My first thought reading the poll results was that the fans follow media suggestions too much.

I mean, Tony Pena didn’t rank as high as Trent Jewitt.. what’s up with that? Jewitt is a great guy and all, but still..

Then I considered that, perhaps, some fans still think of Pena as the guy who quit on the young Royals much like Jimmy Leyland quit on the soon to be young Pirates after Kevin McClatchy bought the franchise.

Or, maybe the fans thought voting for Pena was useless because he will probably remain with the Yankees?

Is it possible those voting don’t remember Pena in Pittsburgh?

Naw..

Of all the candidates listed, Pena by far and away has the most experience, has to be considered one of the most credible, and would seem to be the best choice to manage the Pirates outside of Girardi. Yet, that’s not who the fans indicated they would like to see.

Interesting.

Thanks for participating.

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A few season ticket holders have emailed indicating ticket prices have remained the same for the 2008 season (at least to them, that is) and that perks have been marginalized. Season ticket holders lost the following perks from 2007 (at least none of these are mentioned in the 2008 brochure):

– two free Piratefest tickets and early access to Piratefest with a private autograph session;
– six free game tickets has been reduced to two infield boxes;
– exclusive Q&A with the GM;
– Father’s Day catch on the field;
– Kid’s clinic;
– possibility of appearing in a Pirates commercial;
– advance opportunity to buy concert tickets;
– half-price Lady Bucs membership;
– chance to win two World Series and All-Star game tickets including air costs;
– limited edition print.

Added benefits seem to include – early payment bonuses including the ability to purchase extra Yankees series tickets plus a hat and golf shirt, and enhanced customer service.

Whoopie!

And if you pay by November 8th, you get to carry all the black ink home you can pack up from the club’s profit and loss statement each week and start your own spamming operation selling recycled ink. Wow..

Anyway, here is the Pirates promotional schedule for 2008 for your viewing pleasure (large 770k or small 270k). And for the curious, here is Frank Coonelly’s letter to season ticket holders last week.

Thanks to everyone who submitted communication.

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Bucco Blog has been approached by one national media group asking us to come under their umbrella and part of that process required us to reveal weekly stats to them. While I’ve paid attention to overall numbers, where people were coming from wasn’t as interesting to me as it was to the group.

At the close of the week I ran the report and took a few minutes to decipher it and, low and behold, guess which viewer was the 20th most frequent visitor?

Hmm..

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Renteria went to the Tigers as we mentioned the other day was being talked about. While the fans seem to think that means Wilson will be staying put, the Tigers aren’t the only team in need of a shortstop so don’t count your chickens quite yet.

It is worth noting there is little rumor talk about Wilson as the GM meetings approach.

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Paul Meyer with the Post-Gazette revealed in a rehash of rehash article Tuesday:

"Huntington had sought to name an assistant general manager before interviewing managerial candidates, but his focus has shifted."

HAHAHAHAHAHA

I’m sorry.. I couldn’t help myself. Come on now.. nearly six weeks after getting the job the man can’t even find a #1?????

Nobody? Zilch?

Puh-lease.

I’m available. Huntington can give me the title "Sabermetric Analyst to keep Jake off my butt for the next TWO years".

LoL

I can just see the other GM’s licking their chops waiting for Huntington to open the garage door.

Man-oh-man, are we in trouble.

You have to love some of the comments coming out of Federal Street lately because they cause ears to perk up. Here’s a few examples:

"Huntington is considering adding more area scouts to the payroll. He also wants the cross-checkers — labeled "supervisors" in the Pirates’ new lexicon — to do more hands-on work with the area scouts." October 21, 2007

Almost a month ago, Bucco Blog listed three critical pieces (end of article) to the Pirates overhaul puzzle that we believe will quickly enable the fans to determine if Neal Huntington and Frank Coonelly are going to be successful.

Listed as #2 was this piece:

"Our regional scouting system revamped into an expanded national system so that higher productivity is achieved and fewer mistakes are made."

It’s well known in the industry that the Pirates have paid their scouts below league average wages for years resulting in few quality people willing to work for them. So the fact Huntington wants to add more scouts doesn’t mean a thing unless his budget is significantly increased.

However, it does seem like he is attempting to nationalize the system. The end result could be that an East Coast cross-checker is out West giving talent there a second look, the West Coast guy in the South double checking talent there, and so on. The failure of the Pirates to move to such a system over the years has resulted in very poor drafts.

However again, none of this means a thing if we don’t hear Huntington is given double or triple the budget Dave Littlefield had for scouting last year.

Pirateball.com had two comments. The first:

"I also was interested in touring the facilities down in Bradenton and seeing the renovations being done," added Huntington … "[w]ith my experience in the past, I wanted to see if there were new ideas that I could bring to the table."

Interesting comment since Huntington et al brought a host of new culture etiquette programs to the Indians training facilities like, which fork to eat with your salad, how to properly hold your nose in the snobbery position, and when the little finger should be pointed outward.

Kidding aside, the young players are taught basic life skills in classes like how to balance a checkbook, managing money, and proper care of their body, before they hit the field to play everyday. We have to assume Huntington’s trip to Bradenton was to insure new chalkboards, overhead projectors, and laser pointers were on order. Still, this is good stuff.

The second comment at Pirateball.com was this:

"We are going to be fairly aggressive in trying to reach out to Pirates of the past… We are looking for outstanding candidates, and those can come from any number of places."

Couple that comment with Huntington’s recent revelation that he’s "now ready" to start looking for a manager, you have to wonder what happened to him hiring his #1 first? More on that later.

You have to agree with Huntington’s thought that folks shouldn’t just be brought in because they happen to be ex-Pirates, but there are some very qualified people available in the pool. Whether any of them would be interested since they are all working for other organizations, and considering the aura (no pun intended Neal) on Federal Street right now, is another thing.

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That brings us to revelations out West – home plate whispers from the Arizona Fall League.

Evidently, some of the players who attended the Pirates Instructional League camp this year walked away "bewildered" and "somewhat demoralized" by the lack of direction and general disorganization.

Brian Graham had taken over late for Dave Littlefield who had been fired and minor league pitching rover Gary Ruby left the organization earlier in the year leaving Indianapolis Indians pitching coach Jeff Andrews filling in for Ruby.

Certainly chaos was to be expected since the organization was in transition, but that evidently didn’t stop the young players from being impacted. Now don’t forget, Huntington was on the job during Instructionals so he could have made a difference early on if he wanted to, but it seems he chose not to.

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Speaking of hot seat talk, this comes during the ALCS where some seem to believe Frank Coonelly has his eye on taking the Commissioner’s seat and that his stop in Pittsburgh is nothing short of an attempt to be the "knight who saved the Pittsburgh Pirates."

One source states that at least one general manager candidate who interviewed with Bob Nutting and Coonelly was asked point-blank how he would feel about Coonelly making all the major baseball decisions. Surprised he was even asked, his answer "doomed whatever chance he had."

The source goes on to suggest there were at least three GM candidates who interviewed other than Huntington and all walked away believing they had the job until Huntington’s name was announced after Mark Shapiro’s lobbying. Two of the three even had farm directors and teams ready to put in place.

Coonelly and Huntington "are being brutally roasted in the stands" and, as we’ve mentioned here numerous times, the source stated that "quality baseball people continue to refuse to have anything to do with them. Frank and Neal’s handiwork has left a lot of bodies strewn across the baseball landscape this past month – and those bodies are picking themselves up and spreading the word."

Lastly, this question echoed in the air from someone in the group: "if and when Frank goes back to NY, will he take Neal with him?"

Brutal… but it’s right in line with what we have heard from others around the game, as well as from the Chairman himself.

Nutting stated that his President/CEO would be active in business and operations so it was painfully obvious from the onset Coonelly was going to be running this ship.

And I’m still of the opinion that, through Robert Nutting, Dan Duquette has a silent hand over Coonelly anyway which none of the GM candidates could have possibly known was going to happen. Although, the Nuttings have had their hands directly on this sinking ship since late 2002, so really – what’s new? Huntington seems to be just another puppet like Littlefield was to McClatchy when he was playing executive.

Yet, to hear that three candidates all felt they were duped along the way? No wonder there is so much "fast Philly lawyer" and "Neal the kid" gossip spreading from so many different sources. Wow.

The next few weeks should be very interesting indeed as potential new puppet manager names like Jay Bell, Dave Clark, Art Howe, and others who are a considerable step down in stature, start to appear.

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Tip of the hat to Jim Trdinich and the rest of the holdovers for having the guts (nerve?) to hang on keeping the organization going. You have to believe some in the front office still don’t know if they are in or out.