Tracy thanks his players for two great seasons
At 3:30 PM, the Pirates will announce the latest in their season-ending purge of management, cutting Gentleman Jim Tracy loose. Tracy will be the fourth manager to have his name etched on the Pirates' near-record losing streak of 15+ consecutive seasons, joining the likewise uninspiring Lloyd McClendon, Gene Lamont, and lest we forget, four seasons of Jim Leyland's managerial brilliance.
Tracy's records were 67-95 in 2006 and 68-94 in 2007, and say what you want, but in my book that's improvement. One game is one game, and at that pace you could pencil the Pirates in the 82-80 category by 2021. Firing him is simply a case of impatience.
You'd think a guy coming off a 71-91 season in Los Angeles would be the perfect person to turn around the Pirates' fortunes, but it didn't exactly play out that way. Now, the onus is on Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington to fill the shoes of the .417 Man.
I heard Joe Bendel suggest Tony LaRussa as a replacement yesterday, making the point that if LaRussa asks for $5 million, the Pirates should do it, since they've given as much or more to players like Jeromy Burnitz. You can hire LaRussa, you can hire Joe Torre, you can dig up Casey Stengel, it doesn't matter. If they have to manage players like Tony Armas and John Vanbenschoten, you can expect at least 15 more seasons of the same.
