I don't want to bog anybody down with higher mathematical algorithms and formulas, but a quick check of Baseball Almanac, MLB.com and Wikipedia reveals that Eric Wedge's record while managing the Cleveland Indians was Crapass and Suck, a tad better than the record of the recently departed Pirates skipper John Russell. (Official record of: Steaming Pile of Bear Scat and Vortex of Despair.)In fact, a straight up analysis of the records of Wedge versus Russell is not fair, considering the talent Wedge had on his staff. The Indians had C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee as their aces, while the Pirates named Paul Maholm and Zach Duke their aces. (I guess, but those guys are more like Jacks. Or maybe a 10 of clubs.)
Through complex analysis and adjustment for pitching staff, turns out both Russell and Wedge stink sideways. It is fairly evident that the corpse of Danny Murtaugh would, right now today, a better skipper than either of them.
Yet, Pirates management thinks Wedge might be their man.
If you think that a skipper doesn't mean that much to the on field product, drive on down to Baltimore, grab a crabcake and ask the fans how they feel about Buck Showalter, and if they think their team, the team with a winning percentage of just .303 when Showalter was hired, would have finished as strong as they did (winning percentage of .535 after the Showalter move.)
The Pirates front office feigns indignation when fans and media assert that the organization does not care to win. Oh, they get all self-righteous and somehow manage a straight face when crying that they are unfairly picked upon. But in Pittsburgh, and in other places where people care about baseball, sane people have come around to the belief that the Pirates, like the owner in "Major League," actually run their organization with the goal of losing.
No matter what the evidence staring them in the face, the Pirates will hire a proven loser just days after they fired their AA affiliate Altoona manager. Yeah, the one who won the Eastern conference. The nerve of that guy going out and winning and stuff. You wouldn't want a guy like that in your organization.Why Eric Wedge? Well, why do the Pirates do anything they do? Because that's how the Pirates do things.
As Jason Kendall once said, welcome to hell.
