BRADENTON, Fla. -- Brief and to the Point ...
This was Day 40 of spring training, this sunny-like-all-the-rest, same-as-all-the-rest Monday for the Pirates.
That's 40, as in four-oh.
And with four more games to go, two here in the Grapefruit League and two exhibitions up in Montreal.
Which is to say ...
"Too long!" Josh Harrison exclaimed in response to my query Monday night.
"Crazy!" Andrew McCutchen echoed from the next stall.
"You put in a lot of work, you're up early, you're going about your business ..." Ivan Nova tried, apparently, to tamp it down. "But you know, right now, we're all ready to play real games. I know that. I know I am, for sure."
The Steelers needed 35 days for camp in 2016, from the first practice in Latrobe to the final preseason game in Charlotte, N.C.
The Penguins needed 16 days for camp in 2016, from the first practice in Cranberry to the final preseason game against the Blue Jackets.
Yes, that says 16!
But baseball's spring training, like its games, just drags on and on and on, and it's that much worse in a World Baseball Classic year where five days are added because ... well, because ... you know, no one can really figure that out. The result, regardless, is that roughly 60 players wake up at 7 a.m., show up to go through the usual shags and drills, all for the benefit of the dozen or so starting pitchers who need to be stretched out a snail's pace.
The explanations invariably surround pitching, both for the Classic and the general length of the spring, but it's awfully hard to digest when the pitchers already report in optimal form -- long gone are the days of arriving in Florida and getting that arm stretched out -- and then when watching those pitchers go two innings one start ... three innings the next ... four innings the next.
Don't get me wrong. Pitchers can be used too much. The Pirates undoubtedly used Tony Watson too much the past four seasons, and they and he are now both paying the price for that. So tracking pitch counts, pitch duress and all that is absolutely vital. Even pitches thrown when warming up in the pen are now tracked. There's a ton of information available, and that's never a bad thing.
But there's also never been a solitary study that suggests this painfully-slow, tiered approach in spring is necessary. If anything, the bulk of the circumstantial evidence is that pitchers tend to experience what's known as 'dead arm' about 3-4 weeks into the process.
Is that the goal? To endure 'dead arm?'
Or is it as simple as some of the cynics suggest, that all 30 teams need the gate revenue from the full month of games in Florida and Arizona to compensate for the cost of creating a makeshift headquarters here in the south?
Rob Manfred has made many admirable pushes toward speeding up the games, now routinely longer than three hours. He'd do well to weigh doing the same for spring training. And if he doesn't, then the players' union ought to finally pipe up. It's the single greatest source of complaints from their rank and file all year.
One guy who won't complain, predictably, is Clint Hurdle.
"I'm not going to be that guy who says it's too long. There are a lot of those out there," he told me Monday night. "There's going to be a day I'm not involved in the game anymore, and I'll relish every single day I had in spring training and all through the season. I'm not that guy who's going to whine about spring training."
• If there's one thing I've enjoyed more than the chip on Cutch's shoulder all spring long, it's watching Starling Marte authoritatively calling him off on a fly to right-center, as happened Monday. Marte's done it with everyone, too. Born center fielder. And zero apologies for the current circumstance.
• The fuss over the Pirates' fourth and fifth starters has undoubtedly dominated discussion all spring.
Let's spare the suspense on that front: Chad Kuhl will be No. 4, and he'll start the third game of the season April 6 in Boston. That's why he was used Monday at Pirate City, to line up appropriately. The No. 5 job will go to Drew Hutchison, even if tonight brings a third consecutive six-run line, because ... oh, you know.
But what's probably worth appreciating more has been that the top three starters, the guys who'll matter so much more, have had fine springs. Between them, Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon and Nova have combined for 33 1/3 innings, 25 hits, 28 strikeouts and -- get this -- six walks! Infinitely more important, the first two on that list look healthy as ever.
• Its not February anymore. The Penguins' priorities for the remainder of the regular season need to be as follows:
1. Get healthy.
2. Rest your best healthy players.
3. Forget the standings.
4. Forget momentum.
5. See 1 and 2 all over again.
I had a very different stance a couple of weeks ago, but that was contingent, as I wrote then, on this injury thing reversing at some point. It hasn't. It's actually worsened.
The Penguins are now -- or should at least be considering themselves to be -- in an emergency state. It's time for Jim Rutherford and Mike Sullivan to think differently and place all value on how this team will look and feel on the evening of April 12. Show me a healthy, vibrant version of this roster, and I'll show you a candidate to repeat. Show me the remnants of this interminable collective limp to the finish, and I'll show you the Blue Jackets' first-ever playoff victim.
This isn't 'just play' time. It's time to do what's right to claim another Cup while that window is wide open.
• Rutherford never stops being right, does he?
While a city around him fretted about the Penguins carrying two No. 1 goaltenders, he calmly, candidly navigated through all of that, as well as the personalities involved, and wound up keeping what his roster would have needed the most entering these Stanley Cup playoffs.
• I've got no horse in the Marc-Andre Fleury vs. Matt Murray race. Never have. My only position has been that the legit best goaltender at the most important time should be the Penguins' choice.
It was simultaneously striking and heartening to hear Sullivan express that for the first time over the weekend. I never doubted him in that regard.
• A reminder here: Fleury isn't winning this duel merely by default. He's earning it.
• Chad Ruhwedel was ridden like a broken pommel horse by the Islanders' John Tavares over the weekend, but he's been quite good overall. And he's right-handed. Don't dismiss him, at least not outright, as a postseason contributor. The coaches sure aren't.
• Never mind debating a possible suspension for the Flyers' Wayne Simmonds after he indisputably raised his arm to clip Brian Dumoulin in the face Sunday night. That topic couldn't be more obvious:
But answer this: How do four paid professional officials -- and remember, linesmen can call major penalties -- not see that?
Being in the building, I can attest that about half the place on the side closest to the incident roared immediately.
They all see it, and these four didn't?
With the puck in the immediate vicinity?
• Not everyone will agree, to say the least, but I love listening to Mike Tomlin speak. I hear the 'Coach Cliche' criticism, but the root of the French word is in repetition of old, established sayings that are commonly known in public.
Tomlin does nothing of the kind, as he demonstrated again Monday in Phoenix with this magnificent assessment of his expectations for James Harrison playing at age 39 next season: “We all have to acknowledge that James has already conquered the odds. He doesn’t fall into convention. His existence doesn’t fall into convention."
That's gold.
It's almost as golden as when he'll describe a player as being 'capable above the neck' or 'possessing above-the-neck capability.' Nothing makes me feel less capable above the neck than hearing that.
• When Kevin Colbert speaks openly about being content to have the Steelers $17 million under the salary cap, all he's really saying is that it'll be nice to wrap up Le'Veon Bell, Stephon Tuitt and other vital pieces by summer's end. And anyone else he wants, essentially.
I'd have liked an inside linebacker out of free agency, if only as insurance for Vince Williams' first year as a full-time starter and, of course, Ryan Shazier's next injury. But I'll take the above over this. Have to keep the franchise guys in the fold.
• The Raiders are off to Vegas, as was made official Monday. Three months ago, the Chargers bolted for L.A. And 15 months ago, the Rams returned to L.A. Oakland and San Diego are left without beloved teams, St. Louis not so much. But the bottom line is man, that's a ton of relocation in a short period of time. Say what one will about the NHL and Major League Baseball, but they've been far better at keeping their teams put than their brethren in football and basketball.
• That said, someone move the Marlins to Montreal, please!
• No national governing body of any global sport has embarrassed itself the way USA Hockey has over the past month, at least not since the Olympics banished the Russians from Rio for systematic doping.
The battle for the women's hockey team getting fair pay and treatment has already been won. The only ones who haven't yet figured that are the crotchety old men in Colorado Springs who've brought shame to what should be a respected brand in our country.
They need to hire some people with above-the-neck capability.