DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: How to spend

DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: How to spend

Another [Music] [Applause] weekend passes and a few more names get tossed around related to signing in Pittsburgh and it still hasn’t stopped being weird. I’m going to try to attach as much reality to this as possible. Note, not skepticism, not cynicism, just actual reality. Believe me. Good morning to you. Good Monday morning. I’m Dan Kawatovich 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 that I hope you’ll also take the time to check out. A few days ago, I was the first to report that the Pirates will be operating. That means Ben Cherington will be operating with a payroll that could max out at 110 million. Now, as often occurs with news breaks like this, once it’s out there, more people are inclined to offer more information. That’s been true forever. So whereas I told you at the time I didn’t have any more information, I have since gotten at least the background on what more precisely this might mean. Starting with the dollar figure itself, no, Cherington does not have Cart Blanch to do what he wants to get to 110. You wouldn’t offer him that either. he has not exactly been responsible with the franchise’s money that he has been allotted. So it goes a little like this. Let’s say he’s in the range of 95 million or even closer to 100. But something comes available, someone comes available who can really hit, who can really be a difference maker in the lineup. Maybe through free agency, maybe through a trade. In that context, he can with approval, and here again, I mean specific approval, as in you’d better make quite the case, to take that payroll through. Otherwise, it’s it’s going to be more in the 95 98ish range. Now, for those of you who are listening to this, and you could certainly be forgiven for that with nothing but skepticism, cynicism, all that other ism stuff, you’re going to hear this and go, “Aha, look, they’re already backtracking. They told them one thing and now they’re no because that’s not how I got this information.” It’s just not. In fact, the two phases of this have come from two very different sources and they are both Yeah, that’s all I’m telling you on that. It’s It’s just not that. I realize how it can look. If I make a headline that says pirates can spend up to 110 million and you go, “Whoa, look at that.” And then a few days later I come back and say, “Well, not necessarily 110.” Aha, there they go already. And it’s just that’s not this. So, now that we hopefully have that facet out of the way, what I wonder about within this scenario that I’ve just laid out for you, if the Pirates might in fact be endeavoring to go and get this hitter first and foremost because to spend more money down the road, maybe they’ll interpret this themselves, meaning on the baseball side as you know, we better spend this while it’s sitting there because if we’re already getting conditions on how this has to go or that has to go, there might come a point where they just say, you know what, to heck with all of this, you’re going to have the same payroll as last year and you’re going to like it. So just go out and get your primary target, whoever that might be. And understanding, of course, that the primary target has to also want to come to Pittsburgh. It’s not a snap your finger and it gets done thing. Man, am I the only one? It seems like everybody who’s been getting this information has responded with, “Well, we’ll see. I’ll believe it when which is fine. I I really don’t care. I’m not making predictions here. I’m sharing with you what I actually hear. You are free to take it wherever you want. But the thing that I’d be thinking about isn’t, hey, yes, they’ll spend it or no, they won’t spend it. I just keep thinking about who will be doing this spending and why anyone would be looking forward to that. And taking that further, let’s say in some bizarre, insane, upside down world twist of a narrative that the Pirates were able to take Kyle Schwarber away from the Phillies. And that’s my understanding of that situation on that side of the Commonwealth is that his default is to return to the Phillies. Their default is very much to bring him back. So you’d really have to pry him out of there. And the only way the only way a team in the Pirates position, the Pirates reputation and all else, could pull off something like that is by, you know, grossly outpaying what the Phillies, a team with significantly more means, even in an offseason like this, can pay out in a non-cap system. Even then, even if that happens, Schwarber for all his accomplishments as a hitter, and he is to a lot of people the model hitter at this stage of baseball’s evolution. And I’m not saying that to compare him to Aaron Judge or Cal Raleigh or anybody like that. I’m saying it to emphasize that his style is the template probably for the three outcomes of hitting, the home run, the walk, the strikeout. He does a ton of all three. Well, who’s to say that he would be the exception in coming to Pittsburgh and that somehow he’d either stay the same or get better when everybody everybody everybody else who comes here with a bat in their hands gets worse. You know, I did say at the outset here that I wasn’t going to get all. I just couldn’t help myself. When we come back at 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. 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 gunstorage check.org. Brought to you by NSSF, the firearm industry trade association. [Music] Today’s J1 Q comes from Kyle Robinson, who in response to a point I I made in the most recent episode of Daily Shot of Pirates, that was last Thursday. He says that his wife, who is a Phillies fan, suggests that instead of calling it or referring to it as a salary cap, that everybody involved with Major League Baseball, ownerships should just call it the revenue management system. Sounds to me, respectfully here, like Kyle’s wife has some sort of corporate gig because that is a really corporate sounding thing and it’s not going to stick because of that. It’s just not. For anybody who missed that episode, the reason that this comes up is that I I said that salary cap is like the worst possible phrase you can come up with for this system. It just doesn’t apply. It’s like global warming. It’s not constantly getting warmer. There are times it gets colder. The more appropriate and accurate term is climate change. Things are changing with the weather all over the world. As a result, the planet ever so slightly but consistently is getting warmer. Well, which of those concepts is easier to understand? Doesn’t matter. You summarize it in a term, it’s climate change. Okay. Salary cap. What do you think of? Well, there’s a cap on salaries. Oh jeez, that’s not what it’s about at all. In fact, in the NFL and the NHL, more players make more money, notably the guys at the bottom of that pay structure. They wouldn’t considered a cap on salaries at all because, you know, it isn’t what a salary cap system is for the gazillionth time. It’s a ceiling, a floor, a tight range between those two. And of course, the immensely expanded revenue sharing that allows all teams, including Pittsburgh, to spend into that range. There is no such thing as a cap system that doesn’t have these components, all of these components. It does not exist. But the name salary cap just just doesn’t fit. Doesn’t work. It doesn’t give off the right impression. So, I I don’t like the suggestion that Kyle’s wife offers, but I I’d be open to hearing others that would make some sense. Uh Steve Meiser upon hearing that episode communicated in this direction that the the smartest thing that the owners could do is come up with something that really illustrates what the owners want to achieve with the cap. Now, if we’re keeping this real, what the owners want to achieve is more money for themselves. That’s also how these things have come to fruition in the past. Another story for another day. But the idea of uh competition, fairness, equity at the foundation, that might be something that steers this in the right direction. I don’t believe because it’s already been the case that owners aren’t allowed to speak the term salary cap that you’re going to hear it in the future either. I don’t think they’re going to walk into the first collective bargaining session and say, “All right, we want a salary cap.” All that’ll happen is all the briefcases on the other side of the long table will slam shut and everybody will storm out of the room. What you need to say is, and this was a point that Hal Stein Brener, owner of the Yankees, was making the other day when he was being pressed on this by New York area reporters, he kept emphasizing the teams at the bottom. And he didn’t name names, but you know, the Pirates are one of those. He was the one saying, “We need to make sure that there’s hope for all of these franchises when they enter a season or when they enter a process.” And that’s not the perception in way too many markets around Major League Baseball, not just the bottom two, three, or five. So, I would take that as my first pretty good public clue as to where this will go, Kyle. I I really feel like you’re going to see something that’ll emerge from that. And again, it doesn’t have to be a catchphrase or whatever, but I I do think it has to get steered in another way. Not for semantics purposes, but just to be more accurate. I appreciate the question. I appreciate everybody listening to Daily Shot of Pirates. We’re going to have another one of these tomorrow. [Music]

How to spend all this (apparent) extra money.

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