DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: The big ‘poach’

10 comments

1. Pretty sure an internal analytical evaluation of the gm would indicate underperformance right?

2. Okay. So the Pirates have hired (sorry– poached!) Kevin Tenenbaum, who'd been with the Guardians since 2017 and was their Vice President of Research and Development. In essence, a lateral move for Tenenbaum. Why on Earth go from the Orioles, then to the Guardians– only to wind up now with the Pittsburgh Pirates (of all organizations)?

   From ESPN'S "The Great Analytics Rankings" published in 2015:

   "In the office, Sarah Gelles — like Duquette a part of the strong Amherst College pipeline — oversees the Orioles' analytics department, which reaches into both pro scouting and video advance scouting. Gelles built the Orioles' database from scratch, and the team has added Kevin Tenenbaum — a math-econ major who wrote research papers with Dave Allen at Middlebury College — and Pat DiGregory in the past year."

   My thoughts: current Pirates Senior Vice President and Assistant General Manager Sarah Gelles knows Kevin Tenenbaum from her Orioles days. Did Tenenbaum move on to the Pirates (from the Guardians) just because he knows Gelles? This supposed "poaching" wouldn't make any sense otherwise, since taking the same job with the Pirates that he had with the Guardians would be a huge step down in terms of organizational "quality."

   Interestingly, this is what was written about Sarah Gelles after she was hired by the Pirates (published by "Sportskeeda" in November 2023):

   "Following her time with the Baltimore Orioles, Sarah Gelles joined the Houston Astros as the Program Manager for the Research and Development team. She eventually earned a promotion to the role of Director. During her tenure with the Astros, the team's use of analytics helped them become one of the most dangerous sides in the MLB, winning the World Series in 2022. She will now look to bring that championship experience to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It will be unsurprising if Gelles' addition to the front office helps the Bucs return to postseason relevance sooner rather than later."

   Yes, the Pirates are clearly returning to postseason relevance sooner rather than later (eye-roll).

   From Gelles' vantage point — at this point in time — I wonder how she explains (even to herself) why the Pirates are consistently underperforming. And how is bringing Tenenbaum into the Pirates organization going to help exactly?

   This Pirates franchise has the wrong owner, the wrong president, the wrong GM, the wrong field manager, etc. In the case of THIS current franchise — addition by SUBTRACTION would seem to make the most sense to achieve any type of genuine and sustainable success.

3. So did the Cleveland guy come over on his own or was he cut loose or about to be cut loose? Bet we could guess the answer to this "poach".

4. No, I get it. My reasonable expectation is that Shelton will be fired next year and Cherington in 2026.

5. So this new guy has worked with Sarah Gelles, the assistant GM. Maybe they are going to make her the new GM? It's fun to speculate.

6. Pirates fans have lost complete faith in Ben Cherington. Is Bob Nutting that disconnected with the fans that he doesn't know?

7. I don’t trust Cherington period ……….

8. I’m telling you Keith balin is the man. He invented the loaded baked potato 🥔 so he can get a first baseman too. I hear he wants Lucky Chemers of the university of Illinois Chemers hit .347 with 14 homers and 63 rbi others include Adolfo willner check it out !!!

9. This means that Cherington and Shelton are staying. They wouldn't be hiring this guy if they were gonna fire BC and Shelton.

10. Over a hundred years ago, that's how the Pirates got their name. They poached a player!