I mean, what's left to say?
What's left to ask?
Heck, why even bother with the people bungling what should be a bona fide blessed stage of these Pirates' evolution?
I didn't. I went to take Rowdy Tellez's temperature instead. Because, hey, if one puts thought into it, it was Ben Cherington, not Rowdy, who paid Rowdy $3.2 million this past winter when plenty of better first baseman were available. And it was Derek Shelton, not Rowdy, who penciled Rowdy's name into the lineup for this Thursday series finale against the Giants that, anywhere else in Major League Baseball, would've been viewed as -- gasp! -- a pivotal game.
Instead of ...
Another blown five-run lead.
Another wasted grand slam, this by Joey Bart as a sequel to Bryan Reynolds' the previous night.
Another thrown-away quality start by another young phenom pitcher, this by Paul Skenes as a sequel to Jared Jones' the previous night.
Another ... uh-huh, this:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) May 23, 2024
That's staring at strike three with the bases loaded and one out, that's 0 for 4 with two Ks, and that's .175 for the starting baseman in Year 5 of this front office.
Shelton's assessment: "He needs to have better at-bats."
Yowza.
So yeah, I asked Rowdy, still one of the goodest dudes through all this, how he was holding up.
“It was a tough one for all of us. Tough last two," he'd initially reply in the plural. "We played a good series in Chicago. I think we've shown that we're a capable ballclub to win games. Those are some frustrating ones. We have a long season ahead of us.”
Which is when I specified that I just meant him. And being booed robustly all afternoon by the 23,162 on hand. And how that can't be fun.
“I could play better. It’s solely on me. I understand that. It's not fun. It's not easy to hear those things. I’ve just gotta be better.”
Any adjustments happening at the plate?
“No, not really. I'm going to a little toe-tap and trying to change some things with my hands. Ultimately, I've been around the game for a while. Been very fortunate to be in the game for a while. I've had a lot of success in my career. I think, eventually, I’ll get out of this. But again, like what Skip said, I’ve gotta produce. I came here for a reason. I came here to hit in the middle of the lineup. Unfortunately, I'm not a guy who's a glove-first guy. I've always been a bat-first guy in my career. It’s just not there. That's on me.”
Not anymore, my man. It just isn't.
Look, I'll be blunt: I don't know what Tellez is doing here anymore. He shouldn't be. If this were a serious operation, one that any stage of anything ever prioritized the game being played right in front of everyone's noses, he'd have been designated for assignment weeks ago. Or certainly after the recent Milwaukee/Chicago trip. Or this very morning, for that matter.
He sure wouldn't been slotted to start. Against a left-hander, no less.
That's not on Tellez.
That's on this not being a serious operation.
That's on a GM handcuffing his field manager with a short-handed bullpen to open this series -- no small feat fresh off an off-day -- presumably because all his collared-shirt whiz kids in analytics couldn't help him count how many position players were on the active roster. That's on a GM paying Aroldis Chapman a payroll-high $10.5 million salary to walk 20 batters in 16 1/3 innings and set a sour tone for the relievers in this series. That's on a GM actively pursuing Tellez as his legit first choice in free agency, as I just learned this week that Cherington did.
That's also on a manager who can't stop seeing ghosts every time he gazes toward the pen. Shelton seems petrified by even the most remote possibility that he'll run out of arms, and it's nonstop. Like Bud Selig in extra innings of an All-Star Game, man. He tries to squeeze every pitch out of every Hunter Stratton he summons, no matter how clear it might be to all concerned that Stratton's got nothing. And when it comes to running Tellez out there ... wow, all I can put forth is that Shelton himself reiterated in Milwaukee, "The lineup's mine."
All right, then. Own the rips, then.
I hate this. All of it.
And I feel like I hate it that much more since Skenes' arrival -- 6-6 in that span, 14-26 since the 9-2 start -- it only further exposes how these men don't seem capable of handling an awesome responsibility like housing two pitchers of that potential, plus Mitch Keller. How they're showing no grasp of the necessary next phase. How they're not picking up on the need for real urgency. How all their moves are made weeks too late, if at all. How they're fixated, as if it's their Year 1, on proving they were right to do this small thing or that small thing ... rather than just reacting to reality the right way.
I take only small issue with sending Henry Davis back to the minors, and that's that he's part of a parade of young hitters who yo-yo between here and Indianapolis for years. Otherwise, it was the right reaction to reality.
I take no issue with sending Jack Suwinski back before this game. Having a monster performance each month shouldn't be enough to keep a player in the majors. He needs to mature as a hitter and, assuming that can happen in this system, this, too, was the right reaction to reality.
But I take massive issue with nothing being externally acquired to support the offense, to support, in the end, this rotation. Cherington's winter buys were Tellez, Michael A. Taylor and Yasmani Grandal, who don't amount to a solitary Mario Mendoza between them. His internal promotions in this category could be counted with a closed fist.
Maybe a lesson could be learned by having taken a smart flyer on Bart ...
JUSTIN BERL / GETTY
Joey Bart rounds third base after his grand slam Thursday afternoon at PNC Park.
... or not.
The beauty of a shot above by Getty's Justin Berl was going to be atop our site. It's now buried down here.
Whatever. Keep running the same sub-.200 bats out there. Keep the hitting coach. Keep the hitting philosophy. Keep concocting ways, genuine or imaginary, to run out of relievers. Keep pretending that nothing's changed, that there's no additional pressure with these pitchers here. And by all means, be sure to tune out all those paying customers:
Pirates fans not thrilled with Rowdy Tellez. pic.twitter.com/aCJLmlswY1
— Joe Smeltzer (@joesmeltzer775) May 23, 2024
They didn't just boo Tellez. They pretty much booed up and down the lineup, they robustly booed Shelton with each too-late trip up the steps, they booed mistakes and mishaps in the field, and they booed the team off the field with the final out. To say nothing of how loudly the 20,000 empty blue seats spoke on a Skenes day. Not even a generational talent, it'd appear, can override the general dimming of hope that this'll ever be run properly.
To be fair, though, there's only been professional ball in these parts since 1882, and some of us probably still need a few more decades to catch up to the pulsating baseball brainpower emanating from 115 Federal.
• I've got a full Friday Insider, as well.
• Thanks for reading.
