[One-Sided] Rivalry Weekend

 

To all the people crying foul over whether or not Pirates-Phillies counts as a rivalry, my dad informs me that before the division realignment, Bucs-Phils was a pretty tight playoff matchup. Those 70s/80s teams always ended up meeting at some point, and it was always tense. Since the Pirates now count as a Central team, and since the Pirates and Phillies are rarely ever both great at the same time, it doesn't matter as much. The Phillies' chief rival is the Mets, the Pirates' chief rival to me is probably Chicago or something like that. But since they share a state, and they're both kind of without a dance partner, this is what we're doing. Phils-Pirates, in Philadelphia, where a sea of red will likely be laughing the Pirates away, except for the one game that Paul Skenes is supposed to pitch. 

And that is how you sum up the Pirates right now. Listless, unmemorable and uninspired, except for like 5 innings a week when Skenes is on the mound. And even he's still letting runs by every so often. He's 3-4, meaning not all of his games are being blown by the bullpen. They're being blown by the offense not answering runs. This is the Jacob deGrom shit all over again. Already you're hearing rumblings that they might even try to trade him, which...while ridiculous, also kind of tracks for the Bob Nutting era. You draft one of the most insane pitching prospects in recent memory and it hurts your business if you keep him. 

So going into this Phils series, a game of which I will be attending, I'm not completely intimidated by this team. There's a ton of replacement players, a lot of rookies that haven't panned out, and a lot of dead space. But every so often there is someone who is genuinely worrisome. Someone who, if he gets hot at the right moment, could spell doom. And as good as the Phillies are looking going into this series, I'm still worried about Oneil Cruz.

This is someone who, if you put the ball in the right place, he'll hit it harder than anyone else. His .830 OPS and his 8 home runs lead the team, and his 16 stolen bases lead the NL. This is a guy who didn't work at shortstop but is a lot more comfortable at CF, and, while he is something of a liability on defense, is better than some of his contemporaries. It's not that he's an overwhelming standout, as he's only hitting .238, but he seems to be the only Pirates hitter doing what he's supposed to at the moment. You're seeing a team of people who were untouchable in the minors just collapsing here, guys like Henry Davis, Endy Rodriguez and Ke'Bryan Hayes who were supposed to be huge but are just kinda there. If there was actually competent farming and organizational leadership then all of these players would be either doing what they were supposed to or already shifted out in favor of better options. But it's just been this slow crawl, where even in May the team feels dead on arrival.

So Saturday night, I will be watching Zack Wheeler take on the Pirates lineup, and [checks notes] Carmen Mlodzinski try and keep down the Phillies lineup. No real idea how that's gonna go.

Coming Tomorrow- He played for two teams famous for dealing away talent before they can truly develop. Now he plays for the Astros. So thank heavens he's playing well.