Pirates Fire Russel

[BuckFoston]

"The Pirates this morning fired John Russell after three years as manager.

The team also affirmed that Neal Huntington was staying as general manager by having Huntington make the announcement. The decisions were made by president Frank Coonelly, in consultation with owner Bob Nutting.

Russell, 49, was hired Nov. 5, 2007, and compiled a record of 186-299, a .383 winning percentage that was the ninth-worst of any manager in Major League Baseball history over three years. That included a 57-105 record in the season that ended Sunday in Miami, the third-highest loss total in the franchise’s 124-year history."

After all the success he had in Pittsburgh I am surprised they let him go.

http://plus.sites.post-gazette.com/i...s-fire-russell

Why is Huntington staying though? Seriously.

[love_that_reefer]

Huntington is staying because he raped the Dodgers in the Dotel trade I would imagine. Tons and tons of capable options out there this offseason. I just hope they stay away from the Bob Melvin's. Phil Garner was a Pirate at one time, maybe he could come back and manage.

[Kingdom]

Who?

[Slyder]

They'll add some no name assistant who will work for cheap or one of the guys LTR mentioned because the owners really dont care as long as $$$ is being made and a lot of it.

[Sabu88]

The above statement is correct

[Witlon]

Russell was bad, don't get me wrong. He had no fire. It just looked like he was collecting a paycheck out there.

What do you suggest, Slyder, go out and pay a bunch of money to another Jim Tracy? Nobody can win with this team(yet), might as well save money in the meantime.

As for Neal, I'm glad he's coming back. He's been pretty good with drafting as well.(Tony Sanchez was overpicked by a round, but, eh, club won't give you money, you can't go big.) The personel problem is going in the right direction(as I say that, Huntington is on the phone with Jose Guillen, Magglio Ordonez and Geoff Blum, but I digress.)

[love_that_reefer]

Neal has done well and I think this offseason he will do even more to help this club along by getting some pitching and getting rid of some pitching like non-tendering Duke and a couple of others. If I'm Huntington, I'm looking at what the Cubs do. If they keep Quade, the Pirates should try and sign Sandberg. If the Cubs sign Sandberg, the Bucs should try and get Quade. Neither are going to cost a lot.

[Slyder]

Russell was bad, don't get me wrong. He had no fire. It just looked like he was collecting a paycheck out there.

What do you suggest, Slyder, go out and pay a bunch of money to another Jim Tracy? Nobody can win with this team(yet), might as well save money in the meantime.

As for Neal, I'm glad he's coming back. He's been pretty good with drafting as well.(Tony Sanchez was overpicked by a round, but, eh, club won't give you money, you can't go big.) The personel problem is going in the right direction(as I say that, Huntington is on the phone with Jose Guillen, Magglio Ordonez and Geoff Blum, but I digress.)

Fire the entire franchise from the owners down.

[realmofotalk]

Jim Tracy is smirking from a golf course somewhere.

[love_that_reefer]

According to Jim Bowden of Sirius XM Radio, Phil Garner said he has interest in the Pirates managerial vacancy.
Garner has a 563-617 (.477) managerial record over 15 seasons, most recently with the Astros from from 2004-07. Eric Wedge, Mike Hargrove, Joel Skinner -- all with Indians roots -- and Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell are believed to be some of the other candidates. The Pirates are thought to be looking for major league managing experience in their next skipper.

Hey, I think Garner read my post and thought "Why the **** not?"

[Witlon]

Wouldn't mind Hargrove or Garner. Wedge and Skinner would be Russell-esque disasters. Don't know much about Farrell.

[love_that_reefer]

Another guy I was thinking about with Pirates ties like Garner was Tony Pena. He did help get the Royals above .500 in 2003 which is saying a lot. Pena also won the Manager of the Year award for that. He's been a coach for the Yankees since '07 and might be a good fit.