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Clint Hurdle will be responsible for turning around the most inept franchise in MLB. 

Hurdle was named manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday. He signed a three-year contract and replaces John Russell who was fired at the season ended.

Hurdle will attempt to do something the five previous managers before him couldn’t do—a winning season in the last 18 years.

Hurdle’s resume includes a 534-625 record over eight seasons as the manager of the Colorado Rockies. His teams made one playoff appearance in those eight seasons, which included a run to the World Series in 2007.

Hurdle has also been a minor league manager with the New York Mets. He was last year’s hitting coach for the Texas Rangers and previously was the hitting coach for the the Rockies.

Is Hurdle the right guy for the job? I have no clue.

What I do know, is that talent wins in baseball. And the Pirates don’t have a lot of talent on that team right now.

They have a couple of solid building blocks offensively in Andrew McCutchen, Pedro Alvarez, Jose Tabata and Neil Walker. Other than those four, they don’t have much in terms of solid players that a manager would want to build around, especially in their pitching staff.

Hurdle and the rest of the Pirate organization is going to have to figure out a way to develop some starters. Zach Duke and Paul Maholm haven’t worked out and Ross Ohlendorf and Charlie Morton aren’t the answers either.

If Hurdle is going to have any success in his three years as Pirates’ manager, he is going to need to get some starting pitching.

The Pirates will hold a press conference today to announce the hiring.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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The Pittsburgh Pirates confirmed on Thursday that they are in the home stretch of finding their next manager.

After nearly two months of conversations, the team appears to be down to two men to lead the ball club in 2011. 

What should alarm Pirate fans is there are seven other major league clubs who entered the offseason in search of a new manager and none of them have contacted either of the men under consideration on Federal Street.

Neither Texas hitting coach Clint Hurdle, nor internal candidate Jeff Bannister have been contacted by any other major league club for any position, let alone manager.

The Pirates have largely failed in their search to this point. Eric Wedge took the job as Seattle’s new skipper before the Pirates could talk to him a second time. Bo Porter would rather be the third base coach of the last place Washington Nationals than come to Pittsburgh. Carlos Tosca took a job as a bench coach in Atlanta.

John Gibbons preferred to remain a bench coach with Kansas City rather than fly to Pittsburgh for a second interview. It is rumored that Gibbons will make more money on the Royals bench than he could have hoped to make in Pittsburgh.

All of this searching has left the club with a guy who hasn’t managed above AA and hasn’t been a manager at any level since 1998 and one who hasn’t turned up on anyone else’s interview list in two years. Not the sort of thing that is liable to get the fanbase fired up.

The Bucs will sit down with Clint Hurdle this week and then are expected to make their decision over the weekend. There will be no interviews past the former Colorado manager. GM Neil Huntington has run through his list and isn’t interested in drawing the process out any further.

The best guess here is that the job will go to Bannister. The stumbling blocks for outside candidates at this point appear to be both money and organizational makeup. The next manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates is not going to make a ton of money at the job no matter how well he does. The next manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates is also going to have to be willing to allow Huntington to micro-manage the situation to the point of distraction.

Bannister saw how that unfolded last year from the inside out. He saw how it created dissension in the ranks of the coaching staff to the point that Gary Varsho and pitching coach Joe Kerrigan were sent home in midseason. Neither man could drink the Kool-Aid any longer.

Bannister also saw the bizarre defensive schemes forced on manager John Russell from the front office. None of them work and none of them made sense, but Russell was a good solider and did what he was told.

That sort of loyalty and obedience will be required of the next manager, as well. Someone without previous managerial experience on the major league level is more likely to have that within him than another man who has managed in a World Series in this century.

Finding a man willing to take on the mantle of a team that is riding the worst losing streak in the history of the game is a tough enough task. Asking that man to do so while jumping through needless hoops is just asking too much.

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After various rumors circulating throughout the postseason as to who will manage the Florida Marlins in 2011, the ballclub wasted no timing in making a decision as they are expected to bring back interim manager Edwin Rodriguez on a full-time basis. 

Edwin Rodriguez went 46-46 with the Marlins, ending up in third place in the NL East but dealt with injuries to ace Josh Johnson, co-ace Ricky Nolasco, and injuries to Hanley Ramirez and Chris Coghlan.

Current Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez was dismissed in late June at 34-36 and in fourth place in the NL East.

Whether Edwin Rodriguez remains beyond the 2011 season remains speculative and hinges on the team’s performance on this upcoming season eve to the new ballpark in 2012.

Reports are that owner Jeffrey Loria is craving on a high-profile name in time for the 2012 season after swinging and missing on Bobby Valentine and Ozzie Guillen in recent weeks.

The offseason now focuses on the Marlins filling out the rest of coaching staff and roster, which is expected to get a boost on the defensive side.

According to Juan Rodriguez of the Sun-Sentinel, an announcement is forthcoming on both Edwin Rodriguez’s hiring and the return of infield guru Perry Hill who was with the Marlins from 2002 to 2006.

Perry Hill might prove to be the biggest offseason addition for the Marlins who were in the bottom of most defensive categories last season. Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla and Gaby Sanchez had a combined 45 errors last season with the latter two setting career highs in that category.

Hill was most recently with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2009 as the Pirates infield and first base coach but was out of baseball last season after the ballclub refused to release him of his contract he wished to leave behind.

Beyond the coaching end, the Marlins will now set their sights on retaining infielder Dan Uggla and pitcher Ricky Nolasco on long-term deals which figure to be the cornerstones to the new era of the Florida Marlins in 2012.

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Even though he’s a Pirate, Andy McCutchen is a well above league average player.

Newbies such as Pedro Alvarez, Jose Tabata and Neil Walker were all more or less league average in 2010, their rookie year (above average on offense, below average on defense).

Garrett Jones was moderately below average in 2010 after an above average half-year in 2009; a time-weighted performance suggests that he could be average.

Ronny Cedeno wasn’t quite an average shortstop early in the year, but second half strides may put him in this category next year (with a classic shortstop profile of strong defense, weak offense, the opposite of his teammates).

Ryan Doumit is above average on offense, and Chris Snyder on defense, relative to other catchers, so there is some hope of getting a reasonably good player behind the plate between the two.

The one question mark is right field, where Lastings Milledge and John Bowker, both of whom have shown flashes of goodness at times, are struggling to shake off the “replacement player” label (which dogged Neil Walker in 2009).

Despite its trials and tribulations, the pitching staff is decidedly better than it was two years ago, and that’s not counting Zach Duke. Following the fortuitous trade for James McDonald and the signing of Brian Burres, the Pirates have a halfway decent rotation.

McDonald is a second starter-caliber hurler, Paul Maholm and Ross Ohlendorf reasonable facsimiles of third-starter types, and Jeff Karstens and Burres do an adequate job of filling the back end. What’s missing is a genuine first starter, which is why the rotation is still modestly below average.

But the team has an above average relief corps, which may make the pitching as a whole just average. If people like Charlie Morton and/or Brad Lincoln can find their way to the back of the rotation, it means that Burres and or Karstens can join Dan McCutchen in middle relief, the bane of most baseball teams.

There’s one more requirement for the Pirates to be average. Basically, they have to keep replacement players off the field. That won’t be easy to do, because their bench isn’t the greatest, meaning that starters will have to stay healthy.

But they can also cut out the failed experiments from recent years: a white elephant named Matt Morris, a replacement fielder like Brandon Moss playing almost every day (in 2008-2009) and perennially injured players like Jeff Clement and Akinori Iwamura.

While the Pirates assembled their current roster largely through trades, they needed to do a better job of retaining key players. Oh, for a right fielder (and former third baseman) named Jose Bautista, who used to be a Pirate but set the season home run record in the American League (fortunately).

Or if you prefer, a second baseman named Freddy Sanchez, who won the 2006 batting trophy, and could become the MVP of the 2010 World Series.

(Defensively, this would allow the team to move Neil Walker to third base, Pedro Alvarez to first and Garrett Jones, still the best bet, to right field.)

Still, the Pirates have (probably) done well enough since 2007 (under new management) to look forward to better days.

“League average” isn’t great. But it’s a decidedly better place than the one the Pirates are coming from.

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As expected, the Pittsburgh Pirates showed manager John Russell the door late Monday morning.

No matter the reasons or excuses, you just cannot lose 300 games in three seasons and expect to keep your dugout job in any level of baseball.

General manager Neil Huntington says that the search for a replacement for Russell has already begun in organizational meetings in Bradenton, Florida.

Huntington, who was approved for another season on the job by team president Frank Coonelly late Sunday night, will head the search.

So the guy who thought that Jose Bautista could never hit in the major leagues, Aki Iwamura could, and Matt Capps couldn’t get anyone out now gets to decide who is going to lead this team out of wilderness it has wandered in for the last 18 years.

Not that you need any reason to be pessimistic, but here are a couple: The last manager to leave Pittsburgh with a winning record was Chuck Tanner. That was 1985. The last time the Pirates hired a manager who led them to the postseason was 1986 with Jim Leyland. Yeah, that was last century—24 years ago to be exact.

The Pirates will find someone to hand over the lineup card on April Fool’s Day in Wrigley Field, but with as many as 10 other clubs looking for a skipper, the odds that the Bucs find their man given the present backdrop are not ones that you would take in Vegas.

What can the Pirates offer the next manager? Four really good young position players, no shortstop, no real right fielder, and a pitching staff that woeful does not fully describe.

Add to that no financial ability or willingness to find fixes to any of the above outside of the organization.

We can also tell the next guy that the last manager in the system to win, AA Altoona skipper Matt Walbeck, was shown the door after winning the Eastern League title. Lots of excuses here, but no real reasons.

Oh, and whoever takes the job will be hired by a guy in the last year of his contact who has yet to produce anything that even resembles a winning team in four years. 

Good luck with all of that.

If the madness is ever going to end on Federal Street, if the Pirates are ever going to see the bright side of .500, Huntington is going to have to do something draconian, like hire someone outside of his Pittsburgh-Cleveland orbit with a backbone. He’s going to have to hire someone who challenges decisions, has other ideas, and has a say in the process going forward.

It wouldn’t hurt if he could find someone who actually showed some passion for the game and the organization.

At some point the madness will end at PNC Park. Just don’t count on that being any time soon.

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The Pirates are concluding yet another terrible season with only two games left in the 2010 schedule. They are going to pick first overall in next year’s draft and have over 100 losses.

This seems pretty dim and honestly it is hard to get excited over much, but the Pirates have their young core finally and have reinforcements on the way.

With any luck they will be just a little bit better in 2011 and will make huge strides in 2012. No need to look that far ahead as you will need a reason to get tickets for next year.

These are the five players that will have you glued to the television next year when the Pirates are on FSN.

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I was sorry to see Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez traded away last year and not just because they were good players and all around great guys. It’s because they were Pirate loyalists who would have been willing to play on the team for less than they appeared to be worth on the open market.

An important consideration for the low-budget Pirates.

(FanGraphs valued their performances at between eight and nine million dollars in 2009, a level that Sanchez, but not Wilson, has maintained in 2010. Sanchez is playing for six million and Wilson for five million a year with their new teams, about one million more than the Pirates offered them.)

This trade came with a silver lining: The emergence of Neil Walker at second base, who has personal ties to the Pirates, specifically to Roberto Clemente before he was born.

Walker’s father was a personal friend of Clemente’s and scheduled to accompany him on that ill-fated flight to Nicaragua. At the last minute, Clemente told Walker’s father not to go, not only sparing the father, but the future son. Here is the making of a future Pirate loyalist.

I did not want us to trade for Jose Tabata two years ago, because of his, or rather his (then) wife’s personal problems. But Tabata worked through those problems with his team behind him, and to the surprise of yours truly, has become a productive player.

He was reported by the press earlier this year as being “happy” in this role. Perhaps these “warm and fuzzy” feelings would cause him to sign contract extensions toward the end of his club controlled years.

With the benefit of hindsight, it might have been a mistake to draft Brad Lincoln in 2006, but that was almost beside the point.The real issue was that the draft class included Kyle Drabek, son of former Pirate pitcher Doug.

Assuming that he was truly first round draft choice caliber (and subsequent events have proven that he is), Kyle should have been drafted, almost without regard to the other candidates, on the theory that his father’s connection with the Pirates might have turned him into a loyalist.

One group of potential loyalists are older players. There are a number of players who began their six club controlled years in their late twenties, like Garrett Jones. They will become free agents toward their mid-30s, close to retirement age for such people.

Provided that their “late blooming” status makes them worth keeping, these are players that could retire as Pirates, possibly with one or two years of contract extensions into their free agent years.

That’s one reason why I did not want to see (then) 29-year-old Nyjer Morgan traded last year. With the benefit of hindsight, he should have been traded, but for something better than Lastings Milledge. (Unless the argument was that this deal was a “loss leader” to get Joel Hanrahan.)

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Pop quiz: Who is the worst starting pitcher in Major League Baseball over the last four seasons?

If you said Zach Duke, then you nailed it.

The Pirates lefty has flat-out not been very good for a span that’s lasted four seasons. In that time he has compiled a 26-51 record and a 4.99 ERA and more than once has led MLB in hits allowed.

He put together a decent first half of 2009, where he was rewarded with an All-Star selection, but if Duke has proved anything, it’s that he can’t get major league hitters out consistently.

If you say he hasn’t been the worst over that span, give me a name, because I’ve run the numbers on pretty much every pitcher that has had a regular rotation spot.

In 2010, there is no doubt he is the worst pitcher taking a regular turn on an MLB staff. His losses are tied for fifth among pitchers with at least 120 IP. His 5.47 ERA is the second highest, and his .320 opponents batting average against is easily the worst. That’s actually embarrassing.

Once or twice out of 10 starts, Duke can turn in a good outing, as he did against the Mets a little over a month ago, but the overall body of work has not been good.

In his latest outing, he couldn’t get an out in the second inning. There is no longer an upside to Zach Duke. He can’t be a part of the Pirates rotation going forward.

What do you do with Duke?

He’s making $4.3 million this year and is third-time arbitration eligible after the season. On innings pitched alone, he’s going to get a raise.

The Pirates can’t allow that to happen. 

The only move that makes sense is to non-tender him after the season. His career as a Pirate should last two or three more starts.

It’s very unlikely Duke gets a major league offer from another team. He’s looking at signing a minor league deal with an invitation to some team’s camp.

The Pirates can’t spend over $5 million on a guy that just can’t get outs.

The production Duke offers can be found on the waiver wire for a lot less money. Take Brian Burres, for instance. His 3-3 record and 5.75 ERA can be found easily and a lot cheaper than $5 million.

It’s almost fitting that the Pirates have the worst pitcher in the game, but to turn the corner, management has to start parting ways with guys that are incapable of getting the job done on a consistent basis.

There is nothing about Duke that warrants him being part of the 2011 Pirates team. It’s such a shame after the way he came up as a rookie in 2005. Injuries set him back, and that 2005 Zach Duke was entirely a different pitcher than the guy wearing that jersey now.

Duke fans, enjoy him while you can, because he is more than likely spending his final few weeks in a Pirates uniform.

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In the midst of another miserable season for the Pittsburgh Pirates, it’s often tough to find real bright spots to talk about, but the Pirates have one in outfielder Jose Tabata.

Neil Walker gets the press, being the hometown kid, and he’s deserved it. Walker is having a tremendous rookie campaign and has cemented himself as part of the future core of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Pedro Alvarez also gets a ton of attention paid to him. Coming up as “The Savior” of the Pirates hasn’t been easy for Alvarez, but he’s handled it well and has shown at times what type of major league player he has the potential to become in the upcoming seasons.

Having said all of that, is it possible that Jose Tabata is the best of the three future Pirates stars?

Since his June 9th call-up, Tabata has been nothing short of outstanding for the last-place Pirates. He’s definitely been the most consistent.

Tabata has settled in very nicely in the two-hole in the Pirates lineup. What separates him from the others is his approach at the plate, which is the best on the team. Tabata is the one guy on the team that simply hits the ball where it’s pitched. He’s a very good situational hitter as well. 

He’s even shown some pop. The power will come. He’s shown he has it. He’s never going to be a 30-plus-homer type guy, but with time he has the ability to hit 15 to 20 a season.

Add to that outstanding speed and solid defense, and Tabata could be a future All-Star.

His 2010 numbers are very good. In 70 games, Tabata is hitting .312. His four homers and 21 RBI are modest numbers, but Tabata has shown he can hit well at the MLB level. 

He’s also stolen 14 bases. He’s been caught seven times, but that percentage is likely to go up as he learns the pitchers around the league.

Other impressive numbers for Tabata:

. His .312 batting average ranks second among all rookies with at least 300 at-bats, behind only the Giants’ Buster Posey.

. He reaches base consistently, reaching base safely in 58 of his 70 starts.

. He has 59 hits since the All-Star break, ranking him second to only the Cubs’ Starlin Castro.

. Tabata’s 87 hits since his call-up rank him second in baseball behind only Albert Pujols (88). That’s great company to be in.

That’s quite the early résumé for Tabata. He will only get better with experience. He deserves some votes for Rookie of the Year. While he has no chance to win the award, he should be recognized along with some of the other great young players in the game.

While he won’t win the Rookie of the Year, Tabata should win another award, and that’s the team MVP. He’s definitely the Pirates’ MVP at the moment. No one else has stood out to make a strong case this year.

Maybe it could go to relievers Joel Hanrahan or Evan Meek, who have both had outstanding seasons out of the Pirates bullpen. However, if you are giving the award to the guy that’s had the best season, then Tabata has to be considered the Pirates’ Most Valuable Player.

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The Pittsburgh Pirates will not have a winning record this season.

And water is still wet. The sun still rises from the east. Telemarketers still call at the dinner hour. Wile E. Coyote still hasn’t caught the Road Runner.

You know how whenever you watch a boxing match, no matter how little-known the fighters are, they always have winning records? This defies logic, because somewhere out there must be a fighter with a record of like 5-45. A tomato can with gloves.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are that tomato can.

It’s 18 in a row and counting—the Pirates’ streak of losing seasons. The last man to guide them to a ledger where the left hand column read higher than the right one was none other than the Tigers’ own Jim Leyland, back in 1992.

That was about 18,000 packs of Marlboros ago.

It was also when George Bush—the first one—was president. Steve Yzerman was 27 years old and wondering if he’d ever win a Stanley Cup. VHS tapes were still all the rage. The Lions were good.

In 1992, when the Pirates sported a 96-66 record and went to their third straight NLCS, Barry Bonds was still in the Dr. Banner stage of his career, pre-Hulk. He could actually fit through a doorway without turning sideways.

Leyland had dark hair and lighter lungs. Lloyd McClendon was one of his players. Andy Van Slyke, too. The Pirates played in Three Rivers Stadium, along with the Steelers, who were still being coached by Chuck Noll.

The Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies weren’t even teams yet. The Milwaukee Brewers played in the American League. Randy Johnson was still young.

Tigers fans grouse that their team has been disappointing since 2006, when Leyland led them to the World Series in his first year in Detroit. 2006 did in fact end an 18-year streak of playoff-less baseball in Motown.

But the Pirates fan has the Tigers fan beat because at least the Tigers had two winning seasons among those 18 (1988 and 1993).

A typical Pirates season means being out of contention by Easter. And that includes the years when Easter has fallen in March.

There should be a sign outside of PNC Park: The Bucs Stop Here.

Baseball seasons can be cruel and heartbreaking, like kids on the playground or your college girlfriend.

Baseball seasons can tease and give you a come-hither look and motion for you to come upstairs, and when you get there you see skeletons of the men before you—like that Monty Python sketch with the milkmen.

The baseball season is arduous and long and has more peaks and valleys than the Dakotas.

Except in Pittsburgh.

In Pittsburgh, there never is any hope. There’s no teasing. Just mocking.

The calendar flips to February, the Pirates gather for spring training, and already the folks there are talking about the Steelers’ chances or girding up for the next Penguins playoff run.

Then comes March and the exhibition games come, and the people up north in the Steel City plead with the media down in Florida not to let them know of all the tripping over the shoelaces and the throwing to the wrong base and the striking out with the bases loaded—because there’ll be plenty of time for that between April and September.

The Pirates are usually something like 8-17 in April, and by the time the kids get out of school in June, the Games Behind First column in the standings is in the 20s and growing faster than Pinocchio’s nose at a game of liar’s poker.

At the end of the season the Pirates are always 67-95. It’s uncanny.

For 18 seasons now, the Pirates have been playing the role of the team that all the others feel they should beat. The other 15 teams in the National League have two different kinds of vacations on their schedule: the All-Star break and whenever they play the Pirates.

As is always the case with losing franchises, it’s never a case of lack of trying (unless you’re the Los Angeles Clippers). The Pirates try. But when the Pirates try, it’s like when George McGovern tried to beat Richard Nixon. Or when Chuck Wepner tried to beat Muhammad Ali.

About that.

The Pirates don’t win because they never have enough talent. Their last decent catcher was Jason Kendall, and that was eons ago. They used to have Jason Bay, if that floats your boat.

The Pirates, since 1993, have been like an expansion team stuck in the baseball version of Groundhog Day. They’re always young, inexperienced, and made up of minor leaguers. Every year. Again, uncanny.

Actually, one thing has changed. The Pirates used to finish last in the NL East. Now they finish last in the NL Central. So there’s that.

Pittsburgh hasn’t seen baseball this bad since the early 1950s, when Joe Garagiola was the Pirates catcher. Back then, the Pirates would go 50-104, and the only attraction was Ralph Kiner. Today the Pirates go 67-95, and they’d kill for someone half as good as Kiner.

With a history of 90-plus-loss seasons dotting the past 18 years, you’d think the Pirates would be using the revolving door method of hiring managers. But since Leyland’s last season in Pittsburgh in 1996, the Pirates have only had four skippers—and two of them sit in the Tigers’ dugout as coaches today: Gene Lamont and Lloyd McClendon.

It’s on the roster where there’s been the revolving door. The names change, but not the talent level. The Pirates rosters have been a Who’s Not Who of baseball.

This year the Pirates even outdid themselves in their mediocrity. They hit loss No. 82—thus guaranteeing a losing record in the 162-game schedule—last week, which is a new record for them in terms of promptness. They typically don’t lose their 82nd game until about a week or so later than that.

As I write this, the Pirates are 43-84. They’re on pace to lose about 107 games—even more Piratian than usual. Their roster, as usual, is filled with 20-somethings who are household names—they’re only known in their own household.

Ba-dum-BUM!

But the Pirates have one thing going for them. They have a player who has the best name in baseball: outfielder Lastings Milledge.

Just call him Last for short. Seems appropriate.

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