DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: OK to be nice!

DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: OK to be nice!

I know, right? But you think you’ve got it all figured out. You think you’ve got your stance set. You know how you feel about this franchise, about the general manager, even the manager, although he’s kind of new at this. Certainly the players. And then that happens. Good morning to you. Good. Thursday morning. I’m Dan Kovatric of DK Pittsburgh Sports. 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. Pirates 6 Tigers won yesterday at PNC Park. The Pirates sweep a series from the team that had flown to Pittsburgh with Major League Baseball’s best record. This naturally following a series in which the Pirates were swept by the White Socks, the American League’s worst team. this marking the first such occasion, meaning you get swept by a league’s worst team and then sweep the league’s best team in the very next series since the 1980 Padres’s. So, yeah, just 45 years ago. Doesn’t it seem like this group of pirates has been challenging the historians and the researchers like every other day for some kind of extreme? Well, as they’ll all tell you themselves, that’s baseball. And the baseball that they got in this series, and there’s no way I can do this job properly without praising when it’s due, was a very, very good one for your Pittsburgh baseball club in all phases. Paul Skins, Mitch Keller, and yes, back on his feet. Bailey Falter yesterday got the job done. Falter with seven innings, one run, four hits, eight strikeouts, no walks. Dude just had it all going on here. Carmen Majinsky with a couple of convincing zeros after that. And you know what? For this one day, just this one day, unless of course they continue this, I’m only going to be nice. I’m not going to tell you that Detroit put a kid making his first big league start on the mound. Not going to tell you that the Tigers are in their worst offensive funk of the year that preceded coming to Pittsburgh. And I’m not even going to do all my usual ranting and raving about the GM. At least not in this segment. Instead, I’m just going to be nice. I’m just going to be nice. Watch this. You can do this along with me. Spencer Horowitz trade acquisition. Not going to tell you his overall season average or his OPS or anything like that. I am going to tell you that he belted a grand slam to center field. Second inning, no doubter, first of his career. That followed an Andrew McCutchen home run in the first inning. And just like that, the Pirates were off and running 5 nothing and ultimately they ended up feeling pretty good about it. This was Horwitz afterward on that subject. Yeah, I think for me and the entire team. Um, yeah, just we got to continue to play better. We, uh, we’ve shown flashes of it and we’re sweeping teams that are in the playoffs right now and last series we got swept by a team that has a worse record than us. So, I think we just need that consistency. Good for him. Good for both O’Neal Cruz and Brian Reynolds having a couple hits each. We’re not talking about Reynolds in the same tone that we were just a couple of weeks ago. Why? Because Reynolds can hit. As I said at the time and as I’ll say until I’m pretty much purple in the face, he’s a born hitter. He’s always going to find a way to bounce back. This season, his lols have lasted too long. But that pattern holds. Past seven games, batting 379. Cruz, same as usual. You can crucify him one day, you can crush him with praise the next. This game and actually this series was one of those where you can just lay it on thick. He made impact plays, hustling plays, really really smart base running a couple days ago to take home plate whenever Spencer Tolson was I don’t know what the heck he was doing over there for Detroit. Just kind of fell asleep with the baseball. And I know I I can I I I feel like I can hear you. You know, you want me to throw the reality in. Yeah, they’re 42 and 61. They’ve lost a billion games in the past month alone. They had the worst road trip ever and all that other stuff. But instead, I’m going to use this series and this broader performance that the Pirates had Monday through Wednesday to accentuate again my favorite statistic about this season to date. And that is a positive one. Believe it or not, the Pirates are now 27 and 14 when they score four or more runs. They are 15 and 47 when they score less than four. The line of demarcation at the risk of oversimplifying stuff is four runs. They need to get to four runs every time. this team hits even a little, it looks something like this. No, they’re not going to be the best team in baseball, nor are they going to beat the best team in baseball on any sort of regular basis. At least not with what they have. But if there was just a little bit more offense, doesn’t have to be super powerful or even super productive, they could be. And I actually looked this up. To average four runs per game, they would need to rank 22nd out of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams. That’s it. This isn’t some grand leap. This is a couple of bats. H I’m not going to make it through this segment, am I? Oh well. Uh really, really nice series. When we come back, Jay Horn you. If you’re looking for a great dining experience, look no further than Northshore Tavern. Located directly across Federal Street from PNC Park, next door to Mike’s Beer Bar, Northshore Tavern is Pittsburgh’s home for Steak on a Stone. Enjoy your steak finished on a hot lava stone in front of you where you ensure each piece is cooked to exactly your liking. or try their rotating selection of entre, hot sandwiches, salads, and burgers, all while enjoying the ambiance dedicated to the great players and history of the Pittsburgh Pirates all around you. Come see why everyone’s talking about Northshore Tavern and Steak on a Stone. It’s Gun Storage Check Week. Help prevent unwanted access to your firearms. No one wants their unsecured gun to be used in an accident, a suicide, or a crime. Use lock boxes, safes, and locks to secure your firearms. Learn more at gunstoch checkck.org. That’s gunstoch check.org. Brought to you by NSSF, the firearm industry trade association. Today’s J1 Q comes from Brad. says, “DK, you’ve said a million times, maybe more, and I agree that there’s no way Ben Cherington should be allowed to trade Mitch Keller, David Bednar, etc., because of his record. But let’s say that Cherington was fired and an interim GM was announced when Derek Shelton was fired and the Pirates still have the same record as they do now. Would you be more in favor of entertaining trades for Keller and Bednar to add to the offense? You know, normally Brad, I have this reflex about hypothetical questions. I just want to throw them all out. And I think that’s pretty much normal for somebody who’s a reporter. You’re used to dealing with reality and trying to find out as much as you can about reality that you don’t really worry about this sort of thing. But I want to clarify something first. I’ve taken exactly one stance as it relates to the upcoming trade deadline. and that is that this guy shouldn’t be allowed to make any move that is any more significant than sending out let’s say an Andrew Heeney or a Bailey Falter or a Tommy fam and I have never proceeded to the second step of any scenario hypothetical or otherwise so I’m not going to lie here I haven’t even really considered what a competent GM might be able to do with Keller or Bedar or any of the bigger assets that exist on this team. I just know that this guy shouldn’t be allowed to touch them. And by the way, that applies in the double to prospects, meaning the Bubba Chandler types and so forth. Just no. Okay. No. Continuing on with your question, the way you phrased it was your hypothetical was there’d be an interim GM involved. You can’t have an interim GM making moves like this either. You just can’t. An interim GM is doing nothing more than minding the store. So, I’m going to presume you knew that and maybe misspoke or wanted to choose another word. There’s a a new permanent GM. If you bring in a real live qualified baseball executive capable of evaluating, developing, and instructing talent, I’m not going to lie to you here. The way I operate, I’d listen. I’d listen on anything and anybody. And when I say anybody, I mean anybody. Do I want to see Paul SK traded? No. Do I want to see some total rebuild after all this? God, no. But I would presuming that Bob Nutting would make the right choice and bring in somebody who’s qualified and that isn’t the safest presumption under the sun. I’d want to hear what he has to say. You know, you look across the river at what the Penguins have done since Kyle Dubis took over. These were moves that were unthinkable not that long ago. Trading Jake Gensel for a package of prospects and draft picks and so forth. doing that while Sydney Crosby is still putting up a point of game. No one would have contemplated this. Not in the wildest hypothetical, Brad. And I’m not going to lie, it took me a while, especially with that Jake trade, which I did not like when it happened. But I feel like if somebody comes here with a real resume and real poise and real professionalism and above all a real ability to assess baseball skills, I’d listen to pretty much anything. I appreciate the question. I appreciate everybody listening to Daily Shot of Pirates. Be back with another one of these tomorrow.

Every once in a while, it’s OK to be nice!

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