Ken Macha is interested

So, with nothing happening on the managerial front besides Huntington's supposed #1 choice not being terribly interested in the job, Kenny Macha has decided to let the Pirates know he's still in Western PA and not employed at the moment.

"I do have interest in managing again, and I've lived here my whole life," said Macha, who makes his home in Murrysville, Pa., just east of the city. "I know Pittsburgh as well as anybody. It obviously wouldn't be coming to Pittsburgh, it would be being here." [...]

"One of the things that was a luxury about not managing this year was that I was able to see a lot of [Pirates] games on TV," said Macha, who interviewed for the Pirates managerial opening back in 2005, before Jim Tracy was named the franchise's 37th manager. "I probably saw 40 games or so and am very familiar with their personnel."

I'm trying to not be overly cynical here because Macha does have experience managing a young small market team, but if watching lots of the Pirates is what qualifies Macha for the job, well, e-mail me Neal and I'll give you my phone number and we'll set something up.

Seriously though, I have no idea what we're going to do with this whole "rebuilding the front office" thing. Huntington hasn't really hired anyone yet. Even the Dodgers have a new manager, and they weren't even looking for one. I'm trying very hard to remain positive, but a search to fill any job that goes on this long can't be a good thing. A search to fill three (four if you count assistant GM) important jobs that goes on this long is making me very nervous.

UPDATE: Just saw this article at the PG, which says a decision is possible by Monday and the candidates are Joel Skinner, Joey Cora, Trent Jewett, Dave Jauss, and John Russell. None of those names are terribly inspiring to me, though it's possible there's more names known behind the scene because this whole process has been incredibly secretive.