Tidbits

John Perrotto is reporting what we first announced nearly one year ago on Friday the 13th -- that Ed Creech may move into Brian Graham's job. At the time Graham was said to have other opportunities outside the organization and we mentioned numerous times Creech was all but certain to end up as the player development director if that happened.

However, such a promotion under new CEO Frank Coonelly and GM Neal Huntington would be a very curious move.

One, it would be a clear signal nobody is willing to work with Huntington, which is what we have been reporting that we are hearing.

And two, Creech has zero experience in player development - he's a scout. Always been a scout (from the mid-80's on).

Lastly, Brian Graham took the position of player development with little experience and look what happened under his control - most of the quality men ran requiring Littlefield and Graham to hire mess, after mess, after mess. And mess is what we ended up with in the players developed under Graham.

If they aren't broken down or thrown out the door, they reach the show not understanding the game.

Plus let's face it, if Graham and Creech didn't ooze the culture changing ideology under Littlefield that Huntington now desires, why in the world would anyone expect them to all of a sudden find religion now? Because they are told to?

Forget it.. that's a joke. You can't teach old dogs new tricks, IBM always warned.

In Perrotto's article he also mentions Brian Graham might be being considered as a possible replacement for Jim Tracy and that others would remain like Cox and Shelby. Mark my word, that would make Coonelly and Huntington the laughing stock of baseball.

It's one thing to walk into Pittsburgh and announce a plan to rebuild which everyone expects, it's quite another thing to dig a gapping hole, much less two or three or four craters.

Considering Tracy hasn't been relieved of his duties yet and now reports are coming out all Huntington is going to do is shuffle management from job to job, Robert Nutting's credibility is quickly coming back under the light.

Nutting had better put his foot down to get quality men hired that know what the heck they are doing even if he has to pay them double because he and Coonelly made a mistake in their GM hire, or he's going to lose the remaining fan base.

All eyes are on Nutting and company right now. Either they are for real or they aren't. We'll probably know in a week. Most of the fans left like me want desperately to begin a new cycle of hope but..

God help us if we end up entering a rebuilding stage with a first year controlling owner Chairman (Nutting), a virgin CEO (Coonelly), virgin GM (Huntington), virgin player development director (Creech?), who knows who as the scouting director and staff (virgin Delli Carri?), a virgin big league manager (Graham?), and God knows who as the pitching coach (perhaps virgin Jeff Andrews?).

That's not rebuilding, that's lunacy.

I think that would put me over the top. No wonder Woody is retiring.

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I was going to post a wonderful article talking about some hope in the Pirates farm system but after a detailed analysis of the 2005 - 2007 seasons, I gave up looking for value.

The cupboard is basically bare.

There are a few buried players that I'm excited about knowing their tools like Todd Redmond and others who are starting to emerge some like Jason Delaney. But we have a lot of average guys like Pat Bresnahan who are just plain hard to figure out where they will ever end up. Tools are MIA in the system, as we all know.

Here is an Excel spreadsheet (right click link and select Save As or click here to view at Google spreadsheets) you can download with all the minor league players that have played for the Pirates from State College (NYPL) up since 2005 detailing all the basic and a few sabermetric stats for your enjoyment. The spreadsheet also has all the 2007 fielding stats from the short season up.

Good luck digging for treasure.

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There is a rumor running around some baseball circles that the Twins have either inquired, or plan to inquire, about Jason Bay. Matt Garza's name is being mentioned in the rumor.

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Pirateball.com's season in review article yesterday suggested:

"Biggest need: While there aren't any glaring weaknesses going into next season..."

Wow.. considering the club had a 122 run deficit and managed just 68 wins, I wonder what Jenifer has been smoking. Unbelievable..

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Since so many are asking, I'm going with the Cubs despite the fact the D'backs are 4-1 against the Cubs last 5 when Webb started, and the Cubs are 7-23 last 30 in Arizona. I think the Diamondback's goat is bigger than the Cubs.