Just Say No To Bob Walk and Andy Van Slyke

After last weeks firing of former pirates manager John Russell, several names have emerged as potential candidates. Some, such as Phil Garner and Eric Wedge would be considered good hires.


There are others though, including names such as Andy Van Slyke and Bob Walk that would be awful hires.

Over the past week, both guys have been gaining some steam popularity wise and that's a bad sign. It would be just like the Pirates to offer one of these guys the job.

This is a major decision for a franchise that hasn't sniffed a winning season in close to two decades. There is more pure talent in the organization right now then there has been at any time during that span. This could be the Pirates only true chance to be competitive soon.

If they don't turn it around soon, then there is a chance they likely never will. You can't put that responsibility on a guy that has no managerial experience at all. Considering either guy simply because he has ties to the Pirates is insane.

Walk has no coaching experience what so ever. What makes you think he is capable of handling young players and handling a pitching staff that will likely struggle for 162 games?

The same goes for Van Slyke. Good players don't necessarily become good managers. In fact, there are very few cases in sports where it happens often. Van Slyke at least served under Jim Leyland's staff in Detroit for three seasons, but to think he's ready to be a big league manager is a bit of a stretch.

I would feel differently if either guy had worked his way through the minors as a manager the way the Cubs Ryne Sandberg has, or if either guy has spent significant time on successful big league staffs, but neither guy has.


Just because a guy has Pittsburgh ties doesn't mean he will be successful as a manager. Sure it could happen, but the Pirates shouldn't lay their future on a roll of the dice.

Hiring either guy won't mean a thing at the box office either. Thinking attendance will improve because they brought back a former Bucco to manage the team is also not smart. The only thing that will bring people to PNC park is wins. Plain and simple.

That's not saying having Pittsburgh ties is a bad thing. Garner and Ken Macha have them and both should be considered, although it looks like Macha won't be.

I've been wanting the Pirates to hire Garner for a couple of years now. They need a real baseball guy who has won before and at least shown the ability to handle a young team.

My top three candidates are still be Eric Wedge, Freddie Gonzalez, and Garner.

With the Pirates bad ownership and small payroll, it's also possible that these guys could fail as well, but with such a small window to hopefully succeed in, they have to give the job to a guy that's proven something as a big league manager.

The Pirates shouldn't even consider Walk or Van Slyke, no matter how much the casual fan want them to get the job. This is a bigger decision then most people realize. The Pirates haven't listened to the fans for over two decades. Let's hope they don't start now.

Pirates Extend Huntington and Russell- Pirates drop the ball twice in one week

The Pirates announced yesterday that they have agreed to contract extensions with both General Manager Neil Huntington and Manager John Russell.  The deals were actually agreed upon before the season began and only now announced, due to speculation on the job status of both men.

The Pirates dropped the ball on this the same way they dropped it on the Pedro Alvarez promotion. As I've noted here before, the Pirates should have taken advantage of Alvarez's arrival to fill the ballpark the last two days, but no, not the Pirates.  They prefer to play to a half empty ballpark and then afterwards complain about the attendance.  They should have taken note from the way the Nationals handled Stephen Strasburg's arrival and should have been able to generate extra revenue from it.

Now, onto today's issue.  First, Huntington.  I don't have a problem with this one bit.  In my opinion, he's done an above average job of bringing in talent to the organization.  he should be able to see this through for the next couple of seasons.  It's not his fault that Dave Littlefield left the cupboard bare for him.  Look at the entire organization now and before Huntington arrived.  The Pirates as a whole are in much better shape now.  Having said that, within the next calender year, the results are going to have to start coming.

As for Russell, here is where the Pirates dropped the ball.  They should have announced his extension when it happened.  Why hide it?  Are they that much concerned with the public backlash by extending Russell?  All of the deception actually makes me wonder if indeed he did receive an extension, but for now I will take it at face value.

Again, a case of the Pirates front office dropping the ball.  They come out of this once again looking like an incompetent organization.  Why extend him in the first place though?  I buy into the thought of not wanting a lame duck manager, but that's why you announce it before the season.

Only the Pirates front office would extend Russell in the midst of an 11-game losing streak.  The timing is even more peculiar than actually giving him the extension.  Now that the rumors have heated up concerning Russell's job status, giving him an extension in the middle of the season definitely means he isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

You don't want these young players playing for him.  I still say make the move now and really go after a Phil garner or Willie Randolph.  I'd even settle for Eric Wedge or Jose Oquendo who were rumored.  Either way, the team will not improve and become competitive under Russell and the Pirates once again dropped the ball, looking foolish in the process.

Why the revolving Lineups?

Before I get into this, I read a couple different draft experts ranking the draft.  Two had the Pirates as the best draft, one had them ranked second and the other fourth.  That's a real good sign that things are turning in the right direction, providing they sign their picks. One said, "How can you not like what the Pirates have done?  They get the top two arms in the draft."  I like to hear praise like that.

Now onto today's issue.  Is anyone besides me tired of seeing a different lineup every game?  Let the talent play.  That's why they are starters.  I'm all for giving a guy a day off every now and then, but how can John Russell expect his regulars to hit with any type of consistency when they aren't playing consistently?  You don't need to keep your bench guys real fresh when they don't produce

It often appears that JR is picking his lineup out of a hat.  Guys like Crosby and Aki don't need regular AB's.  The other thing that drives me crazy is that every time someone seems to be going good for a couple days, he finds himself on the bench.

Clement started swinging the bat good, hitting the ball hard and suddenly he didn't play for four days.  Delwyn Young goes 2-4 with a homer and double then doesn't play.  This has happened all season.  I'm surprised he has the sense to keep writing Cutch's name in there everyday.  This is not the way to handle young players, especially when the team isn't going anywhere.

Suddenly, the conspiracy theorists are out.  Now we hear that Neil Huntington is telling JR who to play everyday.  I can't believe this is happening, or the Pirates are in much worse shape than even I thought.  I don't think either guy looks at scouting reports or anything.  I truly believe JR is just guessing everyday and hoping he gets lucky with the right eight guys.

Also I've heard Huntington is sabotaging the team.  For what?  To cost himself his job?  While I've been very happy with the guys he's brought in via trade the guys he brought in via free agency haven't been so good.  To his defense, he wasn't going after good free agents, he was going after cheap bodies to fill spots.  he was hoping to get lucky with a guy or two the same way he did with Garrett Jones.  Now isn't the time anyways to load up with free agents.  It is the time though to see exactly what you have with some of these guys and you can't do that by not playing them.

It's a little to late to be tanking it.  Don't give them that much credit.  If they were that smart, we would have David Price, Steven Strasburg and Bryce Harper as well.  The fact is that they are trying to win.  It's taking some time, but I'm still liking what I see down on the farm.

Russell has tried everything from batting the pitcher 8th to moving Cutch all around the order.  I really believe JR is out of options and just flipping the coin on guys.

To JR's defense (and that will be the only time those words will EVER come out of my mouth), his third baseman has 12 RBI's in the middle of June and his current right fielder having 17.  His five bench guys have a total of 46 so it doesn't get much better.

Right now this lineup stinks after the first 4 hitters.  However, he has to keep playing Laroche and Milledge.  Sitting them down every other game doesn't help one bit.

While it's true JR doesn't have the talent right now and maybe he should get the chance to see this rebuild through, I'm still not convinced he's the man for the job.  Pull the trigger on his job and bring in a more established manager like a Willie Randolph or a Phil Garner. This just is flat out not working.

Time to Show Good 'Ol JR The Door

John Russell has to go.  That's the nicest way I can say it.  Now it's easy to blame the manager and I often don't take this route, but I have had it with this guy.  Not only am I tired of looking at his lazy ass, with his arms crossed in the dugout -looking like he is about to fall asleep; but I'm tired of his actions (or lack there of) during the games.

Let's just look at the last three games.  Wednesday night against Milwaukee.  The Brewers are getting call after call off the plate, leading to13 Bucco strikeouts.  Hitting coach Don Long began to chirp at the umpires while JR was dosing off in the corner.  Why doesn't Russell raise his voice?  I'm not asking for temper tantrums like Earl Weaver or Lou Pinella, I'm asking him to stick up for his players.  God forbid he ever raise his voice, maybe teams won't get calls a foot off the plate.  Why would he do that though?  He's only the damn manager.

Then Thursday the Bucs get pasted 20-0.  Did one Brewer get knocked down? No, of course not. Why send a message? We only play them 15 more times. You can bet Llyod McClendon wouldn't have let his team get run over without sending a message.  What does that say to the ballclub?  That their manager is a gutless, quitter.

Even better, Mr. Mumbles as I like to call him could have sent a message in his press conference, but did he raise his voice or call out his team?  Of course not.  Instead he let everyone know that 20-0 games happen sometimes.  Really, JR?  The last time I checked, they've only happened like five times in the last 115 years.

You can check out Mr. Mumbles feeble attempt at explaining a 20-0 loss by clicking HERE.

Then tonight, not as bad , but how does he not walk Carlos Lee with first base open?  They guy has only killed the Pirates for the last three seasons.  Granted he's struggling right now, but I about jumped out of my seat when they pitched to him.  That likely ended up costing this team a win.

Pirates fans deserve better than this guy.  Granted nobody wants the job with an owner that won't spend money, but the guy is a lousy manager.  How many times in three years have his in-game decisions helped the team win a game?  Likely, you can count them on one hand. 

I have always believed a team takes on the personality of it's manager.  There are some teams who's players will run through a wall for their manager.  This team has taken on a lazy personna and it starts with Russell.  You can bet they would  be playing alot harder for a guy like McClendon.  He wasn't a bad manager, he just had crap for players.  Give him this group and I guarentee they would be much better.

I'm not saying fire Russell and hire McClendon back though.  I have a guy in mind that would be a good fit here and that's Phil Garner.  They need a guy to come in and say "This isn't the way we play here." They need a guy to light a fire under this team and challenge them until they succeed,  Scrap Iron is that guy for me.  He's gotten teams to the playoffs and took the Astros to the World Series.  Even as a part time fix, a guy like Garner would have this team in much better shape than a guy like JR.

Neil Huntington, make a move and make it soon.  I don't think I can take this guy any longer.