?????? Really?? Doumit for Hellickson straight up would be answered by laughter. The Rays already had Meek and gave him to the Pirates for nothing, good organizations do not trade top prospects for bad teams trash, or middle relievers, whichever the case might be.
The Rays did not give Meek to the Pirates, or let go of him. They didn’t have enough slots to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. HUGE difference.
Oh thank Jaimz, you are wrong but thanks….considering they are looking for both DH (if Doumit could concentrate all his time on hitting he would be that much better) and bullpen help, and Hellickson is and has been odd man out for a long time in the rotation down there, I think it may work. I have seen him in person twice, and although I think he will be a very reliable 3rd starter, my idea is anything but laughable. and top prospect? REALLLY!!!!??!?!?!?!??!?!? Let me know when you see him in anyones top 50….And everyone knows, including the Rays that they let go of Meek too soon. So yes Really!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I know how to use excalamations and questions too see…!!!!???????)
boys, boys, boys.. one person’s opinion shouldn’t bring down the house. Hellickson’s been getting lit up a bit this year, especially by RH batters.. some of it has been poor luck but he’s also been in the zone too much. That said, we’re talking about a kid who is equivalent to a string bean Ian Snell — small body guy who uses a lot of energy to dial up an MLB average fastball with average command and decent arm-side tail, a plus-at-times curve, and a solid ML plus change. I assume from my own notes, my own eyes, and some talk around that he’s most likely a #4 starter who would be a #2/#3′ish guy in the NLCD right now.
As much as we owe Doumit, and considering his health questions, I’m not sure this gets done Aaron.
Top 50?, How about top 11 http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/insider/columns/story?columnist=law_keith&id=5197483. The only executive in MLB that would give up Hellickson for Doumit already has Doumit on his team.
I still think Doumit and Meek would net Hellickson, Rays can afford to not have him on their team
Buccos break the 17 game losing streak on the road- 2-1 win over the Cubbies. Paul Maholm 8 strong innings, Dotel k’s the side in the 9th for the save. Jose Tabata gw rbi double off 96 mph heat inside by Marmol.
One thing that struck me in reading this article is the list of “baseball men” that have been associated with John Hart. I think it is harsh to describe most of them as failures. In baseball the playing field is not the same for each team, as we all know. Therefore, to come out and say that each one or another is a failure, is difficult for me to rationalize.