Pat Lackey's "Let's talk CEO" Post

A few of my readers sent me a link to Pat Lackey's recent post in his blog where he questioned John Perrotto's recent article wanting Robert Nutting to interview Tony LaCava for the president position.

Lackey stated in his post:

"I don't understand why a guy that hasn't been more than a scouting director or a front office guy should become the CEO of the team."

First of all, Lackey might have misunderstood Nutting's announcement where he said he would be hiring a president, not a CEO.

Traditional CEO roles in baseball contain three sides of the job, financial, operations, and business.

But it was clear from Nutting's statement that he plans to embrace a Devil Rays model where the old school CEO role is filled by two men - one a financial wizard who most likely will be front and center with MLB (known as the President in the Rays model), and the second a baseball operations man who will assume the tradional GM role.

While Nutting could indeed hire an administrative front and center man to be the president, Nutting has already said he plans to hire a baseball operations person with a business capabilities for the position because his financial side of the house is in order.

Thus Bucco Blog and Perrotto's desire to see LaCava hired.

Lackey also said:

"If you think he's beyond hiring Tony La Cava, who will take the job no matter what because he's local, and telling him, "This was a good team in the second half and accordingly, your front office is already in place. This is your budget. Good luck," then you're sorely mistaken."

It's true Nutting could require any person hired to have Littlefield finish his contract, but it's very doubtful that will happen.

General Managers aren't typically fired late in the year right before a new cycle begins - they are let go early in the year to mid-year. All signs point to Dave Littlefield being relieved of his duties in 2008.. when in 2008 is anyone's guess.

But no matter who takes over the role of president, they will have to evaluate the organization from Bradenton on up and that's going to take time. With the GM meetings quickly upon us in November and winter deals setting up the club for 2008 play, it's seriously doubtful anyone hired will make a rash move with Littlefield.

And Lackey's comment that LaCava would take the job no matter what implies LaCava isn't qualified in Lackey's mind, but in two detailed posts on Lackey's site regarding the search, he fails to mention one candidate he feels would be acceptable.

Perhaps Lackey missed the press about LaCava turning down the large-market Red Sox for their GM position? I mean, it's not like they hire YES men in Boston or anything, or should Bill James get out the KY too Mr. Lackey? And perhaps Lackey missed that Baltimore wanted LaCava for their GM role as well?

And Lackey absolutely must have missed the Devil Rays hunt for LaCava who planned to hire him before they eventually settled on Jerry Hunsicker as the baseball operations part of their old CEO role.

LaCava isn't just simply "a local" as Lackey suggests, he's been the most sought out GM candidates in the game the last two years for numerous reasons, the biggest of which is because he is, in fact, known as one of the game's brightest minds.

That isn't a "random claim" Perrotto made, that's a fact that has been shared numerous times by the likes of Schuerholz, Ricciardi, and Shapiro, which is not bad company to be in. Oh, and Branch Rickey III himself oversaw LaCava when Rickey was in player development and has spoken nothing but kind words about him.

Further, Lackey's statement assumes LaCava would be a YES man under Nutting, but obviously Lackey doesn't know LaCava's past too well. Simply put, nobody believes LaCava will take Nutting's job if he isn't given 100% total control under the Board's budget.

Lastly, Lackey stated:

"What I do know is that Perrotto's article reads like a fluffy piece of Paul Meyer ****."

My suggestion to Mr. Lackey is to do some serious research on the subject before dumping on a recommendation.

There might indeed be more qualified people to Lackey for the position, but as Perrotto and I see in LaCava, among others like the Red Sox and Rays, there isn't a better man available, especially in player development and scouting poor Pittsburgh where LaCava is the strongest in.

And no, Mr. Lackey, LaCava is not another 2001 Dave Littlefield clone - not even close.

I hope my fellow Pirates bloggers make a serious attempt to try and understand how critical Nutting's hire is to the future of Pirates baseball and to put a bit more emphasis on research before talking through their noses because we are impacting the hire just as much as any newspaper in Pittsburgh is, in our own way.

But that's my take --