Steelers 27 - Bengals 3

The Grandstander is about to take a brief hiatus and will be off the grid for a couple of weeks, but before I take this leave of absence, a couple of comments, mainly about the Steelers 27-3 trouncing of the Cincinnati Bengals last night.

1. After the bad taste in the mouths of the Steelers and their fans, nothing, and I mean nothing, can serve to cure all ills than having the Bengals pop up on your schedule.   Death, taxes, and unbelievably bad performances by the Cincy Bengals - the three certainties in life.
2. We still can't be sure of what kind of team the Steelers are in 2019, but we know for sure that the Bengals stink to high heaven.  It got to the point where I almost - almost! - felt sorry from Andy Dalton last night.
3. Marvin Lewis, Pacman Jones, and Vontaze Burfict (and are you surprised to see how HE made the news this weekend?) may be gone, but the Bungles still managed to commit two personal fouls in one of the late drives that  the Steelers were having late in the game.  
4. The Steelers designed a very conservative offensive attack last night, short passes to running backs and frequent use of a wildcat formation.  It was very effective against the Bengals, but I'd like to see the coaching staff have a little more confidence in Mason Rudolph and his ability to throw down field.  However, I concede that Mike Tomlin and his staff are far smarter than I am in such matters.

Now to the Pirates.  Jason Mackey had an interesting story in the Post-Gazette this morning about why the Pirates job just may not be one that will attract the best and brightest of either new or old managerial talent.  If you missed it, here it is:

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/pirates/2019/09/30/Pirates-manager-search-Neal-Huntington-Clint-Hurdle-firing-new-guy/stories/201909300128

It's kind of depressing to read, actually.  It leads me to believe that the job will end up going to either Jeff Bannister or Tom Prince, two life long Pirate "organization men" who are already on the payroll, will come cheap, and will probably agree to cut Neal Huntington's lawn and wash Bob Nutting's car if they could get the job.  (Come to think of it, GMNH is probably already washing Nutting's car, which is probably how he was able to keep his job.)  

In a story published online later this afternoon, Mackey had another story where he interviewed an ex-Pirate who expressed an interest in the job: former catcher Jason Kendall.  

Kendall was a good and sometimes excellent  player for the Bucs in the nine year era that spanned Three Rivers Stadium and PNC Park.  He was also reported to be a clubhouse malcontent and a bully to younger players on the team, and he was known to greet newcomers to the team in the clubhouse by saying "Welcome to Hell."  Yeah, hiring him would present a PR "challenge" to the team, but it would be in keeping with the Pirates ability to continue to screw up a one car funeral.

Still, my money is on one of the two current in house guys, Bannister or Prince.  As always, watch, but don't bet.

Okay, that will do it for the immediate future.  I shall catch up with you all once again in another ten or twelve days or so.  Perhaps my next missive to you will involve a revitalized Pittsburgh Steelers team and a new manager for the Pirates. Or maybe an Absent Friend.  It's been awhile since we've honored one of those.

Later.....

Hurdle Takes the Fall, Bye-bye to Blass, and Who Ya Got in the Series?

The blood-letting began at PNC Park yesterday when the Pirates, in the smarmy personage of General Manager Neal Huntington, fired manager Clint Hurdle, right before the team's final game of the season.  The Pirates can manage to screw up just about anything, even a firing.

Clint Hurdle rides off

into the sunset

Let's face it, a case can certainly be made for Hurdle's dismissal.  He's been on the job for nine seasons, and his message had probably gotten stale with the players and was no doubt falling upon deaf ears.  His fate was probably sealed with that unbelievably horrid twenty-eight game stretch after the All-Star Break when the team went 4-24, and if THAT didn't do it, the tales of a clubhouse completely out of control during the second half of the season surely did.

All of that aside, though, the site of GMNH smugly saying how Clint needs to be "honored" for all he did for the Pirates, and short time after he fired him, is enough to make to make you want to retch.  And how about Bob "Mr. Dithers" Nutting going on and on about how great Clint was, and then telling us that GM Neal and his "excellent leadership team" will remain in place and will no doubt lead the Pirates to greater heights into the future?

As the PG's Paul Zeise said in his online column today, Hurdle's firing can be justified, but it can also be said that he did HIS job with the Pirates one helluva lot better than Neal Huntington and his scouting and development team did theirs.  And if you don't believe that, just take a look at the collection of sub-standard, non-major league quality pitchers that Clint had available to him in the bullpen whenever the underachieving starting staff faltered, which they did almost all of the time.

Clint gets the last laugh.  He is owed $6 million from the Pirates over the next two years, and I hope that he collects every dime of it from this sad sorry-assed organization that the Pirates have become.

********

Until the front office screwed it up with the timing of the Hurdle firing, there was a "feel good" story this weekend, and that was the final series of games being broadcast by retiring announcer Steve Blass, after sixty years serving the Pirates organization.  (Has anyone served the Pirates so well for so long?  I think not.) The fact that Blass' final season turned into a complete shit show was a shame, and the hijacking of his final game by yet another inept front office gaffe was icing on the cake.

As my own tribute to Blass, I will tell my own Steve Blass story.  I've told it before in this space, but, what the hell, here it goes for one more time.  Back in the '00s  when I was chairing the local SABR Chapter, I invited Steve to be a speaker at one of our meetings, and he accepted.   How cool was that to have a genuine, honest-to-God World Series hero come to speak to us free of charge.

Well, he showed up, spoke for an hour, and did a great job of being Steve Blass.  The following week, as was my custom, I sent a thank you note to him for his time and for the job he did at our event.  A few days later, my phone rang at the office - I was still working then - and it was Steve Blass.  He want to thank me for sending him a thank you note.

Who does that?

Here's to a long, happy, and healthy retirement for Steve Blass.

********

The Major League Post-Season begins tomorrow with the first of the Wild Card games, and culminates with the World Series, which might end right around Thanksgiving.  Ten teams are alive for a chance to obtain that World Series gonfalon.  Here is my Grandstander Confidence Ranking (GCR) for the teams still standing, with (1) being "most confident" and (10) being "least confident".

1. Astros
2. Yankees
3. Dodgers
4. Braves
5. Cardinals
6. Twins
7. Brewers
8. Rays
9. Athletics
10. Nationals

Feel free to factor the GCR into your calculations as you make your own World Series predictions, and, as always, watch, but don't bet.

What A Week On The North Shore

Real Life Stuff has kept me away from the keyboard this past week, but before another sports weekend commences, I feel compelled to comment upon the Pittsburgh Sports Week that has just concluded.

The Steelers took a 0-1 record into their home opener against Seattle where they proceeded to serve themselves up as a tasty meal, dessert included, for the Seahawks' Russell Wilson.  More significant to the season than this 28-26 loss, however, was this scene:

Late in the second quarter, Ben Roethlisberger took himself into the Steelers clubhouse to have an injured elbow looked at.  The next day we learned that this was far more than one of the usual run of the mill dings that football players suffer through the course of the season.  The injury would require surgery that will end the season for Big Ben.  

And so the Mason Rudolph Era begins for the Steelers.

Rudolph was drafted in the third round in 2018 as the heir apparent for Roethlisberger.  I'm sure that no one expected or wanted this Era to begin this soon, but here we are.  He acquitted himself fairly well in relief last week (2 TDs and one INT that wasn't his fault), but now he becomes the Steelers starting quarterback.  He set records at Oklahoma State, went toe-to-toe with Baker Mayfield while there, and for two seasons in a row, we in Pittsburgh watched him thoroughly dismantle the Pitt Panthers.  Granted, the Big XII and Pitt aren't the NFL, but the pedigree seems to be there, as do the physical tools.  We'll see what happens.

Rather than bemoaning the loss of their best player and their 0-2 record, the Steelers refused to throw in the towel on the season, and, in fact, doubled down by making a significant trade:  2020's first round draft choice to Miami for second year safety Minkuh Fitzpatrick.  The Steelers addressed what they felt to be a significant need in an effort to get better on defense.  Good for them, and as is the case with their new starting QB, we shall see where it takes them.

We shall also see what this portends for the future of Ben Roethlisberger.  He will be 38 years old when the 2020 season rolls around.  If Rudolph lights it up for the remainder of the year, will Ben automatically be given back his starter's roll?  Will the Steelers even want to do that?  Will future HOF'er Big Ben want to put himself in the position of competing for a job with Rudolph next year?  All the sorts of questions that will guarantee that the popular Pittsburgh soap opera "As The Steelers Turn" will continue into next season.

********

Meanwhile, at the other end of General Robinson Street, the Pirates came home from a series in Chicago where they surrendered 47 runs in three games while losing three straight to the Cubs.  It was an historical humiliation.  Things only got worse on Tuesday with the news of Felipe Vazquez' arrest on the horrific charges of sexual misconduct with a thirteen year old girl.  I'm not going to comment on that, because, honestly, what can you say?

No one on the Pirates or in Pirates management can be faulted for the acts Vazquez has been alleged of committing, but it is just one more awful happening to a season that has been marred by awful play on the field and awful blunders on the part of team management.  As Chuck Noll might have put it, the Pirates' problems are many, and they are great, and I seriously doubt that this team and its current management are capable of even addressing these problems, let alone fixing them.

Since Vazquez' arrest, the Pirates have lost four more straight games.  Yet another seven game losing streak.  I don't know what the record is for seven game losing streaks for a team in a season, but this years' Buccos are surely in the hunt for setting it.

Next weekend the team will be honoring Steve Blass, who will be announcing his final games in the Bucs' broadcasting booth.  However you may feel about Blass as an announcer - and, yes, we have all heard his many stories many, many, and perhaps too many times - he has served the Pirates honorably and well as player, World Series star, broadcaster, and good will ambassador for sixty years.  He sure as hell did not deserve a final season like this one.

********

Coming up this weekend:

• The Pirates begin the last eight games of a season that cannot possibly end soon enough
• The Pitt Panthers, and, yeah, I didn't even address that 17-10 loss to Penn State and HCPN's questionable in game decisions - take on Central Florida at Heinz Field.  It might not be pretty for the home team.
• The Steelers and their second year QB travel the San Francisco to take on the surprisingly 2-0 49er's.  Again, it might not be pretty for Rooney U.

RIP - My Pirates Bet

Born January 13, 2019

Died September 13, 2019

With the Pirates 17-8 (!!!) loss to the Cubs yesterday afternoon, my season long O/U bet on the Pirates, on life support since the All-Star Break, officially died.

In truth, when I placed this bet at Paris in Las Vegas back in January, I felt strongly that UNDER would have been the smart bet to make.  However, I did not want to place myself in a position where, come September, I would be rooting for my favorite baseball team to lose, so I went with the OVER.  I did think at the time that the bet wouldn't be decided until the final week, maybe even the final weekend, of the season, but this train wreck of a Bucco season made sure that my bet would be put to rest with two full weeks left in the season.

Lesson: Never bet with your heart, kids.

(Parenthetically, I need to add this.  In that 17-8 debacle of a game yesterday, the five Pirates pitchers that toiled in the game now have ERA's of 4.89, 7.30, 9.15, 8.74, and 9.92.  And GMNH tells us that he's prepared to move into 2020 with the group that he currently has in place.  What a joke.)

The Steelers Get Humiliated....and Some Pirates News!

A familiar sight - 

Donte Moncrief flat on the ground 

after failing to catch yet another pass 

against New England last night.

There is not much that can be said about that 33-3 humiliation that the New England Patriots laid on the Steelers last night.  Professional sports can be astounding in the sense that a team can point to a single occurrence - in this case, the Steelers season opener against the Pats - prepare for it for months, and then come out so flat and listless that it appears that they had no interest in playing at all, and are never in the game from the opening kick/pitch/tip-off.  This happens a lot in sports, and it always just astounds me when it does.  As one of the oldest cliches in the book says, that's why you play the games.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'll just recap some comments that I made on The Facebook last night while watching the game:

• If the Steelers of the Tomlin/Roethlisberger ever played a worse game than last night, I cannot remember it.
• Based on what we saw last night, I would guess  that opposing teams defensive coordinators will game plan against the Steelers as follows:  "Let them throw to Donte Moncrief and Ryan Switzer all game long, and we'll take our chances."
• It was early in the second quarter, and I felt like I was watching  Pirates game.
• I cannot come up with a single solitary positive thought or comment on the Steelers performance last night.
• As a Steelers fan, one of the worst aspects of the ass-kicking they received from New England is that it will lessen the opportunity to gloat about the Browns and the ass-kicking that THEY received at the hands of the Titans yesterday.
• How about old goat Bob Kraft down there on the field pre-game parading that Lombardi Trophy.  The guy has absolutely no sense of shame does he?
• On the bright side, this week's episode of Pittsburgh Dad should be positively epic!

Oh, and speaking of the Pirates, lost amid the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the Steelers debacle, this headline was buried at the bottom of Page 8 of the Post-Gazette sports pages this morning:

FEW CHANGES EXPECTED FOR 2020 SEASON

Some quotes from the story written by Jason Mackey:

"The way general manager Neal Huntington put it Sunday, It doesn't sound as if there will be many changes to the Pirates for next season."

And...

"Huntington's comments painted the picture that, unless something dramatic happens here, the Pirates might be coming back with pretty close to this existing group."

As is the case for last night's Steelers game, I can't quite find the words to respond to THAT either.  Those comments  ought to help sell a lot of season tickets this coming off season.

Brooks Koepka and the "Average" Golfer

I heard the morning show guys on 93.7 The Fan talking about this today and thought it deserved some attention/discussion.

At a presser preceding the PGA Tour Championship now being contested at East Lake CC in Atlanta, someone asked Brooks Koepka, four time major champion and currently the world's #1 ranked player a question the effect of....If you took an "average guy, an average player" out of the gallery at random, gave him a set of clubs and paired him with you, Brooks Koepka, in this tournament, how many strokes would you, Brooks Koepka, have to give him in order for it to be competitive?

Well, on the sound bite, Koepka at first just laughed and then said, "well, if an average guy is a fifteen handicap, I don't know, maybe 75 strokes over the four rounds of the tournament?"  (Not an exact quote, but that was the gist of it.)

Well, The Fan's Dunlap, Mack and Colony, all agreed that in saying 75 strokes, Koepka was just being diplomatic in answering the question.  That if an average golfer (and by the way, I am guessing that an "average golfer" is nowhere near a fifteen handicap) started a four round tournament on a course set up for PGA Tour players 75 strokes ahead of Brooks Koepka, not only would Koepka win, he would blow the doors off the poor sap who get suckered into thinking that the might be able to compete in such a contest, a contest on a 7,000+ yard course where there is no rolling the ball in the fairway, playing from behind trees and in thick rough and deep sand traps "as it lies", and where even the casual two foot "gimmes" from the Wednesday night league must all be putted out.

Think about it. If Koepka shot even par - which is 70 at East Lake, I believe - in every round, and if Joe Average managed to shoot 90 in each round, which he would be lucky to do, Koepka beats him by five strokes.

I can only imagine Koepka went back into the locker room and said to his fellow Tour players, "you ain't gonna believe what some guy just asked me", and that they all had a good laugh over it.

********

Switching from golf to baseball, I have to say that after watching the Pirates lose three of four to the Nationals this week (cumulative score of all four games, 32-6; cumulative score of the three games the Pirates lost, 31-2), I have to say that I am not sure now many more posts you'll be seeing from The Grandstander on the Pirates for the remainder of this season.  I mean what more can possibly be said, and I've run out of synonyms for "lousy", "horrid", and "wretched".

So, perhaps the next post of any length or depth you will see on the Pirates in this space will be at season's end when we see who, if anyone, will be held accountable by Bob Nutting for what has been a total and complete second half collapse (and does "collapse" even begin to describe what we've seen since mid-July?) by this team.

The State of the Pirates as of 8/17/19

Okay.  We all know the numbers.

At the All-Star Break, the Pirates just might have been the hottest team in the National League.  They had just gone 8-5 in a thirteen game stretch against some of the better teams in MLB (Astros, Brewers, Cubs). They were 44-45, two and a half games out of first place and two and a half games out of the final wild card spot.  People were actually feeling positive about the Buccos.

What was to follow after the All-Star Game was a stretch of such impossibly lousy and rotten baseball, that I honestly had a hard time remembering anything like it in all the sixty-plus years that I have followed baseball in general and the Pirates in particular.   Since that time, they have gone 7-25.  To put that in perspective, that is a "winning" percentage that would produce a record of 35-127 over 162 games.  And not only have they been losing, but they have been losing in ways that are particularly astounding in that they have been showing a complete lack of discipline and displaying lousy fundamentals in executing the game.  (When I was away on vacation last week, the team posted a 1-7 record.  All I saw were the final scores online every night. I'm thankful that I was out of town and not exposed to that particular stretch.)

A particularly sour cherry was put on top of this rotten sundae with the reporting yesterday about the rifts and a complete lack of discipline in the Pirates clubhouse that has at time led to near physical altercations between players and coaches and even Clint Hurdle.  Much of this has revolved around relief pitchers Keone Kela and Kyle Crick.  Honestly, were I member of this particular Pirates bullpen, I would be doing everything in my power to stay OUT of the limelight rather than have it shine upon me and emphasize just how god-awful it has been all year.

GMNH had to take to the MLB Network airwaves yesterday to address this mess, which he did by spewing out a two minute bullshit sound bite wherein he essentially said nothing.  On the telecast last night, Propaganda Ministers Joe Block and Bob Walk failed completely to address this particular stinky elephant in the room.  Not a single mention was made of the breaking story that had dominated the sports airwaves in Pittsburgh all afternoon.  I'm sure that Greg and Steve followed the same path on the radio.

Kevin Newman walks it off for the 

Pirates' 3-2 win over the Cubs last night

And as often happens in the game of baseball, the Pirates went out last night and played one of their better and most satisfying games of the season.  Joe Musgrove pitched an outstanding game, and rookies Brian Reynolds, Cole Tucker, and Kevin Newman played key roles in producing a ninth inning walk-off 3-2 win over the smug and insufferable Joe Maddon and his Cubs and their smug and insufferable fans who populated PNC Park last night.  The only aggravating thing about the game was that the winning pitcher ended up being Jackass-in-Chief Keone Kela.  Oh, well, that's baseball.

And the narrative on the post game show immediately became "the Bucs have now won three of their last four games."  I'm sure that that will be Greg Brown's lead on the opening of the telecast tonight.

The sheer awfulness of the post-ASG Pirates, combined with the stories of an out-of-control clubhouse simply screams out this question.  Who will be held accountable for this mess?  On most teams, either the manager or general manager or both of them would be fired at season's end, if not sooner.  However, both Hurdle and Huntington have two years remaining on contracts that reportedly pay them $3 million and $2 million per year, respectively.  Can't imagine that Bob Nutting is going to pay out Ten Large over the next two years to guys to NOT work for him, so what happens?  

My guess is that the fall guy for this will be pitching coach Ray Searage.  That will be the cheapest way out.  A couple of other coaches might get sacrificed as well.  And maybe Clint Hurdle will decide to "retire" after negotiating a compromised buy-out of his contract with Nutting.  I'm guessing that GMNH will be back in all his glory.

I can tell you this.  If nothing happens, if they build on the fact that "we've got  a lot of great hungry young players who are ready to bust loose", if the Best Management Team In Baseball returns intact, there probably will not be an "insurrection" among the Pirates fan base, because, after all, what can the fans do about this?  There will, however, be a complete and total blanket of apathy and ennui that will fall over the baseball fans of Pittsburgh.  For the Pirates bean counters, Apathy and Ennui will end up being far worse than an Angry Insurrection.

The Bucs Just After The Break

Eighteen days ago, July 8, I made a post on this blog entitled "Bucs At The Break", wherein I waxed enthusiastically over a thirteen game stretch prior to the All-Star Break when the Pirates went 8-5 against teams that were higher than they were in the standings.  You can look it up easily enough.

In order to save myself retyping the same words, allow me to cut-and-paste another passage from that post:

After the Break, they face another thirteen games against teams above them in the standings, Cubs, Phillies, and Cardinals.   If they can fashion another 8-5 record, or better, in those games, then you have to think that the Front Office will simply HAVE to make an effort to add a piece or two to put the team into a position to make a run for a playoff spot.

That thirteen game stretch ended today, and I don't think that I have to spell it out for fans of the team what happened, but, what the hell, here it is, anyway.  They went 2-11 in those games.  They are now 46-56, in last place in the NL Central, 9 games out of first place, and 9 games out of the Wild Card with eight teams between them and that second WC spot.

For all practical purposes, the season for the Pittsburgh Pirates is over.

The question of what does Neal Huntington do at the July 31 trade deadline (My $.02: listen to any and every offer that might be made for any and every player on the team except Josh Bell, Kevin Newman, and Brian Reynolds) is of far less importance than this one:

Who will be held accountable for this mess of a season?

You could say that it's the fault of Clint Hurdle and his coaching staff, especially Ray Searage, so fire them all, BUT they can only work with the players that they are given, SO....

You could then say that it is GMNH's fault because he has produced a pretty bad ball club, which has included a parade of pitchers who absolutely, positively do not belong in a major league uniform (I don't have to list them for you, do I?), and whose big splash deal of last year, the acquisition of Chris Archer, has blown up in his face like a cheap exploding cigar, so fire him, BUT Neal is hamstrung by a budget that is requiring him to try and compete with a payroll that ranks 27th among MLB's thirty teams, SO.....

You can then say that the accountability buck stops at the desk of owner Bob Nutting, and one thing we know is that Bob Nutting likes nothing more than making money, and the Pirates are making money, so he's not likely to change his skinflint ways (never mind the fact that maybe he could make even more money if he actually had a winning and competitive team).  He likes it just the way it is right now.

So, when the season comes to its merciful end for the Pirates in September, a couple of coaches, or Clint Hurdle, or maybe even GM Neal may get sacrificed to placate the angry masses, but as long as Bob Nutting is still signing the checks, I fear that things are never going to change.

Maybe the team might catch lightning in bottle some year like the KC Royals did a few years back, but we as Pirates fans are doomed to serve the rest of our days as fans residing in baseball's version of Purgatory.  That's the way Bob Nutting wants it, that's the way the MLBPA wants it, and that's the way MLB itself wants it.

Us fans?  We're screwed.

Bucs At the Break

On June 25, the Pirates sat at 36-40, had come off of a recent seven game losing streak, were continuing to parade a string of minor league pitchers out of the bullpen, and were about to embark upon a series of thirteen games against teams with better records than they had (Astros, Brewers, and Cubs).  The potential certainly existed for the Pirates to totally blow themselves out of any hopes of contending for post-season positions.  

And it certainly looked that way when they dropped that opening game of the stretch to former teammate Gerrit Cole and the Astros.  However, they bounced back with two blowout wins over the Astros, and finished up that thirteen game span leading up to the All Star Break with a record of 8-5.  They are still in fourth place in the NL Central, but they are only 2.5 games out of the wild card spot, and, more significantly, only 2.5 games out of first place in the division.  And they have won many of these games in simply amazingly exciting ways.  

I have to admit, I did not see them coming through this stretch as they have.  After the Break, they face another thirteen games against teams above them in the standings, Cubs, Phillies, and Cardinals.   If they can fashion another 8-5 record, or better, in those games, then you have to think that the Front Office will simply HAVE to make an effort to add a piece or two to put the team into a position to make a run for a playoff spot.

They have gotten to this point mainly with an unbelievably potent offense, led by the two guys you see above, Brian Reynolds and Josh Bell.  Reynolds, came to the team in the Andrew McCutchen trade two years ago and is a solid candidate for  Rookie of the Year honors.  In 67 games, he is hitting .342 with 7 HR, 33 RBI, and an OPS of .950.  Bell has been other worldly this season.  In 88 games, he is hitting .302 with 27 HR, 84 RBI (best in all of MLB), and a 1.024 OPS, and while it is totally unfair to make such a comparison, he is having  they type of season the likes of which I have not seen with the Pirates since Willie Stargell was in his prime.  I was in attendance at Friday's game and saw him hit a three run home run that was LOUD off of the bat, with an impossibly high arc to it, and that cleared the PNC Park right field stands with ease.  The only word for it was "majestic".  Even thought he Pirates ended up losing that game, it was worth everything to be there just to see that home run.

I am still concerned with the Pirates pitching.  Starting pitching, thought to be the strong point coming not the season, has been wracked by injuries and inconsistencies.  The bullpen, save for Felipe Vazquez, has been terrible, as pitchers like Geoff Hartleib, Montana DuRapau, and Doyvadas Neverauskas keep getting trotted out and getting pummeled.  Something has to be done to improve upon the pitching staff if the team is to contend.

In any event, this team has earned the right to be watched closely, and I, for one, am looking forward to see how these next thirteen games evolve.

#letsgobucs

Josh Bell On Fire

Before the baseball season goes any further, The Grandstander just has to stop and pay a brief tribute to Pirates first baseman Josh Bell.  

Here's is how 2019 has started for him:

Games - 43

At Bats - 162

BA - .333

Runs - 30

Home Runs - 14

RBI - 43

OPS - 1.106

It is unfair to say this about any young player, but he has been invoking memories of Willie Stargell this season.

Awesome. Wow!

The Pirates at the 20% (actually 19.1%) Mark

I have always said that I would wait until a team played about 30 games, and batters accumulated around 100 at bats, and pitchers got a reasonable amount of innings under their belts before making any pronouncements on a team and a season.  Well we are now at that point.  The Pirates have played 31 games and sit at 16-15, good for fourth place in the NL Central, three games behind the first place Cubs.

They got to this point with, thus far, three distinct periods of this still young season.

The started at 12-6 and sat in first place.  This was sparked by unbelievably terrific starting pitching from Jameson Taillon, Trevor Williams, Chris Archer, Joe Musgrove, and Jordan Lyles.  It also featured some, shall we say, "uneven" work from the bullpen with set-up guys Richard Rodriguez and Keone Kela coughing up leads that they were brought in to protect, often times by giving up soul-crushing home runs.  Still, 12-6 was good for first place at that time.

There then followed an 0-8 tailspin wherein the starting pitchers regressed a bit and the hitters failed to, well, hit.  More on that later.

They have just completed a five game stretch where they have gone 4-1.

Before looking at the shortcomings, let's focus on three guys who have more than held their own.

The offensive performance of Josh Bell was a big question going into the season, and he has more than delivered.  He is batting .287 and leads the team with 8 home runs and 25 RBIs.  His OPS is .981.  Can't ask for much more than that.  Critics keep mentioning that he is less than elegant defensively at first base, to which I say, if he keeps hitting like this, the Pirates will live with his shortcomings with the leather.  I always said that if Pedro Alvarez could only have managed to hit .260 or so, he'd still be playing at first for the Pirates. (Well, he would have been gone by now via trade or free agency because the Pirates wouldn't have paid the going rate, but you get my drift.)

All-Star reliever Felipe Vazquez has been absolutely lights out as the team's closer. In fourteen games and 15.2 IP, he is 1-0 with a 0.57 ERA, 26 K to only 5 BB, and nine saves in nine opportunities.  He would probably have even more saves but for the performances of Rodriguez and Kela alluded too above.

And then there is rookie outfielder Brian Reynolds.

Reynolds came to the Pirates from the Giants in the Andrew McCutchen trade last year.  He should probably still be in Triple-A, but injuries forced the Pirates to bring him to Pittsburgh.  He has responded by hitting in his first eleven games, and batting .405 (albeit in only 37 ABs) with one HR and four RBIs.  He will undoubtedly cool off, but until then, he's not leaving Pittsburgh any time soon.

Now, what are the concerns?

Injuries.  The Pirates have had a litany of guys on the Injured List, including starters and guys expected to play  big roles like Corey Dickerson, Starling Marte, Gregory Polanco, and Lonnie Chisenhall.  Now starting pitchers Taillon and Archer are on the IL, so what has been the strength of the team, it's starting pitching, now has some big question marks.

Lack of offense.  It is at the point where if the Pirates fall behind by three or four runs, there is almost no hope that they have what it takes to overcome such a deficit.  consider these batting averages:

Adam Frazier .257

Colin Moran .239

Starling Marte .211

Cole Tucker .208

Jung Ho Kang .146 (with 30 Ks in 82 ABs)

Francisco Cervelli .176

Too many weak spots in that batting order for any team to contend.  It is a batting order that forces its pitchers to hold the opponents to two or fewer runs a game, and that is just not sustainable over 162 games.

A word on Cole Tucker.  Like Reynolds, he was brought up from Indianapolis, probably too soon, due to injuries on the big club.  He probably needed to get a couple of hundred AB's in Indy this season before advancing to Pittsburgh, but he does appear to be the real goods, a kid well worth that first round draft selection in 2014.  He is over matched at times by NL pitching right now, but he can and will hit, and for sure he is a major league short stop defensively right now.   He may well be the next "Face of the Franchise" for the Pirates.

Conclusions?  Well, they now sit at 16-15, and appear to be a team that will be flirting with that .500 mark throughout the season.  My Las Vegas bet in January, that the Pirates will win "Over 79.5 Games" will probably not be decided until the last week of September, which will certainly cause me to maintain interest right to the end.

The Grandstander will check in once again at the One-Third Pole, or fifty-four game mark, of the season.

The Sports Weekend That Was

A quick whirl around the wide, wide world of sports from this past weekend....

• The finalists in the NCAA Men's basketball tournament have been determined with Virginia defeating Auburn and Texas Tech defeating Michigan State in two wildly amazing games.  What an improbable finish to that Virginia game with the kid sinking three straight free throws with .6 seconds left to eek out a 63-62 win.
• So as to avoid jinxing the situation, I will just say that we in this household are vigorously rooting for Virginia tonight.  Should the desired outcome be achieved, I will spell out the details at some point later in the week.
• After suffering two bad losses to the Cardinals last week,  the Pirates then proceeded to complete a four game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds and now stand at 5-3.  
• Yesterday's game featured a benches clearing hissy fit which caused numerous post game comments about baseball's hallowed "unwritten rules" and hand wringing about how certain players need to "respect the game."  What a bunch of horseshit that is.

• Chief hand wringer among the Pirates was relief pitcher Keone Kela (who was ejected from the game for his actions in the brouhaha).  Kela apparently broke his spring training "not gonna talk to the media" dictum to make his overwrought pronouncements.  Two of the Pirates three losses, by the way, came in large part because Kela twice surrendered home runs that erased leads that he was brought in to protect.  Maybe Kela should work on that little kink before declaring himself the Arbiter Of All Things Proper On A Baseball Diamond.
• It is becoming apparent that we are in the beginning of a season long journey wherein all broadcasts and telecasts will be a tribute to Steve Blass as he serves out his final season as a broadcaster.  I'm not a Blass Hater, by any means, but this is already getting tiring.  By what date in the season's calendar will Greg Brown begin to openly and unabashedly weep over Steve's pending departure? I say it happens after the All-Star Break, but before the July 31 trade deadline.
• The University of Pittsburgh unveiled it's new look, or new "branding" for its athletic teams.  The blue-and yellow color scheme of the Majors-Dorsett-Sherrill-Marino-Risacher Era of Pitt athletics will now be official.  As will the "Script Pitt" logo, which, in fact, came back about two years ago.  Also, a new Panther Head will also become the "secondary" logo for Pitt's teams.

• Much of Pitt's fan base, which has been kvetching for the return of the Script logo ever since the Evil Steve Peterson did away with them in 1997, acted predictably all across social media last night and today:  They hate the new look.  Oh the script is good, and the colors are okay, but the font of the numbers is awful and what's with that stupid new panther, they ask.  Some people are only happy, apparently, when they are unhappy.
• Me, I like the "new" Panther, but I'd like everything a whole lot more if HCPN could manage a ten or more win season in 2019.
• If you didn't watch the NCAA Women's basketball championship game last night, won 82-81 by Baylor over Notre Dame, shame on you.  For two and a half quarters, Baylor led ND by anywhere from ten to thirteen points. Then Baylor's best player, Lauren Cox, left the game with a bad injury, and Notre Dame proceeded to stage a valiant comeback that saw them take the lead late in the game, only to have Baylor play equally valiantly in fighting off the comeback and eventually winning the game and the championship.  Terrific game.
• The Penguins qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs which begin on Wednesday.  Time for me to hop on the bandwagon and start watching the Pens.  My prediction:  The Penguins to win it all, no series lasting longer than five games.  The only thing not certain at this point is the exact date for the victory parade. 
• And in football, Antonio Brown tweeted out that the person responsible for the Steelers not making the Playoffs last year was.....Juju Smith-Shuster.  Juju, you will recall, was voted team MVP by his teammates last year, and AB, apparently, has never recovered from this blatant act of disrespect.

So, what will this new week bring us?  This is why we follow sports.

This 'n That....

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box.....

News arrived earlier this week that the Alliance of American Football, the AAF, or, as some refer to it, The Aaaaaafffffff, was folding its tent and ceasing operations after seven weeks of its inaugural season.

This league seemed to have a lot going for it....Smart football people were involved (Bill Pollian) in running it, there was TV backing for it (CBS, NFL Network), and it had a reasonable sense of itself (it would work in concert with the NFL as a developmental league, rather than as a competitor).  Plus, there seemed to be a constant demand for football in the United States, right?

Well, apparently not.  

I did watch a game in the first weekend, but none since.  The quality of play was spotty, but I liked that they were using the games to test out new rules and ideas (no kickoffs, a variation of the onside kick, etc), and the games did move incredibly quickly in real time, so the NFL could definitely learn from that.  

However, it didn't even last full season.  I don't want to make light of it, since a lot of people - players, coaches, game officials, and office staffs - are now out of work.  That's never a good thing.  Also, if you are considering investing in the revival of Vince McMahon's XFL, scheduled to start in 2020, you might want to reconsider.  The demise of the AAF would pretty much doom the XFL, it seems to me.

I generally avoid any analysis of a baseball team's season until they play thirty games, or around 20% of a season, but based on only four games thus far, your Pittsburgh Pirates appear to be a team that will cause it's fans to gobble up antacid pills like ballpark peanuts as the season unfolds.  They sit at 1-3. In all four games, they led after six innings (they could be 4-0) before the bullpen, considered a strength going into the season, proceeded to blow those leads, and blow them in somewhat spectacular fashion.

Starting pitching has been good to very good, defense has been shaky, base running questionable, and the bullpen, as previously noted, awful.  Still, it's only four games, so no need to panic yet.  Let's check in again after that thirty game mark.

The Pirates home opener loss to the Cardinals, the 4-0 and 5-4 leads blown by the Bucs aside, was a perfect microcosm of all that is wrong about baseball at this point in the 21st century.  It took five hours to play, and while there were two extra innings involved, it took four hours to play nine innings. Managers Clint Hurdle and Mike Schildt (and if you'd have pointed a gun to my head before Monday and told me to name the Cardinals manager, I'd have failed miserably), did all that they could to slow this game down and turn it into an interminable slog.  

Consider this one sequence in the game.  Hurdle makes his slow walk out to the mound and calls in Francisco Liriano from the pen to face a left-handed batter.  Liriano makes his way in from the bullpen, takes his eight warm up pitches (after he'd already been throwing in the bullpen), and the proceeds to walk the batter he faces.  Hurdle then walks out to the mound, calls in another pitcher, who walks in from the pen, takes his eight warm up pitches....well, you get the idea.  Probably 12 to 15 minutes of real time elapsed and the only thing that actually happened was a base on balls.

Baseball as it is being played today is becoming almost unwatchable.  The old time baseball "purists" who rail and shout at the clouds about anything being done to "change the game" should be more worried about the game withering and dying from lack of interest due to the pure ennui that the game has become.  Rob Manfred's desire to make changes that will pick up the pace of play should be encouraged and embraced, not scorned by the people who long for the days of wool uniforms and teams traveling by trains.

The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament has gone pretty much according to chalk and have lacked the early round upsets hat everyone loves, and that was probably a good thing, since it produced some spectacular games in the Rounds of Sixteen and Eight.  We have become big fans of the University of Virginia Cavaliers as the Final Four approaches.  Should UVA  advance to the final game and win it on Monday night, Marilyn will be the winner of a prestigious Bracket Pool run by our pal John Frissora.  Even if the Hoos lose in the final, she will finish in second place, but to get there, they need to beat Auburn and its loathsome coach Bruce Pearl on Saturday.  So let's go UVA.  Make Mr. Jefferson proud.

And in a non-sports related item, I note that yesterday was the 97th birthday of actress Doris Day.  I made mention of this on The Facebook yesterday, both on my regular feed and on a couple of movie groups to which I belong.  All posts brought up numerous comments and "likes" from people expressing their regard for Miss Day.  As I said, who doesn't like Doris Day and what's not to like?  I hope that she spent her birthday, and is spending all of her days, in good health and comfort.