Tag:

part

‘Wednesday’ Season 2, Part 2: When Will New Episodes Premiere?

by admin August 20, 2025

The three-year wait is over: Wednesday is back on Netflix. Season 2 of Netflix’s record-breaking series returned triumphantly to the streamer on Wednesday, Aug. 6. If you’ve landed on this page, I’ll just go ahead and assume you binged through the four new episodes with reckless abandon.

I’m sure season 2 has fulfilled your gothic desires, but what now? When will the next four episodes drop? Scroll on down to find the info you seek.

One thing you probably noticed about the new episodes is how much darker in tone they are compared to the show’s first season. Creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough previously said the show would go this route, with Millar telling EW that the season “definitely has some moments which are more straightforward horror.”

You hear that snapping sound? It’s just my fingers dancing in approval.

Returning alongside Jenna Ortega are Isaac Ordonez, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Emma Myers and Victor Dorobantu’s hand as Thing. Newcomers to the show include Joanna Lumley as Grandmama Hester Frump, Steve Buscemi as Barry Dort, Nevermore Academy’s new principal and Lady Gaga as Rosaline Rotwood, a mysterious teacher at Nevermore.

Rumor has it that Gaga will release a new song, Dead Dance, in time for her appearance on the series.

Read more: Netflix Review: Our Top Pick in a Sea of Streaming Choices

When does Wednesday season 2, part 2 come out on Netflix?

The four-episode second half of Wednesday season 2 will premiere on Wednesday, Sept. 3, at 12 a.m. PT (3 a.m. ET).

James Martin/CNET

Netflix is where it’s at for everything Wednesday. The service currently offers subscriptions that cost between $8 and $25 per month in the US. There’s an extra member fee of $8 if you’re a premium subscriber who wants to share your account with someone outside your household.

Source link

August 20, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Meta Breaks Up AI Lab as Part of Superintelligence Push

by admin August 19, 2025

In brief

Meta will restructure the Superintelligence Labs into four new AI-focused divisions.
An internal memo reveals that AI chief Alexandr Wang will lead one of the new units.
Zuckerberg says Meta is committed to leading in the race toward AI superintelligence.

Meta is breaking up its AI Superintelligence Labs into four divisions focused on research, infrastructure, and product development, part of a broader effort to accelerate progress toward so-called superintelligence.

Meta’s chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, said in the memo that the Superintelligence Labs will be divided into smaller units focused on AI research, infrastructure, hardware, product integration, and the company’s long-term superintelligence goals.

“Superintelligence is coming, and in order to take it seriously, we need to organize around the key areas that will be critical to reach it,” Wang wrote, according to an article on Bloomberg, which first reported the story.

Meta confirmed the reorganization in an email to Decrypt, but declined to provide further details.

The restructured Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) will include four groups:

TBD Lab, led by Wang
FAIR (Fundamental AI Research)
Products and Applied Research, led by former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman
MSL Infra, which will oversee Meta’s AI infrastructure

The shake-up follows an aggressive hiring spree in which Meta poached top talent from firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, GitHub, and Google DeepMind. In June, Meta invested $14 billion in Scale AI, naming Wang—Scale’s CEO—as Meta’s new chief AI officer. That same month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman accused Meta of offering $100 million in job packages to lure his staff.

According to a separate New York Times report, which cited sources familiar with the matter, some executives are expected to leave following the restructuring. Meta is also reportedly considering integrating third-party AI models into its products, marking a shift from its past reliance on in-house AI development.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made AI and, more recently, achieving superintelligence central to Meta’s long-term vision. In the company’s second-quarter earnings call, CFO Susan Li said capital expenditures could hit $72 billion by year’s end, driven largely by AI-related infrastructure.

In a recent post, Zuckerberg doubled down on Meta’s push toward superintelligence.

“I am extremely optimistic that superintelligence will help humanity accelerate our pace of progress,” he wrote. “But perhaps even more important is that superintelligence has the potential to begin a new era of personal empowerment where people will have greater agency to improve the world in the directions they choose.”

Generally Intelligent Newsletter

A weekly AI journey narrated by Gen, a generative AI model.

Source link

August 19, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Nasdaq-Listed Tech Firm Approves 20% Crypto Allocation as Part of Treasury Strategy

by admin June 26, 2025

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

Aurora Mobile, a Nasdaq-listed technology firm based in China, has unveiled a new corporate strategy that includes investing a portion of its treasury into cryptocurrency assets.

On Tuesday, the company announced that its board of directors had approved the allocation of up to 20% of its total cash and cash equivalents toward digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Sui, and others.

Treasury Optimization and Strategic Intent

The company emphasized that the crypto investment plan is structured to preserve asset value while exploring additional opportunities for strategic partnerships, market expansion, and ecosystem growth.

Aurora Mobile clarified that the new investment direction will not interfere with its day-to-day operations or long-term growth strategies. The firm also assured shareholders that sufficient liquidity will be maintained for ongoing operational requirements, and that the digital asset investments are a part of a balanced portfolio approach.

According to Aurora’s official press release, this initiative is aimed at enhancing asset diversification by including exposure to cryptocurrencies, which historically exhibit low correlation with traditional markets.

Company Chairman and CEO Weidong Luo noted that the move also reflects Aurora’s intent to keep pace with technological advancements in the financial sector.

Luo stated that this step signifies a commitment to “modernizing our treasury management practices,” positioning the firm at the convergence of emerging finance and digital infrastructure trends.

Founded in 2011, Aurora Mobile specializes in customer engagement and marketing technologies powered by cloud computing and AI. Despite being primarily focused on enterprise software solutions within China, Aurora is increasingly adopting global financial tools as part of its dual-engine growth strategy, which includes market expansion and AI-driven innovation.

Implications for the Broader Crypto and Tech Ecosystem

Aurora joins a growing number of publicly traded firms exploring digital assets as part of their corporate treasury strategies. While companies like Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), Gamestop, Metaplanet, and Tesla made headlines with sizable Bitcoin allocations, Aurora’s approach appears more diversified, indicating a broader interest in the overall crypto market.

This strategy could serve as a signal to other mid-cap tech firms in Asia looking to explore asset diversification through blockchain-based instruments.

The timing of Aurora’s move follows the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) decision to roll back controversial accounting guidance (SAB 121), which previously discouraged banks and publicly listed firms from holding crypto assets.

That regulatory shift may have contributed to a more favorable environment for corporate entities to allocate funds into digital assets.

With China maintaining a ban on retail crypto trading while showing openness toward blockchain development and central bank digital currency (CBDC) trials, Aurora’s decision could reflect a measured form of engagement that aligns with domestic policy frameworks while targeting global financial exposure.

BTC price is moving downwards on the 2-hour chart. Source: BTC/USDT on TradingView.com

Featured image created with DALL-E, Chart from TradingView

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.

Source link

June 26, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Til Death Do Us Part: The Weirdest Meme Coin Livestreams We’ve Seen Just This Week

by admin June 24, 2025

In brief

Solana token launchpad Pump.fun is playing host to a thriving livestream community.
A couple is set to marry on-stream this week, while another streamer is saying “Pumpfun” a million times.
Several influencers are living together in a house and competing to have the most valuable meme coin.

Solana launchpad Pump.fun has matured into a next-generation livestreaming service, looking to rival titans of the industry like Twitch, Kick, and YouTube. Now, the platform is sponsoring streamers, paying viewers to post viral clips on social media—and the meme coin makers are getting creative.

Pump.fun users can launch their own Solana meme coin, open up a livestream, and hope their actions pump the value of the crypto token. Recent streams have been big and bold, while remaining safe—following a stream of controversial streams on the platform last year.

Last week, one meme coin creator raced across all 50 U.S. states in record time while livestreaming the whole adventure. Before that, pseudonymous social media personality Gainzy livestreamed from a bomb shelter in Israel as war broke out in the Middle East.

This week, it appears the madness is ramping up again. Here are three prominent streams that may be worth tuning in for.

You may now kiss the dev

Glen, a purported 60-year-old man, claims to be getting married to his partner of 34 years, Karen, on a Pump.fun livestream on Saturday.

“We still to this day can’t afford a real wedding. The family, the community on Pump.fun, and the good people out there have offered to marry us on livestream on Pump.fun,” Glen said to his 20 viewers. “From the heart, thank you Pump.fun for making this possible.”

The meme coin dev said that he will be wearing a tuxedo, with his soon-to-be wife wearing a dress, and he will have a real ring to tie it all together. Pump.fun co-founder Alon Cohen told Decrypt that Glen is paying for all of this via the creator revenue fees accumulated since his token’s launch earlier this month.

His token, Pumps Gone Crazy (PGC), peaked at a $1.15 million market cap on Friday, but has since fallen to $518,000 despite a 67% spike following the announcement of his wedding.

Pumpfunpumpfunpumpfun

A man in Kyiv, Ukraine is attempting to say Pump.fun one million times on-stream. Why? Simply, he believes in the future of Pump.fun… and thought it was just a funny idea.

Ricken, who did not give Decrypt his full name, claims he has been sitting in front of the camera for 14 to 16 hours every day, actively saying Pump.fun for approximately 12 hours each stream since Friday. He said that he is a freelance video editor who made enough money to take a week off to commit to the challenge.

At the time of writing, he has just surpassed 300,000 times saying “pumpfun.” Ricken claims he is saying the launchpad’s name at an average of 67,777 times a day. At this pace, he is likely to hit his target by the morning of Friday, July 4.

“It’s starting to feel like a weird cultural moment for Pump streams in general,” Ricken told Decrypt. “It started as ‘would be funny if someone actually went through with it,’ but became way more than that.”

Ricken claims to have locked all of his tokens until July 1st, and is only profiting via the creator revenue sharing model Pump.fun recently added. His token 1MIL peaked at a $1.43 million market cap on Saturday but has since fallen to $330,000.

Bros being bros

Pseudonymous crypto influencer SolJakey is hosting a house of up-and-coming influencers all with meme coins attached, in a wacky crypto-infused reality show.

Basedd House currently has five influencers at the crib, after Donnie was eliminated two weeks ago due to his meme coin being at the lowest market cap. Others are able to apply to enter the house, with the requirement of launching a token to climb the leaderboard and join the fray.

The frat-bro, “Jackass”-inspired content house has produced tons of viral clips in the three weeks since its inception. The gang have taken on goofy challenges, recorded public skits, and even adopted a chicken. Fan-favorite Iseem literally pooped his pants on livestream on Monday.

“I think Basedd House shows the evolution of not only Pump.fun, but the idea of creator capital markets, and provides a direct incentive on why a creator that is not crypto-native can utilize crypto to their benefit,” SolJakey told Decrypt.

He explained that influencers are able to monetize their tokens through the creator revenue sharing feature, and thus no longer have to dump tokens on their fans to make a profit.

Jakey believes that Basedd House is a proof-of-concept that influencers can create tokens that pump based on how viral and enjoyable their content is. Plus, it gives fans a more direct way of interacting with their favorite content creators by investing in them, rather than simply donating.

Iseem, who has the largest token at the Basedd House, has made $1,330 from creator revenue rewards over the two weeks since it launched, according to Pump.fun. The token currently sits at a $227,000 market cap.

Jakey told Decrypt that Basedd House is sponsored by Pump.fun, which provided the team with a budget to fund the entire concept.

Over the coming week, Jakey said, the Basedd House will introduce a new member, do its first livestream for the Basedd House token, and roll out a website dedicated to new creators and tokens in the creator capital markets sphere.

Pump.fun livestreams are heating up and getting more professional too, with multiple streamers thanking the creator revenue feature for enabling their plans—and in some cases, it appears, the launchpad is supporting the project directly.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Daily Debrief Newsletter

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Source link

June 24, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Part 2 Blu-Ray Launches This Fall

by admin June 19, 2025

The first half of one of the best anime series of recent memory, Frieren, recently arrived on Blu-ray, and the saga continues when the second half of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End launches later this year. Preorders are now live for the $70 Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Part 2 ahead of its September 23 launch date, and if you’re looking to spoil yourself, there’s a premium $220 Limited Edition launching October 21 that includes a bunch of collectibles and other extras.

$70 | Releases September 23

The four-disc Blu-ray set includes the 12 episodes that comprise Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season One. It also includes three art cards featuring Frieren and her friends. You also get a selection of bonus features like web previews, clean credit sequences, promotional materials, a special video called Journey’s Memory, and an extra mini-anime episode.

$220 | Releases October 21

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Part 2 Limited Edition launches a month after the standard edition, but includes all the episodes and special video features in the standard edition, plus several exclusive collectibles, including a 200-page art book, three art cards, an acrylic standee of Frieren falling victim to yet another treasure chest mimic, a themed luggage tag, sticker sheets, and Shikshi charms. It all comes in a collector’s box designed to look like Frieren’s signature suitcase.

$35

You can also pick up Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Part 1 if you need to catch up on the first batch of episodes. This Blu-ray release includes episodes 1-16, a selection of special features, and four art cards featuring Frieren and her party members, Fern, Stark, and Sein.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a critically acclaimed anime adaptation of Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe’s manga. The fantasy series follows the titular elf mage Frieren as she sets off on a long journey to find the resting place of souls so that she can reunite with her former comrade Himmel, who led the party to slay the Demon King decades ago. As an elf, Frieren is blessed–or cursed–with an absurdly long lifespan, and she experiences time differently from her human companions. The show earned high praise from audiences and critics for its nuanced characters, gorgeous animation, and detailed fantasy world-building.

While these Blu-ray releases will catch up on the anime’s run so far, they’re not the entire story, and the show’s second season is scheduled to debut in January 2026. However, if you can’t wait that long, you can read ahead with the original Frieren manga. Volumes 1-13 have been localized to English and are available now, while Volume 14 is available to preorder at Amazon.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Manga

Source link

June 19, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Hedge Fund Legend Paul Tudor Jones Says Bitcoin Is Part of Ideal Portfolio

by admin June 12, 2025

During a Wednesday appearance on Bloomberg, hedge fund titan Paul Tudor Jones said that a volatility-adjusted portfolio that is comprised of gold, Bitcoin, and stocks would be the best option for those investors who want to hedge against inflation.

“That’s probably your best portfolio to hedge against inflation,” Jones told “Bloomberg Open Interest” earlier today.

Moreover, Jones has reaffirmed his Bitcoin allocation recommendation of 1-2%.

He is convinced that it has become particularly relevant in the current environment.

Jones has implied that Bitcoin could potentially serve as a protective asset against policymakers’ efforts to get out of the “debt trap” at the expense of the American consumer.

AI’s disruptive potential

During the most recent interview, Jones also described artificial intelligence (AI) as the “most disruptive technology” in the history of mankind.

Last month, Jones warned that AI could potentially wipe out half of humanity.

Source link

June 12, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

ChatGPT’s goal is to be a ‘super assistant’ for every part of your life

by admin May 31, 2025

Thanks to the legal discovery process, Google’s antitrust trial with the Department of Justice has provided a fascinating glimpse into the future of ChatGPT.

An internal OpenAI strategy document titled “ChatGPT: H1 2025 Strategy” describes the company’s aspiration to build an “AI super assistant that deeply understands you and is your interface to the internet.” Although the document is heavily redacted in parts, it reveals that OpenAI aims for ChatGPT to soon develop into much more than a chatbot.

“In the first half of next year, we’ll start evolving ChatGPT into a super-assistant: one that knows you, understands what you care about, and helps with any task that a smart, trustworthy, emotionally intelligent person with a computer could do,” reads the document from late 2024. “The timing is right. Models like 02 and 03 are finally smart enough to reliably perform agentic tasks, tools like computer use can boost ChatGPT’s ability to take action, and interaction paradigms like multimodality and generative UI allow both ChatGPT and users to express themselves in the best way for the task.”

The document goes on to describe a “super assistant” as “an intelligent entity with T-shaped skills” for both widely applicable and niche tasks. “The broad part is all about making life easier: answering a question, finding a home, contacting a lawyer, joining a gym, planning vacations, buying gifts, managing calendars, keeping track of todos, sending emails.” It mentions coding as an early example of a more niche task.

Even when reading around the redactions, it’s clear that OpenAI sees hardware as essential to its future, and that it wants people to think of ChatGPT as not just a tool, but a companion. This tracks with Sam Altman recently saying that young people are using ChatGPT like a “ life advisor.”

“Today, ChatGPT is in our lives through existing form factors — our website, phone, and desktop apps,” another part of the strategy document reads. “But our vision for ChatGPT is to help you with all of your life, no matter where you are. At home, it should help answer questions, play music, and suggest recipes. On the go, it should help you get to places, find the best restaurants, or catch up with friends. At work, it should help you take meeting notes, or prepare for the big presentation. And on solo walks, it should help you reflect and wind down.”

At the same time, OpenAI finds itself in a wobbly position. Its infrastructure isn’t able to handle ChatGPT’s rising usage, which explains Altman’s focus on building data centers. In a section of the document describing AI chatbot competition, the company writes that “we are leading here, but we can’t rest,” and that “growth and revenue won’t line up forever.”

It acknowledges that there are “powerful incumbents who will leverage their distribution to advantage their own products,” and states that OpenAI will advocate for regulation that requires other platforms to allow people to set ChatGPT as the default assistant. (Coincidentally, Apple is rumored to soon let iOS users also select Google’s Gemini for Siri queries. Meta AI just hit one billion users as well, thanks mostly to its many hooks in Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.)

“We have what we need to win: one of the fastest-growing products of all time, a category-defining brand, a research lead (reasoning, multimodal), a compute lead, a world-class research team, and an increasing number of effective people with agency who are motivated to ship,” the OpenAI document states. “We don’t rely on ads, giving us flexibility on what to build. Our culture values speed, bold moves, and self-disruption. Maintaining these advantages is hard work but, if we do, they will last for a while.”

Apple chickens out: For the first time in a decade, Apple won’t have its execs participate in John Gruber’s annual post-WWDC live podcast. Gruber recently wrote the viral “something is rotten in the state of Cupertino” essay, which was widely discussed in Apple circles. Although he hasn’t publicly connected that critical piece to the company backing out of his podcast, it’s easy to see the throughline. It says a lot about the state of Apple when its leaders don’t even want to participate in what has historically been a friendly forum.
Elon was high: As Elon Musk attempts to reframe the public’s view of him by doing interviews about SpaceX, The New York Times reports that last year, he was taking so much ketamine that it “was affecting his bladder.” He also reportedly “traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall.” Both Musk and the White House have had multiple opportunities to directly refute this report, and they have not. Now, Musk is at least partially stepping away from DOGE along with key lieutenants like Steve Davis. DOGE may be a failure based on Musk’s own stated hopes for spending cuts, but his closeness to Trump has certainly helped rescue X from financial ruin and grown SpaceX’s business. Now, the more difficult work begins: saving Tesla.

“The way we do ranking is sacrosanct to us.” – Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Decoder, explaining why the company’s search results won’t be changed for President Trump or anyone else.

“Compared to previous technology changes, I’m a little bit more worried about the labor impact… Yes, people will adapt, but they may not adapt fast enough.” – Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on CNN raising the alarm about the technology he is developing.

“Meta is a very different company than it was nine years ago when they fired me.” – Anduril founder Palmer Luckey telling Ashlee Vance why he is linking up with Mark Zuckerberg to make headsets for the military.

The flattening of Meta’s AI organization has taken effect, with VP Ahmad Al-Dahle no longer overseeing the entire group. Now, he co-leads “AGI Foundations” with Amir Frenkel, VP of engineering, while Connor Hayes runs all AI products. All three men now report to Meta CPO Chris Cox, who has diplomatically framed the changes as a way to “give each org more ownership.”
Xbox co-founder J Allard is leading a new ‘breakthrough’ devices group at Amazon called ZeroOne. One of the devices will be smart home-related, according to job listings.
C.J. Mahoney, a former Trump administration official, is being promoted to general counsel at Microsoft, which has also hired Lisa Monaco from the last Biden administration to lead global policy.
Reed Hastings is joining the board of Anthropic “because I believe in their approach to AI development, and to help humanity progress.” (He’s joining Anthropic’s corporate board, not the supervising board of its public benefit trust that can hire and fire corporate directors.)
Sebastian Barrios, previously SVP at Mercado Libre, is joining Roblox as SVP of engineering for several areas, including ads, game discovery, and the company’s virtual currency work.
Fidji Simo’s replacement at Instacart will be chief business officer Chris Rogers, who will become the company’s next CEO on August 15th after she officially joins OpenAI.

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe to The Verge, which includes unlimited access to Command Line and all of our reporting.

As always, I welcome your feedback, especially if you have thoughts on this issue or a story idea to share. You can respond here or ping me securely on Signal.

Source link

May 31, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

The Kingmakers system requirements show that the hardest part of running the game may be finding 80 GB free for the install

by admin May 30, 2025

The Kingmakers system requirements have just been revealed, and it is looking incredibly easy to run. Given how ambitious the game is, and the fact that it’s built in Unreal Engine 5 despite those specs, I can only hope it runs as easily as it is to play.

As spotted by PCGamesN, you have to go somewhere no person should ever set foot in to find the Kingmakers system requirements: the Epic Games Store. Notably, the Steam page for the game doesn’t have system requirements yet.

To run Kingmakers on Minimum settings, you need a 10th Gen Intel Core i5 processor or better. This could be a chip like the Intel Core i5 10600K, a relatively modest chip from 2020 we rather liked.

The CIA operated a network of gaming sites and even a Star Wars fanpage that were part of one of its worst-ever intelligence catastrophes

by admin May 27, 2025

Head to the URL starwarsweb.net and you may be somewhat surprised to find yourself on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) homepage. But check it out on the Wayback Machine in December 2010, which is when it first appeared, and you’ll find what looks to be a fairly standard Star Wars fanpage.

There’s a kid with a lightsaber at the top, the tagline “beyond the unknown” as well as “May the Force be with you”, links to various other Star Wars resources, and for some reason Master Yoda is recommending Star Wars Battlefront 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, Lego Star Wars 2, and Star Wars the Clone Wars: Republic Heroes. “Like these games, you will” runs the text alongside.

This site, unearthed by security researcher Ciro Santilli and first reported on by 404Media’s Joseph Cox, is one of hundreds created by the CIA from around 2010, and part of a network that was used to covertly communicate with CIA assets abroad. These sites were first discovered by the Iranian authorities, and may be linked to the killing of various CIA sources in China over the period 2010-2012.

Pirates GM Ben Cherington says trading ace Paul Skenes is ‘not at all part of the conversation’

by admin May 23, 2025

May 22, 2025, 07:28 PM ET

PITTSBURGH — The Pirates are reeling, and just about everything is on the table for a last-place team that has already fired its manager and packed a half-decade’s worth of public relations missteps into two months.

Well, except for one thing: trading ace Paul Skenes.

Asked Thursday if flipping the reigning National League Rookie of the Year is a consideration for a club woefully lacking in impactful position-player prospects, general manager Ben Cherington gave an atypically brief response.

Editor’s Picks

1 Related

“No, it’s not part of the conversation at all,” Cherington said flatly.

Pittsburgh is already 11½ games out of a playoff position, thanks in large part to an offense that ranks last or next-to-last in nearly every major category, from runs, slugging percentage and OPS (all 30th) to home runs and batting average (both 29th).

The Pirates at least showed a small flicker of life at the plate in an 8-5 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers a few hours after Cherington spoke, scoring five runs for the first time in 27 games. Their 26-game streak of four runs or fewer tied a major league record set by four other teams, most recently the then-California Angels in 1969.

Yet it was telling that Pittsburgh also left 10 runners on base, typical of a season in which the Pirates have consistently been unable to take advantage of the few opportunities they create.

It’s not exactly what the team had in mind during spring training, when everyone from Cherington to Skenes to manager Derek Shelton — who was jettisoned two weeks ago and replaced by Don Kelly — talked about the need for Pittsburgh to take another step forward after consecutive 76-86 seasons.

Instead, the Pirates have been stuck in reverse from Opening Day, even when Skenes starts. Pittsburgh is 3-5 in his eight starts, the latest loss a 1-0 setback in Philadelphia on Sunday in which Skenes limited the Phillies to three hits while throwing the first complete game of his career.

Skenes, who turns 23 next week, has been all-in on the Pirates since being called up a year ago. He is also under team control for the rest of the decade and won’t become arbitration-eligible until after 2026, making his current deal one of the biggest bargains in the majors.

Though Pittsburgh has locked down players such as two-time All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds and third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to long-term deals, those contracts are a pittance by MLB standards compared to what Skenes might command one day should his career continue on its current trajectory.

The Pirates are perennially one of the most frugal teams in the majors. Their payroll to start the season was just under $88 million. Only the Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, Athletics and Miami Marlins spent less.

Even so, Pittsburgh has received little return on its investment. Though the bullpen has been a bit of a mess, the starting rotation has been solid. Skenes (2.44), Mitch Keller (3.88), Andrew Heaney (2.91) and Bailey Falter (3.50) all have ERAs under 4.00, yet they also have a combined record of 10-17.

The issue has been a punchless lineup that is largely nondescript beyond Reynolds, franchise icon Andrew McCutchen and center fielder Oneil Cruz.

Yet it’s telling that while Pittsburgh has one of the deeper pools of pitching prospects — a list that includes hard-throwing 22-year-old Bubba Chandler and Mike Burrows, who took the loss in his first major league start Thursday after going 2-1 with a 2.71 ERA for Triple-A Indianapolis — the cupboard of homegrown position players who are on the cusp of the majors remains pretty bare five-plus years into Cherington’s tenure.

Catcher Henry Davis, the top pick in the 2021 draft, remains a work in progress nearly two full years after his major league debut. Second baseman Nick Gonzales, a first-rounder in 2020, is recovering from an ankle injury and has yet to establish himself as an everyday player. Former first-round picks Termarr Johnson (2022) and Konnor Griffin (2024) are still years away.

So far, the only call-ups from Triple-A have been mostly injury-related, not performance-related.

“We want guys from Triple-A to pound the door down,” Cherington said. “That would be good. I still think that can happen this year. We want more of it over time. … Everybody knows we’ve got to score more runs. That’s not going to happen just by saying it and hoping for it. You’ve got to do the work to do it.”

Cherington said he remains optimistic that the major league team will start to turn the corner over the final 110 or so games, and he is certain Skenes will be a part of it no matter which way it goes.

“We’ve just got to get better,” Cherington said. “Let’s play better baseball, and that’s going to lead to winning more games. Then, let’s wake up and see where that takes us when we get to July.”

Source link

May 23, 2025 0 comments