Opening Day

[damont]

Just about 4 hours to first pitch in New York and here in the FedroSplat.

And yes, the following link is incredibly obvious, but it's still my favorite Opening Day song of all time. "Put me in coach, I'm ready to play..."

Comments

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

My question is, did the Pirates make any changes in the front office in the past 2-3 years? Because that is often what is truly needed.

After the 2008 season, one writer told Washington manager Manny Acta "You've got my vote for Manager of the Year." Acta was shocked and said "Why? I lost 102 games this year." The writer replied, "That don't matter to me. I wanna know how in the hell you won as many as 59 with what you had."

Twofold moral: [1] The manager CAN make a big difference -- see also Frank Robinson with the 2005 Nats, and the 2010 Orioles before and after Buck Showalter became their manager; [2] but sometimes the difference made is only between bad and worse. In the end you gotta have players who can actually do the job, and that falls almost completely on the front office.

The Nats are finally showing signs of life, but they had to get rid of GM Jim Bowden to do so, and that was only 2 years ago. If the Pirates haven't done anything drastic to their front office yet, perhaps they should.