The Pirate offense exploded for 9 runs on 14 hits with 3 walks. Spencer Horwitz is on a tear right now. Last night he went 3 for 3 with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs. The AAA boys went 3 for 14 but did have an RBI and scored 2 runs. The Pirates did all of this against none other than Joey (I Guess The Braves Need Pitching) Wentz. He was making his 13th start for the Braves. Wow! In his last 7 starts, he has given up 25 runs in a little over 29 innings. Another wow! He was relieved by Hunter (Getting Revenge) Stratton. He came in during the top of the 5th with runners on 1st and 2nd and no outs. He promptly walked the first batter he faced to load the bases. He gets out of the jam by striking out Pham and Suwinski. He gets Nick Yorke to ground out to end the inning. Stratton, you the man. Charlie Morton is scheduled to start on Sunday. There are former Pirates everywhere on this team. No wonder they missed the playoffs.
Today I want to discuss the Pirates management team. We found out this week that Ben Cherington’s contract runs through the 2027 season. This makes his firing after this season much less likely. He has secured one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. He also has secured the worst offense in baseball. The big question is, is it Cherington or is it Nutting? Is it live or is it Memorex? Were Cherington’s hands so tied by Nutting’s unwillingness to spend that he really could not improve the offense? Even going with that premise, I still think that Cherington should be fired. He, along with most of the Pirates front office, should go. Players just have not developed under this regime. In fact, they have all gotten worse over the last 4 years. The list just goes on: Ji Hwan Bae, Henry Davis, Oneil Cruz, Matt Gorski, Liover Peguero, Jack Suwinski, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Alika Williams, Rodolfo Castro, Travis Swaggerty, and Canaan Smith-Njigba. The jury is still out on Nick Gonzales, Billy Cook, Nick Yorke, Cam Devanney, and Tsung-Che Cheng. The Pirates have had pitching blunders too. Tyler Glasnow, Quinn Priester, and Clay Holmes all went on to post much better numbers with other teams. If this isn’t evidence that the player development department needs to be totally cleaned out, I don’t know what is. Anybody associated with hitting instruction should be fired. This was a team going into the 2024 season that thought they were going to contend for the division title. They did not even come close in 2024 and 2025. This leads to the final question: Should Don Kelly be retained? The short answer is no. Sure, he is an improvement over Derek (The Shadow) Shelton. A Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader would have been an improvement over Derek Shelton. My apologies to the cheerleading profession. The problem with this team is the same as it has always been. They look like they have a lot of good young talent. It just never seems to develop. The other constant failure is that they can never get the one or two pieces needed, either by free agency or trade, to put the team over the top. It has been going on for 6 years under this regime. It seems like it would be a no-brainer that changes need to be made. Only time will tell, but I am not optimistic.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 