There it is...

 

 

Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Pirates have hired Derek Shelton to be their manager.

Good for him.

 

Less good for us, I really liked that guy.

So will the coaching staff raid continue? Think Shelton will want to bring anyone else with him? Happy for all these guys but it’s really irritating to see the coaching staff get gutted like this after one successful season.

Great for Derek! I couldn’t be happier for him. He absolutely made the right choice.

 

Bad for the Twins

 

So will the coaching staff raid continue? Think Shelton will want to bring anyone else with him? Happy for all these guys but it’s really irritating to see the coaching staff get gutted like this after one successful season.

 

Hopefully the coaching farm has some top 100 talent ready for a callup.

 

Great for Derek! I couldn’t be happier for him. He absolutely made the right choice.

 

 

Well probably, it'll be good for his resume at least. As much as I've always liked to cheer for Pittsburgh, it's shameful how little they put into their on field talent. They are never outside of the bottom 10 in payroll, even when they were good and competing for their division. I guess they did escape the bottom ten once, when they generously bumped payroll to 19th place when they opened PNC park nearly 20 years ago.

 

Shelton is going to have to get the most out of the least, that's for sure. I'm not sure why the other owners agree to revenue sharing when Pittsburgh pockets all of theirs.

I have to agree 1 good season shouldn't net 4 coaching losses.

So will the coaching staff raid continue? Think Shelton will want to bring anyone else with him? Happy for all these guys but it’s really irritating to see the coaching staff get gutted like this after one successful season.

This will sound strange but I hope the raid will continue. It means we are doing something right.

 

Well probably, it'll be good for his resume at least. As much as I've always liked to cheer for Pittsburgh, it's shameful how little they put into their on field talent. They are never outside of the bottom 10 in payroll except for once, when they generously bumped payroll to 19th place when they opened PNC park nearly 20 years ago.

 

He's going to have to get the most out of the least, that's for sure. I'm not sure why the other owners agree to revenue sharing when Pittsburgh pockets all of theirs.

There are 30 MLB teams. Good teams don't change their manager "just because". Bad teams or badly managed teams have turnover, but once you can say you are an experienced MLB manager, there's a high likihood of being one again when the ax falls in about 3.5 years or so.

 

It's a once in a lifetime opportunity - take it and don't look back.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/coaches-managers-tenure-nfl-mlb-nba-nhl-premier-league-2016-12

Well probably, it'll be good for his resume at least.

It's a once in a lifetime opportunity - take it and don't look back.

The pay is good, too.

Well at least the bench coach was the last to go so they couldn't promote some of the other guys who left. Perfectly wrong order it seems

Well, congrats to him ... and damn it for us ... grrr ... but these guys aren't going to stay forever and it's a good sign our staff is being picked over. I just hope we fill those spots with equal or greater talent.

Arrr! Good luck to him!

I'm speculating that the loss of so many coaches could be a reflection of increasing respect within the baseball world for Falvey and Levine. If that's the case it will also mean that coaches and players from other organizations will be more likely to want to join our organization. Bodes well for the future.

This will sound strange but I hope the raid will continue. It means we are doing something right.

Agreed and it’s exciting that the organization has become so respected but if you’re stuck waiting for your top coaches to interview around and eventually get hired elsewhere you’re late to the party and miss out on other top candidates/internal options that also get poached.

 

Losing Shelton first could have opened a promotion opportunity for Rowson which could have allowed them to move up Fatse or Swanson. Nothing the Twins did wrong but still sucks.

Sucks to lose these guys but major props to Falvine.  They replaced Molitor and his staff with Baldelli who won MOY as a rookie and had 4 or 5 coaches get poached for big promotions.  That speaks volumes to how much this organization has changed considering no one ever poached coaches from the Twins even when they were winning.

 

 

 

Well probably, it'll be good for his resume at least. As much as I've always liked to cheer for Pittsburgh, it's shameful how little they put into their on field talent. They are never outside of the bottom 10 in payroll, even when they were good and competing for their division. I guess they did escape the bottom ten once, when they generously bumped payroll to 19th place when they opened PNC park nearly 20 years ago.

 

Shelton is going to have to get the most out of the least, that's for sure. I'm not sure why the other owners agree to revenue sharing when Pittsburgh pockets all of theirs.

Weren't they good for like 3-4 years straight when Bonds came up but never made it to the world series? Then they shedded payroll and everyone knew there was no way Bonds was resigning with Pittsburgh. 

Good luck to him. He's got some cleaning up to do in Pittsburgh.

 

Agreed and it’s exciting that the organization has become so respected but if you’re stuck waiting for your top coaches to interview around and eventually get hired elsewhere you’re late to the party and miss out on other top candidates/internal options that also get poached.

Losing Shelton first could have opened a promotion opportunity for Rowson which could have allowed them to move up Fatse or Swanson. Nothing the Twins did wrong but still sucks.

Few of Gardy's old coaches got other coaching jobs after he left, too.

 

There are 30 MLB teams. Good teams don't change their manager "just because". Bad teams or badly managed teams have turnover, but once you can say you are an experienced MLB manager, there's a high likihood of being one again when the ax falls in about 3.5 years or so.

 

It's a once in a lifetime opportunity - take it and don't look back.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/coaches-managers-tenure-nfl-mlb-nba-nhl-premier-league-2016-12

Unless it's Miami calling...in any league.

 

Well probably, it'll be good for his resume at least. As much as I've always liked to cheer for Pittsburgh, it's shameful how little they put into their on field talent. They are never outside of the bottom 10 in payroll, even when they were good and competing for their division. I guess they did escape the bottom ten once, when they generously bumped payroll to 19th place when they opened PNC park nearly 20 years ago.

 

Shelton is going to have to get the most out of the least, that's for sure. I'm not sure why the other owners agree to revenue sharing when Pittsburgh pockets all of theirs.

 

The Pirates had some really good years in the past under Huntington. The criticism was that they never added those "put you over the top" improvements to those contending teams and therefore came up just a little bit short. 

 

Fast Forward to 2018 when they actually added support to a contending team with the Archer deal. And of course... that deal blows up in their face (almost historically) with Glasnow and Meadows killing it in Tampa. 

 

Cherington will probably tear it down so Shelton won't be playoff bound for a little while. 

Good luck to him.

 

According to some interviews with Baldelli, Shelton was very influential during in-game situations last year and really helped Rocco in the dugout. Here's hoping Rocco was taking good notes!

 

The Pirates had some really good years in the past under Huntington. The criticism was that they never added those "put you over the top" improvements to those contending teams and therefore came up just a little bit short. 

 

Fast Forward to 2018 when they actually added support to a contending team with the Archer deal. And of course... that deal blows up in their face (almost historically) with Glasnow and Meadows killing it in Tampa. 

 

Cherington will probably tear it down so Shelton won't be playoff bound for a little while. 

 

Archer is and was pretty affordable in terms on contract, while he wasn't in terms of prospects. I'm all for trades when it's a better option than spending on free agents, but Pittsburgh sure finds reasons to never spend on free agents every year.

This story continues. Interesting. It seems to point to general admiration for Falvey/Levine. It's not like these coaches have accomplished much at this point....weren't very good against competing teams, and won a historically horrible division with mediocre pitching, bad defense, and lots of home runs. Then got blown away by a team that got beat by a team that got beat by a team in the post-season. Yet, competing front offices apparently feel the organization is one worth tapping into. I hope that proves to be the case in the long-term. And good luck to those that got their opportunities!

 

Few of Gardy's old coaches got other coaching jobs after he left, too.

Except with him in Detroit. And how is *that* working out?

 

Weren't they good for like 3-4 years straight when Bonds came up but never made it to the world series? Then they shedded payroll and everyone knew there was no way Bonds was resigning with Pittsburgh. 

 

They made the NLCS three years in a row, 1990-92, losing each series. You can make the argument that Pittsburgh could have won all 3. Each was a great LCS, actually. The 90 series featured perhaps the first ever usage of the opener - reliever Ted Power made the surprise start in the deciding game 6, going two innings before handing the bulk of the game to lefty Zane Smith  - Leyland banked on the Reds stacking their lineup with lefties in anticipation of facing the righty Power, and then bringing Smith in for the majority of the game. It didn't work, but watching that game now knowing that the opener would become somewhat mainstreamed by 2019, it's fascinating hearing Buck and McCarver talk about it, as it's clearly an idea from outer space in the baseball world in 1990. 

 

The Pirates had a 3-2 series lead going back to Pittsburgh for Games 6 and 7 in 1991, and didn't score a run in those two games. As much as the 91 Series is a classic, it would be interesting to speculate how that series would have gone had it been Pirates-Twins. 

 

Bonilla left after the 91 season, but the 92 team had a lead in the ninth inning in Game 7 with Drabek on the mound, and then Francisco Cabrera etched his name into history with the LCS-winning hit. Bonds and Drabek left in free agency after that year and for 20 years they sank into the depths of misery. 

 

Fun to go down memory lane. Pirates have a ton of history as a franchise but Shelton has an uphill battle to be sure. Hopefully he likes Primanti Brothers at least.