Problems ahead UNLESS - article today in the Pitt Tribune

Picture isn't pretty after latest Pirates purge

By Mike Prisuta
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, September 8, 2007

For the record, it wasn't Matt Morris, Matt Wieters or even Matt
Lawton that ultimately cost Dave Littlefield his job.

Bob Nutting wouldn't know those guys from Matt Capps, Matt Stairs or
Matt "The Scat" Alexander.

"As long as Dave was here, I supported Dave's decisions," Nutting said
while explaining why Littlefield was no longer here, organizationally
speaking. "I don't pretend to be an individual who's going to be
effective making individual baseball decisions on individual players."

Nutting spoke Friday afternoon in the
Hiring/Firing/Here's-What-Went-Wrong-Tonight-According-To-Jim-Tracy
Room at PNC Park

On one wall was a picture of Littlefield being interviewed by media
members.

On the opposite wall was one of Littlefield introducing Tracy as the
Pirates' manager.

Soon, presumably, there will be a picture of the new GM introducing
the next manager.

That's all that ever really changes in an organization that
desperately wants you to believe it's committed to winning but, in
reality, wants only to continue handing out bobbleheads while turning
a profit.

The more things change, the more they stay the same -- from Kevin
McClatchy to Nutting, from Cam Bonifay to Littlefield and from Tracy
to whatever manager replaces him eventually under the delusion that he
has an opportunity to make a difference.

What needs to change before anything else can is ownership's
reluctance to pump the $20 million or so minimum that needs to be
added to the budget to give the Pirates a chance to compete and
contend. No one looks more uncomfortable or out of place than Nutting
while explaining why that isn't going to happen.

And no one inspires less confidence.

"I really don't think (payroll) is the only issue," Nutting said. "I
think that how effectively we deploy those assets is critically
important to our success on the field."

Deploy?

"We can all go back over the past couple of years and look at how
dollars have been allocated and re-think, in hindsight," Nutting said.
"It's easy to second guess. But I think that effectively deployed we
can be much more successful than we are today."

Nutting is half right.

Money must be spent wisely by small-market operations such as the
Pirates.

But to spend money wisely, you must first spend money, period.

Nutting isn't going there.

And the Pirates aren't going anywhere.

They can call press conferences and hire general managers who hire
field managers and repeat as necessary, but it isn't going to get them
anything but more photos for walls that already have too many
monuments to incompetence.

There are some legends on display inside PNC Park, as well, reminders
of what the Pirates once were.

I swear I saw a likeness of Willie Stargell shed a tear right about
the time Nutting used the word "expeditiously."

Until he talks of writing checks in such a fashion, he's wasting his
breath.