I swear if you're getting my hopes up...

Paul Meyer wrote a big article in the PG today about Bob Nutting and the search for a new CEO. I'd say read the whole article, but here's the key passage (emphasis mine):

"It is a critically important hire," Nutting said as the Pirates careen toward a 15th consecutive losing season. "It's one I really believe we need to get right. Not only do we have to have somebody who understands the situation in Pittsburgh -- understand what the team needs -- but I also have to have confidence that they have sufficient vision and capability to be able to step in and really have an impact where we need to see improvement and change.

"I think what I've learned and decided is, we want to have a single person who will be an overall team president with full responsibility for the club. My sense is that [with] our business-side operations we have a very solid group of executives running those operations right now. I have an awful lot of faith in them. They've done a fantastic job this year.

"So the area where I'm frustrated, the fans are frustrated, everybody's frustrated, the organization's frustrated has been specifically in the on-field performance, and I would think that obviously -- clearly -- is going to be where anyone needs to focus their efforts."

Vision is the Pirates' problem right now. Dave Littlefield and the people currently running the team have no vision. This is why I hate it when people say that Littlefield is a good GM, then cite one or two trades here or there as proof of it. Littlefield's moves aren't bad individually, but none of them were made with any purpose. The Xavier Nady trade is a great example. Yeah, Nady's been a good player for us. But we already had Jason Bay at his position, the decision was pretty much made to switch Ryan Doumit at that point, and within five and a half months, the Pirates traded for Adam LaRoche, a guy that's probably a better hitter and definitely better suited to the park. Trading for Nady makes no sense in that context because he's not head and shoulders above any of those guys.

All this being said, I'm sticking with what I've been saying about Bob Nutting since he took over, that he can talk the talk all he wants, but it's time for him to start walking the walk. I'll admit he hasn't done a terrible job of that (McClatchy is gone for whatever reason, we're going to open a Dominican Academy), but that all rests on this hire. This is the chance to reshape the team, to clean out the front office, and to get the ship moving in the right direction. If he screws this up, there's not going to be any reason to have any hope for the Pirates for a long time.