Shelton out.

Bench coach Kelley new skipper. More of the same

 

Is Shelty Tony LaRussa? No. But, even Tony couldn't turn this scrap heap of a roster into a winner. This better not be the last move. Cherington is the architect of this.

I know he's limited financially, but the organization from top to bottom is crap. There's a shocking lack of viable prospects in the org. We have a few decent pitching prospects and Griffin, who's 3 or 4 years away.

 

Big deal. As long as Nutbag owns the Bucs they will suck. I'm guessing we suck to 2030 when the lease expires on PNC and the Salt Lake City Pirates kick some ass.

 

If we all are still around come 2030, would you remain a Pirate fan where ever they moved???? I've met many a Steeler fan who were not born in Pittsburgh and a lot never been to Pittsburgh but I never met a Pirate fan who was not born in Burgh sports territory.

 

Funny, that even goes for former players. Years ago I was at a Dodger - Pirate game in LA on autograph day and Dodgers coach (at the time) Manny Mota was yucking it up talking to fans and signing autographs left and right. Someone shouted to him - "You were a great Dodger Manny! Thank you!" He gave them a big smile and a thumbs up. Knowing he had been a Pirate for 5 years and an excellent hitter and pinch hitter, I said "You were a great Pirate too!". He glared at me as if he wanted to kill me. Oh well. Can't blame him, he was a Pirate from 1964-68, not exactly a primo period to be a Buc - sorta like the past several decades.

 

About time for a 3rd thread about Shelton. After all, this is breaking news.

 

look Shelton never had his players ---bunt---didnt have them try to steal enough --pulled pitchers when he shouldnt--didnt utilize players right --he wasnt smart--as GM Ben says---He was totally incompetant--there better be some change to the Pirates gameplan or you can expect the same..

 

Those were the Harry Walker years. Team was pretty competitive, but Walker alienated the players, particularly the latino and black players. They brought Murtaugh back, and things settled down (by then Mota was gone). Walker went to Houston where the same things occurred, with players like Jimmy Wynn, Joe Morgan, etc. I had a family member whose business was tied to the Bucs sales promotions and was very good friends with Harding Peterson and Joe O'Toole. Harry Walker was part of that group for a bit, then they separated from him before a lot of that stuff surfaced.

 

Now that Shelton is gone, the GM probably has a very short life expectancy. The ownership and the financial structure of baseball will have to change for the Pirates to be any good. However, I think we are stuck with Nutting, unless the commissioner forces him to sell in the best interests of baseball. I think it has been done before. And I hope the commissioner also has the authority to make Bob get rid of his toupee. That godawful toupee. It is the worst coverup in Pittsburgh sports.

 

You know there are a couple teams worse than us right? Note I spelled that correctly

 

I've not given up hope that we will catch them I don't think anyone will be as bad as the Rockies.

 

I was curious to see what teams are actually worse.

Over the last 30 years, these are the worst avg win %. Only KC is worse than us but they won a World Series in the last decade. They all have more playoff appearances, except we tie with KC. I always hear how awful Fisher is but the A's have made the playoffs 7 times in his 20 years. Even though he was sandbagging to get his team out of that sh**hole Oakland, he got them a new stadium in Vegas, where I think they're going to thrive. Both Oakland teams in Vegas now. He has a plan, and tries to do things to better his team.

Kanas City -.424/3 playoff appearances(Won WS in 2015)
Pirates -.445/3 playoff appearances
Miami -.453/4 playoff appearances(Won WS in 1997,2003)
Detroit -.456/6 playoff appearances
Colorado -.463/5 playoff appearances
Baltimore -.467/7 playoff appearances
San Diego -.487/7 playoff appearances
CWS -.487/5 playoff appearances(Won WS in 2005)
Seattle -.502/5 playoff appearances
Athletics -.508/11 playoff appearances

Bob Nutting is a f***ing disgrace! Look at those numbers! Keep in mind that two of those appearances were basically two 1 game play-ins to make the real playoffs, which they lost. Nobody deserves to get stuck with this shyster!

 

Thanks for the insight. It was a dark period for all Pittsburgh sports teams.

 

The only problem with cleaning house administratively, is that the guy who will do the hiring to replace them knows as much about baseball as my 8 month old grandson. When he wiped out everybody after 2019, he installed a hockey admin guy (Williams) to oversee the organization, a guy who was fired from his previous GM job and was a lower level administrator screwing up Toronto (Cherrington), and an idiot 1st time manager (Shelton).

He'll probably dump Kelley at the end of the year, hire some used car salesman to run the organization, and replace Cherrington with 2 or 3 analytics geeks who don't know a baseball from a rubiks cube, and hire Bud Black as manager.

 

Termarr Johnson is a top-100 prospect, too. They have five players in the MLB.com top 100, which isn't bad, but they have been too focused on developing arms over bats.

That said, it always comes back to Nutting. He is a horrible owner who has hamstrung the front office for decades now. They are going nowhere as long as he is in charge. They aren't getting a top-level executive or manager as long as he is in charge.

 

Maybe Nutting is clueless, too, but it is tough to tell because he is so overwhelmingly cheap.