There’s at least a couple (here and here) articles about Joe Kerrigan today, talking about how different he is from Jeff Andrews, how much the players like working with him, etc. etc. That’s all well and good, but it’s easy to lose track of things in the early spring when the first bit of glowing praise leaks out into the public.
The Pirates gave up 884 runs last year. This did not happen by accident. I like Kerrigan and I do think he’ll be able to help at least a couple of members of our pitching staff (Ian Snell in particular, probably Gorzelanny as well), but we have to remember that he can’t actually make the pitching staff more talented. When a team is mired in a slump like the Pirates are, there’s a tendency to immediately associate the old with “doing things wrong” and as an extension, the new with “doing things right.” Both Jim Tracy and John Russell’s first camps got glowing public reviews, but their teams weren’t substantially different than the Pirate teams that immediately preceded them.
Enjoy the spring, but don’t let it get you overexcited.
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