Dave Littlefield

From Wiki Gonzalez

Dave Littlefield is currently a scout for the Chicago Cubs, but is best known throughout BBTF (and baseball, for that matter) as the former General Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and spawn of Satan. Cursed be his name!

Since becoming GM in 2001, Littlefield was the author of one good trade and at least three disastrous trades in his tenure -- getting Josh Fogg and Kip Wells for zilch, but giving away Jason Schmidt for virtually zilch, doing the same with Kenny Lofton and Aramis Ramirez, and acquiring Matt Morris for no logical reason. As time passed, Fogg and Wells faded and moved on to other teams, leaving the Pirates back where they started. Morris was jettisoned due to poor pitching before he could complete the final season on his bloated contract.

Some Pirate-fan Primates feel Littlefield was hamstrung by owner Bob Nutting and CEO Kevin McClatchy in his dealings, leaving him not entirely to blame for the state of the low-budget Pirates. However, they do blame him for a single-minded focus on drafting and developing young pitching, which did not pan out for the organization and which probably detracted from developing young hitting.

A surprisingly large number of players discarded by Littlefield on waivers or in minor transactions have come back to bite him on the ass, including pitchers Damaso Marte, Bronson Arroyo, and Chris Young. From this, one might assume that he is a poor judge of talent, an assumption also supported by the near-complete collapse of the Pirates' draft classes under his tenure.

The constant BBTF speculation about Littlefield's ineptitude reached a fever pitch at the 2007 non-waiver trade deadline (July 31) when the Pirates acquired a struggling Matt Morris from the Giants and assumed over $11 million remaining on his contract through 2008. In a self-immolation Primer thread, Pirate fans, Steve Treder, and assorted passers-by speculated whether Littlefield was intentionally trying to create a crippled team (i.e. a conspiracy theory).

Nutting fired Littlefield in September 2007, and the Cubs picked him up in December of that year.

In a midseason 2008 thread Littlefield’s plague is pervasive recapping the Pirates' plight, Crispix Attacks was amazed:

I had not realized that the majority of the players in the Pirates organization who have any nonzero value at all (they have about ten) were not drafted by Littlefield, not even acquired in trades by Littlefield, but are simply still here after being acquired by Littlefield's predecessor, who was fired SEVEN YEARS AGO.

Little did we know what a great GM Can Bonifay really was.