New Pirates president eyeing immediate turnaround

Frank Coonelly, who implemented Major League Baseball's draft slotting system, will now help make draft picks as the Pirates' new president. AP

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New Pirates president Frank Coonelly has unveiled young Indians executive Neal Huntington as Pittsburgh's new general manager, a surprise choice that, combined with Coonelly, will determine whether the once-proud franchise will reverse one of the worst courses in major league history. It won't be easy. The Pirates have not posted a winning season since Barry Bonds left town as a skinny, multitalented yet surly prodigy. For those scoring at home, that's a major-league-worst 15 straight losing seasons.

Even as a spoiler they're failing miserably; they had lost nine straight through Monday, further illuminating their considerable shortcomings. Yet, Coonelly, who is described as "very bright'' and "an excellent lawyer,'' even by his enemies, already is talking a big game.

"I'm intent on making this club a winner,'' Coonelly, a former MLB bigwig, said in a recent interview with SI.com. "I do not intend to make it 16 or 17'' straight losing years.

Coonelly's brash stance implies that he has designs on a winning season as early as 2008, a high improbability according to competitors who size up the Pirates, who have the worst record in easily the lesser of the two leagues and have few reasons to believe a stark turnaround is in the offing.

"If he thinks he's going to win next year, he's crazy,'' one competing GM said.

At the very least, Coonelly gets high marks here for identifying the right sort of talent to lead his baseball operations. It was an ultrasecretive interview process, but SI.com learned that Coonelly interviewed Mets assistant GM Tony Bernazard, Blue Jays executive Tony LaCava and Brewers scouting director Jack Zduriencik in addition to Huntington, and was turned down for interviews by at least two hot young stars, Indians assistant GM Chris Antonetti (the pre-search favorite) and White Sox assistant GM Rick Hahn.

Colleagues and competitors praise Huntington, only 37, as "bright," "extremely passionate,'' "a fine young man'' and "someone who should benefit from a diverse set of experiences.'' Yet, there's little in the way of proof -- while one story says he recommended Milton Bradley in 2001, he has never been in charge -- and there's also a belief among some that the choice came out of left field. Coonelly understandably liked the idea of importing someone who had already helped a small-market team rise up and win (the upstart Indians captured a difficult division this year) but Huntington was generally viewed as no better than the fourth-ranking person on highly respected GM Mark Shapiro's talented staff.

No matter the GM choice, Coonelly, a strong personality who battled with top agents and executives for years over the draft slotting system that he implemented to keep amateur bonuses down, is expected to play a major role in the team's fortunes. Coonelly spent the past few years exhorting those who run teams to adhere to his rigid slotting system by paying no more than "slot.'' He went so far, according to league sources, as to threaten the Tigers with heavy fines if they paid prep pitcher Rick Porcello several times "slot'' (they did, anyway, awarding the 27th pick $7.3 million).

But now that he's working for a club, Coonelly readily says he'll go over "slot'' when needed. He explains that seeming contradiction by saying he's "wearing a different hat'' now. "I won't be handicapped by my former job,'' Coonelly said.

Supportive colleagues say Coonelly's quick switch is understandable, that he was only working "as an advocate'' while cajoling teams to stay under slot. They also say they still don't expect Coonelly to come close to breaking the bank for the "Save a Bucs,'' that he has no choice but to publicly change positions on the slot issue in light of the fact that he's running a team that carries baseball's longest streak of losing seasons.

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