Trade Rumor SZN
First it was the Jon Morosi theoretical tweet Monday about the possibility of the Pirates trading Andrew McCutchen but re-signing him in the off season.
Derek Shelton addressed those rumors yesterday on the Cook & Joe Show.
A couple of hours later, it was Morosi on the PM Team suggesting Mitch Keller may be a trade chip if the Bucs are sellers at the deadline.
Just a few hours later, Andrew McCutchen tackled things head on after a 9-4 win over the San Diego Padres.
Look , we all get it.
The Pirates, short of putting together another month like they did in April, are likely to approach the Major League Baseball Trade Deadline on August 1 as sellers.
Carlos Santana and Rich Hill will fetch some sort of return on the open market.
But suggesting McCutchen would be interested in going anywhere is oblivious to every single solitary thing he’s said about coming back to Pittsburgh this season, including in a profile done by GQ this spring that was published earlier this month.
And to intimate that Keller, who after early big league struggles is paying off on his number one starter promise, would be made available is to not understand the facts as they’ve been presented and rely on the same old tired tropes about the poor mouth, talent deprived Pittsburgh Pirates.
It implies that the end game for GM Ben Cherington isn’t to compete again, but to serve as a farm system for the rest of the majors, despite the evidence pointing to the contrary to this point in the season.
Worst of all in my opinion, it’s lazy masquerading as clever.
Neither McCutchen nor Keller will be dealt this summer. And it’s foolish to suggest either is likely.
Long Gone-zales
Every single starter recorded a hit for the Pirates in their 9-4 win over the Padres last night, including back-to-back home runs by Santana and Jack Suwinski in the third inning, but Nick Gonzales’s first career homer in the seventh was the exclamation point on just the second Bucco victory in 16 days.
Gonzalez also became just the third player in franchise history to record his first big league triple and first big league home run in the same game. Richie Hebner in 1969 and George Freese in 1955 were the only other two.
Crews In Control?
In his latest mock draft at ESPN.com, Kiley McDaniel suggests the Pirates will balance cost/signability concerns with the relative balance of talent in the top five picks of the draft and select LSU starting pitcher Paul Skenes rather than his teammate, outfielder Dylan Crews.
“There's a belief from those plugged into the Pirates pick that the Crews camp will not be willing to take whatever is offered at the first pick. Some describe it as ‘not interested,’ some as ‘maybe just a negotiation ploy,’” wrote McDaniel.
“There's a spectrum of how to take this since it's just indications and bluster and posturing,” he continued. “But I've been hearing since February that the Pirates have been aggressively looking into the non-Crews options, even after it became clear he was the consensus best prospect.”
McDaniel went on to compare the relative fast track-to the-majors path that could exist for Skenes to Henry Davis’s.
“The premise of the Henry Davis decision was to get a good, safe, pretty-quick-to-the-majors type with some upside and bank some money for shots down the board. Skenes is advised by the same group that advised Davis and could very well be pitching in Pittsburgh this season -- in games that might still matter! The Pirates can get his feet wet for a month in the minors, limit him to two or three innings at a time, keep his prospect eligibility alive and get that comp pick when he's Rookie of the Year next season. While pitchers come with inherent risk, Skenes is about as unique a proposition as we've seen in some time; I think his worst comp is Jameson Taillon's career, with a chance to be on the David Price/Stephen Strasburg/Gerrit Cole tier.”
With 11 days until the Draft, the speculation will continue to run nearly as rampant as the trade deadline conjecture, and Pirates’ fans will continue to debate: Crews or Skenes?
The King of Alberta
Not long after the NHL announced Connor McDavid won the 2023 Hart Trophy for “the player adjudged to be most valuable to his team,” it was revealed that McDavid fell just one vote out of 196 shy of a unanimous victory of the Hart. And that not only did only one voting member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association not place McDavid first on their ballot – voting for David Pastrnak of the Bruins first – they placed McDavid fifth.
After most of northern Alberta and much of hockey twitter melted down into an angry puddle of rage, blamed anyone or anything associated with the city of Boston, the Bruins, and any kind of chowder, there was another reveal. The voter had nothing to do with Boston, other than the fact that he’s traveled there many a time over the years covering his primary beat: The Pittsburgh Penguins. For Trib Total Media.
The voter was Seth Rorabaugh.
Not because he had any weird grudge against McDavid. Not because he doesn’t know hockey. (In fact, I’m willing to bet there’s more knowledge of the game of hockey and the NHL in Seth’s pinky finger than in much of the population of Greater Edmonton.)
But for a simple reason.
“Just thought he met the criteria of most valuable to his team,” Rorabaugh told me last night. “And that’s the wording on the ballot.”
That’s good enough for me. And it should be good enough for the frothy-mouthed lunatics calling Seth every name imaginable on social media, claiming his refusal to roll over and die at the altar of group think should preclude one of the most intelligent hockey writers in the sport from voting ever again.
If any of these ignorant fanboys wants to know what a real Hart Trophy screwjob looks like, remind them of the year Mario Lemieux dragged the Penguins, kicking and screaming, to the playoffs for the first time in his career and the organization’s first trip in seven years. All the while outscoring Wayne Gretzky by 31 goals (and the same number of points) despite missing four games.
Gretzky, for what it’s worth, had just been traded to Los Angeles.
Remember, Edmonton: At least McDavid still got his well -deserved Hart Trophy. Lemieux didn’t
Huggins Poisoning the Well?
The fascinating story of how Josh Eilert ended up West Virginia University’s new head basketball coach is a whole lot more interesting than I could have predicted.
While appearing on the Fan Morning Show yesterday, I teased Adam Crowley that the Mountaineers were, in fact, taking my advice and going with an interim coach from Bob Huggins’ staff in an attempt to keep their transfer class together while simultaneously setting them up to take advantage of a more open market of prospective coaches next spring.
“It wasn’t ever the idea,” Crowley said.
“They had a deal in place with John Beilein Wednesday night,” continued Crowley. “By the time Thursday rolled around, the job had changed in that there was tampering from a guy who thinks he’s going to be the next head coach at West Virginia after Josh Eilert; Bob Huggins.”
“He was telling everybody ‘If it’s John Beilein, you don’t wanna play for him. He did not want to be succeeded by the guy that preceded him and has gone to multiple Final Fours.”
Crowley wrapped with Huggins’ delusional hammer.
“Bob Huggins thinks he’s going to get his job back in ten months.”
There will be a 30 For 30 or some sort of documentary done about this time in WVU hoops history someday, and it will be enthralling.