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Neal was hired following the 2007 season. He has been on the job for four years already. There is little evidence to suggest that 2012 will be a breakout year and plenty of reason to remain pessimistic about the state of the minors.
Although the farm system is improved it is still not as good as 4 years worth of top draft picks and liberal trading of assets (particularly Bay) would have lead us to believe it would be.
If we choose to be generous then you might call neals efforts in rebuilding the minors his 'greatest success'. Even so i think we are about to transition into a new phase and that we are increasingly in need of a gm who can add pieces to the major league team. Cut neal loose now - and if his farm-building ever bears fruit then we can look back on and celebrate his successes rather than moan about his failures. He may have been the sort of gm we needed then, but hes not the sort of gm that we need now.
Now we need a gm who is capable of of luring quality free agents to pittsburgh to supplement the young guys who are starting to trickle in. Neal has had four offseasons to find value in free agency and has not been successful even once. His tenure is littered with failures like iwamura and overbay. We cant excuse 3 or 4 million dollar failures that result in zero production. Better to grossly overpay a guy like pena than to throw money at nothing. Pena just signed. 7.25 million to play in tampa bay. Lee refused an arbitration offer that likely wouldve paid him more than hell get in free agency. Kotchman isnt very good and other- better firstbasemen werent in our price range even according to the most optimistic accounting. Neal had ONE pressing need to fill and he didnt even manage to fill it adequately. A flier on evans and a fat platoon candidate. He added 3 million at SS for what is likely to be a miniscule increase in production. His starting pitcher pickup is always injured. He downgraded at c.
Cant you see? Even if the stars align perfectly neal will have succeeded in spite of himself. You cant call any part of his offseason plan adequate. Even a .500 season would be a failure in my eyes when you compare it to my most pessimistic projections made in 2007 when dl was fired. I never wouldve dreamed that in 2012 we'd still look like a team thats a few years away.
Although the farm system is improved it is still not as good as 4 years worth of top draft picks and liberal trading of assets (particularly Bay) would have lead us to believe it would be.
If we choose to be generous then you might call neals efforts in rebuilding the minors his 'greatest success'. Even so i think we are about to transition into a new phase and that we are increasingly in need of a gm who can add pieces to the major league team. Cut neal loose now - and if his farm-building ever bears fruit then we can look back on and celebrate his successes rather than moan about his failures. He may have been the sort of gm we needed then, but hes not the sort of gm that we need now.
Now we need a gm who is capable of of luring quality free agents to pittsburgh to supplement the young guys who are starting to trickle in. Neal has had four offseasons to find value in free agency and has not been successful even once. His tenure is littered with failures like iwamura and overbay. We cant excuse 3 or 4 million dollar failures that result in zero production. Better to grossly overpay a guy like pena than to throw money at nothing. Pena just signed. 7.25 million to play in tampa bay. Lee refused an arbitration offer that likely wouldve paid him more than hell get in free agency. Kotchman isnt very good and other- better firstbasemen werent in our price range even according to the most optimistic accounting. Neal had ONE pressing need to fill and he didnt even manage to fill it adequately. A flier on evans and a fat platoon candidate. He added 3 million at SS for what is likely to be a miniscule increase in production. His starting pitcher pickup is always injured. He downgraded at c.
Cant you see? Even if the stars align perfectly neal will have succeeded in spite of himself. You cant call any part of his offseason plan adequate. Even a .500 season would be a failure in my eyes when you compare it to my most pessimistic projections made in 2007 when dl was fired. I never wouldve dreamed that in 2012 we'd still look like a team thats a few years away.
