That’s the word from on high this morning, and it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. Russell was hired by Huntington because of his extensive experience with young players as a minor league manager for the Twins and Phillies. The team that’s on the field now and the team that’s coming up in the minors is the one he was hired to manage.
Russell works pretty closely with Huntington on a lot of things (see: Jason Jaramillo, Doug Mientkiewicz). I actually think that his even demeanor is probably a good thing for a team like the Pirates, even if it drives a lot of people insane. Quite honestly, the manager always gets a bad rap on bad teams and I think a lot of the anger directed at Russell is a result of having his hands tied by a bullpen that’s unpredictable at best and awful at worst. At the very least, I think he deserves a chance to manage this team as the prospects start arriving.
