The Pittsburgh Pirates made an interesting announcement last Tuesday, to put it mildly. Principal owner, Bob Nutting, announced that they would retain everyone from their staff for at least one more season.
Everyone; President Frank Coonelly, GM Neal Huntington, Asst. GM Greg Smith and Kyle Stark a.k.a. “hoka hey.” The Pirates website has an article titled “Pirates chairman intends to stay course.”
And that’s exactly the problem. Once again, the front office sees a problem and does nothing to fix it. Just as I wrote on Sunday about the Pirates hiring a bunting master to be the hitting coach, the Pirates fail to address another issue here.
Ask yourself this: would the Yankees tolerate an epic collapse at the end of the season to miss the playoffs? Absolutely not and therein lies the difference. The Yankees look for ways to get better and they look for a plan to make sure they do not make the same mistake twice. Throw out payroll, throw out all of the royalties of playing in the biggest TV market in America, and look at the fundamental thinking between the two clubs. One aggressively seeks improvement while the other hangs on until tolerance reaches a torturous level.
The Pirates don’t have to spend $500 million on a player to become a playoff team. As the Reds, Rays, Brewers, Twins and A’s have shown, it doesn’t take a multi-billionaire to run a winning team. The only problem with being a small market team is that it restricts the amount of “misses” you are allowed to have, whether it be in the draft or free agency.
This franchise in Pittsburgh has had a lot of misses and for that specific reason, changes need to be made. Or, at the very least, one change.
Does anyone know why Frank Coonelly is still associated with this franchise? Other than hiring Neal Huntington what has Coonelly done for the organization? Better yet, what sticks out among people who know the name Frank Coonelly?
To me, it’s the DUI he had last December when he was pulled over for driving on the wrong side of the road (maybe he was with Alameda Ta’amu.) When I think of Frank Coonelly, I think of him intimidating a bar owner for trying to make an extra buck at the expense of a losing team. To this day, that one is a head scratcher since Frank has spent the last five years doing the exact same thing. Want to know why the Pirates are a poorly run organization and look even worse doing it? It’s because they keep people like Frank Coonelly.
Coonelly should have been fired and a replacement should have already been on his way to Pittsburgh after MONTHS of researching the right man for the job.
There’s no reason to keep this man; no reason at all. What’s worse, Bob Nutting knows it, otherwise he wouldn’t have announced this decision on election day.
Stay the course.
Photo courtesy of Countingbaseballs.com
