How bad of a GM was Dave Littlefield?

[Jake]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07147/789409-63.stm

 

Any team in Major League Baseball can look back on players they coulda-shoulda-woulda had in the extremely inexact world of the draft.

 

But here is the tale of one the Pirates did have and saw slip away:

 

Stephen Drew, Arizona's talented young shortstop and brother of J.D. Drew, was their 11th-round pick in June 2001, yet another credit to the fine drafting done by Mickey White, the scouting director in 1999-2001 and predecessor to the current man, Ed Creech. Drew, taken out of a Georgia high school, immediately entered into contract talks with the Pirates.

 

Initially, it went poorly.

 

"They kind of started off by low-balling me," Drew said last weekend when the Diamondbacks visited PNC Park. "But that happens to everybody at the start."

 

White recalled appealing to the Pirates' ownership for more money to try to sign Drew, and Kevin McClatchy obliged.

 

"If you like him, go get him," McClatchy told White, per White's memory.

 

So the Pirates went back to Drew with a far better offer.

 

As Drew said, "They upped the ante."

 

A month after Drew was drafted, the Pirates replaced Cam Bonifay with Dave Littlefield as general manager. And, whether it was because of that or a shift in priorities, the Drew talks fell apart.

 

Wonder if The D-Backs will trade him to us for Jack Wilson?

[seanimal]

Bad, Jake. Real bad.

[cbbryan]

I guess White should have acted faster. He got the go ahead......... get it done already!