Pittsburgh has a new baseball hero. It’s Mitch the Pitch, and he’s at the top of today’s rotation of refreshing sports notes!
• Forget Skenes day. The most exciting day in the Pirates rotation is Keller day. Mitch Keller has won six straight starts. In those six victories, Keller has pitched 39 2/3 innings and posted an ERA of 1.13. Paul Skenes has the splinker; Keller has the sweeper. Nobody told Keller he’s not allowed to be the Pirates’ best pitcher. Keller is one reason the Pirates can win playoff series if they get there.
• Skenes should be on the National League team for the MLB All-Star Game on July 16 at Arlington, Texas. Skenes didn’t join the Pirates till May. But baseball fans want to see Skenes pitch, especially in marquee matchups, even if it’s only for an inning. Who’s a better alternative for the Pirates? Keller? Connor Joe? Go with star power. Go with buzz. Go with Skenes.
• By way of proof, Skenes’ “big on big” matchup with Los Angeles’ Shohei Ohtani last Wednesday was truly electric. Skenes got a strikeout on three pitches of 100 mph or more, then Ohtani hit a home run. Each seemed to appreciate the other’s triumph. MLB doesn’t provide enough confrontations like that. When the National League had eight, 10 or 12 teams in the ’60s and ’70s, Pirates superstar Roberto Clemente would face St. Louis ace Bob Gibson several times per campaign. The Dodgers don’t visit PNC Park again this season.
• The Pirates bullpen might be stabilizing: Closer David Bednar has completed 10 straight scoreless outings. Aroldis Chapman is posting huge velocity. Except for issuing three straight walks in the Skenes debut, right-hander Colin Holderman has been brilliant all year: 0.83 ERA, and right-handed hitters are batting just .087 against Holderman. His sinker and slider run away from right-handed hitters, who very often chase deliveries out of the strike zone. Holderman could be a closer.
• The Pirates’ 11-5, 10-inning loss at home vs. Minnesota on Sunday was because they ran out of bullpen. Which happens when you have your starters on a tight pitch count, and you have a bullpen game the day before. You make some situations unwinnable.
• Last year, the Pirates had first baseman Carlos Santana on a contract that paid $6.7 million. He hit 23 home runs, splitting the season between Pittsburgh and Milwaukee. He’s getting paid $5.25 million this year by Minnesota. It’s easy to think to Pirates could have had Santana back at about that rate. Instead, they signed Rowdy Tellez at $3.2 million. A savings of $2.05 million. That’s peanuts in MLB. But for the hillbilly thief, every dollar counts. Santana has nine home runs, Tellez two.
• Tellez had three RBIs in Saturday’s 4-0 home win vs. Minnesota. He’s got six hits in his last three games. Blind squirrel, meet acorn. Don’t get excited.
• Owner Bob Nutting likely sees these Pirates as ideally constructed: second-lowest payroll in MLB at $84.5 million but good enough to sell tickets and merchandise and with those revenue streams heightened by the Skenes phenomenon. The Pirates are on pace to match last year’s attendance of 1.6 million. Once summer kicks in, 1.8 million is likely. Two million if they stay in the playoff race till September. In terms of profitability, the Pirates are run perfectly. Yay, Nutting’s wallet!
• Penguins president of hockey ops/GM Kyle Dubas says the door isn’t closed on free agent winger Jake Guentzel returning to Pittsburgh. Dubas has to say that. But the door is closed. Guentzel will get too much, too long somewhere else. Guentzel also feels the Penguins didn’t do enough by way of trying to extend him before trading him. How long the locker room will go on strike when Guentzel signs elsewhere isn’t known.
• I’d have no problem with Florida winning the Stanley Cup. The Panthers play heavy and constantly initiate post-whistle scrums designed to bully and rattle those less equipped. But they rarely go over the line. Except when Sam Bennett injured Boston’s Brad Marchand with a low-key sucker punch, and that’s OK because it was Marchand. Even Marchand pretty much said that.
• If Edmonton doesn’t win the Stanley Cup, Connor McDavid has some explaining to do. (It will be revealed that he’s been playing hurt.) But reaching the final means Edmonton won’t blow up their two-star model of McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. It will be more of the same. Like with the Penguins. But at least that core won three times.
• Edmonton winger Zach Hyman had 54 regular-season goals and has 14 more in the playoffs. It’s no mystery: He skates on a line with McDavid and moves well without the puck. That’s not minimizing. Getting open isn’t always easy. But Hyman makes it a science.
• Expect Russell Wilson to have a great season for the Steelers. He’s a talented, experienced quarterback, this is last-chance saloon and he’s resourceful enough to maximize subpar weaponry.
• Expect Justin Fields to be visibly unhappy if he’s not starting before Week 9, the bye week. (Barring injury to Wilson, he won’t be.)
• If Dan Moore Jr. starts the season at left tackle and then, at midseason, Moore is benched and Broderick Jones flips from right tackle to left tackle with rookie Troy Fautanu taking over on the right side, it’s coaching malpractice at an unconscionable level. It’s badly complicating something that’s incredibly simple. Let talent dictate. Making things difficult for Jones because Moore can’t play right tackle is penalizing the superior player for the convenience of the lesser player. It’s unbelievably stupid. (It will be even dumber if Moore starts the whole season. Every metric says he’s rotten.)
• Caitlin Clark didn’t make the U.S. Olympic team. She should have. It doesn’t matter who the 12th woman is. The U.S. has won every gold medal since 1996. They cut the player with the most hype and continued Clark’s descent into being just another player. Women’s basketball is mangling its golden ticket, just as this space predicted months ago. Gatekeeping at an absurd level.
