DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: Worst thing about Wednesday

[Music] [Applause] you blow a seven-run lead after the seventh inning you do something that no major league baseball team had done in the past 1,192 overall games played everywhere and that's somehow still not the worst thing that happened to the franchise yesterday good morning to you good Thursday morning I'm Deon kovachevich of DK Pittsburgh sports and this is daily shot of pirates it comes your way bright and early every weekday if you're into football Andor hockey I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Penguins in the same place that you found this Cubs 14 Pirates 10 the Pirates were winning this game 10 to three it's a long list of people who blew it oldest Chapman who's been really good blew it David Bednar who's not been good at all blew it but I've told you in recent weeks I'm not doing that anymore I am not playing that game everything now is in the macro not in the micro it's not about an inning here or there or a pitch or a decision it's about losing 18 out of 25 it's about giving up 41 runs in three games to the Cubs this this requires a pause and a repeat 41 runs in three games to the Cubs and amid all that very quietly and without an announcement actually it just became known out of the Dominican Republic that the Pirates had fired Junior viso their Latin American scouting director since 2017 and others in that operation and I'm here to tell you that is so much worse than that ball game not because Vis Ceno didn't have it coming I've been for weeks now complaining on here and in written columns about the state the disastrous state of the Pirates in Latin America how they've been spending 7 million plus a year with nothing to show for it at any level brought it up again just yesterday and what do you know yesterday in the middle of everybody's baseball season that guy gets fired meaning viz Ceno here's why that matters and why it's bad any team that makes a change in their Latin American operation knows that it's doing so for a long time because it takes a long time to develop the kind of roots the influence the inroads necessary to compete for talent in that part of the world I've been down there I've traveled the Dominican for baseball purposes I've experienced it it is something it's the Wild Wild West and the teams that have people around the longest tend to do the best so you're reluctant to make changes unless you really have to a decision of this magnitude and it was a magnitude type decision needed I repeat needed to wait until we saw what would happen with the actual Management in Pittsburgh let me rephrase that it needed to wait for the next GM now maybe it still will maybe if Bob nutting's on the ball here and the one area where I don't think anybody can accuse him of not being on the ball is Latin America over the years he will not allow Ben cherington to find the replacement for viz Ceno he can allow charington to fire him but if he allows cherington to pick the successor then he's doing something that's so dumb I can't even come close to quantifying it and so much more damaging to the cause than bedar having a lousy inning because you'll Doom yourself in that part of the world again for another few years because this GM took five years to react to Vis Ceno having done nothing and Vis Ceno was actually hired by Neil Huntington in 2017 almost three years before charington was even around I know this isn't what most of you want to hear when you come to the show after a game like yesterday I get that everyone wants to wag a finger at somebody fire this guy fire that guy there's only one solution now they've got to go the best solution for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2025 and Beyond is to have other people in baseball Ops it's not just the manager you see him on TV you get mad you shake your fist it's not just him he's part of the problem he's not the problem and if they get away meaning charington and his staff with firing Vis Ceno and then replacing him that gives them a green light to do the same with Shelton and by themselves more time and man I I just I can't think of a worst scenario I really can't think of a worst scenario for the Pirates going into 2025 than to have the same people running everything but that's that's where that pointed yesterday morning and we'll see where it leads when we come back back and equally chipper [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 steak 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 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 lockboxes 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 could have been any number of hysterical entries that were sent this way and I don't mean hysterical like in the funny sense although a couple of them were funny I mean hysterical as in actually hysterical that's how angry people were about that outcome yesterday in that series with the Cubs and I guess everything else and I'm going to bypass all of those today in favor of just a stroke of Genius sent this way from Wilbur and he's eminently capable of Strokes of Genius he writes for 5 years Ben cherington and derck Shelton have treated the regular season like it was just a bunch of practice games this is standard stuff for them I can't beat that I can't do an episode of daily shot of pirates that tops that because when you're watching that nonsense the past three days and you're watching O'Neal Cruz standing out there in center field which I'm pretty sure was what inspired Wilbur to write and when you call out with deadly Precision exactly the approach that's been taken by this general manager and in turn by this manager to regular season baseball to the real 162 games that are supposed to matter then you fully understand almost everything that's gone wrong in these 5 years because because it's not that they're unwilling to turn the page they can't they don't know how they don't have that in them I know this about the GM and I've really begun to believe it about the manager they were brought in to do something they set up a process both from the you know acquisition SL development standpoint and from the onfield instruction standpoint and they never budge from it they never altered any of their thinking any of their actions that's why they're unmoved Shelton called himself yesterday after the game frustrated is he where how I've seen him get frustrated whenever an Umpire has the audacity to make a mistake regarding the pitch clock for one reason or another pitch clock just drives him nuts I've never seen it after a loss I've never seen it after a home game I've never seen it on the road I've never seen it in a private off the record something or other setting or overheard somebody may be screaming something down the hallway or smashing something nothing in five years and I'm around these guys a lot including on the road I'm headed out to Cleveland to cover these next three games and I won't see or hear anything of the kind there either and there will never forever be a trace of it from the GM this is why they've never left they've never left page one of the 2020 manual on how to build the Pirates and as a result the 2024 Pirates are no better than the 2020 Pirates are worse than the 2019 pirates that got the previous guys fired why would you not take the same action if you're Bob nutting right now and I do mean right now you can fire the Latin American scouting director you can fire the GM you can fire the manager I appreciate always hearing from Wilbur I appreciate everyone who listens to daily shot of pirates and yes I actually really am headed to Cleveland this was scheduled and booked a long time ago believe me I'd be staying here finding some football or hockey to write about otherwise but we'll do another one of these shows tomorrow [Music]