Oneil Cruz, The Home Run Derby, and the Pirates at the All-Star Break

The Pirates Oneil Cruz, despite being eliminated in the semi-finals of Major League Baseball's Dunk Contest Home Run Derby, made quite an impression in the event last night.  The Post-Gazette made a huge deal of it this morning, and it is all over social media that not only did Cruz hit 34 HOME RUNS in the contest, he also hit THE LONGEST HOME RUN (513 FEET), and NINE OF THE TEN LONGEST HOME RUNS, and THE TOP FIVE LONGEST HOME RUNS in the contest.  Can you just imagine how Greg Brown and Joe Block will be slobbering all over this when the Pirates return to action on Friday?

Yes, I watched the HRD, and yes, I was rooting for Cruz, and yes, it was fun to see the rockets that were launched by Cruz and all of the other participants.  However, let's keep this in perspective here:  this was a glorified batting practice session, albeit one with the added pressure a time clock and a $1 million prize to the winner.  It also brings into perspective the conundrum that is Oneil Cruz.  He does have prodigious power, he is very fast, but he strikes out a lot, is not a very good hitter, and he is a disaster defensively, and he tends to loaf sometimes (although maybe he won't loaf anymore since Don "Donnie" Kelly recently benched him for two whole innings for not running out a ground ball).

He does hit mammoth home runs more than occasionally, but let's put even that into perspective.  Here are Cruz's stats at the All-Star Break:

Home Runs - 16, tied for 43rd in all of MLB

RBI - 37, tied for 117th in all of MLB

Strike Outs - 116, tied for 3rd in all of MLB

BA - .212, 146th in all of MLB

OPS - .733, 96th in all of MLB

By contrast, the Mariners' Cal "The Big Dumper" Raleigh, the winner of the HRD, currently has 38 HR, 82 RBI, a .259 BA, and an OPS of 1.010.  He is also a Gold Glove catcher.  I include this paragraph not only for comparison purposes, but to also give me a reason to type out the best nickname in all of sports: The Big Dumper.

There is a reason why Cruz, a seemingly one trick pony, was at the Home Run Derby, but is not actually on the All-Star team.  I confess that I am confused in the matter of Oneil Cruz.  There is a mass of talent somewhere in there, but he is very far from being a complete ballplayer.  Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente, and Dave Parker he ain't.

Now, as for the Pirates themselves.  What will probably be the high point of the season for them came on July 2 when they defeated the Cardinals 5-0. That was the third straight shutout of the Cards in that series, and it was the team's sixth straight win.  They then departed on a nine game road trip to Seattle, Kansas City, and Minnesota that would lead up the All-Star Break.  Would the team build upon that six game winning streak and create some momentum going into the second half of the season?  We all know that answer.  They lost eight straight games before salvaging a win on the final Sunday of the first half of the season.  They now sit at 39-58 on pace for a 97 loss season.  However, I for one am fully confident that they can pull off 100 losses in this, the sixth year of the Ben Cherrington Regime.

For reasons unknown to many, Cherrington remains the GM of the Pirates, and earlier this week he oversaw the Pirates selections in the MLB entry draft.  The Bucs used their first two picks to select a couple of high school pitchers:

1. Seth Hernandez, 19, RHP

2. Angel Cervantes, 17, RHP

Unless either of these guys are Paul Skenes 2.0, we won't see Hernandez in Pittsburgh until 2029, and it will be the 2030's before Cervantes arrives.

We now await the July 31 trade deadline to see what guys GMBC trades for some other teams' random middle infield prospects.

PIRATES FEVER. CATCH IT!

Travis Williams, Ben Cherrington, Bob Nutting

The Bucco Brain Trust

What, us worry?

"Superman" and "The Better Sister"

Hey, I just realized that it has been fourteen days since I last posted here.  No, I wasn't on vacation, and I wasn't sick.  Just not much has struck my fancy over the last two weeks, or did you want me to wax endlessly about how lousy the Pirates have been?  (Don't worry.  I do plan to write about the Buccos as we settle into the All-Star Break, but that will come later in the week.)  For today though, some Critical Commentary.

"Superman"

So this morning I made my $7.50 contribution to the $217 million in box office receipts racked up thus far for the new Superman movie.  Those who know me know that this is not my kind of movie, but what the hell, I gave in to the hype, and I have to say that I did enjoy it, although, it got a little silly - to me, anyway - as it went on for it's two hour length. 

The movie is also being criticized by those on the right end of the political spectrum as being too "Woke", and the movie certainly can be seen as an allegory for what we see happening in this country today, right down to the concentration camp facilities where "undesirables" are placed.  So, if you're a fan of the guy now residing in the White House, you've been warned.  And if you're not a fan of Felon47, you might ask "Can't I even go to a comic book movie to get away from what is going on the real world today?"

All that aside, I found the movie to be entertaining enough given that you have to suspend belief a bit and believe that "meta humans" from the planets exist.  David Corenswet, a likable enough hunk of beefcake with whom I was not familiar, although he does boast 23 other acting credits in IMDB, is fine as the Man of Steel.  Rachel Brosnahan, Mrs. Maisel herself, was quite good as Lois Lane, and she was charming.  She also had some of the best comic lines in the movie.  Some guy named Nicholas Hoult (again, someone with whom I am not familiar, but he seems to have been in a whole bunch Mad Max and X-Men types of movies, which would explain that) played Lex Luthor, and was totally hateable, so I guess that means he did a good job in the role.

The best character in the movie, though, was Krypto, the CGI dog.  He was even more charming that Ms. Brosnahan!  Maybe they'll do a feature movie about just him. I'd go see that one.

"Superman" gets Two and Three-Quarters Grandstander Stars.  

If you are a fan of these types of movies, though, you would probably rate it much higher.

"The Better Sister"

(This review contains NO SPOILERS.)

Linda and I just finished watching this eight part Amazon Prime mini-series last night. It is based upon a novel of the same name by Alifar Burke. I have read a number of books by Ms Burke, but not this one.  Perhaps if I had, I would have been able to make sense of the jumble that this series was.  It starred Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel as estranged sisters.  Banks was the trashy sister with addiction problems whose husband left her and took their infant son with him years ago.  Biel played the successful sister.  She was editor in chief of a fancy glossy fashion/lifestyle magazine, lives with her husband and son in a terrace apartment overlooking Central Park, while also having a gorgeous home in the Hamptons.  Oh, and she was married to her sister's ex-husband and raised her sister's son.  Got all that?

Well, the husband ends up getting murdered, the son gets arrested for the crime, and that is only the beginning of this fancy-shmancy melodrama.  The husband may also have been involved in some nefarious scheme with the crooked head of the law firm where he works.  There is an FBI agent who may be crooked, an aggressive lady detective who just KNOWS that these sisters just aren't what they seem and her partner who she constantly belittles, a protege of the victim who turns out to be more that just a friend to Biel, and a building doorman who also comes under suspicion.  And just who was Katherine, the African American lady who appears Biel's mentor?/boss?/friend?  Just who and what was she?  Neither of us could figure that out.

Yeh, it was a real dog's breakfast of characters and plot lines and after we were halfway through, we thought "Do we want to keep up with this?", but we slogged through it to the end.

Oh, and one other thing:  In the trial that took place in the show, the defendant, the kid, testified before every other witness did.  Does that ever happen in real life?  Isn't  the defendant usually the last witness to testify in any trial, if they even testify at all?

And how does the relationship between the two sisters resolve itself, and which sister ends up being the Better Sister?  You'll have to send eight hours of your life to find out.

Two Stars from The Grandstander on this one.