Brief and to the Point ...
There aren't many realistic roads for the Pirates to make the playoffs.
The National League's wild card will wind up out West with the Rockies and Diamondbacks. The only participant from the Central Division will be its champion. And the team in the best position to achieve the latter, even after losing, 4-2, Monday night at PNC Park, are these surprising but sticking-around Brewers, still six games up on the victors, 3.5 games up on the pack.
But what if these Pirates were to go all Gregory Polanco on everyone?
Meaning, you know, go 4 for 4 at the plate with a pair of RBIs:
Not to mention gunning down a Milwaukee runner at the plate and running the bases with passion and purpose, leaping up after each extra 90 feet and pumping his fists to the dugout and the crowd of 18,506 as if this were some really, really big game.
Which, you know, it was.
"Important. So important," Polanco would say later at his stall. "This was good. We're chasing these guys. We know every game counts."
Maybe more than they know. Neal Huntington stated Sunday that his decision to buy or sell at the trade deadline will be influenced -- not determined but influenced, if you listened carefully -- by this four-game series. So even if you don't believe the man, what's undeniably certain is that the players could directly apply pressure to the GM by winning, now that he's publicly set that parameter.
Well, what if the Pirates' greatest strength rises as one to its proper level, by which I mean the once and former Best Outfield In Baseball of Polanco, Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte?
What if Marte, who returns tonight from his 80-game steroids suspension tonight, does so with whatever bonus motivation he might manufacture out of his stupid, selfish mistake?
What if Polanco, who might have more natural talent than the other two, hard as that is to fathom, becomes the force of nature in that equation?
Listen to how Clint Hurdle answered my question about Polanco needing to find fuel from his emotions, especially how the manager brought up Polanco getting picked off third base Friday by Yadier Molina. Seriously, soak in the whole quote: “You get to know your players. You try to develop a relationship with them individually. They’re different from time to time. He had a very humbling game a couple of games ago. Actually, it came while he was playing his best baseball of the year. You encourage them and you challenge them. And you find those opportunities where you can make sure that he’s aware of the fact you really believe in him and that he can do special things. However, they’ve also got to respect the game, play the game hard. It’s been fun watching him roll into July. The look in his eye now, there’s a different look. There’s parts of his game where he took over tonight. Since the month of July has rolled around, he’s been the kind of player that we’ve seen before.”
That's respect. Like Marte, we'll occasionally shake our fists at Polanco. But it's only until the next great thing he does.
But what if he works even harder, focuses that much more?
What if it isn't an accident that he's finally radiating like this just as Marte's about to return?
After Polanco navigated a couple waves of cameras and microphones, an equipment manager was silently putting Marte's cap and jersey back in place about 15 feet to the big man's right. He told reporters "he's my friend" and "I'm so excited he's coming back" and offered other superlatives about how Marte might contribute to a playoff push.
But once the crowd dispersed, I approached Polanco and teasingly rolled my eyes, reminding him that I know how much those two push each other. And how it's often ... not acrimonious but at least a little unpleasant.
"Ha! You know that!" Polanco replied, his eyes and cheeks flaring with delight. "You know!"
Yeah, I do. I saw Marte initially withdraw when Polanco was promoted to the majors with much fanfare, then saw Marte try to match him swing for swing. I've seen the same in reverse. Those two have been at it for years, from the Dominican to the minors to Pittsburgh in various forms.
It's good for them. It's healthy.
And no, it's not an accident, if you ask me, that Polanco's now 20 for 46 in July, having reached base safely in all 12 starts, and he's raised his slash line to a season-best .272/.327/.424.
Or that he carried that old swagger with him all through this night, but especially on that throw that nailed a fleet-footed Manny Pina, thanks also to a lunging, whirling tag by Francisco Cervelli:
Cervelli called it "an amazing throw," and one would get the impression Polanco would agree. He stood almost completely still in right field after the out call and grinned. Nothing else. Jesus Aguilar, who had the would-be-RBI single in the equation, appeared to bark something Polanco's way as he finally trotted toward the infield. Polanco's expression didn't budge.
Not even afterward:
He's back. And maybe he's driving a few friends along, too.
• Our Matt Sunday thought enough of Polanco's performance that his camera lens seldom strayed from the man all evening:
• Don't think offense alone can cut it?
Neither do I. But just for consideration, here's a crazy stat: The Pirates are now 40-11 when scoring four or more runs, 5-37 when they don't. The difference, of course, is one stinking run. In taking eight of their past 10, they've averaged 4.6 runs.
• Every syllable Marte spoke Monday related to his taking steroids was a load of crap.
If you want sugarcoating of this, look elsewhere.
I've known Marte since before he ever left the Dominican. Met him in Santo Domingo when he was 17. Warm personality. Likable to the extreme. So I write this with zero malice: What he did was dumb, and there isn't anything else to it.
He can't admit wrongdoing because baseball players never do that. They're advised by agents, by their union, to never do that. If they admit it, they're susceptible to legal action. So Marte wasn't about to sit at that table and tell everyone he'd taken Nandrolone, the most notorious and obvious steroid supplement in existence, on purpose. Ryan Braun didn't do it. Alex Rodriguez didn't do it. No one's done it. Marte wasn't about to be the pioneer.
Marte's a good kid who's done some dumb things. Most of them have been harmless. This wasn't.
Analyze it further if you'd like, but that's it.
• Fans at the ballpark Monday night booed Braun each time he was announced, presumably because of his own history of cheating, as that's when the booing here for him really began.
If nothing else, this series offers a clear chance to demonstrate a double-standard tonight. Or not.
• If Le'Veon Bell has any issue with any aspect of his now formally settled contract for 2017 -- he has to play under the $12.12 million franchise tag, which will pay him $3.5 million more than any other NFL running back -- he should take it out on his union, not the Steelers.
Not that he could change the collective bargaining agreement. Not that three or four or even 10 players could change it.
But by pointing the displeasure he's clearly got in the correct direction -- at DeMaurice Smith and everyone at the NFL Players Association that has for so long sold their players' rights off without a fight -- he'd at least begin to affect real change. There isn't true free agency in any league that allows a team to take its top player off the market. There still aren't guaranteed salaries. There still isn't enough allowance for retired players, particularly those who might be affected by brain injury.
The list is a whole lot longer than that, too. Anyone with knowledge of all of our major professional sports leagues would concur in a heartbeat that the NFL has the worst of the labor agreements.
Five days ago, Richard Sherman, the Seahawks' player rep and one of the sport's most outspoken voices, told the Seattle Times' Bob Condotta this: "If we want as the NFL, as a union, to get anything done, players have to be willing to strike. That’s the thing that guys need to 100 percent realize: You’re going to have to miss games, you’re going to have to lose some money if you’re willing to make the point, because that’s how MLB and NBA got it done. They missed games, they struck, they flexed every bit of power they had, and it was awesome. It worked out for them.”
The current agreement runs through the end of the 2020 season. The only team to vote against this one, you'll recall, was the Steelers.
• This is a devastatingly dull time of year for the diehard hockey fan, even in Pittsburgh where the seasons now bump into one another. There's a reason for that: No one's working.
Not many, anyway.
Executives, coaches, scouts and pretty much everyone in the NHL world carrying a business card shuts down for the better part of late July and early August. There's the draft, the rush of the opening of free agency, a few resultant trades, the development camps that are now commonplace and ... poof!
That doesn't mean Jim Rutherford has shut down. He's still around and, by every account, still making and taking calls. But it does mean deals don't typically get consummated until closer to September.
• That's not exactly the most sizzling take, I know, but it sure beats just making stuff up, right?
• I love Rick Tocchet. Always have, always will. But the notion that Mike Sullivan can't singularly squeeze the very most out of any player has been disproven by only one individual: Derrick Pouliot. And I'm not sure Pouliot should count as a strike against any coach. You can't motivate the unmotivated.
• Rutherford has as much money to spend on a third-line center as he needs. That's because his primary trading piece is Conor Sheary, who's likely to touch $4 million through salary arbitration. That money, coupled with Rutherford's own estimation of having $2 million under the cap after Sheary and Brian Dumoulin are signed, leaves him about $6 million.
There aren't a whole lot of third-line centers making $6 million.
• Pat Narduzzi hardly was a match for his defensive wizard's reputation last season, stubbornly refusing to double-cover any wide receiver for fear of conceding so much as an extra inch on the ground. Pitt's defense allowed 333 passing yards and 37.6 points per game, both of which are just insane. That included 84 pass plays of 16-plus yards, which is beyond insane.
Narduzzi's ultimate goal is to build the Panthers in the mold of his Michigan State defenses, which had tall, fast studs at the corners who never needed help. That would allow the Spartans, of course, to gang up on the run. But 5-foot-9 Avonte Maddox again will be one of his corners this coming season, and setting up a game plan for 2017 that might not see fruition until 2018 or 2019, as Narduzzi freely acknowledged he'll do at the ACC Kickoff last week in Charlotte ... that's beyond-beyond insane.
• The Panthers were picked to finish fourth in the Coastal Division in preseason poll among the 167 media members who applied for credentials to the ACC Kickoff. Our Lance Lysowski was one of those. He, too, picked the Panthers to finish fourth. And that sounds about right. Losing five starters on offense, including James Conner and Nate Peterman, is tough. Losing seven starters on defense, including Ejuan Price, is maybe tougher. I believe they'll be competitive, thanks in large part to the combined explosiveness of Qadree Ollison and Quadree Henderson, but I see seven wins, maybe eight.
• So who, pray tell, could have in good conscience cast those seven first-place votes for Pitt?
• The Riverhounds continue to flail about this summer, winning impressively on occasion, then drawing against a bunch of teenagers Saturday in Bethlehem, Pa.
Oh, for real: Steel FC started a 16-year-old keeper and used three other players from their development academy, all making their professional debuts, because they had a bunch of regulars called up to Philadelphia for an MLS match the same night.
It was an embarrassment.
The talent level on the pitch far exceeds the 5-7-6 record and 12th-place standing in the USL's Eastern Conference. This is doubly true since the addition of Romeo Parkes and the emergence of Chevy Walsh, both up front. There's no longer an excuse for it, and the Bethlehem match exposed that painfully. The Hounds are disorganized through the middle, far too passive and sloppy in the final third.
If Dave Brandt isn't certain he wants to be the coach in Pittsburgh -- and I've had more than one rumbling to that effect make it my way -- perhaps he should follow through. Because this process is going nowhere, and proud players like Kevin Kerr, Corey Hertzog, Danny Earls, Stephen Okai and others deserve a full commitment from the man in charge.
• I purposely left this out above, to avoid straying too far from the subject, but I'll ask here: Can anyone please paint for me the scenario in which the management of the Steelers and/or Penguins would publicly challenge their players to either win right away or have their season blown up?
With the clear intimation being that the winning has to come before any support is offered from above?
With zero expressed regret at not having put forth maximum effort toward helping until this conditional offer?
Without having lifted a pinky finger to replace the production of Marte and Jung Ho Kang despite not having paid a penny of their salaries in the interim?
Why is this OK?
Who are the people that are OK with this, and are they connected in any way, spiritually or symbiotically, to the fans of the other two teams in town?