Kevin Goldstein seems to think that of the Houston job, the presumed Baltimore job, and the Pittsburgh job... Pittsburgh is by far the most desirable because of lack of ownership meddling. (Last question of linked chat)

That's possible, the Nutting's may only care about revenue and costs, ie: the GM has free reign so long as he stays within budget.

To a GM having a $40mm payroll budget may be more desire-able than a $75mm if the $40mm let's him do with it what he will, whereas with the $75mm he's forced to play one or two sub replacement players and pay them too much money due to the owner's nostalgia.

Kevin Goldstein seems to think that of the Houston job, the presumed Baltimore job, and the Pittsburgh job... Pittsburgh is by far the most desirable because of lack of ownership meddling. (Last question of linked chat)

That makes sense as long as Pittsburgh's ownership is merely reluctant to take the risk of spending money in an attempt to produce a better team instead of being completely opposed to it. A good GM might be able to make some smart moves, improve things a bit, and put a decent enough team on the field. If they made real progress and showed potential for the team they might be able to convince the owners to give them a little extra to play with in an attempt to take it to the next level.

the presumed Baltimore job,

Also what's been written about the way Angelos runs the team, if true (hell if 80% true), and prospective GM would be nuts to take that job if he thought their was a 20% chance any other team would make an offer. You'll have more money to use, but far less control over it than in any otehr organization

Perez had his best season to date in 2004 as a 22 year old for the Pirates before the organization dragged him down. That season by itself wasn't a bad payoff for Giles.

The sad part is that it has been widely reported that Littlefield settled for Bay in the Giles deal. He wanted Nady.

and its too soon to judge Daniels right?

He seems to have done very well for himself with this year's trades and draft.

So when does Littlefield expose the Pirates - I mean, it was proved here beyond a reasonable tinfoil hat that the Pirates were losing on purpose. And Littlefield had to be involved!

Let's see where Littlefield lands first. If he's moved to another spot in the organization, it may be that his pay for that job far outstrips its worth to the Pirates. Who knows what the Nuttings are paying Littlefield to keep quiet.

Hey, anything's possible.

I haven't been this excited about a change in management since Cam Bonifay's firing.

I don't think it matters if he "settled" for Bay in the Giles trade. He's a pirate either way, and nobody's riding Towers for insisting on including Bay. If we evaluated trades strictly by initial proposals or by what the GMs wanted to get, many trades would look very different. In reality, we have to go by, well, reality.

Sorry for not posting earlier, guys. I don't want to deprive people of their recommended daily allotment of schadenfreude, but Friday is my day away from the office, and after I got home I was too busy celebrating.

Rest assured that I am thrilled, and will continue to be so as long as we don't follow this up with a press conference featuring Ed Wade or Steve Phillips.

"I don't think it matters if he "settled" for Bay in the Giles trade."

In terms of assessing past performance, it doesn't matter much. In terms of assessing future performance, it's a huge honkin' deal. Littlefield had a handshake arrangement to trade Giles, Kendall, and around $20M for Nady, Perez, and Kevin Jarvis, but the deal was killed by SD's owner. Similarly, he had a done deal to trade Scott Sauerbeck and Mike Gonzalez to the Red Sox for Brandon Lyon and Anastacio Martinez, and if Lyon's elbow hadn't failed a physical, the Pirates would've had no Freddy Sanchez AND no Gonzo.

DL has been rescued from himself by circumstance as many times as any GM I know. I mean, he made a full-court press to sign Bill Mueller to a big-money deal right before Mueller's degenerative knee ended his career. He just kept going and going...

Vlad:

I am happy for you.

Here is to a cogent plan, hard work and a dash of luck by the Pirates leadership team.

Nutting made a comment, I think in relation to the Wieters/Moskos situation, that he HAS to trust his baseball people. I think that pretty sufficiently explains why the Morris deal was approved. Littlefield had the budget and the authority to decide among Moskos, Wieters, and Morris right up until Nutting (not unlike the colonel in Bridge on the River Kwai) shook his head and said, "What have I done?"

The great fear for this hiring is that it's part of a Selig demonstration project to show that, even with hard-headed business management, a franchise like Pittsburgh can't survive without concessions from the players.

BIG NEWS

Pirates interim management team makes first transaction -- Victor Zambrano to the Orioles for cash. Who knew the Pirates had Victor Zambrano?

So anyway, that should solve all Baltimore's problems.

Ed Wade wasn't nearly as bad as Steve Phillips.

The great fear for this hiring is that it's part of a Selig demonstration project to show that, even with hard-headed business management, a franchise like Pittsburgh can't survive without concessions from the players.

If Selig hasn't even done that in his own backyard (post-Seligs, the Brewer payroll has gone the other direction) - why would he do that in Pittsburgh?

Wait a second, a couple months ago everyone here was insisting that the Pirates were TRYING to lose and that Littlefield was part of this plan. Now they fire him? How does that jibe with the Pirates not wanting to win so as not to raise the expectations of their fan base theorists?

Unless they really do plan on hiring Matt Millen...

I believe the argument was: The Pirates try to to loose (or do not try to win) while also maintaining or increasing revenue.

Once Littlefield became a PR liability and a symbol of the Nuttings' credibility deficit, what good was he to the Nuttings?

Littlefield had the budget and the authority to decide among Moskos, Wieters, and Morris right up until Nutting (not unlike the colonel in Bridge on the River Kwai) shook his head and said, "What have I done?"

I think Morris put the nail in Littlefield's coffin so to speak. The reaction from ALL elements of the baseball media was incredulous. Obviously it was building up, but it should have been pretty apparent that the only reason the national media has paid any attention to the workings of the Pirates in recent months is humor related- comic relief.

The MSM typically ignores the rule 5 draft- but Littlefield's rule 5/40 man roster fiasco a few years back generated some MSM ink, because (if you weren't a Pirate's fan) it was good for a laugh. The Derek Bell signing (not Littelfield's doing), announced at the winter meetings a few years ago got much more MSM attention than it ordinarily would have- because of the instantaneous reaction of other teams' executives- witnessed by members of the MSM- laughter.

The MSM (national) has been paying a little more attention to the Pirate this year, and the result is not good for the Nuttings from a PR POV- "hey Pittsburgh's closing in on the record for consecutive losing seasons", "hey Pittsburgh goes cheap again in the draft", and "in an inexplicable move Pittsburgh, out of contention, helps San Fran balance their budget"...

What's really amazing is that Littlefield KNEW he was getting exposed and WAS trying to save his job.