Charlie Morton/Mike Johnston out of tahn: What a week

By: Joe Smeltzer
The past three days been a whirlwind in the Steel City. It started on Wednesday, when the Pittsburgh Pirates traded away their hometown institution, Neil Walker, to the New York Mets in exchange for left-handed pitcher Jon Niese (you can read my thoughts on that here http://joesmeltzer775.blogspot.com/2015/12/farewell-pittsburgh-kid-baseball-is.html). Thursday and Friday passed without anything exciting occurring, but then Saturday morning happened. First, the Pirates made another move by trading away the inconsistent pitcher that is Charlie Morton to the Philidelphia Phillies for Singe A starting pitcher David Whitehead. Then, even bigger news hit when the Pittsburgh Penguins FINALLY made the inevitable reality when they fired their head coach, Mike Johnston, as well as assistant Gary Agnew after less than 1 and 1/2 seasons on the job. I will now give you my ever important thoughts on this, first with Morton.

Photo Creds to clementeswall21.weebly.com

Whitehead is unlikely to ever make an impact for this club, but this was still a good deal for the Pirates. Morton is a great guy from most accounts I have heard, and I wish him all the best in the future, but he was too inconsistent throughout his career in the Burgh to be considered reliable. Most important, the Pirates no longer have to worry about Morton's contract. The Bucs now have an extra 8 million dollars to spend (that's what Morton would have made in 2016). It's hard to believe that Morton's spot in the rotation will not be filled by somebody from the outside, as Allen Webster is the Pirates #5 starter at this point. Hopefully, the Pirates are smart and use the money from Morton's contract to help sign somebody who will make a big difference (Scott Kazmir)? I would prefer that the Pirates go all out in the free agent market as opposed to trading for another reclamation project, as Ray Serage can't be the saviour for everyone (remember Jonathon Sanchez)? It will be very intriguing to see if Neil Huntington can salvage this offseason in some way.

Probably the most inspiring Mike Johnston ever did (photo creds to cjsportsrambler sportsblog.com

Now, on to the Penguins. It's never right to wish for somebody who is not known to be a jerk to lose their job. However, I think that it is obvious that the Penguins made the right decision in firing Mike Johnston, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a fan who disagrees with me. Johnston's personality is not inspiring at all, and that became evident in his brief time here. The thing that bothers me most about Johnston was that he turned Penguins hockey into a bore. A team with stars such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Phil Kessel should be one that is exciting to watch, but the idea of scoring goals did not seem to interest Johnston. Instead, he tried to turn the Penguins into the New Jersey Devils of the early 2000's, and it did not work. The fact that Pittsburgh is currently 26th in the league in goals (and 5th in their division) with all of this talent tells you everything you need to know about MJ's tenure. Johnstons reluctance to play young players such as Daniel Sprong and Derek Pouliot was unpopular with the fanbase, and his mishandling of Sprong, in particular, hurt his standing with GM Jim Rutherford.

The Penguins have promoted Mike Sullivan to be their head coach. Sullivan had great success as coach of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the AHL, and it will be interesting to see what he can do at the big league level. Remember, the last time the Penguins fired a coach midseason, this happened.