Saturday, September 15th, 2007 by Adam Wagner
They’re Making Progress?
Something bizarre is happening on Federal Street as the Pirates are making progress without fans and reporters realizing it. Apparently, the Pirates have interviewed both Tony Bernezard and Tony LaCava for the vacant general manager position.
Also, it seems as if Chris Antonetti and Rick Hahn both refused to be interviewed by the team. That is not a good sign, but not really a big deal as Antonetti, who was the better candidate, also refused to be interviewed for the Boston Red Sox job last year.
The Pirates’ website has a picture of Jack Zduriencick, who has played a huge role in taking future superstars for the Brewers during the same period of time that Dave Littlefield and Mickey White were busy taking college pitchers.
According to the PG, Mike Rizzo, Arizona’s former scouting director and the man who engineered a very nice (pitcher-heavy) draft for Washington this summer, is interested in the job. He’d be more interesting as someone in the front office, not the GM, however.
According to the Pirates’ website, John Hart may be considered for the position. This would probably not be an intelligent hire, as Hart is the GM of the A-Rod contract and the guy who built the Cleveland teams of the mid-90s that were so expensive that they caused a massive rebuilding process there. Still, it is nice to see prominent names being connected with this job.
That same article states that MLB’s Minor League coordinator, Sylvia Lind, is being considered for a job in the Pirates’ front office. The Nuttings and Frank Coonelly seem to be focused on finding people who have not received the recognition that they are worthy of and putting them in positions to succeed. This is the right way to do things, at least so far (but Paul DePodesta’s name still hasn’t been connected to the job . . . drat!).
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