DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: One forward, two back

DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: One forward, two back

[Music] [Applause] they started out 9 and two you remember that then they lost six in a row won two in a row lost three in a row 1 one lost five in a row one three in a row lost three in a row 1 one lost one 1 one lost two one two lost one one two lost two one two lost 2 1 one lost one 1 one lost one good morning to you good Monday morning I’m Deon kovachich of DK Pittsburgh sports and this is daily shot of pirates it comes your way bright and early every weekday if you’re into football Andor hockey I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Penguins in the same place that you found this blue jays 5 Pirates 4 yesterday in Toronto and it was the latest lost one after a 1-1 or a loss two after a 1-1 this is who they’ve become when you’re talking about an identity for this team this is as close as it gets because they don’t really do anything they don’t nose dive they don’t collapse other than offensively on occasion they don’t really go into long losing streaks because they have the fourth best starting rotation statistically speaking in all of Major League Baseball so what are they I legitimately believe that the answer is that they’re delusional and I don’t know of another way to put it it’s not mean it’s not personal I’ve never ever had a negative encounter with Ben charrington Derek Shelton or pretty much anybody associated with this front office field staff players but when you have the person running baseball operations saying insane things light and this came from the mouth of Ben cherington yesterday on his weekly radio show quote we think we’re better than we were at this point last year whatever the record is whatever the standings were we think we’re a deeper team we think we’ll continue to get better over the course of 2024 this team my friends this is me now is 27 and 32 it’s five games under 500 obviously it’s nowhere near as in nine games back of the Brewers nine games back in fourth place in the central out of five teams one game ahead of the last place Reds the Pirates of a year ago were in first place they were over 500 they were in first place as late as June 15 of 2023 that’s two weeks from now on the annual calendar that’s delusion and as I keep sharing with you that’s delusion that’s based on surrounding yourself with people on the inside who concoct formulas that they share with each other make themselves feel better when in fact the only statistic and I don’t even mean this in some you know old school throw the clock back kind of away the only statistic that actually counts is wins and losses for this particular conversation when you’re getting into something of a serious scope and you’re talking about performance and you’re talking about production it’s just wins and just losses and this team loses more than it wins and when it wins it wins because somebody has a really good start and the offense actually comes around for a day and then when it’s not one of those starting pitchers it just kind of falls back two steps backward but wait there’s more from the general manager show charington said and again I quote verbatim here you think about the rotation the bullpen team defense and team offense for those other three there have been stretches during the season where each of those other proponents has performed well but there have also been stretches where we haven’t gotten a good performance from those groups we probably haven’t gotten every part of the roster clicking kind of all at the same time that’s certainly what we’re working toward okay um no okay you can’t hide or obfuscate for the purposes of hiding or obfuscating what’s spectacularly obvious to anyone with even a modum of knowledge of the game of baseball it’s not the bullpen the team defense and the team offense it’s the offense period the rest of the stuff is just whatever you know Bullpen hasn’t been great the bullpen had some strs it had some weaknesses the defense has been there sometimes it hasn’t at other times but this is what they do within this delusion they all talk like this it’s not just charington they all talk like this where they say ah you know the offense is it’s one of the things that’s going wrong because that in their minds takes the pressure off they don’t have to make the external moves that Chings and clear clearly doesn’t want to make they don’t have to change the philosophies they don’t have to fire people they don’t have to do anything they don’t have to do anything other than to say just get better but wait there’s more charington said that he has begun to quote look around end quote for possible additions from the outside he said he feels that the the team’s kind of got a grasp on what its strengths and weaknesses are and ideas of how they can do their how they can do things to make the roster better quoting directly again it’s part of the Season where most of getting better comes from the guys that are here the guys that are already wearing a pirates uniform in Pittsburgh or our guys in the minor leagues end quote this is what general managers say anytime anybody brings up the idea of making Acquisitions in you know may or early June they’ll always say that there’s no Market there’s nobody out there making moves everybody thinks they’re still in it and all this other stuff and yet it’s so easy to counter with all kinds of moves that do get made yes they’re uncommon yes they’re more likely to occur in July in advance of the trade deadline no it’s not impossible to make one and when you say publicly as you just heard cherington do at least with me paraphrasing it that you’ve just begun to look for outside help honestly I don’t even know what to say anymore when we come back J1 [Music] Q this portion of daily shot of pirates is brought to you by our friends at Northshore Tavern that’s directly across Federal Street from PNC Park it’s home of stake on a stone an eating experience underscoring the word experience the steak is brought to you partially cooked on an 800° stone and you do the rest it’s a ton of fun it’s a great meal and it’s a baseball atmosphere like no other in Pittsburgh Northshore Tavern right across Federal Street from PNC [Music] Park today’s j1q comes from Peter who says DK do you think Quinn prer would be a good option as a long reliever he has good numbers until batters see him multiple times on the same day so if he only sees the lineup once or twice he might be very effective that sounds good Peter and I know that that’s the standard uh reflex when it comes to a starting pitcher who doesn’t get through the lineup multiple times that’s been the standard reflex for a long long time in baseball I’ll come back at you with a question who’s the Pirates long reliever right now who is it who was it last year who is it with any team that you see and if you answer Luis Ortiz you can do that except that Luis really hasn’t been used in that regard he was the other night in Toronto and did really well with a three-inning save but I don’t think anybody casts Louise in that role I don’t think I’ve heard anybody associated with the Pirates call him a long reliever and I wonder within this hypothetical question that I just asked you back if there really is even such a thing or a need for such a thing in Modern Baseball or if there is what’s the point because if you think about this the rotation has been tremendous but to cite the one negative and that’s really just been the last couple starts that Martin Perez had before getting hurt he’s really the only example you can site where you say all right you know Perez was knocked out of the game a little early and you’re going to bring in somebody who’s your long relever well chances are really really good that by the time you bring that player in it’s going to be like five nothing six nothing already so who cares if prer is good or bad at it it’s a mop-up roll it’s a Rubber Arm roll it’s a Dwayne Underwood Jr role to put a name to it where even if you’re good at it it doesn’t matter you’re just buying your manager some Innings so if prer is the long reliever which is not an ideal circumstance for a first round pick who a lot of people thought had some significant pedigree coming out of covid and your reason for that is that he can’t you know do something different with his delivery or his release point or his pitch tunneling or something that helps him not look as predictable or as easy to read by hitters once they’ve seen him the first time then by putting him in the Dwayne Underwood Jr role you’re just basically saying he’s done he’s toast with the way this team is structured with the way the pitching staff specifically is structured right now it’s it’s unfair to all four of the other starters to project that they’re going to be absolutely brilliant every time they go out Jared Jones just showed that in Detroit but generally speaking between Jones and Paul SK and Mitch Keller and bayy falter more often than not you’ve been getting you know six Innings seven Innings the Pirates rank fourth in Major League Baseball in Innings out of their starting pitchers so I really don’t care what Quinn prer can do in that regard I do care about the instruction and the development that leads to a pitcher having an Arsenal a five sometimes a six th pitch and not being able to get people out after the third inning I care a lot about a pitcher who was basically weaned away from his fast ball that was one of the reasons that he was so high on the prospect rankings and as a result he kind of lost some of the zip on the fast ball and he definitely lost his leaning on the fast ball that’s just flat out lousy from the pure standpoint of development and I’m not bringing this up now I’ve been bringing it up for years including when he was still in the miners so before we wonder whether or not prer should be a long reliever or even if long relievers are still a thing I’d try to fix prer you know I appreciate the question I appreciate everybody listening to daily shot of pirates we’ll do another one of these [Music] tomorrow e

One step forward, two steps back.

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