Imagine, if only for a fool's split-second, that the people running the Pirates cared about competing.
Imagine, from there, how they might be able to take over this town in 2023.
I know, I know, but hear me out. Because after the Penguins' 3-2 loss to the Kraken on this Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena, their seventh loss in a row amid a 4-6-2 start, their longest losing streak since Sidney Crosby's rookie year, and then taking into account the Steelers being 2-6 into this bye week ... oh, yeah, you guessed it: The Pirates, despite going 62-100, had a better 2022 season to date than the other two, as measured by pure winning percentage, meaning no accounting for the NHL's loser point.
• Pirates: 38.27%
• Penguins: 33.33%
• Steelers: 25.0%
Combined winning percentage for all three of our city's teams: 37.36% off a 68-114 overall record
Grisly times, my friends.
Ugliest of all, I'd posit, is that the one franchise that didn't even try, with Ben Cherington having conducted what was essentially a glorified summer-long tryout camp at PNC Park for a historically inept string of waiver claims -- where have you gone, Josh VanMeter? -- has somehow outscaled the two teams that not only care but also are blessed to operate in salary cap leagues. At least when it comes to cold, hard outcomes.
But what if -- and again, I'm begging for patience with an admittedly outlandish concept -- the baseball team were to lift so much as the proverbial pinky finger entering 2023?
Would this still be a knee-slapper to discuss?
Let me frame it another way: Quick, without investing any thought or emotion into it, who's the most promising young athlete in the city?
Right. It's Oneil Cruz. And with all due respect to Kenny Pickett, George Pickens and not a solitary soul affiliated with the Penguins, Cruz is the correct answer until we see tons more of the other two. Cruz can do things that other humans can't. He's a freak. People across Major League Baseball are in awe. And if anyone was still paying attention through August and September, his maturity was almost a match for the freak-show stuff.
And now this: Which team's best position for the future with young talent, in general?
I can bring up the Steelers' offense, one of the NFL's youngest, and cite legit hope for Pickett, Pickens, Najee Harris and Pat Freiermuth. Maybe even one or two of the offensive linemen on a good Sunday. But with the Pirates, I can stock about three-quarters of an everyday lineup that, while not without warts or potential pitfalls, also has legit hope:
• C: Endy Rodriguez/Henry Davis
• 1B: Absolutely nobody
• 2B: Rodolfo Castro/Nick Gonzales
• 3B: Ke'Bryan Hayes
• SS: Cruz
• LF: Jack Suwinski
• CF: Bryan Reynolds
• RF: Bunch of young-ish candidates
• DH: Absolutely nobody
The holes are canyons, but that's not a bad broader scenario at all. But wait ...
• Starting pitchers: Mitch Keller, Roansy Contreras, Johan Oviedo, Luis Ortiz, JT Brubaker
• Bullpen: David Bednar, Yerry de los Santos
No one's claiming a Cy Young from this group, but Keller grew up in a way a lot of us hadn't expected, Contreras has star material, Oviedo and Ortiz were superb at times down the stretch, and Brubaker could be a No. 5. And the relievers aren't deep, but then, they aren't anywhere. And the greatest challenge with a pen is always the back end, which Bednar and de los Santos are eminently capable of providing.
So, what's missing?
Well, obviously, a real starting pitcher, a real first baseman, a real designated hitter, a stopgap catcher -- that'll be Roberto Perez, as I've been reporting -- and a few fungible arms to chew up the middle innings. That's it.
Oh, wait, that's not it: Because the actual greatest challenge when it comes to anything originating at 115 Federal is getting those in charge to give a damn.
I don't even say that in the standard, cynical, Bob-Nutting-is-the-root-of-all-evil way. I really don't.
Rather, it's based first and foremost on watching what Nutting, Cherington and Travis Williams have done through three full years of this front office's tenure, not least of which as the aforementioned summer-long circus that saw entire games being thrown away in the name of finding out that a .181 hitter elsewhere was, in fact, a .181 hitter here. It's an embarrassment that, in its own way, was unlike anything I'd covered in a lifetime around this franchise. So open, so flagrant, so flaunted in the face of paying fans, alumni and anyone else who'd still believe in what the Pittsburgh Baseball Club once represented.
But it's also based on having heard two months ago -- and since having it confirmed through public hints from Cherington -- that 2023 will be no different. No bump in payroll. No meaningful additions beyond the usual means, such as waking Daniel Vogelbach off his couch one March morning and having him drive up Florida's I-75 from Fort Myers to Bradenton just in time to be the team's DH on opening day in St. Louis.
They don't care. They claim they're waiting for the Altoona cavalry to arrive, a bank of pitching prospects, in particular. But I'll believe that they care about the product in Pittsburgh only when I see them taking it seriously unto itself. Meaning spending. Meaning making roster additions that help the team rather than showcasing. Meaning Derek Shelton making lineups aimed at winning that evening's game.
If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But prove it.
And in the interim, understand that, without anyone around here wishing further ill upon the fortunes of the Steelers and/or Penguins, there's a golden opportunity here that the Pirates could seize to recapture at least some of the passion that Pittsburghers, by nature, convey to our sports teams. I'm not about to predict there'd be some "re-bonding of a team and its city," as Clint Hurdle famously worded a decade ago, but it'd be a gargantuan step up from the relationship that currently exists ... since it scarcely exists at all.
From there, for anyone questioning what that intangible might be worth, the legit hope that these younger players bring could grow in an atmosphere of positivity, of ... hope, to keep using that word.
It matters. Trust me, I was there at PNC Park when that team had just flown back from that sweep at Dodger Stadium. They were still sky-high. They were believing in each other, in what was to come. And this was before Cruz came along and started plopping 'em into the Allegheny.
It matters.
Just not to those making the decisions. They find greater value in punting again and in, of course, every dollar that gets saved along the way.
Funny thing, before I knock off all this silliness today, and it comes in the form of yet another question: Do you know which were Nutting's three most profitable seasons as owner?
Not just the greatest revenue but also that generated the most actual profit.
Yeah, it was 2013-15. Amazing how that works.
Someone show the owner how the football and hockey teams are doing, then remind him of that profit scenario, then have someone explain how semi-monopolies can make someone who's already rich that much richer, and maybe we'll finally see some movement.
