Frank Coonelly's "Dynasty" Comments: We Get It, He Shouldn't Have Said It

“I don’t know what it is about your face, but I just wanna deliver one of these right in your suck hole. "

what kind of things are acceptable to say to your own players? This is such a non-story it’s ridiculous that it’s gotten this much press.

I’m actually preparing an entire blog post commenting on your comment.

I for one think it’s ridiculous that you said that you are commenting about a story about a talk station. Clearly the story is about why Coonelly is an awful president and Nutting is cheap.

What reaction would we see had he championed 2010 as the start of a new era of mediocrity? “We’ve been horrible for 17 years, but beginning this year, you will see a new Pirates team — one that is committed to playing .500 baseball for the next decade.”

I was waiting for this one.

I guess I just don’t see how Ron Cook made Coonelly flummoxed. Coonelly didn’t remember exactly what he said. It was obviously not that important to him to remember exactly what he said. Therefore, his comment should be taken in that context. It was a poor choice of words, but it’s not like he sat around for hours deciding if he thought they were on the verge of a dynasty or not.

Ultimately, Coonelly is excited and positive about the team. He’s doing a lot of interviews, talking to players, consulting with his management team, etc. At one point, in an interview, he got a little carried away with the optimism.

What’s next, Ron Cook is going to blast Charlie Morton for saying he wants to win the Cy Young? Pedro Alvarez because he recently said his goal is the hall of fame?

No bucdaddy, it’s perfectly fine to dream big and build up hope. You just have to do it properly, such as by throwing big money at a guy.

I agree, completely.

“Couldn’t” care less.

signed
Mr. Nitpicky

how bout moving brewers to AL Central and someone from there to AL W?

Each league must have an even number of teams for scheduling reasons. Otherwise, there would always have to be one team not playing when not in inter-league play. That’s why the Brewers moved to the NL in the first place. It was because Arizona insisted on being in the NL, and that meant one other franchise would have to change leagues to keep it even. Selig offered his Brewers to avoid a problem.

A further issue is Texas teams don’t like to be in the Western divisions because that makes many of their in-division away games too late to get the optimal viewing audience in their TV contracts. The Rangers have been trying to get out of the AL West for a long time for this reason, despite the fact that a 4 team division should be easier to win.

I actually don’t think being in the NL Central makes it harder for the Pirates to get into the playoffs than it would be if they were in the NL East. Maybe if they were in the West division, but that of course would be ridiculous.

to signal the beginning of a dynasty. For one sports example, after the Colts drafted Marvin Harrison and Peyton Manning that was the beginning of a dynasty. They didn’t start winning until a few years down the road. Thats what happens in the BEGINNING of a dynasty, you aquire the pieces that will one day make the dynasty.

You don’t see the PG itself claiming that.

dynasty with good. The word dynasty shouldn’t have been used. With that said, if all these guys play to their potential and peak together, this team will be good. At max are we saying these guys will be as good as say the Cleveland Indians of the 90’s (Alomar Jr., Belle, Lofton, Thome, Ramirez, Baerga, Vizquel)? They had a boatload of offensive talent aquired through the draft, FA and trades. But never won a WS… (This would make a good fanpost)

So maybe if they all match their potential with productivity, they’ll be good. The same can be said of many of the rest of the teams in MLB. And even at peak, can these guys compete with a team like the Phillies, that have done well in the draft and then can go out and trade prospects for Roy Halladay?

The Bucs have some real promising position players, I’m hoping they all pay off in spades. The pitching staff, has more question marks in my opinion. Are Morton and Lincoln their best options for turning into a #1 in the next 3 years? Duke, Maholm, Ohlendorf appear to be solid 3s and 4s, maybe touching 2 with some Kerrigan magic.

I hope the ship has been turned around, but there’s a long way to go before we can even think about winning years, much less a bunch of them.

PS Spring training starts for me on March 10!!!!

You have to wonder why a NY hack writer spends so much time writing about the Pirates.

FJ – I can understand that many people are upset because they just see this as more bullshit that has been fed to them for so long. I get that. However, the people that are willing to dismiss this quote are people that believe that they can tell the difference between what McClatchy and Littlefield were doing and what is actually going on in the front office of these Pirates.

As for your 2 other questions that people might also believe is just more BS coming from the FO, I don’t have too much concern for them because I already know the answer to them. I know many people are not willing to accept that answer, especially the people who are trying to take Coonelly to the mat for his comment.

I’ve gone over it many times, but the Pirates have consistently spent in line with their revenues throughout the Nutting chairman of the board era, and also going back to the opening of PNC Park. For the people who don’t understand how revenue and expenditures work in baseball…oh well. Bob Nutting doesn’t have to prove anything to me to have faith that they will raise payroll because I already know the answer is that they must raise the attendance and revenue to do it. It’s not going to happen without it, and the way they are doing it now, with lowering payroll to try to build a cheap, young, talented club that wins is the way to do it. In my mind, there’s no reason not to believe he won’t raise payroll when the revenue allows for it. If he didn’t, that would actually run counter to the way the team has been run up to this point, so I don’t know why he wouldn’t continue to follow the same fiscal policy he has up to this point.

As for Nutting’s commitment to winning, it is extremely apparent to me he has a huge desire to be successful and win, because he has taken years of his life to get to this point with the Pirates, and he has allowed himself to be crucified when he knew there were going to have to be hard choices made. He has taken on that burden and I’m sure that can not feel good to have people – even national yinzers – lambasting him and vilifying him in the press. He is on a mission to turn the Pirates around, and I for one commend him for it.

On the issue of remaining level headed, Coonelly is a baseball guy and McClatchy was not. McClatchy didn’t know squat about baseball. The way Coonelly and Huntington are performing their jobs tells us that they understand baseball. They are generally acting in the way I feel this team should be run. They are focusing on the things that should be focused on. If you go look at WTM’s essay “Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid, Bob Nutting”, you’ll see an example of someone who is in the group that dismisses Coonelly’s comment and can separate it from the reality of what is actually happening.

I think the main issue I and some others have about the media people trying to lambaste Coonelly for this comment is that those people can not discern the difference between what is being done and what needs to be done, what was going on before and what is going on now. I think it was either Cook or Collier who I saw on Pompeani’s show and he said something to the effect that the Pirates were doing OK, but what really needed to happen was someone to come in and spend $90M on the club. This kind of nonsense is what really incenses me about these guys because what they are saying is just downright ignorant. They don’t understand how baseball works, and yet they are the ones the majority of the public is turning to for commentary on whether the Pirates are doing a good job or not.