It's not about the name necessarily. Not yet.
The Pirates will hire a new general manager before long. As of Monday evening, based on a couple contacts I made, the interview process hadn't yet begun as Travis Williams and Bob Nutting prepare and pare their list, but it'll be soon. And once that occurs, those names will pop up here, there and everywhere.
From this perspective, there's a small bunch of names I like. Marc DelPiano, Tony LaCava and Mike Berger have long stood out for me in this regard. They're excellent, experienced baseball people, and each has a connection to the Pirates and/or Pittsburgh. Though the latter shouldn't be mandatory, it sure does help. After a dozen years of condescension from the position, let's finally have someone in place who speaks straight the way we do around here.
That's where my mind is, to be candid. It's less about the people, more about the prototype.
Oh, and it's about the posse, too.
Funny thing about prospective GMs is that they can't just sell themselves to a team president. They've got to sell their whole apparatus, everyone they'd bring along, everything they'd plan to do, and that involves having others loyal to them and their philosophies. It means being connected, having a network and, in turn, that means being trusted.
One of the many uninspired elements of the Neal Huntington hire in 2007, other than that the Indians themselves had just demoted him, was that he came with no such thing. He brought one person along, Kyle Stark, a 28-year-old at the time with virtually no baseball background, and he'd wind up solely trusting Stark and shutting out the rest. The only time those two did take others' input was when they were in trouble, which is how DelPiano, Jim Benedict and other veteran baseball executives helped build up the three playoff teams in 2013-15 through outside acquisitions.
(DelPiano himself was the one who strongly recommended, for example, acquiring Russell Martin, A.J. Burnett, Jason Grilli, Michael McKenry and others, all at excellent prices since their previous employers had undervalued them.)
That's what's needed here.
It's a misnomer to suggest, as some do, that a GM has to pick sides in the endless scouting-vs.-analytics debate. The GM needs to guide the operation and, along the way, cull and apply all available data. It's silly to see or to label anyone any other way in baseball these days. This is now everywhere.
But the one trait I'd value above all others, the one I'd choose if only one were available, is this: Recognize talent.
Employees at all levels of the organization can bring all kinds of skill sets. But the one at the very top of baseball ops should be someone who could parachute into the Panamanian jungle, watch a pickup ballgame on a sandlot and identify the next Omar Moreno or Rennie Stennett. That's the tiebreaker, for me. That eye. That ability to see things others don't see.
The public still focuses on payroll as the Pirates' shortcoming, but where would they be now if Huntington could evaluate nothing more than his own in-house talent. Jose Bautista. Charlie Morton. Gerrit Cole. Tyler Glasnow. Austin Meadows. So, so, so many others. It's not so much about whether he couldn't have kept those players, but whether he could've capitalized on them as assets.
I want this GM, the one who can do this. From there, he or she can map out all the rest.
• Maybe you've noticed that I always say 'he or she' when it comes to this post. That's primarily because of Kim Ng, the Dodgers' senior vice president of baseball operations and a very real candidate for GM openings in the recent past. If you aren't aware of her story, it's worthwhile. She's done everything at the executive level of the game.
• Repeating for emphasis: Jeff Banister for manager. That's a name I'll cite specifically and stand by it.
• I promise not to pile onto the departed into infinity, but my goodness, it's so easy: Among the flurry of moves the Pirates were required to make yesterday by Major League Baseball's 5 p.m. deadline to set 40-man rosters, James Marvel, the organization's 2019 Minor-League Pitcher of the Year, was outrighted away.
Man, think about that.
• Exercising the club options of Starling Marte and Chris Archer were both no-brainers, difficult as the latter might be to digest. The major-league roster's greatest need by a massive mile is starting pitching. And, as Marvel's release painfully illustrates, the cavalry won't come from within. Need to go to the outside. And outside, the prices are many times higher than Archer's $9 million salary.
Minkah Fitzpatrick in warmups Sunday at Heinz Field. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS• The question isn't whether or not the Steelers made a good trade in getting Minkah Fitzpatrick for a 2020 first-round pick. No, the question is whether or not they've robbed the Dolphins blind.
• Mentioned by nearly everyone: Mike Tomlin made two totally pointless challenges down the stretch Sunday, costing his team two potentially precious timeouts.
Mentioned by nearly no one: Tomlin's guided a team without its franchise quarterback, without its top running back, without its top defensive performer, to four wins in the past five games. Because, as has been the case throughout his tenure, the Steelers have never slumped their shoulders in trying times. We saw it with the 0-4 start in London in 2013, and we're seeing it again.
Which trait's more valuable?
• If this team somehow squeaks into the playoffs after all this, Tomlin will be right up there for NFL Coach of the Year. It's inconceivable that he wouldn't be.
• The opponents' perspective of the Steelers' defense is night and day, even from 2018. This was Chester Rogers, Indianapolis wide receiver, after the game Sunday: "They were bringing it every single play, putting pressure on the quarterback and making it hard for us. When you have people coming like that, Bud Dupree and T.J. Watt, it's difficult. That's a great team we just played."
• A year ago, Bud's name was mud around here. Then, the Steelers exercised his fifth-year option at $9.2 million, and the mud got deeper. Now, he's become a bona fide impact bookend with Watt, with his half-season totals at six sacks, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and -- though this has been under-appreciated, I'd say -- a stout presence on sealing the run to his side.
It happens. Players get better.
And speaking of told-you-so stuff ...
• While the national sports media was busy pumping up the Browns over the offseason, I was pumping the brakes in a big way, and I cited three reasons for it:
1. New head coach
2. Lousy offensive line
3. Still the Browns
Check, check and colossal check.
As I wrote at the time, Gregg Williams' fire and brimstone would be missed, and we knew nothing about Freddie Kitchens as an NFL head coach for the simple reason that he'd never been one. I also wrote that the Cleveland front office was collecting trinkets rather than building a team, going for splash with Odell Beckham Jr. rather than making sure Baker Mayfield wouldn't get killed.
Now, they're a 2-6 train wreck, with one more win than the Dolphins.
Clip and save. We'll do it again next summer.
• If you're looking for a caffeine-free pick-me-up this a.m., you're welcome:
So this Cleveland radio guy guaranteed that the Browns would beat the Broncos...
Today, he faced the music.
Just listen. pic.twitter.com/9GuK57pM1l
— Ryan Koenigsberg (@RyanKoenigsberg) November 4, 2019
• The mind boggles that Aaron Donald will return Sunday to Heinz Field as the NFL's unrivaled finest defensive player. And yet, it doesn't. Allegedly undersized as he was, he dominated at Pitt unlike anyone I'd seen on that side of the ball. Opposing offenses had virtually no one else they needed to attack, and he still couldn't be stopped.
Labels be damned, we all should've seen it coming. Other colleges, too, when AD was doing all that at Penn Hills, as well.
The Bruins' Brad Marchand beats Tristan Jarry in the third period Monday in Boston. - AP• All season long, the Penguins' goaltenders, Matt Murray and Tristan Jarry, had been very good. Then, in the 6-4 loss last night in Boston, both were very bad.
It happens, right?
So does an outcome like the previous one against the Oilers, where the opponent's goaltender owns the process. It's kind of a critical position.
But show me a two-game span in which one hockey team runs up enormous advantages in shots at 97-54, in chances at 146-88, and high-danger chances at 33-18, and I'll show you a hockey team that's performing extraordinarily well. And one that's trending in a very healthy direction overall.
• Same applies to the power play. The Penguins have now gone nine games without a power-play goal, coming up empty on 21 consecutive opportunities, including the only one last night. For the season, they're at 14 percent, 24th in the NHL. Which all sounds ominous.
Except that they've averaged only four minutes, eight seconds of power-play time per game, fifth-fewest in the league.
Except that they've created 24 high-danger chances, fifth-highest in the league on a per-power-play basis.
Except that Evgeni Malkin missed all but three games.
Except that ... just watch them. Watch the clean zone entries. Watch the setup. Watch the rotation. Watch the distribution, the net-front, the shot-taking, and it couldn't be clearer they're doing everything right except the end, as evidenced by a 12.5 shooting percentage on their power-play scoring chances that's fifth-lowest in the league.
"It's just not going in for us. There's really nothing else to say about it," Justin Schultz was telling me over the weekend. "All we need is one, and we'll get some confidence."
Yep.
• Malkin's looked terrific. And inspired.
• Everyone's healthy for maybe 24 hours, and then Patric Hornqvist goes down, and now Kris Letang couldn't stick in the third period last night. This is why Jim Rutherford needs to sit still with all this depth.
• Am I the only one who'd prefer Sam Lafferty over about three or four current forwards?
• Pitt hoops tip off tomorrow night with an awkwardly early ACC opener against Florida State, a Sweet 16 team this past spring. And with Jeff Capel sending out a slew of new names around Xavier Johnson, including three freshmen, it figures to be a hard, if not futile fight.
But no matter how this one finishes, there'll be two months to brace for the full conference slate and, ideally, a chance for Capel's bona fide younger talent -- he's been everything that was expected in recruiting -- to clasp hands and improve. Probably worth keeping in mind.
“None of it’s easy,” Capel spoke yesterday at the Pete. “Even if you have a whole Final Four team returning, it’s not easy. But I like the direction that we’re headed in, and I like this group. I like the spirit they have. I like how they’ve worked. I like how they try to attack and get better each day. And hopefully we can continue to do that. We’ve got to stick together and keep fighting.”
A reasonable and fair goal considering the catastrophe he inherited from Kevin Stallings.
• Just bring the fun back to the place. That'd cut it for me. There's no sporting scene like it around here when it's hopping.
• The most common question anyone hears regarding the Riverhounds is whether they'll eventually join Major League Soccer. And an exceptional summer such as the one that just ended over at Highmark Stadium will bring it up all the more.
Here's the correct answer: Pittsburgh needs to get behind USL before it can entertain MLS.
That's what happened in Orlando, Cincinnati, Nashville, Sacramento and other markets. They packed their places for USL, and they created their own version of pro/rel by pushing their franchises from the second tier to the top. There's more that went into each case -- big-time ownership, new soccer-only stadiums in the 20,000-seat range -- but it always started there.
This notion that Pittsburgh would support soccer if we had MLS ... it's a waste of breath. There's a team here now.
• That said, our city's never been closer. This was a seismic stride.
• I miss the Steel Army already. Can't help but wonder why our other teams can't have a supporters section like that.
