There are few players in baseball as talented as Oneil Cruz. But I’d wager there are fewer that are as mind-bendingly enigmatic.

The highs are HIGH and the lows are LOW. Tonight was a perfect encapsulation of why Cruz is arguably the most polarizing player in baseball right now.

Granted — this is not Oneil Cruz’s fault. But after a long history of errors that forced the Pirates to move him off of shortstop, and then followed up by a brutal opening day performance behind Paul Skenes, the spotlight is on Cruz to tighten up on defense.

But then there’s the bat. Cruz has showed many flashes of greatness, but overall he has not been a consistent threat in the lineup, and at times is a full on liability. Last season in 554 Plate Appearances he batted right at the Mendoza line, .200 with a .676 OPS. And while he is known for hitting mammoth home runs, he hadn’t produced enough of them, only 41 combined in the last 2 seasons for a player with the most pop in the sport.

That’s why tonight was so refreshing, as Cruz hit not one, but two 400 foot shots as the Pirates beat the Reds 8-3 at Great American Ballpark

Let’s hope the bat continues and the glove solidifies, as he is a perennial All-Star if he can that

I’ve written a lot about how exciting this year’s rookie class has started. DeLauter, McGonigle, Murakami, and many more.

But this section is about the recent uptick in signing players with little or even no Major League service time to long term extensions, therefor buying out arbitration and a couple free agent years.

These are the best deals in baseball, because they inherently bring so much risk to the big league club, but in almost all cases you know it’s because they are bringing up a future cornerstone of the franchise — one who will be around for a long time.

This week we’ve seen two such deals come to fruition.

On Tuesday’s the Mariners made official an extension with infielder Colt Emerson, signing him to an 8 year $95M contract with a reported no trade clause and multiple option years at the end

This is a brilliant move by the Mariners, as they aren’t one of the major market or high spending teams, but they’re comfortably in the middle class of teams who should make these deals to keep their guys around long term.

Another organization like that, who does these deals more regularly, is the Milwauke Brewers

Prior to the 2025 season they signed budding superstar Jackson Chourio to an 8 year $82M deal with multiple option years at the end.

But now they’ve added minor leaguer Cooper Pratt, a 21 year old who has never played above AA to an 8 year, $51M contract — also with 2 option years

There are also reports the Brewers would like to sign Jacob Misiorowski to an extension as recently as last summer.

And now there are more reports of NL Central franchises looking for deals with their new talent.

The Cardinals are reportedly discussing an extension for rookie sensation JJ Wetherholt.

And the Pirates have been having talks with Konnor Griffin’s camp on what would be a record breaking extension themselves.

The Kids are Alright, and they are indeed getting rich. Hopefully this trend continues for the small and mid market teams. Baseball is better with home grown superstars.

I’m sure it will get old clowning on the umpires, I’m just also sure it won’t be happening any time soon.

Coming off an all time bad performance behind the plate in the Reds/Red Sox tilt last weekend, CB Bucknor decided to one up himself with possibly the worst call at 1st base since Jim Joyce robbed Armando Gallaraga of his perfect game.

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard an announcer as incredulous as this in regards to an umpire. But it is absolutely remarkable how bad CB was in this instance. The MANAGERS were laughing. PAT MURPHY cracked a smile!

CB couldn’t even be bothered to LOOK at the base before saying Bauers missed it!

Stay hot CB. He’ll be behind the dish Wednesday afternoon so I am sure we will have more material then.

I’ve been derelict of my duties in pointing out how awesome Shea Langeliers has been this season. He came into today with an OPS+ of 282 — and then RAISED IT when he hit his 4th Homer of the young season

—

We had an ALL TIME debut Tuesday night, as Jose Fernandez launched two NUKES to put the Snakes over the Tigers 7-5

—

Roman Anthony delivered one of the THE at bats of all time

This was just one of 4 such AB’s en route to a golden sombrero for the young star — Boston lost 9-2 in Houston.

—

The Rays had a great Tuesday, first they revealed they are selling jerseys with a piece of the old Trop roof in them

And then Shane McClanahan made his return to the big leagues after 2.5 brutal injury riddled seasons

McClanahan probably wished for a better debut, but had a respectable stat line in Tuesday’s 6-2 loss to the Brew Crew (4.2 IP, 2H, 2 ER, 4 K, 3 BB). Excited to see him back to full strength this summer

—

I need Jim Bowden shot from a cannon

Fuck off, go steal more money from your Latin American minor leaguers (allegedly)

Hoist the Cone