Dan Duquette continues to rebuild Pirates
It’s becoming more and more obvious by the day that Dan Duquette is guiding the rebuilding of the Pirates.
Dan’s roommate at Amherst College was Dave Jauss who has been tapped as an assistant for newbie general manager Neal Huntington. Jauss has also worked with Dave Littlefield in the Expos organization and with Duquette with the Red Sox.
Now Jauss isn’t a member of the ‘Religious Rockers’ scouting choir I told you about in my previous post, but he easily could be.
It’s becoming pretty obvious that the Pirates have no intention of modeling the Indians. Instead, Nutting seems to have decided to let Dan Duquette drive the rebuilding of the franchise and Duquette has chosen the Colorado Rockies "religion culture" as the fuel to power the drive.
I’m starting to also get the idea that Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington have become simple bobbleheads for Robert Nutting and that Duquette, long known for his hands-on approach, has all but taken over in name. That could be because Duquette is not known to get along well with media.
When the players return in February, they better have crosses around their necks, Christian music in their boom boxes, and a twinkle in their eye if they plan to keep playing for the Pirates. Instead of a team captain, they will be picking a team pastor and, instead of batting practice, they will be praying in the chapel.
All of which certainly can’t hurt as we need all the help we can get. But you can’t help wondering if Nutting will insist on snake handling in services to see which players are kept or released.
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The Baltimore Sun reports that Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim bench coach Ron Roenicke is expected to be a candidate for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ vacant managerial position. But since Ron’s brother Gary is a scout for the Orioles, this could be nothing more than name dropping to Jim Duquette (Dan’s cousin) who just left the Orioles.
Roenicke is the guy who knew Raul Mondesi and convinced the Angels to sign him after he was terminated from the Pirates stating he wasn’t a problem child. Of course, Mondesi played in just 8 games and batted .118 because he tore his quadricep, but that didn’t stop MLB from investigating the Angels hand in Mondesi’s release from the Pirates and subsequent 10 day later signing with the Angels. Later, the Angels release Mondesi for not showing up for his rehab.
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