Here's the latest on the managerial searches in New York and Pittsburgh..
Mets
Jose Oquendo will be the last of the first round interviews when he meets with the Mets on Monday, tweets Jon Heyman of SI. The second round of interviews, he says, could begin this week in Orlando.
Meanwhile, Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com (via Twitter) keeps hearing that Terry Collins is the most likely to land the job. We learned yesterday that Collins, Clint Hurdle, and Bob Melvin are all expected to receive second interviews.
Pirates
Speaking of Hurdle, the Pirates have ramped up their efforts to land him, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com. Along with in-house candidate Jeff Banister, Hurdle is believed to be one of the finalists for the job.
Its embarrassing the Pirates manager job is so unattractive… or else the Pirates would have landed someone by now.
I quess no one likes to be micromanaged. They obviously did that to John Russel, (i.e. playing Ryan Doumit in the outfield)
Good news on the Pirates! Hopefully they can lock Hurdle up and get some more credibility in the baseball world.
Jose Oquendo deserves a managing job somewhere… even though my fondest memory of him was a clip from a Baseball Bloopers VHS.
Why do the Mets want their next manager to be someone whose players wanted him gone?
Please Clint please sign with us. Thats what Huntington, Coonley, Nutting, and every Bucos Fan will be saying in there heads 24/7 until he signs with them. The funny thing is the Pirates basically would have swaped managers, ask anybody if this would happen in 06 and they would say you are crazy.
Hurdle please…
Hey, if the Met’s hire Oquendo he can always fill in when the pitching coach needs a day off.
If the Pirates want a new Manager thell them to call me ill do it. The team isnt as bad as people think all they need to do is get a couple more pices and they will be fine.
Adam Rubin is to sports journalism what White Castle is to health food.
Can’t stop laughing at this!
-ECB
look at his twitter page….
Adam Rubin’s Twitter
Beltran on being more open to RF than the past: “Not really … because I feel I can play center field at a high level.”
Actual Interview:Not really because I feel like I can play center field. I feel like I continue to play center field at a very high level. But if the organization has different plans in mind then we have to talk about it. I’m all for the best of the team. If the chances are best for us to win with me moving, or me playing center field, then I’m all for it. I’m not against it. I have never been against it.
But the full quote doesn’t fit in Twitter’s character limit. Rubin would have had to write an entire article when he could have just tweeted 100 characters.
of course, that is totally understood…but to pick that out and say that
represented the entire quote is a bit mis-leading.
“If the chances are best for us to win with me moving, or me playing center field, then I’m all for it.”
That is what should of been tweeted
the mets should get bob melvin.he could fit their style well,plus they need somebody young in that position now.
The pirates on the other hand should hire clint hurdle,because he can bring them better luck.He did bring the 2007 rockies to the world series,right?
It would be good to see the pirates eventually do good sometime soon.
Great, the Pirates have narrowed their search down to two rather uninspiring pics. They will of course pick Banister because he will be the front office guy’s lap dog, doing exactly what huntington says. For what its worth they should have gone with someone like Van Slyke or Phil Garner, guys who can convey to the young Pirate players what it means to wear they black and gold with pride. Of course those two would tell the front office to shove it and do only what woud be best for the team and winning.