DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: A trying-to-win lineup!

DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: A trying-to-win lineup!

[Music] [Applause] I talk a lot about urgency on this program and competitiveness so on an occasion where you see it it’s worth calling it out in a good way good morning to you good Thursday morning I’m de kovachich of DK Pittsburgh sports and this is daily shot of pirates it comes your way right and early every weekday if you’re into football and or hockey I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Penguins in the same place that you found this Pirates six Reds W yesterday in Cincinnati and I’m going to be honest with you here I thought they’d win the game before it was played and I don’t often think that certainly not before a series finale here’s why if you go back over the past eight such games and I’m purposely exempting the double header in Detroit because that really wasn’t the same type of situation that was the entire Series in one day if you go back if you go back over the past eight series what you’ll find is that the Pirates lost and I’m deliberately doing this in Reverse lost to the Rays one in Denver beat the Rockies lost to the Cardinals lost to the twins lost to the angels lost to the Blue Jays lost to the Braves lost to the Giants that’s all in a row seven out of the last eight again exempting that double header in a day Series in Detroit and if there’s been one commonality throughout that it’s been that Derek Shelton has a tendency as do most managers by the way to roll out what gets commonly referred to in baseball as the Sunday lineup regardless what day the game is actually being played Day game after a night game A Day game or a getaway game before a day off so that a player can actually have two days off for some rest and Recovery almost all managers at this point do it with their catchers especially now that Yadier Molina’s retired but you’ll also have some like Shelton and again he’s not alone who will do it with a lot of guys the only exception for him and it’s eminently understandable is Brian Reynolds but Reynolds when he gets his days off it just means he goes to DH but when he goes to DH Andrew McCutchen is out but then cutch is 37 so Kutch is going to need his rest more than most well anyway forget all that for one day because yesterday at Great American Ballpark going to read the whole lineup for you here it was McCutchen Reynolds O’Neal Cruz Rowdy Tes Nick Gonzalez krien Hayes Connor Joe Jack swinsky and Jason delay behind the plate so other than delay really that’s that’s the team I I I’m not going to suggest that this is some you know killer lineup or whatever this is the ultimate set of pirates can have to fill up a card but that’s that’s pretty much it and in fact being honest with you I’d rather have delay than yasmani grandal so as soon as you see the lineup you have that sense don’t you you go oh oh they’re serious oh this is cool they actually want to win this game that’s all right that’s all right and then they go and they do it and they do it by actually hitting the ball meaning they had a 6 to1 lead through six innings close it out some good pitching involved I don’t mean to ignore that Luis Ortiz who is starting to show himself pretty well on a regular basis six Innings one run four hits seven strikeouts for Luis Kyle Nicholas who’s had some rough patches this season two scoreless innings a walk and a strikeout a RIS Chapman goes on to the mound where he once made himself famous with a perfect inning in two KS just just an all-around good game and it was the right result against the right opponent meaning someone inside the division someone inside that pack the game was treated as if it mattered more than let’s say the next game or the next games that they’re playing in Atlanta they’re not going to catch the Braves even if the Braves don’t win the NL East and they probably won’t given the way the Phillies are going the Braves are going to be one of the three Wild card teams so you can almost sense that somebody looked at the standings somebody looked at the schedule somebody saw the travel day today and the Pirates by the way flew straight down to Atlanta from Cincinnati and someone said you know you know we got to win this game you know we really really want to win this game and then you hear what Shelton had to say after the game I’m going to read the quote for btim we bounced back really well he’s referring to not having had a great opening with the blowout loss Monday I think this club is resilient he continued we didn’t play well the first day here we had good at bats but we didn’t throw the ball well to be able to bounce back and to win two in a division series was really important for us and I’m proud of our group proud of the group I’m proud of the manager I’m proud of the manager for acknowledging that a game could be important I’m not even being sarcastic I I swear it’s been well this is the fifth year and if this is just the beginning of someone anyone taking these games seriously and and and look I’m not suggesting you don’t give guys days off I’m actually a proponent and a believer that athletes will perform better over the Long Haul if they’re given sufficient RNR but I do think there’s a time and a place for it and I do think that there are specific opponents in which you just have to say listen you know we’re facing the Cubs today we’re facing the Brewers today we’re facing teams that are right around us in this race we can’t give these away so whoever made this happen for whatever reason all seriousness here no snark good job when we come back [Music] j1q this portion of daily shot of pirates is brought to you by our friends at Northshore Tavern that’s directly across Federal Street from PNC Park it’s home of stake on a stone an eating experience underscoring the word experience the steak is brought to you partially cooked on an 800° stone and you do the rest it’s a ton of fun it’s it’s a great meal and it’s a baseball atmosphere like no other in Pittsburgh Northshore Tavern right across Federal Street from PNC Park it’s gun storage check week help prevent unwanted access to your Firearms no one wants their unsecured gun to be used in an accident a suicide or a crime use lock boxes safes and locks to secure your Firearms learn more at gun storage check.org that’s gun storage check .org brought to you by nssf the firearm industry trade [Music] [Music] Association today’s j1q comes from bajio who asks DK is Milwaukee the new baseball model has the Brewers performance supplanted that of the Rays you know when I was up there last about a month ago and talking to some people about the atmosphere that the Brewers have made uh the impression that they’ve made on their players who exist in their orbit there’s a sense that they’ve been successful to the extent that people around the game do see it the way you’re describing I don’t know if they’re the baseball model I think when you’re you’re talking about smarts and Ingenuity and so forth you’re still talking about the Rays the difference the obvious and glaring difference between the Brewers and the Rays is that the Brewers will spend a little bit and the Brewers of course are based in a market that’s 2third the size of Pittsburgh and significantly smaller than the Tampa St Petersburg area in Florida though the rays are just terrible at generating Revenue what the Brewers have is an owner in mark tasio who will spend and a management that’s got a pretty good sense for when to send a prominent player out and try to bring significant younger returns back the Josh hater trade is the one the most recent one really that stands out but there have been others where they realize they’re they’re overpaying for a certain position or certain asset and they want to just keep replenishing the pool that’s a raise thing if you think about some of those types of players that the Rays have moved out like a Blake Snell where they were able to get a real hall for him and they just keep loading and loading and loading up their farm system now this year the Rays aren’t so hot they have pretty much the same record the Pirates do we just saw them in Pittsburgh this past weekend and there’s some Talent there obviously but it’s not what it’s been in the recent past so they’re going to have a natural kind of EB that pops up every now and then and they’re within that I don’t know that the respect factor from around the game has has waned but when you look at the Brewers the thing that jumps out to people that I talk to in the game is that they expect internally to win the Central Division and as such they attempt to craft the rest of the roster in a way that they can get through some playoff series that’s been the bug up there if you think about it the Brewers get there a lot they hardly ever make any noise and that was true even when they had Corbin Burns and Brandon Woodruff in the rotation like at their peaks we’ve also seen them make bold moves like bringing in chrisan Yelich and just this past off season ree Hoskins at 3 years and 39 million so I I don’t see them as the Rays I don’t see them being looked at the same way the rays are looked at for the things that the RS get appreciated the most but yes the respect factor is is definitely there and especially when you combine this with the semis pseudo quasi fall of the Cardinals although they’ve been playing Better Baseball of late they’re certainly the class of the Central Division I’ll be heading down to Atlanta to cover the series with the Braves at truest Park and we’ll do another one of these tomorrow thanks so much for listening [Music]

An actual trying-to-win lineup!

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