MILWAUKEE -- I mean, what's left to say?
Mitch Keller, the bona fide All-Star of the Pirates' rotation, has been bombarded for two dozen runs in the four starts since he was recognized as such in Seattle. And all around him within the rotation, there's Johan Oviedo, there's a bunch of blah, and the rest have gone kablooey.
They also can't relieve, can't hit, can't field, can't throw ... my God, they can't even ask their freshly acquired first baseman to go to the damned bag on a chopper his way:
— DKPSvideos (@DKPSvideos) August 4, 2023
Neat, huh?
Dude's name is Alfonso Rivas, by the way. He's a 26-year-old minor-leaguer. He's the replacement for the not one but two solid big-league first basemen traded within the past week. Supposed to count defense among his strengths. Let's presume that cueing up 25,930 people to laugh at him didn't crack the resumé.
It's as if it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, my friends.
The team started out 20-8, but either the roster or the organizational trajectory -- or the budget -- wasn't ready for that, so everyone inside 115 Federal backed off, as if they'd just had a medal hung around their necks that'd give them Swine Flu. Ben Cherington publicly blurted out, in what's still the quote of the summer, that his analytics people hadn't foreseen that his team would be good. And more important than any verbiage, nobody bothered to replace even a portion of Oneil Cruz's lost offense, nobody replaced any of the four starting pitchers sent out for Tommy John surgery and, in fact, not one player of note was added from the outside to a roster that was still somehow in first place just six freaking weeks ago.
Think about that.
And then, almost as if to underscore that, by God, they were right all along, Carlos Santana, Rich Hill, Ji-Man Choi and Austin Hedges were shipped out for a slew of middling-to-muted prospects at the trade deadline.
The team's 28-51 since that start. A complete collapse.
It's ongoing, too. And only getting worse, unless, of course, anyone was sensing something fluky about that 14-1 flogging by the Brewers on this Thursday night at American Family Field. Keller couldn't command his cutter, his other stuff wasn't much help, and he'd concede a season-worst eight runs on nine hits, three walks and a hit batter over five innings. Jose Hernandez and Dauri Moreta gave up three runs each. The defense committed no official errors but four flagrant miscues per my eyes. And ... rinse, repeat.
I mean, what did we think was going to happen?
How's any team expected to win when the people running it, on and off the field, couldn't care less about a given calendar year?
Cherington didn't care about 2023. Travis Williams didn't care about 2023. Bob Nutting didn't care about 2023. They can say anything they'd like to the contrary, but their cumulative actions speak infinitely louder. When any of them -- any single one of them at any stage -- had a chance to make a difference, they didn't. Except to revert to status-quo operations at the first opportunity.
Listen, this isn't to excuse flaws galore at field level, including with Derek Shelton, but how would such a stance, even disguised, not eventually seep into the environment of the actual participants?
Well, this is it. This is where it goes. The same stance, the same approach, the same endless kicking of the figurative can ... it begets the same result.
Show me people who are OK with losing, and I'll show you watching ... and watching ... and watching .. and watching ... until the team finally fell apart, only to go right ahead and proceed with the original plan.
Show me people who are OK with losing, and I'll show you trading Santana to the Brewers a mere handful of weeks after these teams had just met in this same spot in a duel for first place.
Show me people who are OK with losing, and I'll show you the funereal atmosphere of this very clubhouse after this latest loss, the 18th in the past 27 games and -- oh, just for fun -- the 27th in the past 35 games at this House of Horrors. Where, with the Pirates' kind assistance, maybe they'll celebrate a Central crown this fall. Possibly with a package of confetti mailed from Pittsburgh.
Want to slice up all the statistics? Or break down all the breakdowns? Or analyze each individual game the way they do, as if it occurs in isolation?
Yeah, no thanks. It's Year 4. After these three games here come four against the Braves, who just might be the class of the National League. This hole isn't about to stop digging itself. And within that, it's well past time to treat trends as trends, patterns as patterns, ineptitude as ineptitude ... and a lack of competitive spirit as a lack of competitive spirit.
And my goodness, just wait for the lack of accountability come October.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
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• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 10-day injured list: 2B Ji Hwan Bae (ankle)
• 60-day injured list: SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow), INF Tucupita Marcano (knee), RHP Vince Velasquez (elbow)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Alfonso Rivas, 1B
2. Bryan Reynolds, LF
3. Andrew McCutchen, DH
4. Jack Suwinski, CF
5. Henry Davis, RF
6. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
7. Endy Rodriguez, C
8. Liover Peguero, 2B
9. Alika Williams, SS
And for Craig Counsell's Crew:
1. Christian Yelich, LF
2. William Contreras, C
3. Carlos Santana, 1B
4. Willy Adames, SS
5. Sal Frelick, RF
6. Mark Canha, DH
7. Andruw Monasterio, 3B
8. Brice Turang, 2B
9. Joey Wiemer, CF
THE SCHEDULE
Second game of this four-game series pits Quinn Priester (2-1, 9.19) against Colin Rea (5-4, 4.76). First pitch is 8:10 p.m. Eastern.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
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