DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: The money quote

DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: The money quote

[Music] [Applause] [Music] On the day Ben Sherington made it known that he was going to be retained by Bob Nutting into the 2026 season, almost nothing else was going to be heard by anybody. But there was something else that needed to be heard within that. Good morning to you. Good Wednesday morning. I’m Dan Kachovich 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. Going to read the quote unrited and unedited in any way. Quote, in Pittsburgh. Oh, wait. Hang on. I have to give you context. At least some context. He’s talking about hitting here. He was asked about hitting. Where are the Pirates going to get their hitters from? Quote, “In Pittsburgh, we need to be making bets on guys who are not proven. We may be able to make some bets on guys that are proven, and we’ll pursue that, too. But some of the targets have to be guys who are unproven. And I believe we’re getting more clear all the time on what the combination of traits are that we should be making the best bet on. I have so much about this quote that I don’t like that I’m not even sure where to start. But how about at the start? How about at the in Pittsburgh? That if you’ve never heard Sharington say that before and it’s something of a common thing for him over the past I don’t know year and a half couple years is his way of saying in this pathetic little market in this village in which we’re forced to play this is what we have to do. We have to scrape and scrge while the rest of my peers get to operate in real magnificent villas, palaces up on the hill. I mean, I’m obviously being ridiculous, but that’s the message. It’s that in Pittsburgh because of the economic system and because of the size of the market and because of the size of the payroll, which he will never mention. That’s actually what he’s saying. He is forced to get, you know, crappy players. Well, he’s not. We’ve been over that a million times. I’m not going to insult your intelligence and repeat all of it, but you can just look around baseball and see players who were signed at similar dollar figures to what the Pirates offered to their free agents, and you’ll see that the other teams will outperform the Pirates in almost every case, especially as it relates to hitting. Next. Did you pick up on the word bet or bets being in there three times? This also is a new one from Sherington. We need to be making bets on guys. We need to be able to make some bets on guys. The traits that we should be making the best bet on. This is less about Cherington and more about the advanced analytics conventional wisdom that they can’t be wrong. They can’t be wrong. Only the circumstance can be wrong. The misfortune can be wrong. The lousy luck can be wrong. The poor development at field level. All of that can be wrong. They can’t. All they’re doing is putting themselves in the best possible situation to make the best possible bets. The best bet. He’s reminding you not once, not twice, but three times that what he’s doing is more excellent than you think it is. It’s just that it doesn’t always pan out. Here’s the third one. And the last one I’ll parse from this and I believe we’re getting more clear all the time on what the combination of traits are that we should be making the best bet on. This goes to something that he’s been stating a lot over the past month or so, and that’s that he and his staff, his wizards, have over the last two years really nailed what it means to find hitting. They they redid something in his process a couple of years ago. I’m I’m not guessing at this. He he’s talked about this openly where they’ve unlocked something that previously had been locked. Apparently, they now know how to evaluate hitting. Think about this. Think about what their jobs are. And think about how many years he’s been on this job. He is telling you in well following year six of his tenure that in the first four years he wasn’t clear at all on what the combination of traits are that we should be making the best bet on. It’s staggering the level of stupidity in all of this. The fact that he’s still employed is literally staggering. When we come back, J1Q. [Music] 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. 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Download the Game Time app and enter the code DK Pirates in your app profile for $20 off your first purchase. [Music] Today’s J1Q comes from Dylan Wood says, “DK, I want to start off by saying I’m a big fan of the show. I listen to Daily Shot of Pirates every morning. I know. Go ahead and laugh. I didn’t, Dylan. I I made it through that. I know everyone’s exhausted the past couple of weeks related to the team, but do you think that all of this might just be a decision that was made by Travis Williams? He screwed up a lot of things this year and should also be gone with Ben Cherington. Do you think there’s still a chance that Bob Nutting fires both and finds someone new? I don’t, Dylan. I I went over that part of it yesterday. I I don’t believe this is going to be 2019, the sequel. These guys are going to be there into 2026. Now, whether or not anybody’s there through the entirety of 2026 would seem to be a separate issue, but when I look at the main thing that you asked, I yeah, that’s actually probably more worth the laugh than the initial thing. the decision being made by Williams. I have gotten the sense from Travis since the start that he wanted to be over here and baseball ops over there. Maybe not in the intangible sense, but in the day-to-day sense. He has never appeared to me to be even remotely comfortable when it comes to things that are baseball ops. And there’s a reason for that. He doesn’t have that background. He didn’t come to the Pirates with that background. He’s a business guy, not a sports guy. And unlike his predecessor, Frank Counley, who kind of pretended that he was a sports guy, Travis hasn’t done anything of the kind. But Travis also has looked and come across as, and I think this is now more visible to the public than it’s ever been, really uncomfortable in general when it comes to uh the cameras, the microphones, speaking in public, and so forth. I I don’t know why that is. I’m not in a great position to judge anyone who has that issue in one direction or the other. I don’t feel like if you can’t I I probably have people that I know and respect immensely who aren’t any good at that sort of thing and never will be good at that. But I do know that when you’re hiring for that position, meaning when Nutting was hiring for that position, it’s got to be understood that it’s a position of outward visible palpable leadership. Leadership, not just for those of us on the outside to be impressed with how well they speak and whatever. I’m talking about on the inside. That’s where the leadership counts. You got to be able to walk into a room and command it. You’ve got to be able to say something and know that it’s going to be heated and there’s going to be a follow through on it within your own world. So when you asked that, Dylan, the first thing I thought of was answering, okay, well there’s there actually is a hierarchy here that not a lot of people are familiar with. Travis does exist over Ben in the hierarchy. So Travis could be making the decision that you’re describing. Let’s get the facts out of the way. I couldn’t picture him doing that in a million years, Dylan. And I’m I’m telling you this, not in a million million billion trillion years. I could extrapolate this to like the quantazillions or something, but I think you get the idea. I appreciate the question, Dylan. I appreciate everybody listening to Daily Shot of Pirates. We’ll be back with another one of these tomorrow. [Music]

Ben Cherington’s (quite literal) money quote.

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