Game 155: Pirates at Cubs

Duke and Hill at one. The Pirates make their eighth straight attempt at win number 67.

We will hire Huntington

Neal Huntington will be the new GM, Paul Meyer is now reporting.

No decision yet on GM hiring

Alan Robinson reports for the AP. NTNGod posted this at Primer a few hours ago. Those guys are Primer sure are smart.

We'll know soon enough. I'd have more energy to focus on this GM search if I could get over the suspense involved with the Pirates attaining their 67th win. You could call this excitement, my way of maintaining the integrity of the game.

Game 154: Pirates at Cubs

Maholm vs. Marquis, starting soon. The Bucs have reclaimed the basement with only nine games left to protect the integrity of the travesty.

Neal Huntington, new GM?

The Bucs will soon name Neal Huntington the new GM, John Perrotto reports. Huntington is currently a special assistant to the general manager with the Cleveland Indians.

Game 153: Pirates at Padres

Morris and Tomko this afternoon, starting in about ninety minutes.

The Pirates are making their sixth attempt to win their 67th game of the season.

No love for losers

Dejan Kovacevic reports that Armas, Chacon, and Izturis will not be back in 2008. He also reports that Carlos Guillen has told the press that he hopes Detroit, in their possible search for a new shortstop, can do better than Jack Wilson.

Game 152: Pirates at Padres

Ian Snell vs. Chris Young, starts now.

GM announcement soon?

The Post-Gazette's Paul Meyer relates some speculation:

There was some speculation yesterday that the Pirates could have a short interview list and could make the announcement about a new general manager Monday, an off-day for the team before it begins its final homestand of the season Tuesday.

Meyer throws Logan White's name into the mix. Any short list would seem to include at least LaCava, Zduriencik, and Bernazard (but not Amaro, who Meyer suggests will be named Astros GM shortly). Another candidate for Bucs GM could be Mike Rizzo, who Meyer reported has interest in the job (read Vlad's bio of Rizzo at Bucs Dugout here).

Game 151: Pirates at Padres

Gorzo vs. Maddux in an hour.

Zduriencik

Will interview for the GM job, says Doug Melvin via mlb.com.

Game 150: Pirates at Padres

JVB vs. Jack Cassel soon. Stakes are high, as JVB is running out of chances. The Bucs trail the Padres by 15.5 games in the wild card race.

A good thing

Tim Marchman of the New York Sun likes the Coonelly hire:

One doesn't have to like the idea of quasi-collusion to admit that the most likely explanation here is simply that Coonelly, a powerful and effective baseball man, has agreed to try and turn around perhaps the game's least effective franchise.

Game 149: Pirates at Astros

Maholm vs. Backe, top of the first.

NFL week 2: Bills at Steelers

Steelers take the ball, start the drive down the field.

15

Dejan Kovacevic writes it up and the PG provides a nice photo (not good for drinking room wall) of Morris and Tracy.

Game 148: Pirates at Astros

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.

Bernazard

John Perrotto on emerging GM candidate Tony Bernazard. Perrotto's source indicates that no GM interviews have taken place.

Coonelly goes to work

Frank's first CEO move is removing Armas from the rotation, Dejan Kovacevic reports. Coonelly is also the topic of the latest Q+A, in which Dejan finds the new CEO to be "loud, clear, and confident", and not your average bean counter.

Bay never met McClatchy?

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."

Contrastingly, Bay said he has never met outgoing team CEO Kevin McClatchy.

How could the CEO in charge of day-to-day operations of the franchise never meet the franchise player?

UPDATE: sludgeworm found this nice picture of Bay and McClatchy chatting from an earlier story (by Jenifer Langosch).