A trading post

 Comes now that time of the baseball season (The Day After The Trade Deadline in official title-dom) when the Blob pauses for a brief spasm of self-indulgence, which is to say crabbing about my Pittsburgh Cruds and their never-ending pursuit of irrelevance.

And, yes, I can hear you already with the usual "Nobody cares about your stupid Pirates", and your "We gotta listen to this AGAIN?", and also your "Oh, no! Not another brief spasm of self-indulgence!"

My response to that is, get bent. Here's a hall pass. Go wherever you go when the Blob escapes the Sportsball World compound to contemplate the lunacy that is the United States of 'Merica in 2025.

Me, I'm gonna bitch about my Cruds.

Who once again contributed to baseball's under-privileged by dealing David Bednar to the New York Yankees for some magic beans and three, ahem, "prospects."  In return, the Yankees got a pretty-darn-good closer -- a former All-Star, even -- who has 17 saves and 51 strikeouts in 38 innings work.

He's given up 32 hits, two home runs and 10 earned runs in those same 38 frames, and his ERA is 2.37.

These are admittedly not lights-out numbers, but Bednar wasn't pitching for a lights-out team. He was pitching for the Cruds, currently cemented in the NL Central cellar with a 47-62 record. And that's after going 8-2 in their last 10 games and reeling off five straight wins.

Anyway, they're still 17 1/2 games behind the front-running Milwaukee Brewers, and 7 1/2 games out of next-to-last. So off Bednar goes to the Yankees, and off starting third-baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes goes to the division rival Reds.

"Does this mean the Cruds, er, Pirates are giving up on the season, Mr. Blob?" you're saying.

Nah. They gave up on the season in spring training, same as they do every year after craftily avoiding spending money all winter. Other teams are occasional trading posts; the Cruds are a trading post, in the sense that they're an insensate piece of wood that never moves. Their cheapskate owner -- we'll call him "Bob Nutting" -- seems content to collect revenue-sharing dough and milk what he can from one of the prettiest venues in the majors (PNC Park), all while operating his club as a sort of farm-team-to-the-stars.

Send us your "prospects," we'll develop 'em. Then we'll send 'em back to you when they get good enough to command real money. That's the deal.

Hence, goodbye Bednar (and Hayes). Hence, goodbye Oneal Cruz and maybe even Paul Skenes down the road, although those two seem to be the Cruds' only untouchables right now.

Untouchability, of course, being both relative and fluid where the Cruds are concerned.

"You sound bitter, Mr. Blob," you're saying now.

Who, me?

Nah, I'm not bitter. I'm just resigned. Also I wish Roberto Clemente would come down from his heavenly abode and start swinging a bat at a few heads while shouting "These are the Pittsburgh Pirates, you damn fools! The Pittsburgh Pirates!"

Which I guess means I'm deranged as well as resigned. Ah, well.