A year ago, if I'm being blunt, JT Brubaker blows this badly.
On this day, well ... shhhhhhhhh. Not allowed to talk about that around here.
It's the Chicago half of the third inning. Pirates have just taken a two-run lead. Brubaker concedes a one-out single to Ian Happ, then hits Willson Contreras with a pitch. Contreras, ever the hothead, thinks it's on purpose. He's huffing and puffing the whole way down the line, ushered by Jacob Stallings and the home plate ump, Greg Gibson.
If that's not unsettling enough, here comes Anthony Rizzo.
And then a 3-0 count.
And then ...
Oh, my.
A year ago, Brubaker serves up the meatball Rizzo's got every right to expect from a wide-eyed rookie, and Rizzo sends that thing to Stanwix Street.
On this day, now a little older, a little smarter and a lot less floored by his surroundings, Brubaker rationally reflects on his opponent's tendency to swing in that circumstance. He coolly considers that, while he might be about to load the bases with a walk, he'd rather give Rizzo the chance to beat himself.
So he attached a tail to his fourth pitch and planted it way out here:
MLB.COM
Oh, my.
Small wonder that, once Major League Baseball's replay officials correctly ruled that Contreras had slid well away from second base and had thus disrupted Kevin Newman's relay, Brubaker responded with uncharacteristic gusto in celebrating the out call.
He knew he'd won. And he knew why.
"I was just excited to get the ground ball, really," Brubaker would explain later. "Actually got the double play there and didn't have to throw any more pitches. Once that play was overturned, it saved my pitch count a lot."
Yep. And did he, in fact, attack the Cubs' aggressiveness all afternoon?
"The one that really stood out was Rizzo, the 3-0 swing," he'd add. "They're ones to swing the bat. That's the one that stood out to me."
It should.
The Pirates would again crush the Cubs, 7-1, on this overcast yet outstanding-in-its-own-way Sunday afternoon at PNC Park. Brubaker would go 5 1/3 with a run on four hits and a walk. The bullpen, closed out by Butler County's David Bednar coming on to a blaring 'Renegade' and 6,851 standing, cheering, chanting fans, for the ninth, would put up nothing but zeroes. Wilmer Difo would whack a two-run laser over the Clemente Wall. Bryan Reynolds would add four hits, Jacob Stallings and Phillip Evans two each.
Oh, and this, too: They got better.
Not just in this game, either. For the weekend, the Pirates took two of three, outscored the Cubs by 17-7, totaled 30 hits, struck out 29 Cubs while walking only four, and didn't commit a solitary error in the field.
To reiterate, though, not allowed to talk about that around here.
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Nah, the dialogue will instead turn to the NHL's trade deadline Monday, the NFL Draft in a couple weeks, or it'll just stay stuck on all the standard Spend Nutting Win Nutting They'll Just Trade Him Next Funneling Cash To Seven Springs Yankees Farm Team Boycott This Team Forever Taxpayer Built Stadium Yeah But What Happens In 2029 Never Gonna Get A Penny Of My Hard-Earned Money claptrap.
Am I doing that right?
Hey, sorry, I'm going to tick some people off with this one. And candidly, at this stage of my time covering this team, after three decades, I won't worry about that. One thing I'd committed to doing when launching this independent venture in 2014 was speaking my mind. And wherever that'd lead, I'd hope that more readers would value the honesty than not.
Here's what I've got: Get on or get off.
But my God, stop pretending to be interested or invested in the franchise in any way, shape or form if you aren't even watching the bleeping games.
If I sound exasperated, there's a reason. I'm a journalist. We're a journalism company. We cover the teams we cover, we cover them equally, and we cover them fairly. No one's questioned or criticized Bob Nutting more than I have since he became controlling owner in 2007. Two years ago, I publicly called for him to sell the team if he didn't fire his front office. (Which he did, obviously.)
But almost all of the feedback to anything baseball-related that we publish is just ... the ... same ... tired ... repetitive ... stuff. And in almost all such instances, it's from people who stopped following the actual team forever ago. They're literally complaining because they hear their neighbors complaining. It's like the Pirates have become taxes, the weather ... whatever it is that spawns the Pavlovian complaint reflex.
Well, here's the reality, for anyone who cares to try actual facts:
• The owner of this franchise is a cheapskate. Always has been in all his businesses. Always will be. That's not about to change. He'll never deficit-spend. He'll never put his own money into the franchise.
• No other owner of any MLB, NFL, NHL or NBA franchise puts his or her own money into the franchise. There are zero such examples, and I'd defy anyone to deliver one. George Steinbrenner didn't do it. Mark Cuban doesn't do it. Art Rooney, Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle don't do it.
• When the Penguins last operated in a non-salary-cap setting, they were dead last in payroll, attendance and record. With Lemieux and Burkle as owners. If the NFL ever lost its cap, the Steelers would be little different, and Rooney himself would be the first to acknowledge what'd happen once Jerry Jones could spend at will.
• Nutting really blew it in 2015. The Pirates had just won 98 games, and their meek general manager and clueless team president thought it'd be OK to replace A.J. Burnett and J.A. Happ with a steaming pile of Jon Niese. The payroll was not cut, as records powerfully illustrate. The baseball people made idiotic choices. But ultimately, that's where an owner has to step in and make a difference, to push action. Nutting didn't. He knows that, and he's recognized that.
• Nutting did fire everyone. Eventually. It took him way too long to see through their smokescreens, particularly as it related to camouflaging the state of the minor leagues, and I strongly suspect they'd all still be here if not for the public heat on those guys. But he did do it.
It is what it is. He is what he is.
No one has to like him. No one has to respect him. But he's the owner of the franchise and, as I've spoken to the man's face, the franchise will always be bigger than anyone running it. The franchise outlasted Barney Dreyfuss and the Galbreath family and even Bing Crosby, and it'll still be here long after we're all gone. It's a 135-year-old Pittsburgh institution. It's the eternal home of Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, five World Series championships and a legacy that outsizes any individual.
In other words ... whatever.
If the Pirates' payroll puts anyone off, then hope like heck for complete chaos when MLB's labor agreement expires after this season. Hope that all of the owners -- ideally led by the likes of Nutting -- speak openly and stand firm for a salary cap. No, I'm not optimistic on that front, either, but I do believe the battle will be bloody enough to set such a stage.
Beyond that, the owner you've got is the owner you've got.
Both Travis Williams and Ben Cherington come from championship backgrounds. Both had excellent jobs before coming here. My information is that they came here with very real assurances that they'll have all the backing they need to build a winner here, and I believe both men when they tell me that themselves. If only because, you know, they'd be morons to have come here otherwise and, trust me, neither one's a moron.
The pandemic's damaged all sports business, so it's early and unfair to judge Williams' work. But Cherington's put into place the single most intelligent plan this franchise has put forth in my lifetime. Unlike his predecessor, he's made trades that've brought high-ceiling prospects into the system, rather than Class AAA-level safe bets. That's what's always been needed here.
And by the way, it's not like Neal Huntington didn't know that himself. He just lacked the confidence/courage to try those. Cherington doesn't. Cherington knows he'll win some, lose some, and he's fine with that because he knows -- and I mean knows, because he's lived it in Boston -- what happens when all of that comes together.
Does an owner matter?
Sure. See above about 2015.
Does payroll matter?
Sure. See above about the cap.
But if that's going to be anyone's all-out obsession, the only thing that arises at the mere mention of the Pirates ... I'll say it once more: Get on or get off.
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These Pirates are 3-6. Next in town are the big-deal Padres for four games, beginning Monday night. There's a better-than-good chance that the Pirates will look a lot more like they did last week in Cincinnati than how they did just now against Chicago.
That's fine. This season's worth, for better or worse, will be measured wholly by the progress of players at all tiers of the organization.
But that absolutely includes Pittsburgh. Which is why it mattered that Brubaker pitched well on this day. And that Reynolds looks far more like 2019 than 2020. And that, the previous day, Mitch Keller bounced back from a miserable spring and an even more miserable opening start by overwhelming the Cubs.
This was how Keller was greeted in the dugout by his manager once his evening was done:
It'll take time. It'll take patience. As Derek Shelton himself worded it the other day, in reference to appreciating the fan support so far, "We're on a journey."
Above all, it'll take execution. And as much I love Cherington's approach, I'll need to see a lot, lot more to have similar faith in his execution. Same goes for Shelton and his staff. And let's not forget the players themselves. Some simply can't be made better.
But I like this. All of it. I really do. And I'm not about to apologize for that, any more than I'd suspect we'd hear from those who made their support known through the ninth inning while Butler County's own David Bednar fired 97-mph BBs by the Cubs' bats.
After entering, of course, to a certain hometown favorite for his handpicked music.
I asked Shelton how much his team needed these couple of games after opening 1-6.
"I don’t know if there's a 'need' the first week of the season, but to play well and to do what we did and to come out and break out offensively, I think, yeah," he replied. "I think we had some guys that needed these at-bats."
He then added, "To come home and to play ... I mean, there were only a few thousand people here, but the people that were here in the ninth, they were kind of getting after it a little bit, which was kind of cool. Maybe it was because we brought a yinzer in and they were fired up for “Renegade” playing, but yeah, it was cool. I think we felt it last night and today."
Good for all concerned. The crowds were limited for coronavirus regulations but, as long as I'm potentially ticking people off here, I might as well add that I didn't sense any of the same Nutting-based misery from the paying customers that I do ... you know, pretty much everywhere else.
I like this. And I'm sick of that.
Anyone who wants to talk ball, I'm here all day, all week, all summer.
Anyone who wants to regurgitate the same stale talking points on a subject I've covered a billion times before, most of whom vocally profess that they 'don't care' -- of all things! -- go right ahead and stop caring. Do everyone else a favor and follow through on that not-caring stance.
I'll be busy breaking down the next time Brubaker buries Rizzo. Because I'll allow myself to talk about that.
