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Nutting 'Proud' Of Pirates' Management

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Nov 19, 2008 9:30 pm US/Eastern

Nutting 'Proud' Of Pirates' Management

Reporting
Bob Pompeani
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― When Bob Nutting took over the reigns and began to run the day to day operations of the Pirates just shy of two years ago, he vowed to change the culture of losing.

So far, that hasn't happened, but he believes he is making the necessary decisions to put this franchise back on the right course, even though it probably will not prevent a 17th straight year of sub-.500 baseball.

While Nutting knows he'll always be connected to previous 16 years of losing, he vows not to succumb to what the previous regime did time and time again – sign stop-gap over-the-hill players.

"In the past we have made mistakes that we needed to find a short-term patch – something to plug in trying to win right now, at the expense of really doing the right moves for the long-term future of the organization," explains Nutting.

The short-term future doesn't look too good. So what we have apparently is another one of those five-year plans. And while Nutting won't call it that, he realizes it's going to take some time and he's not willing to compromise it.

"That plan is in place and I really believe the worst thing we could do now would be to allow ourselves to get knocked off target because we're focused on a short-term goal or one year," says Nutting. "We need to be able to stay the course and frankly that would be maybe the hardest decision that we make as we're moving forward."

As far as spending money in free agency, Nutting says it will be done but only when it could legitimately help the team.

"And we're not in a position now and I don't ever want to be in a position where we're making baseball decisions based on financial limitations," Nutting said. "If you look at some of the trades in the past that were criticized, they were made for financial reasons – got caught in a corner.

"If you look at the trades that were made this summer, they were made for purely baseball reasons to improve the depth, to improve the quality of our development system, bring in first-rate prospects."

Which is why Nutting and his management went after Pedro Alvarez, despite his age and Scott Boras' reputation.

In the past, the Pirates would have passed on good talent because of the money. Nutting says not anymore – although that signing bonus did produce a response from Nutting that was completely over the top.

Pompeani: "Quote – 'This is the single-best management team in all of baseball, maybe all of sports.' Is that just a euphoric reaction or do you sincerely believe that?"

Nutting: "I've certainly taken a certain amount of criticism for that quote, but I don't want to apologize for being proud of the team that we built in Pittsburgh. I love these guys and I'm not embarrassed that I'm enthusiastic about them. I want to be proud of them, I want Pittsburgh to be proud of them because they're the group that's going to bring winning baseball back to Pittsburgh."

Pompeani: "What is more important to you – winning or making money?"

Nutting: "There's no question with the Pittsburgh Pirates that one, they go together, and two that this team needs to win. But it fundamentally is good business for the team to win on the field as well."

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.