Pedro Alvarez batted .231 with 18 home runs in 2014 and lost his starting job at third base. — GETTY
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Weekly roundup of a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our city’s teams …
• The Pirates busily addressed their rotation and bullpen at Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings in San Diego, but they also lugged some familiar luggage back home: Pedro Alvarez will be their first baseman.
At least as things appear now.
A source with direct knowledge confirmed what was reported in the Insider last week, that management would eagerly pursue a trade of Alvarez at the Meetings, and that did, indeed, occur. But to no avail. And according to this source, absolutely no avail. In the words of this individual, “Nobody wants Pedro.”
There was no elaboration, though it’s hard to imagine what would be needed.
So here is how this sets up: The Pirates have no choice but to pay Alvarez the $6 million or so he’ll command through arbitration. They have no choice but to make him the starting first baseman, having sent out both Ike Davis and Gaby Sanchez. They have no choice but to deploy him at a position he doesn’t want to play. And in the interim, they have no authority to force him to do the extra work needed to enhance the chance of all this somehow working out.
Don’t think other executives weren’t aware. Teams that need a third baseman aren’t about to ignore the throwing issues. Teams that need power at first base aren’t about ignore that he could be unhappy there. And Alvarez’s maddening inconsistency at the plate makes either risk all the more unpalatable, so they won’t be blinded by the 2013 National League home run title.
So maybe it’s time for all concerned to simply move forward, as much as the situation allows.
• The Steelers’ placement of Cortez Allen on injured reserve six days ago — surgically repaired thumb — barely caused a stir, undoubtedly because he’d fallen out of the public consciousness as soon as he justifiably lost his starting job several weeks ago.
But it might have been more noteworthy than that, in light of Mike Tomlin’s carefully worded explanation at his Tuesday press conference: “We had an opportunity to get Jarvis Jones up. There was a need there particularly because of James Harrison’s injury. … Cortez has worked extremely hard working to get back to us and particularly with that club on his hand. But he largely was ineffective in terms of doing some of the things that he needed to do to play above the line. Given the situation at outside linebacker it was really a simple decision to make. We’ll move forward.”
Yeah, they might move forward, all right.
Rare is the IR placement for a starter — benched or not — whose ability to play is described, as Tomlin also cited Tuesday, as ‘limited.’ So it has to at least come to mind that Allen is done for good in Pittsburgh.
I don’t think so.
For one, as Neal Coolong of Behind the Steel Curtain lays out in excellent detail, there’s a heavy price to pay for cutting Allen — and any player early in a long-term contract — as it relates to cap hit. You can’t just keep piling up LaMarr Woodley-level mistakes, or they’ll come back to haunt.
For another, I get no vibe from the Steelers that they will — or, really, can — cut Allen. Loath as anyone will be to admit this, Allen needs to be kept for the same reason he was extended: There just aren’t any corners. And it won’t hurt his cause in the slightest that, from what I’ve heard, secondary coach Carnell Lake remains an ardent proponent.
• Take all of the above and replace Allen’s name with that of Mike Mitchell, and the conversation is frighteningly similar.
• Brian Dumoulin being with the Penguins would lead some to believe he’s the superior defense prospect out of the trio that also includes Scott Harrington and Derrick Pouliot, but it isn’t necessarily the case. And not just because Dumoulin, 23, is a good bit older than Harrington, 21, and Pouliot, 20.
One front-office exec shared this fascinating isolated evaluation the other day, one that, I might add, actually applies across the spectrum of professional sports: It’s very difficult to emphasize big-league traits and skills until players arrive.
Here’s the example given: Harrington has a long-set way of retrieving a puck dumped deep into his team’s end. He’ll use his speed to build a sufficient edge, whirl and beat the first forechecker before looking to turn the play the other way. And it works. Looks smooth, effortless.
Only problem with that, of course, is that it won’t work in the NHL, at least not with any regularity because the speed is infinitely greater across the board. As a result, the Penguins emphasize to Harrington again and again and again that he needs to use a method that will serve him in the NHL. It’s not an easy sell, as one can imagine.
I hate to mix sports, but it’s reminiscent of the Pirates prohibiting top pitching prospect Jameson Taillon from using his slider against Class A hitters because it’s just far too easy to get outs with sliders at that level. Those hitters can’t handle them. And if Taillon leans on the slider, his fastball command and changeup — both far more important once he gets to PNC Park — never properly mature.
Dumoulin’s game is more modest than that of Harrington. He probably isn’t as naturally talented. But he’s got that puck retrieval — as well as many other facets — much closer in alignment with what’s needed in the NHL.
Just a reminder that there’s always more to these decisions than what you or I see.
• Independent of why Wisconsin might want Paul Chryst to fill its fresh vacancy at head coach, given his flat-line showing in three years at Pitt, I find it striking that there doesn’t seem to be a sense for how this might play out among anyone involved. Seriously, super quiet. Let’s just say for now — and this is going online at 12:01 a.m. Friday — this sounds like it’s got real legs.
Read into that what you will. I’ll wait until something either happens or officially doesn’t.
All I’ll add here is that all those pronouncements about how Steve Pederson could never again be allowed to hire another football coach, man, all that goes out the window if Chryst just walks. It would be awfully hard to pin that on the AD, even if there might be merit to that thinking.
• The Pirates are still working out details in signing free agent Radhames Liz, a 31-year-old pitcher who hasn’t worked in North America since 2009, and you’d be forgiven on that description alone for paying him no mind. But I’m hearing that would be a mistake.
Once Liz is signed — and it will be a major-league deal — he’ll immediately be considered the front-runner to be the long man replacing Jeanmar Gomez and that he’ll have a legit shot from there to establish himself as a starter. Not going into the season, but more in the emergency mold.
Why?
Well, start with this: One scout told me Liz, a starter in the Dominican, was being clocked at 98 mph in the eighth inning of some of his outings last season.
• Good dude: Rick Tocchet.
One of the best, actually. And not just for how you know him as a Stanley Cup champion and now as the assistant coach overseeing both the power play and the reins on Steve Downie. A couple hours before a game at Consol the other night, Tocchet emerged from the Penguins’ weight room with a bulging T-shirt and the beads of sweat to match. Seems he’s still set on an example in there, too, right where the players can see it.
“He does it all,” Mike Johnston said in the moment.
• Vince Williams asked me in the Steelers’ room the other day why ‘the media’ are always labeling him a run-stopping specialist as a linebacker when, in fact, he’s almost always deployed in sub-packages and asked to drop into pass coverage.
After I reminded that I’m just one guy and not ‘the media,’ I promised I’d pass that along.
So here: Stop calling Williams a run-stopping specialist. I won’t ask nicely again.
• Couldn’t help but prod Martavis Bryant about how many times he’d watched the replay of his magnificent 94-yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger.
“Honestly?” the kid replied. “Maybe two or three.”
And what was his primary takeaway?
“I guess Ben’s wrist is fine.”
Huge grin.
Annoyed with referees, Penguins secure point
12:54 am 
DK's 2016 ballot for Baseball Hall of Fame
12:00 am 
Riverhounds sign two, retain seven others
5:21 pm Tuesday
December 12, 2014
Friday Insider: ‘Nobody wants Pedro’
by Dejan Kovacevic • Friday Insider • Penguins, Pirates, Pitt, Steelers
Pedro Alvarez batted .231 with 18 home runs in 2014 and lost his starting job at third base. — GETTY
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Weekly roundup of a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our city’s teams …
At least as things appear now.
A source with direct knowledge confirmed what was reported in the Insider last week, that management would eagerly pursue a trade of Alvarez at the Meetings, and that did, indeed, occur. But to no avail. And according to this source, absolutely no avail. In the words of this individual, “Nobody wants Pedro.”
There was no elaboration, though it’s hard to imagine what would be needed.
So here is how this sets up: The Pirates have no choice but to pay Alvarez the $6 million or so he’ll command through arbitration. They have no choice but to make him the starting first baseman, having sent out both Ike Davis and Gaby Sanchez. They have no choice but to deploy him at a position he doesn’t want to play. And in the interim, they have no authority to force him to do the extra work needed to enhance the chance of all this somehow working out.
Don’t think other executives weren’t aware. Teams that need a third baseman aren’t about to ignore the throwing issues. Teams that need power at first base aren’t about ignore that he could be unhappy there. And Alvarez’s maddening inconsistency at the plate makes either risk all the more unpalatable, so they won’t be blinded by the 2013 National League home run title.
So maybe it’s time for all concerned to simply move forward, as much as the situation allows.
• The Steelers’ placement of Cortez Allen on injured reserve six days ago — surgically repaired thumb — barely caused a stir, undoubtedly because he’d fallen out of the public consciousness as soon as he justifiably lost his starting job several weeks ago.
But it might have been more noteworthy than that, in light of Mike Tomlin’s carefully worded explanation at his Tuesday press conference: “We had an opportunity to get Jarvis Jones up. There was a need there particularly because of James Harrison’s injury. … Cortez has worked extremely hard working to get back to us and particularly with that club on his hand. But he largely was ineffective in terms of doing some of the things that he needed to do to play above the line. Given the situation at outside linebacker it was really a simple decision to make. We’ll move forward.”
Yeah, they might move forward, all right.
Rare is the IR placement for a starter — benched or not — whose ability to play is described, as Tomlin also cited Tuesday, as ‘limited.’ So it has to at least come to mind that Allen is done for good in Pittsburgh.
I don’t think so.
For one, as Neal Coolong of Behind the Steel Curtain lays out in excellent detail, there’s a heavy price to pay for cutting Allen — and any player early in a long-term contract — as it relates to cap hit. You can’t just keep piling up LaMarr Woodley-level mistakes, or they’ll come back to haunt.
For another, I get no vibe from the Steelers that they will — or, really, can — cut Allen. Loath as anyone will be to admit this, Allen needs to be kept for the same reason he was extended: There just aren’t any corners. And it won’t hurt his cause in the slightest that, from what I’ve heard, secondary coach Carnell Lake remains an ardent proponent.
• Take all of the above and replace Allen’s name with that of Mike Mitchell, and the conversation is frighteningly similar.
• Brian Dumoulin being with the Penguins would lead some to believe he’s the superior defense prospect out of the trio that also includes Scott Harrington and Derrick Pouliot, but it isn’t necessarily the case. And not just because Dumoulin, 23, is a good bit older than Harrington, 21, and Pouliot, 20.
One front-office exec shared this fascinating isolated evaluation the other day, one that, I might add, actually applies across the spectrum of professional sports: It’s very difficult to emphasize big-league traits and skills until players arrive.
Here’s the example given: Harrington has a long-set way of retrieving a puck dumped deep into his team’s end. He’ll use his speed to build a sufficient edge, whirl and beat the first forechecker before looking to turn the play the other way. And it works. Looks smooth, effortless.
Only problem with that, of course, is that it won’t work in the NHL, at least not with any regularity because the speed is infinitely greater across the board. As a result, the Penguins emphasize to Harrington again and again and again that he needs to use a method that will serve him in the NHL. It’s not an easy sell, as one can imagine.
I hate to mix sports, but it’s reminiscent of the Pirates prohibiting top pitching prospect Jameson Taillon from using his slider against Class A hitters because it’s just far too easy to get outs with sliders at that level. Those hitters can’t handle them. And if Taillon leans on the slider, his fastball command and changeup — both far more important once he gets to PNC Park — never properly mature.
Dumoulin’s game is more modest than that of Harrington. He probably isn’t as naturally talented. But he’s got that puck retrieval — as well as many other facets — much closer in alignment with what’s needed in the NHL.
Just a reminder that there’s always more to these decisions than what you or I see.
• Independent of why Wisconsin might want Paul Chryst to fill its fresh vacancy at head coach, given his flat-line showing in three years at Pitt, I find it striking that there doesn’t seem to be a sense for how this might play out among anyone involved. Seriously, super quiet. Let’s just say for now — and this is going online at 12:01 a.m. Friday — this sounds like it’s got real legs.
Read into that what you will. I’ll wait until something either happens or officially doesn’t.
All I’ll add here is that all those pronouncements about how Steve Pederson could never again be allowed to hire another football coach, man, all that goes out the window if Chryst just walks. It would be awfully hard to pin that on the AD, even if there might be merit to that thinking.
• The Pirates are still working out details in signing free agent Radhames Liz, a 31-year-old pitcher who hasn’t worked in North America since 2009, and you’d be forgiven on that description alone for paying him no mind. But I’m hearing that would be a mistake.
Once Liz is signed — and it will be a major-league deal — he’ll immediately be considered the front-runner to be the long man replacing Jeanmar Gomez and that he’ll have a legit shot from there to establish himself as a starter. Not going into the season, but more in the emergency mold.
Why?
Well, start with this: One scout told me Liz, a starter in the Dominican, was being clocked at 98 mph in the eighth inning of some of his outings last season.
• Good dude: Rick Tocchet.
One of the best, actually. And not just for how you know him as a Stanley Cup champion and now as the assistant coach overseeing both the power play and the reins on Steve Downie. A couple hours before a game at Consol the other night, Tocchet emerged from the Penguins’ weight room with a bulging T-shirt and the beads of sweat to match. Seems he’s still set on an example in there, too, right where the players can see it.
“He does it all,” Mike Johnston said in the moment.
• Vince Williams asked me in the Steelers’ room the other day why ‘the media’ are always labeling him a run-stopping specialist as a linebacker when, in fact, he’s almost always deployed in sub-packages and asked to drop into pass coverage.
After I reminded that I’m just one guy and not ‘the media,’ I promised I’d pass that along.
So here: Stop calling Williams a run-stopping specialist. I won’t ask nicely again.
• Couldn’t help but prod Martavis Bryant about how many times he’d watched the replay of his magnificent 94-yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger.
“Honestly?” the kid replied. “Maybe two or three.”
And what was his primary takeaway?
“I guess Ben’s wrist is fine.”
Huge grin.