Pirates promise no changes in baseball operations for next year
By Matt Shetler
Yesterday’s news from Pittsburgh Pirates team president Frank Coonelly announcing the fact that there would be no changes in the Bucs front office has been met with anger from the Pirates’ slowly-dying fan base.
July 24, 2012; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates president Frank Coonelly (left) and Pirates general manager Neal Huntington (right) observe players at the batting cage before playing the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-US PRESSWIRE
What Coonelly said is that despite Collapse II, general manager Neal Huntington- along with assistant GMs Greg Smith and Kyle Stark and manager Clint Hurdle – won’t be going anywhere.
Coonelly said:
"“For the second consecutive year, we put ourselves in an excellent position to meet our objective of winning our division but did not play nearly well enough during the last two months of the season to accomplish it. Our fans are understandably disappointed and frustrated, as is every individual in the organization.As soon as we finish this season as well as we possibly can, we will turn our full and total attention to evaluating why were unable to finish the job and what we must do differently to take the next step to becoming a championship team. There will unquestionably be changes made to the way in which we operate as a result of this thorough critical self-evaluation, but we will not be making personnel changes at the very top of our baseball operations department. Neal, Kyle, Greg and Clint are dedicated and intelligent baseball men in whom I have great confidence.”"
I have long been a fan of seeing the process through, but I have a very hard time agreeing with the decision to bring back the whole regime.
It’s very hard to imagine another Major League Baseball franchise, or any professional sports franchise, going 13-32 in the last 45 games of this season and 19-43 in last 62 in 2011 and not make changes.
You have a second-year manager in Hurdle who, despite some progress, has one winning season in 10 years as an MLB skipper and was a big part of this team collapsing the past two seasons.
Then you have a GM in Huntington who, while he’s improved the franchise from the time he took over in 2007, hasn’t done much to really improve this team to the point it can win year in and year out.
Isn’t that the goal here: winning?
The only things that are for sure are that this team isn’t any closer to contending then they were when Huntington took over and they have once again succeeded in alienating a majority of their fan base.
Personally, I don’t see how changes couldn’t have been made, but I don’t have a huge problem with it.
However if every single one of these guys isn’t on a very short leash next season, then there’s a huge problem going on in this organization.
One word that the likes of Hurdle and Huntington can never use again is accountability. They spew it out every chance they get, but inside the walls of the Pittsburgh Pirates it means nothing more than a cheesy catchphrase.
There’s no accountability and while I know every single member of the Pirates organization, from Bob Nutting on down wants to win, I’m tired of hearing about it.
Actions speak louder than words and from this point on the only thing everyone from the front office down to the players should be judged on is wins.
Winning is the only thing that matters. Quit telling us you want to win. It’s long past time to start showing it.