FanHouse Jim Duquette

There really ought to be a term for someone who resigns just before they're gonna get fired. Whatever that imaginary word might be, Jim Duquette's picture could be next to it in the dictionary. The vice president of the Baltimore Orioles turned in his key to the executive bathroom today just before new team President Andy MacPhail asked him to do it. MacPhail, hired in June, was likely to bring in his own man as a top aide and that would decrease Duquette's role in making personnel decisions. He was already part of an awkward power-sharing scenario with executive VP Mike Flanagan and could read the writing on the wall.

"[Andy] informed me that he had intentions on bringing on another hire to an undefined role, but one that was going to be a significant role and one that I viewed would further diminish my role here," Duquette said this afternoon in a conference call with reporters. "That was really the impetus to ask him to accept my resignation. I appreciate his honestly, I appreciate the opportunity for me to start fresh and get myself going in a different organization."

It's hard to see what about his resume would recommend him to a new club. Duquette infamously traded Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano while he was with the Mets and with the O's made another reviled trade when he sent John Maine to his old club for Kris and Anna Benson. That's not exactly the kind of history that makes teams start a bidding war.

Attention baseball people: Are you from Western PA? Have you ever worked with a mildly successful small market club? Or helped rebuild a big market club? Do you know Robert Nutting? Could you possibly be described as "blue collar" or "hard working" or any other cliche that is often applied to Pittsburgh?

If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, chances are quite good that you'll be hearing your name linked to the open Pittsburgh Pirates' CEO position any day now! I know, I know, it's a dream job. Anyways, John Perrotto of the Beaver County Times gives the first list of potential replacements for Kevin McClatchy today. The current thinking is that even though Bob Nutting owns most of the team, he knows squat about baseball and will look for a baseball person to replace McClatchy while running the business side of things himself.

The thing about this list is that Perrotto didn't actually talk to Nutting about who he was considering hiring, he talked to other people about who they think Nutting might think about. The most prominent names on the list are Larry Lucchino (like he would leave Boston for Pittsburgh), Jim Duquette, and Dan Duquette (pictured). Most of the people are employed by other teams, meaning the Pirates would need to get permission just to talk to them. Personally, I just hope it's not a Duquette, for everyone's sake (except Orioles' fans that would likely pay Nutting to hire Jim away).