Morris and Wandy Rodriguez starting soon.
Frank Coonelly in uniform. He'll stand in as the first-base coach. He'll help Ronny call the game, he'll steal the signs, he'll high-five all the players rounding first, and he'll try not to mix it up with the umpire calling the balls and the strikes.
John Perrotto on emerging GM candidate Tony Bernazard. Perrotto's source indicates that no GM interviews have taken place.
New CEO Frank Coonelly boarded the team bus and introduced himself, mlb.com's Jenifer Langosch reports:
"He came on the bus and said hi before he left and wanted to show his face and meet everybody," outfielder Jason Bay said. "He said that he was going to be around more early on, to feel his way around."How could the CEO in charge of day-to-day operations of the franchise never meet the franchise player?Contrastingly, Bay said he has never met outgoing team CEO Kevin McClatchy.
UPDATE: sludgeworm found this nice picture of Bay and McClatchy chatting from an earlier story (by Jenifer Langosch).
Mets assistant GM Tony Bernazard and Blue Jays director of player personnel Tony LaCava have already interviewed for the GM job, SI.com's Jon Heyman reports.
Antonetti and Hahn have declined to be interviewed.
So says Paul Meyer.
After the general manager is hired, that person and Coonelly will take a hard look at people employed by the Pirates.My gut feeling is that Frank will find more not good people than good people."I have a lot of contacts within the game who know who's good and who's not good and I've already begun that process," Coonelly said. "... We will figure out who the people are who are going to help us move forward and who the people are who have been holding this organization back."
Today the Pirates will officially announce Frank Coonelly (pronounced COON-lee) as their new CEO, the P-G's Paul Meyer reports.
The Trib's Rob Biertempfel has a nice pro-Coonelly piece with quotes from Keith Law and an agent:
One prominent agent who has sat across the table from Coonelly during hearings described him as intense, shrewd and well organized.I'm willing to give Coonelly a chance, at least until he announces his new GM. All hail the new CEO!"He's a barracuda," the agent said. "Very aggressive. He's not just throwing stuff at the wall to see if it sticks. He does his homework. In that regard, he's a great choice for the Pirates."
Gorzelanny vs. Bush in twenty minutes. Bucs need one more loss to clinch.
Paul Meyer mentions Amaro, LaCava, and Wren but also says Amaro hadn't heard from the team as of yesterday and Frank Wren was a "stretch".
Still no official Coonelly announcement. Maybe Nutting wants to wait until after the Bucs clinch losing season #15.
Perrotto's list. Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News claims that Ruben Amaro Jr. might be the frontrunner. Paul Meyer suggests that the 30-year-old D'backs Assistant GM and former director of baseball operations for the Red Sox Peter Woodfork is also a candidate. From the Arizona Republic:
"Woodfork has carved out an expertise in all matters financial and technical, including arbitration, contracts and the fine print in roster shuffling. But he says he still has a lot to learn, including honing his player-evaluation skills.Doesn't sound like the proven talent evaluator that Cory wants to see."It's definitely something I'm going to need to improve on in my game," he said.
Vlad at Bucs Dugout has excellent GM candidate bios on Logan White and Chris Antonetti.
On Coonelly, don't miss Pat.
I'm fine with a Bean Counter CEO. Expert Bean Counter who loudly and nastily argues? Better yet. If, and only if, there's a Baseball Guy who can evaluate talent as new GM.
It's nuts how much the NFL changes Sunday. Last week I slept long and late. This morning I get up at eight feeling like Party Boy.
Here we go Steelers.
