Cam Bonifay is the General Manager of the
Pittsburgh Pirates mostly responsible for signing totally
inept players like Derek Bell, Pat Meares, Kevin Young and others in the past
8 years. He has GM through 8 lossing
seasons and and several last place finishes. He is the man that has signed one of the worse
managers in the
history of
baseball: Lloyd McClendon. He has lead the
Pirates from the rey of
sunshine that was the '97 season, when they finished 2nd in the division to the
2001 season where the Pirates are dead last in the division spending about $40
million more than '97.
For example he traded Jay Bell, who can actually hit and field, because he wasn't part of the future of the Pirates. This past year he signed Derek Bell, who couldn't hit a parked car with a bulldozer. When he traded Jay Bell, he got a pretty good 3B man, Joe Randa. He had a rather good year in 1997, when the expansion draft happened later that year, he left him unprotected and let Randa go and went back to Kansas City eventully.
He blames: players, coaches, past owners, current money problems, fans, and anybody, but himself for the current problems with the team. He signed those players and coaches. The current owner has been in control since 1996, meaning that they should have very few problems from past ownership and he was GM under that ownership for 3 years. The reason the Pirates would have money problems is that they waisted it all on washed up middle agers like Derek Bell, Pat Meares and Kevin Young. He would have been able to afford guys like Mike Hampton, if he would have been more.....intelligent.
Also it should be noted that the owner hasn't fired him yet, so I don't blame him for everything wrong with the Pirates.