Pirates fire McClendon

[Pogotheostrich]

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Too bad the didn't fire Gerald Perry along with him.

[rocky123]

About time.

[Drunken Rhino]

I like McClendon. No manager could have won with the teams he's had to manage the past few years. Now that they're finally showing signs of life w/ their young players, they fire him? This doesn't make sense to me.

Best of luck to you McClendon.

[Yoda]

I like McClendon. No manager could have won with the teams he's had to manage the past few years. Now that they're finally showing signs of life w/ their young players, they fire him? This doesn't make sense to me.

Best of luck to you McClendon.

Agreed. I'll take him over Dusty any day.

[AT]

Big fan of McClendon. Can't blame the coach when he doesn't have the parts. I don't understand what the hell they expected him to do with that team. He seems like a fiery guy who actually tries to win games with a crappy team. No problem with a guy like that. Plus when he gets into it with umpires and opposing managers and players it's pretty much must-see TV. That would fire me up if I was a fan and he was my manager.

[dannyolbb]

That's ridiculous. McClendon has done a very good job for the Bucs the last few years. What do they expect from him when he has a starting lineup of

Cota
Eldred
Sanchez
Wilson
Wiggington
Wilson
Mackowiak
Bay

That ain't good, folks. When the Cubs fire Dusty, I hope that they have the sense to snap up McClendon.

[SuptownSpartans34]

I like McClendon. No manager could have won with the teams he's had to manage the past few years. Now that they're finally showing signs of life w/ their young players, they fire him? This doesn't make sense to me.

Best of luck to you McClendon.

Agreed. I'll take him over Dusty any day.

I really like McClendon also. He can't really excpect to be successful when the Pirates trade all of there talent. What a poor organization. Doesn't make sense, they were just looking for someone to blame.

[Mercer Boy]

THANK YOU GOD!!!

I just heard this...sorry I couldn't make the thread myself.

Guys, I've got to disagree with pretty much all of you. You don't probably watch this team as much as I do. Even with no talent, McClendon didn't have much of a clue. A few glaring examples (of many):

Tike Redman has no business playing in the majors, yet he continually plays the guy. I can't tell you how many times his shoddy defense and light hitting/non-stealing has cost us games. Oh wait...the reason he doesn't steal is because McClendon never let him! He doesn't let anyone steal except Lawton (when he was here - and he still got caught half the time) and Bay...our best hitter.

Last year, Ty Wigginton was given WAY too many starts at 3B even with a BA of close to .200 (or worse). Rob Mackowiak (who also shouldn't start but he's the best we had) should have been out there much more. His defense and hitting abililty was much better than Ty. We had other options...he just chose not to use them because we screwed up when we traded Benson.

Mesa...no business closing. Torres should have been given a chance to close after the trade deadline. But, Lloyd had a man-crush on him and wouldn't sit the guy even though he obviously has lost it.

As far as in-game or late game decisions...he just had no clue. Our "good" pinch hitters were not used in favor of T. Redman, Abe Nunez (who sucked until this year...wonder why...), or other scrubs.

They should fire the entire staff. Perry is stupid (and not just for hitting LaRussa), and the base coaches do not do a good job (believe me on this one...it's not the players always being stupid on the bases - with as bad as our hitting is, they needed to send runners a lot more often than they did. That's why our RBI totals are so low). The only person with any slight semblance of a clue is Spin Williams.

How can people say he didn't deserve to be fired? He was given EVERY OPPORTUNITY to win! No new manager has ever had 5 straight losing seasons...that's because crappy teams even know enough to bring in a new guy if nothing's working!

What did you other guys see in Lloyd that's so great that I didn't see? Wow, he blows up every so often and gets on Sportscenter...that doesn't win games. That doesn't bring improvement to a team...and that's all we asked to see with the crappy rag-tags we had here. Look in my signature for the last few years of win totals. They're pretty much all the same.

The only thing I regret is that we didn't have these young kids in there 5 years ago when he started...then we could really tell whether or not he could take some young players with talent to better and better seasons.

Anyway, onto the future. My money is on Tony Pena to be the successor:

a) Past managing experience
b) Former Pirate
c) Will come very cheap

These are all things the ownership loves. The same trap they ran into with Lloyd they will run into with him.

[jh2031]

I like McClendon. No manager could have won with the teams he's had to manage the past few years. Now that they're finally showing signs of life w/ their young players, they fire him? This doesn't make sense to me.

Best of luck to you McClendon.

Hey Drunken Rhino...you must be drunk right now with that bunch of BS you just typed. McCledon is a bum. He was probably one of the WORST managers who delt with taking out SP's and which RP to put in. He's playing Tike Redman when he has Duffy and other young players. He's playing Ward when you have Craig and Eldred. He's an idiot, a dope, and i'm glad he's gone.

[warrick95]

THANK YOU GOD!!!

I just heard this...sorry I couldn't make the thread myself.

Guys, I've got to disagree with pretty much all of you. You don't probably watch this team as much as I do. Even with no talent, McClendon didn't have much of a clue. A few glaring examples (of many):

Tike Redman has no business playing in the majors, yet he continually plays the guy. I can't tell you how many times his shoddy defense and light hitting/non-stealing has cost us games. Oh wait...the reason he doesn't steal is because McClendon never let him! He doesn't let anyone steal except Lawton (when he was here - and he still got caught half the time) and Bay...our best hitter.

Last year, Ty Wigginton was given WAY too many starts at 3B even with a BA of close to .200 (or worse). Rob Mackowiak (who also shouldn't start but he's the best we had) should have been out there much more. His defense and hitting abililty was much better than Ty. We had other options...he just chose not to use them because we screwed up when we traded Benson.

Mesa...no business closing. Torres should have been given a chance to close after the trade deadline. But, Lloyd had a man-crush on him and wouldn't sit the guy even though he obviously has lost it.

As far as in-game or late game decisions...he just had no clue. Our "good" pinch hitters were not used in favor of T. Redman, Abe Nunez (who sucked until this year...wonder why...), or other scrubs.

They should fire the entire staff. Perry is stupid (and not just for hitting LaRussa), and the base coaches do not do a good job (believe me on this one...it's not the players always being stupid on the bases - with as bad as our hitting is, they needed to send runners a lot more often than they did. That's why our RBI totals are so low). The only person with any slight semblance of a clue is Spin Williams.

How can people say he didn't deserve to be fired? He was given EVERY OPPORTUNITY to win! No new manager has ever had 5 straight losing seasons...that's because crappy teams even know enough to bring in a new guy if nothing's working!

What did you other guys see in Lloyd that's so great that I didn't see? Wow, he blows up every so often and gets on Sportscenter...that doesn't win games. That doesn't bring improvement to a team...and that's all we asked to see with the crappy rag-tags we had here. Look in my signature for the last few years of win totals. They're pretty much all the same.

The only thing I regret is that we didn't have these young kids in there 5 years ago when he started...then we could really tell whether or not he could take some young players with talent to better and better seasons.

Anyway, onto the future. My money is on Tony Pena to be the successor:

a) Past managing experience
b) Former Pirate
c) Will come very cheap

These are all things the ownership loves. The same trap they ran into with Lloyd they will run into with him.

Uhh...it's hard to follow something that extensive (I feel like a Kindergartener following up Mercer Boy's dissertation), but I want to add that McClendon plays favoritism to an extreme. Once he decides that he likes you and wants you in the lineup, nothing will change that. Which is why mediocre players such as Rob Mackowiak and Tike Redman continued to play after their hot streaks.

Not to say that he didn't have much to work with, because he didn't. However, he's certainly not a great manager.