I legitimately like watching a lot of these Pirates play, exasperating as the body of work's been of late, because there's still enough talent to entertain on occasion. I also like PNC Park, at least a little. And other than family, there's nothing I love more than my job, no matter the circumstance or setting.
But what'll have me cringing upon covering this game tonight against the Reds is that ... man, Major League Baseball's just become the biggest bore, hasn't it?
This isn't just referring to the length of games, as that's actually seen a slight slash of four minutes from the historic high of 3:08 set last season. And good for Rob Manfred on that count, as his various pace-of-play initiatives -- automatic intentional walk, between-innings clock, limit on mound visits -- have somewhat mitigated the added time inherent in video replay reviews. The times still need to get a lot lower, but the commissioner's made progress.
That's not the bore, though. Not for me.
Rather, it's all ... those ... pitching ... changes.
I mean, it makes sense. There's no questioning the intelligence involved. Advanced analytics aren't really advanced anymore. Everyone's got access to once-inconceivable data, and every manager's under orders to apply them. Same with the GMs. Get left behind, and prepare to lose a ton.
But the game's gotten to the point where every .200 dude with a stick gets treated like the big-headed edition of Barry Bonds. Everyone gets his own pitching sequence, his own defensive shift and yeah, even his own pitcher. According to the database at Baseball Reference, managers in 2018 are using 4.24 pitchers per game. That's the highest such figure ever, well above the 3.92 of just a decade ago, and miles above the 3.12 of 1992, the last year the Pirates won a division.
As a result of all this matchup specialization, GMs are burning every option in sight, shuttling pitchers back and forth from their Class AAA affiliates so that their managers never run out. Eight-man bullpens like the Pirates', as Neal Huntington recently affirmed, are now "more the norm than the exception in the industry." The same database shows that teams are now using 28 pitchers over a full season, also the highest such figure ever. It was 23.3 a decade ago, 18.2 in 1992. One team, the Rays, has been experimenting this summer with starting their relievers, aimed at nullifying early matchups.
To repeat for emphasis: It makes sense. All of the above are no-brainers, actually, in the current environment.
But that doesn't mean it doesn't stink. Offense is down dramatically from last season, from 9.29 runs per game to 8.72. Older batters are being overwhelmed by all the high-octane arms firing all those 98-mph heaters because they don't fear arm fatigue. And at the risk of getting excessively romantic here, I can't think of anything more distasteful for any fan than buying a ticket for a game to see a reliever pitch the first inning and then shower.
I also can't think of a solution, unfortunately. Limiting the manager's pitching changes sounds like it'd have to be loaded with asterisks. Similarly, limiting the GM's roster count for pitchers might get howls from the players' union. There probably are ideas to be culled from here, but I won't pretend to have processed all the layers involved.
That said, I'm positive about this: Any meaningful changes in this regard would not be anything that should offend purists. If anything, it should have the opposite effect. Because baseball's always been a game built around the starting pitcher, never more than in its beginnings.
The time's passed for that pendulum to swing back.
• Tonight's starter for the Pirates is Chad Kuhl. He's made 13 starts, one of which has exceeded six innings. Tonight's starter for Cincinnati is Matt Harvey. He's made 10 starts, not one of which has exceeded six innings.
I've interviewed and studied extensively on pitching injuries, and I've always been a proponent of tracking and limiting pitch counts, both on the mound and in warmup throws, to protect players' careers. Many noteworthy advances have been made, and it's a credit to all concerned that it began at the big-league level and trickled all the way down to youth levels. Huntington, in particular, has been passionate about this throughout his career, and I respect that.
But here, too, the pendulum's got to swing back.
Not so much because of this ...
Today in 1974, Nolan Ryan throws 235 pitches while walking 10 batters and striking out 19 over 13 innings. He was immediately scheduled for season-ending elbow surgery. Just kidding, he made his next start on three days rest and won. pic.twitter.com/5XrG6CKzyE
— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) June 14, 2018
... but rather, because this isn't really about protecting pitchers as much as it is playing the broader video game.
• Think this series doesn't matter?
Yeah, well, that's probably true. The Pirates are eight games back, the Reds twice as many. But here's what does matter: If the Pirates don't right themselves this weekend — and convincingly — feel free to bid farewell to Francisco Cervelli, Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer before long. I've got more on that in today's Friday Insider.
• Josh Bell is bound to bounce back soon. Or so this guy claims:
• If the Pirates' ongoing 7-18 slide had been their record to open this season, people would have been fired.
Nah, no, they wouldn't. Just wanted to see if you were paying attention.
• Clint Hurdle's most likely starting lineup tonight is a career 5 for 59 against Harvey. He might see the seventh after all.
• The Steelers' OTAs and minicamp came with more than their share of drummed-up narratives — Ben Roethlisberger missing some sessions, Antonio Brown being weird, Mike Tomlin speaking defiantly, as if any of those qualified as news — but one that was so very legit was the arrival of Mason Rudolph.
Seriously, there's nothing not to love about the kid at this early phase. Big, effortless arm. Smart reads. Pinpoint delivery. And to hear his receivers tell it, all of those are outdone by his presence in the huddle and then the pocket. The conversations I had with people, they were positively glowing.
But here, judge for yourself just how he handled the cameras and microphones Thursday:
Imagine if this kind of gift emerges from the third round.
• The most painful part of Keith Butler's stark assessment of the Steelers' tackling in the Jacksonville debacle was its accuracy. There are no solutions, schematic or otherwise, for a defense that can't bring down a ball-carrier.
But that doesn't mean Tomlin, Butler and the coaches can wash it away. A safety's got to be brought up to the line of scrimmage this coming season, and that defense will have to rebuild its brand — you know, the one where opponents can't run against them — even if that means compensating to a fault. Really, start out with the Browns. Make a point of it.
As Stephon Tuitt, among the many parties aggrieved that day by Leonard Fournette, told me, "There's nowhere to go if you can't stop the run. We all know that."
• So much more from Dale Lolley and me on the Steelers' OTAs and minicamp in today's Morning Java:
• A week from today, the NHL Draft will run through the full first round while the Penguins wait patiently at their table for all the other rounds the next day. With respect to what Jim Rutherford told me last week about being open to trading up, his context — that it would take getting into the top five to get someone capable of contributing immediately — would come at way too prohibitive a cost. Because the possible trading partners would want youth in return.
No thanks to any of that.
• Hey, I made it to the requisite 10 Grind items without calling the pen!
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