DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: Why Skenes stays mum

DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: Why Skenes stays mum

[Music] [Applause] If he weren’t the most talented pitcher that most of us have ever laid eyes on, the most impressive thing about Paul SK would be that he can commit to this. Good morning to you. Good Thursday morning. I’m Dan Kvachovic of DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Pirates. Comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you’re into football andor hockey, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Penguins that I hope you’ll take the time to check out as well. Skins is about to win the National League Sai Young Award despite playing on a terrible team, despite having all of that excellence get put to no use other than the Sai Young Award. And despite seeing all of this natural competitive spirit that this young man comes with just by default, it’s just it’s just in him. It’s in his DNA. All of it just gets lit on fire. It’s thoroughly thrown into the trash. I I I remember there was a a break in the pregame activity, the clubhouse in Seattle, and watching him go around and just work, work, work work. He wasn’t pitching that day and put in all this extra effort and while still being, you know, friendly and down to earth and everything with everyone around him and talking to his teammates and being a good guy and everything else. And I just remember thinking to myself, what’s he doing here? I didn’t mean Seattle. I mean with the Pirates. What What’s he doing here? What is the point of this for him? what’s in his head. I’ve tried. I’ve tried. I’ve spoken to him and and I don’t do it in a way where I’m trying to trick him or catch him into saying something that’s quoteworthy, you know, or rip the team or rip the owner if he wants to do that. This is a really, really smart dude. He’s going to just do it. He’s not going to need me to coax it out of him. And probably about as close as he ever came to that was near the end of the season. This was at PNC Park when I was bringing up with him the idea that the team might trade Mitch Keller for hitting and how he’d feel about that because you do need, you know, more than a couple of good starters in order to win. And he spoke his mind. He didn’t BS it, but he also didn’t have a fraction of the impact that he could have. And he knows that, too. He knows that his next session with reporters could be the one that just blows up into the biggest story the pirates could ever be part of. He’s aware, but he doesn’t go there. In fact, he doesn’t even really come close to going there. That’s because he’s by nature someone who commits. when he speaks of the pride that he has in the military schooling that he’s had, the people that he got to know, the people that he’s gotten to love and respect in that realm, it’s not an act. When he tells me, as he did one day in Cleveland this year, that he’d love to be one of those guys flying those planes that were happening before that game. It’s not just words. So when he comes into this environment and he can see and sense everything that’s wrong around him, he’s still committed. Why? He was drafted. He put on the uniform. He came here and he even took significant steps, I thought, to immerse himself in the community. something that he really didn’t have to do considering the entire baseball world knows he’s not going to stay here because he shouldn’t stay here. But he did all of that anyway because that’s just the way he lives his life. That’s the way he lays out his baseball career. And I’m not going to lie here. I’m about to say something you’re really not going to like. There’s a part of me that wishes he didn’t. There’s a part of me that wishes that he had pulled one of those John Elway, Eli Manning, Eric Lindros maneuvers and just said, “I I can’t go there. I can’t go there. My expectations of myself are so much higher than what that franchise’s expectations are of itself. There’s not a match here.” Respectfully, no, I’m not going to Pittsburgh. No offense people of Pittsburgh. No offense alumni of the Pirates. No offense to current players on the Pirates. I I can’t I can’t do this. I can’t go there. Figure out something else. Trade me. Do something because we would be watching this young man somewhere. And it doesn’t have to be, you know, Dodgers, Mets, or Yankees. Not at this stage of his career. He could go somewhere where he could make a real difference and he could be pitching in games in the fall. He could go to a market that’s twothirds the size of Pittsburgh in Milwaukee and experience that. He didn’t do that. He committed. That’s what he does. He commits. He’s done that everywhere he’s been to talk to people who’ve known him before he came to the Pirates. And as a result, he plays meaningless baseball all summer long. The best pitcher in the world plays meaningless baseball all summer long until he’s done and then the important games begin without him. How much longer can that last? I’m not sure anybody around here wants the answer to that question, especially after he just saw with his own eyes this utterly failed general manager keep his job. And from there, the people over the general manager sending out the strongest possible signal that they couldn’t care less. When we come back, J1Q 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 checkck.org. Brought to you by NSSF, the Firearm Industry Trade Association. Delete Me, quick, and safe to remove your personal data online. 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It’s not a bad time for me to bring that up because I had somebody yesterday send a scathing note in this direction about how everything on this program is now cap cap cap and the Dodgers are evil which by the way I don’t feel at all and how the Pirates should have fired their GM and all this other stuff that I definitely do feel and even included the choice of questions that get used at the end of this program. You need to see the list of the submissions that come in here. It’s nothing but salary cap and nutting and more salary cap and more nutting. If you think there are baseball questions being sent here, I would welcome the opportunity to sit next to you and show you everything that’s here. And on that note, Bill Zitch comes in with DK. Do you think Major League Baseball’s team owners will actually stand together and see a lock out through to get a salary cap system? Even if the players strike and there’s no World Series in 2026, I think the owners will cave. It’s just a gut feeling, Bill. The owner’s caving is going to be a gut feeling for everyone because that’s always been what’s happened. The owners themselves, even the ones who weren’t around, and there aren’t many left for 1994, their descendants or family members are now talking about what happened in ’94. That was the year, of course, that the strike cost baseball the World Series and ultimately cost Montreal their Expose. The Expose would have won that World Series and would have been a much healthier franchise. Wouldn’t have had to leave blah blah blah blah blah. But it wasn’t just 94 where that happened. Most recently, it happened again. Now, COVID was a predominant factor, meaning everybody involved with Major League Baseball owners and players looked like the most greediest, selfish, insensitive parasites by even discussing this while there was a global pandemic literally killing millions of people. So they found a way to just kick that figurative can down the road and settle things for a few more years. But the mindset at that time, I can assure you, was that they really wanted to make this happen. Now, all that’s occurred since then, of course, is that there’s mountains of evidence that they were right to be thinking about a salary cap system. They’re no longer just thinking about it. They’re talking about it, not with us, with each other. They’re planning on putting one in. And they’re planning on sticking together, which is the only way that it’ll happen. Now, does that mean it’s going to be universal? No. You’re never going to have really universal sentiment on anything anymore. Like in life, nobody agrees with everything. But I’m going to keep saying this even though it’s not going to resonate just like everything else I say about the CAB system. You don’t need 30 teams in favor. You need three quarters of the teams. My information is that there is significantly more than 3/4 of the teams who are in favor of the CAP system. That means, here it comes again, a ceiling, a floor, all capital letters, that’s only about $20 million below the ceiling. And of course, the expanded revenue sharing that makes it possible for everybody to spend into that range. That sentence I just spoke explains, I think, the salary cap system as clearly as it can be explained. And yet the next question from anybody after they hear this is, “Well, I I’ I’d rather see a floor.” But I just said there was a floor. Well, if there’s a floor, then nothing’s never going to spend to it. Of course he will. He’d be required to. Well, then he’ll sell the team because it’ll be more than he can spend or would want to spend. No, he won’t. The Pirates would be, as would every other team, in a healthier financial position than ever. Repeating, there’d be immensely expanded revenue sharing that allows no forces all teams to spend within that $20 million range. Well, then he would be at the bottom of that range. Okay? And it’s just 20 million bucks. That’s nothing when it comes to major league payroll at this level. If you’re talking about a $200 million ceiling, you’re going to be talking about a $180 million floor. That’s that’s almost nothing when you weigh the very real factor that you might want to have a bunch of kids on your team just because you happen to believe in those kids and you don’t need to pay them before you need to pay them. So, will they cave, Bill? I don’t know. I’m out of the predictions business. Are they unified right now to the extent that I can tell you in confidence that more than 3/4 of the owners are in favor of a salary cap system? Yes. Unequivocally. On this note, I’m going to share again that there won’t be a Friday Daily Shot of Pirates. I think I’m going to end up making that a habit. really really tough to be honest with you to get five of these episodes out this time of year and with this team that just never ever ever generates offseason news. Now, if that changes, if there’s offseason news, yeah, I’ll have a Friday episode, but it’s going to have to be four a week for the foreseeable future. Not it’s not some goofy protest on my part or anything like that. I just just don’t have it. It’s just not there. I mean, I squeezed out a whole episode yesterday on Derek Shelton’s press conference in Minneapolis. Like, who cares, right? But again, something happens, there will be a show on a Friday. Otherwise, Monday through Thursday, we’ll be back with a whole new shiny episode Monday morning. Thanks so much for being here. [Music]

Why Paul Skenes stays mum despite the incompetence above him.

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