Jim Sankey: Extra Innings: Orioles fly, Pirates grounded

Apr. 23—Besides beating Baltimore for World Series titles in 1971 and 1979, the Bucs and the Birds have followed much the same path. From 1997 through 2022, the Orioles finished last or next to last 18 times, while the Bucs were last or next to last 19 times.

The Pirates last trip to the Series was 1979, 44 years ago and counting; Baltimore's last time in the Series was 1983, 40 years ago and counting.

In the past decade, the Pirates have been a member of MLB's weakest division, while the Orioles have played in arguably the toughest division.

Baltimore opened the 1988 season with 21 consecutive losses, and the Pirates who were the only team not to win 20 games in COVID's 60-game season in 2020.

Since 2019, no National League team has more losses than Pittsburgh. The 2018 Orioles finished last with a 47-115 mark, 61 games out of first; and Baltimore has lost its last eight playoff games.

In 2021, Baltimore went 52-110, 48 games out of first; just two years later it, almost doubled its victories while posting an American League-best 101-61 mark, winning its division. And before last night's games, the Orioles again were first in their division.

Meanwhile, the Bucs seem fixated with yet another flopped five-year plans.

Certainly it is very early in this young season, where the Bucs had to hang on for a 4-2 win Monday night to snap a six-game losing streak, when they blew a lead in four of them and totaled only nine runs in those six games.

And 15 percent into the 2024 season is usually not a good time to make a fair evaluation of where this version of the Pirates will be at season's end.

The Pirates were not as good as their MLB-best 9-2 record, and they are not as bad as their recent six-game slide.

But it is fair to take a look at the big moves made by the Pirates during this decade.

In 2021, the entire organization was bereft of catching when the Bucs made Henry Davis their top choice and first overall pick in the draft. Davis was going to be fast-tracked to the majors as the person to put "professional" back in discussions about Bucco backstops.

Fans clamored for Davis' call-up in the early portion of the 2023 season, until he got recalled in mid-summer ... and played all of two innings of his 62 games as a catcher. Instead, the Bucs stuck him in right field, where he hadn't been since high school.

The team kept insisting that catching would be Davis' position this season. But they also signed a couple of who-he players in the offseason, and in March signed 35-year-old Yasmani Grandal and in April traded for Joey Bart.

With slim catching pickings in the organization, four years of working a player whose exemplary work ethic would embarrass the Puritans, indicates that either Pittsburgh's scouting or developing — maybe both — need addressing ... yesterday.

And sticking a rookie in a new position without experience in the minors does no one any good. You're surprised that he isn't hitting?

Even more concerning is 25-year-old Oneil Cruz, who arrived from the Dodgers in 2017 in a trade that sent Tony Watson to California.

The sizzle from the steak has not yet appeared. Obviously missing almost the entire 2023 season hurt his development, but again, where do we see the organization's development of someone who has been touted as a five-tool player who would challenge the 40 homers/40 steals benchmark? It's not running the bases. It's not fielding. It's not hitting. It's not in baseball sense. And it's not only in a supposedly fully healed athlete getting little game experience in the fall, in the offseason, and only 16 games in spring training.

David Bednar is an elite closer. But he pitched all of two innings in the spring while dealing with a lat strain. So instead of sending him to a rehab stint in the minors, management downplayed the lack of actual pitching until his in-season performance proved otherwise.

And let's not beat the Paul Skenes smackdown as he is wasted pitching where he has an 0.00 ERA giving up five hits and four walks while striking out 27 ... all in just 12 2/3 innings pitched.

It's past time for the Buc brass to pay attention to the Birds' blueprint for success.

Weekly Countdown: Days Past the Number Paul Skenes Needed to Earn One Year of Service Time: 11.

JIM SANKEY is the Pittsburgh Pirates columnist for Allied News. His work appears during the weekly edition over the course of the spring and summer.