FanHouse KevinMcclatchy

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).

Last week Kevin McClatchy stepped down as the Pittsburgh Pirates' CEO, effective at the end of the 2007 season. It's clear some changes are being made in the organization with the slow phasing out of McClatchy, so the question remains, are more changes in the works? Tracy Ringolsby thinks so:

That leaves GM Dave Littlefield as the next target for blame, once McClatchy's successor is in place ...

[...]

It's an organization where ownership has opened the purse strings a little bit, but has largely wasted the money (and playing time) on the likes of Chris Stynes and Raul Mondesi in 2004, Jeromy Burnitz, Joe Randa and Roberto Hernandez in 2006, and Tony Armas this year. Yes, the same Tony Armas who despite his $3.5 million guarantee is about to be released.

It's true that both Dave Littlefield and Jim Tracy's contracts expire after the 2008 season, meaning that without extensions they'd be lame ducks. When asked about their fate after the McClatchy announcement next week, owner Bob Nutting refused to comment, saying it was a decision to be made after the season. It will probably be left up to whoever replaces McClatchy as CEO, and it will be a good test of what kind of executive the new CEO will be. Ridding the team of Littlefield would be starting off in a new direction. Extending him would just be an affirmation of the status quo.

Hat-tip to Honest Wagner.

Previously at FanHouse
Kevin McClatchy Out as Pirates' CEO
The Debriefing: The Biggest Threat to Baseball's Integrity

Did the Pirate protest actually work? Lots of people were skeptical after the protest itself, but Pirates' CEO Kevin McClatchy announced today that he is stepping down from his office at the end of the 2007 baseball. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"A decision of this personal and professional magnitude is not the type you make overnight," McClatchy said. "It was something Bob and I had discussed even before the change of control took place in January and something I decided upon a few months ago. It was a difficult decision but, in the end, I felt the time was right to step down as the day-to-day leader, so the organization can move forward with a fresh perspective."

If you follow the Pirates closely, you already knew that McClatchy was out as official owner in the eyes of MLB over the winter in favor of Bob Nutting. The question that lots of people have been asking since then is how much control McClatchy has really had over the team in recent years. The Nutting family have been the majority owners since shortly after the turn of the century, McClatchy has mostly just been a public front for them. Will McClatchy stepping down change the way the team is run? I'd be surprised, but honestly I suppose time and whoever the replacement is will tell.

That picture is from 1997, back when McClatchy was the savior of Pirate baseball for keeping the team in Pittsburgh. My how times have changed.

Two updates this morning on the Pittsburgh Pirate protest that's scheduled to take place tonight at PNC Park after the third inning of the Pirates/Nationals game. The first is that the Pirates have finally acknowledged something is happening. You won't find owner Bob Nutting's response anywhere on the team website, but it's in the local papers and on the local TV stations. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"I appreciate the passion of all of our fans and their frustrations with the team's performance," Nutting said in the statement. "Frankly, we all share in this frustration. Everyone throughout the organization understands the expectation and need to perform.

"I have not lost faith in the team or our core group of young players. There is still a lot of baseball to be played. Our focus as an organization remains on winning games.

"Finally, it is important to point out the immense appreciation I have for the continued loyalty and support from all of our fans."

Of course, this is they type of thing that Nutting and his predecessor, Kevin McClatchy, say all the time without ever doing anything to back it up. Meanwhile the Pittsburgh Tribune Review notes that the organizers of the protest have booked Dock Ellis to speak at the pre-game rally. That's right, Dock Ellis. The no-hitter on acid guy. And if you didn't have a reason to go before, well, now you've got a reason to go.

Previously at the Fanhouse
Pirates' Fans Are Protesting and the Pirates Are Pretending Like It's Not Happening
Pittsburgh Pirate Fans Are Protesting

The Biz of Baseball has noticed something that's well known in markets like Pittsburgh but virtually unheard of outside of those markets... running a small market baseball team can be incredibly profitable.

... The Pirates 2007 Opening Day payroll came in at $38,604,500, the third lowest in MLB, and down from a 2006 season-end payroll of $43.4 million.

This is while Forbes reports that the club pulled in $25.3 million in profits-third highest. Nutting and McClatchy have both tried to spin the matter as keeping in line with what the A's and Twins have done by using a modest player payroll base and working to field competitive teams. The problem with that notion is that the A's and Twins aren't brazenly pulling in profits. The two clubs rank 19 and 20 respectively in terms of operating income. They also know how to procure player talent.

The Nutting family, currently the principal owners of the team, flatly denied those numbers to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette over the weekend:

Neither Nutting nor CEO Kevin McClatchy has divulged how much profit the team made while spending $43.4 million on player payroll last season -- third lowest in Major League Baseball -- but they have said it was not excessive.

The most frustrating thing about this as a fan is to hear the team talk about doing everything possible to stay competitive and complaining about the market, then spending money on second-tier free agents like Jeromy Burnitz, Joe Randa, Tony Armas Jr., etc. If you look at the Pirates in the past five years, the moves they make all make sense, but only from a business perspective. The Nutting family has turned this into such an art that they can pull in some significant cash from the team while finishing near the bottom of the National League in attendance every year.