More on the manager situation

The PG has more today on what I'm sure will be the only thing they really focus on from here on out with the Pirates now that it's football season, the open manager's position. Actually today, Lloyd speaks! He doesn't talk much about his time with the Pirates except to say,

"There's not much I could have done different. I showed up every day and gave all I had. I think we got better, but this year -- because of extenuating circumstances -- we took a step backward."

The extenuating circumstances being the "rash of injuries" suffered by the team this year. I would argue that if injuries made our circumstances "extenuating" then I don't even want to know what to call what happened to the Cardinals this year but I think I'll just let it go. The rest of the article just goes on to say that McClendon is at home watching his son play baseball in his first baseball free September in 25 years and he's hoping to get a phone call from someone to do something baseball related next year.

There's also an article in the PG that brings yet another name into the ring, Jim Tracy. Right when Mac got canned a friend and I were talking about other managers who might not be back next year and Tracy's name came right up. He apparently has an out clause in his contract after this year and he interviewed very well with Bonifay and McClatchy back in 2001. Knowing that DePodesta (Beane's former right hand man) is the Dodgers' GM it's entirely possible that he's going to want his own guy managing that team in LA, espeically after a year in which they badly underperformed. Tracy's quote in the article is non-committal in either way,

"We still have games to play in 2005. That picture will clarify itself down the road. But it's very, very important for everybody to keep their attention on what we're doing right now. It's not the time to talk about 2006 and beyond. Shame on me if I do that."

To me, that sounds like a guy who's thinking of "down the road" already. For those keeping track, he was the bench coach on Felipe Alou's Expo teams which featured a young assistant GM named... Dave Littlefield. Tracy may indeed be have his hat in the ring by season's end.