No mystery here.
Julian Schwartz: The Texans waived D.J. Swearinger this week. Would it be wise for Kevin Colbert and company to look for another safety in free agency in case Shamarko Thomas or Mike Mitchell falter? Do the Steelers feel confident with the guys they have going into camp, or is bolstering the secondary still a concern?
DK: It’s absolutely still a concern, and it absolutely still needs to be addressed. It was no accident that, when Senquez Golson was drafted and Carnell Lake came to meet with us in the media room minutes later, Lake rattled off the names of all the players lost since last season, then welcomed Golson to the fold. (And later, Doran Grant, as well.) While everyone else’s stance at Steelers HQ has been that there’s no need to address needs, Lake starkly stood out by saying, in essence, heck yeah, there’s a need!
And there still is. Colbert has thrown enough hints that he’ll still be active over the summer in searching for secondary help, even if three of the eight draftees were in that category. But whether it’s Swearinger — who comes across, based on accounts out of Houston, as if he burned just about every bridge imaginable with Bill O’Brien for not being a ‘team’ player — or someone else, you can also expect it to take a while longer. Colbert and Mike Tomlin will want to see the whole pool filled up before making their picks, I’m betting.
franjioneb: Should the Penguins trade for a top-six forward in the offseason? Or do they roll with what they have? They’ll have the cap room after letting go of Paul Martin and Christian Ehrhoff?
DK: I believe that they should and, far more important, that they will. If you count up Patric Hornqvist and … well, hang on … I’d love to say Pascal Dupuis, but we’ll see about his health … and I’d love to reminisce about David Perron’s play shortly after his arrival, but then there was the rest … and I’d love to see the Blake Comeau of the first half of last season, but we’ll see about his wrist … and I’d love to see Kasperi Kapanen, but he’ll still need a fake ID to enjoy Carson Street on a weekend … and I’d love to envision Beau Bennett finally getting into NHL shape, but there’s zero precedent for that … and yeah, it sure sounds like outside help is needed. And that almost surely will not come through the coming free-agency class.
Everyone soaks up fake names, and I don’t like to go there. But there’s nothing fake about what will happen in Edmonton this summer, with management openly vowing to move young, hyper-talented wingers to bolster a better overall supporting cast for Connor McDavid. And the fact is, the only crime committed by those hyper-talented wingers was being drafted by the Oilers and not refusing to go. All of them, even sadly lost Nail Yakupov, could still add real skill, speed and youth.
It won’t be cheap. The Oilers decided to finally turn the franchise over to adults and hired Peter Chiarelli as GM. He won’t be giving away key pieces and hiring JV coaches. He’ll get serious.
But Jim Rutherford will need to be equally serious about continuing to fill the most glaring void left behind by Ray Shero. And calling Chiarelli, especially with how Sidney Crosby has meshed at these ongoing World Championships with Edmonton’s Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle, would be a wonderful first move.
Robert: I’m sort of challenging you with this, but Mark Melancon has a perfect record of 8 saves in 8 opportunities and has only given up runs three times in 16 appearances. Isn’t it time to get off the Melancon-velocity tracking thing? He’s a pitcher who gets outs. It’s baseball. Lots of pitchers have been really, really good without 92mph fastballs, and radar guns don’t affect the score.
DK: Well, since you’re challenging me, Robert, you’re welcome to find the last time I cited it as a problem, in print or anywhere. I’m pretty sure it’s been a while.
And there’s a reason for that: His arm is back.
Over the weekend, the cutter was back up at the standard 92 mph, and it was getting the good, old swings and misses, to boot. It had to be a welcome sight, not just for the team but for the pitcher himself.
But hey, just to be a pain about it, I actually did approach the closer at his stall and open by saying, “Hey, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you seven straight questions about velocity.”
To his credit, he laughed and replied, “Please do.”
He looks fine. Still a few too many baserunners, but they don’t pay closers based on how much or little they make the public nervous. They pay them on that number you mentioned up there.
aglebagel: DK, how insane am I for writing in Andrew McCutchen’s name on my “Franchise Four” ballot on MLB.com along with Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell? Obviously– obviously– I’m not basing my vote solely on career stats, but on importance to the franchise. Is there actually a chance that Cutch is already one of the four most important players in the Pirates’ history, or am I just a prisoner of recency bias?
DK: Ha! Extra credit for the mention of recency bias! We need a bell to ding around here!
Always difficult to add current players into a discussion of a franchise with 129 seasons, five championships and 13 Hall of Famers. Unless you cut their careers off right to this day. I’m not saying it’s one way or the other. It’s your ballot. I just wouldn’t do it.
Wagner, Stargell and Clemente are locks, even though arguments can be made that Clemente wasn’t even the best right fielder the team has ever had, as compared to the great Paul Waner. Fact is, Clemente remains the franchise leader in games played, hits and total bases, and he won two World Series titles and was MVP of the 1971 edition. And, of course, all else that he meant. I’m not sure what exactly the criteria is for this ballot you’re mentioning — this is the first I’ve heard of it — but if it’s purely for the four best players, Max Carey has to get consideration for his overall contributions, including to the sadly unheralded but wonderful 1925 champions. I’m also in on Waner, Pie Traynor, Arky Vaughan, Dave Parker, Bill Mazeroski (not just for the home run, either) and the skinny version of Barry Bonds, though the latter would be well down my list for longevity reasons.
While we’re having fun with this …
My four for the Steelers would be Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Jack Lambert and Troy Polamalu, while courteously leaving Lambert’s spot open for Ben Roethlisberger.
My four for the Penguins would be Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, about as easy as it gets.
And my four for the whole city would be Lemieux, Wagner, Greene and Clemente.
Hey, this was fun!
Battleship Bob: If gambling on baseball and steroid use can keep players out of the Hall of Fame, shouldn’t illegally videotaping other teams and deliberately altering the air pressure in game balls carry the same punishment? Cheating is cheating, right?
DK: Why compare football to baseball rather than to itself?
Paul Hornung and Alex Karras, NFL stars with the Packers and Lions, respectively, both were suspended in 1963 for betting on their own team’s games. Suspended for that whole season, in fact, by the great Pete Rozelle. They were reinstated the following season, and Karras went so far as to once tell a referee he refused to call the coin toss because he was worried it would constitute gambling. Much further down the road, Hornung was elected to the Hall of Fame, while Karras never was despite many feeling he was deserving.
That’s your betting standard in the NFL. What Major League Baseball does has no correlation here.
For that matter, I’m not sure there’s any correlation between gambling and the specific cheating Tom Brady and the Patriots’ equipment guys did, even if more and harder evidence is found. There’s no cause to see these as equal crimes. Hornung and Karras bet on their own teams’ games. That’s a direct compromising of the integrity of the game. Brady went way too far in seizing on a stupid policy the NFL allowed — at the loudest requests of Brady and Peyton Manning, incidentally — that quarterbacks get more say about the game balls. That’s not excusing Brady at all. He cheated. He knowingly cheated, and he then refused to cooperate in an investigation. He’s guilty as sin. But my point is that this was a bed the league made, and it should have been obvious much, much longer ago it was a bad idea.
Christopher Hoffman: Any chance the Penguins get Mike Babcock? I know management says no, but if he were to publicly say he was interesting in the Penguins coaching position would they reconsider?
DK: Management told me in New York, in the minutes after the Game 5 elimination, that Rutherford and Mike Johnston both would be back. Nothing has changed in the interim. Absolutely nothing.
The Penguins would be — and I’m choosing this word carefully — scum of a very low order to announce they’re bringing their coach back, only to change their minds when a big name came along. That’s not how business works, not how professional sports work.
And Babcock would be scum of the absolute lowest order if he fulfilled your scenario and publicly declared himself to be clamoring for another man’s job.
Being that I don’t think the Penguins are scum, and I don’t think Babcock is scum, I’ll revisit the original sentence here: Nothing changed since that night in New York.
dncellis: DK, what are your interactions like with members of the clubs that are not normally quoted, such as equipment managers and athletic trainers? Do you have regular conversations that are understood to be off-the-record or is it something different altogether?
DK: Funny, but for as long as I’ve done this, I don’t ever recall anyone asking this. And it’s a dynamite question on a lot of levels.
Equipment managers are one thing. They’re there to be interviewed, if you like. No problem. Some of them actually enjoy it. You use enough common sense to not ask trade secrets, but there’s good stuff to be culled on occasion. I haven’t done this in years — since both hockey and baseball were afflicted with exploding lumber, if memory serves — but not for any particular reason.
Athletic trainers and medical officials are different. The former once served as the de facto spokesmen for injuries. If anyone had a question, they were told by the GM and manager to go right to the athletic trainer. Seems hard to believe now, as all that information is tightly controlled — usually by the GM — and then distributed through whatever means the team deems best. Baseball still offers by far the most detailed info. Football has been reduced to just identifying body parts: ‘Keisel has a neck.’ (Which is awesome, of course, for how it facilitates breathing and eating.) And hockey has just reached the point of flat-out lying, even beyond the upper-body and lower-body. Ehrhoff was listed as an ‘upper-body injury’ (which is true if one considers the location of the human head), but the whole world saw him get another concussion.
So yeah, the athletic trainers are off limits. You can approach them. You can chat. But it’s got to be about the psycho weather we’re having or something like that.
mjfry20: Has there ever been a time where you felt a team was feeding you a story that was not entirely true for some other purpose? For example, as a smokescreen before a draft, free agency, or trade deadline or even perhaps to manipulate public relations. Has there been a time where you did not publish a piece for this reason?
DK: If teams ‘feed’ pieces to anyone, I can assure you they don’t feed them to me. I don’t even know what this process is or what it would look like. I know the media relations people in this town, and I can’t conceive of even one of them approaching a reporter and saying, ‘Hey, you should write about this!’ For all that scenarios like this get discussed publicly, they don’t actually happen. The reporter in question would look at that media relations person as if they’ve lost their mind, then politely walk away.
And the funnier thing is, I’ll type this, and maybe 10 percent of the people reading it will believe it based on stereotypes from the movies or whatever.
I’m telling you, this doesn’t happen.
Not just the further-laid-out picture you painted. Any of it.
I’m quite glad you brought it up, though, because at least 10 percent of the readers will have a much better idea as to how this stuff works.
PittFan412: Do you know how the Pirates are going to approach Josh Harrison’s slow start with way Jung-Ho Kang is hitting? The Pirates can’t possibly keep Kang from playing, the way he is swinging the bat.
DK: No, and they won’t. I asked Clint Hurdle about this two days ago, and his answer was blunt: If Kang keeps earning his playing time, he’ll keep playing. And if he earns starting duty, “We’re always open to that, too.”
Fortunately for Hurdle — or not, depending the discussion — he’s got not one but two infielders struggling in Harrison and Jordy Mercer, so he’s got twice as many options to get Kang on the field while one or both of Harrison and Mercer get their stuff together. That makes the resolution somewhat simple in the short term.
In the long term, though, even if Kang has been mostly solid at short in his few appearances there, no one sees him as everyday material there. So if he does, in fact, push toward everyday duty, it’s going to have to be at third.
Do you ditch Harrison for that right now?
Bill from Blawnox calling into talk radio would do that in a heartbeat, but Bill almost surely will have completely erased from his short-term memory that Harrison was a legit MVP candidate and the Pirates’ most uplifting performer in 2014. Bill might throw that out after one lousy month, but no one else should. Harrison deserves much more than that.
timkawana: If the Rangers come back to win Game 7 against the Capitals, does it speak to the Rangers’ resilience or the Capitals continuing to be playoff underachievers?
DK: When in doubt, go with the longer trend, my friend: Washington has been gagging this time of year since Alexander Ovechkin was a little lad, and that’s all we’re seeing right now. When your franchise is coughing up big playoff goals to Rick Nash, it’s turtle time. No more, no less. And for all that Barry Trotz has brought to D.C., I dare say he didn’t exactly have to pack a whole lot of playoff success from his time in Nashville, so he might not make the difference, either.
I call Rangers by a 3-0 margin, with Nash getting all three, and Nash apologists across the continent — including those who work between the benches for NBC — pounding their fists with vindication!
Ha! I tease. But not really.
dyacker: Hey, DK, I live in Chicago and love both the Pirates and Steelers. I want to cull down all my Pittsburgh sites and just read yours but you don’t have a Pirates story each morn. Will there be a time that comes? Daily Pirates games commentary?
DK: On Saturday, I’m hoping to unveil our next big goal for the site, and it involves the subscribers. It will be a numerical model where a targeted number of total subscribers equals a promise from us to add to what you get. The first target will be aimed at covering — home and road — all games that all three of the big teams play. Stay tuned.
The answer to your question, in short, is yes. But not quite yet.
Donnie Mason: Any chance we will get 10 Qs with Josh each week, also?
DK: Yes, there is an excellent chance of that. We’ve just to get him out of jury duty!
On that note, that’s all for this session this week. There honestly and truly will be a Morning Java video tomorrow, one I’ll be doing jointly with Josh and one that should be some fun.
Later in the week, Josh heads out on his maiden voyage to Wrigley.
Thanks to all for participating!
Mike Babcock speaks with reporters during his Red Wings' first-round loss to the Lightning. -- GETTY
May 12, 2015
Tuesday 10 Qs: Vance, Senquez, Nail, Babcock
by Dejan Kovacevic • Five Qs at 5 • Penguins, Pirates, Steelers
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
Welcome to Tuesday 10 Qs, our cyber-chat that takes place each week at 9 a.m. and offers readers a chance to carry the conversation. The format is simple: Use the comments below to submit an entry, beginning now. I’ll pick from those, as well as the ones that arrive once the session goes live.
UPDATE 9 a.m.: And away we go …
CNFXC: Great to see the Pirates take two of three from the Cards and take the first in Philly. And I must say the starting rotation is arguably the best in the National League. What happens when Charlie Morton returns to the majors? Who’s the odd man out? Or do the Pirates do what I wish they’d do, which is consider keeping a six-man rotation?
DK: When Morton returns — and I certainly got a very upbeat impression from him a couple days ago in the clubhouse — he’ll be in the rotation. Let’s get that out of the way. No ifs, ands, buts or six-man rotations that would keep Gerrit Cole, Francisco Liriano and A.J. Burnett senselessly pitching once a week.
So your first question there is the one that’s most relevant: Who comes out?
The vibe that I get from the Pirates regarding Vance Worley isn’t a good one. You saw some of that bubble to the surface when he was bypassed for Jeff Locke this spring despite a superior performance, but there’s more to it. They don’t feel that he, even when at his peak, offers much that’s different for batters to see over the course of a series. And, most strongly at the moment, they don’t feel there’s much bite or movement to his fastball. It’s basically a straight, flat pitch. And if he doesn’t throw it precisely on the mark — he’s no Greg Maddux, mind you — it will get belted. Neal Huntington actually brought that latter point up in stark terms in his Sunday media session.
Besides, Locke keeps two lefties going, which Clint Hurdle loves.
No mystery here.
Julian Schwartz: The Texans waived D.J. Swearinger this week. Would it be wise for Kevin Colbert and company to look for another safety in free agency in case Shamarko Thomas or Mike Mitchell falter? Do the Steelers feel confident with the guys they have going into camp, or is bolstering the secondary still a concern?
DK: It’s absolutely still a concern, and it absolutely still needs to be addressed. It was no accident that, when Senquez Golson was drafted and Carnell Lake came to meet with us in the media room minutes later, Lake rattled off the names of all the players lost since last season, then welcomed Golson to the fold. (And later, Doran Grant, as well.) While everyone else’s stance at Steelers HQ has been that there’s no need to address needs, Lake starkly stood out by saying, in essence, heck yeah, there’s a need!
And there still is. Colbert has thrown enough hints that he’ll still be active over the summer in searching for secondary help, even if three of the eight draftees were in that category. But whether it’s Swearinger — who comes across, based on accounts out of Houston, as if he burned just about every bridge imaginable with Bill O’Brien for not being a ‘team’ player — or someone else, you can also expect it to take a while longer. Colbert and Mike Tomlin will want to see the whole pool filled up before making their picks, I’m betting.
franjioneb: Should the Penguins trade for a top-six forward in the offseason? Or do they roll with what they have? They’ll have the cap room after letting go of Paul Martin and Christian Ehrhoff?
DK: I believe that they should and, far more important, that they will. If you count up Patric Hornqvist and … well, hang on … I’d love to say Pascal Dupuis, but we’ll see about his health … and I’d love to reminisce about David Perron’s play shortly after his arrival, but then there was the rest … and I’d love to see the Blake Comeau of the first half of last season, but we’ll see about his wrist … and I’d love to see Kasperi Kapanen, but he’ll still need a fake ID to enjoy Carson Street on a weekend … and I’d love to envision Beau Bennett finally getting into NHL shape, but there’s zero precedent for that … and yeah, it sure sounds like outside help is needed. And that almost surely will not come through the coming free-agency class.
Everyone soaks up fake names, and I don’t like to go there. But there’s nothing fake about what will happen in Edmonton this summer, with management openly vowing to move young, hyper-talented wingers to bolster a better overall supporting cast for Connor McDavid. And the fact is, the only crime committed by those hyper-talented wingers was being drafted by the Oilers and not refusing to go. All of them, even sadly lost Nail Yakupov, could still add real skill, speed and youth.
It won’t be cheap. The Oilers decided to finally turn the franchise over to adults and hired Peter Chiarelli as GM. He won’t be giving away key pieces and hiring JV coaches. He’ll get serious.
But Jim Rutherford will need to be equally serious about continuing to fill the most glaring void left behind by Ray Shero. And calling Chiarelli, especially with how Sidney Crosby has meshed at these ongoing World Championships with Edmonton’s Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle, would be a wonderful first move.
Robert: I’m sort of challenging you with this, but Mark Melancon has a perfect record of 8 saves in 8 opportunities and has only given up runs three times in 16 appearances. Isn’t it time to get off the Melancon-velocity tracking thing? He’s a pitcher who gets outs. It’s baseball. Lots of pitchers have been really, really good without 92mph fastballs, and radar guns don’t affect the score.
DK: Well, since you’re challenging me, Robert, you’re welcome to find the last time I cited it as a problem, in print or anywhere. I’m pretty sure it’s been a while.
And there’s a reason for that: His arm is back.
Over the weekend, the cutter was back up at the standard 92 mph, and it was getting the good, old swings and misses, to boot. It had to be a welcome sight, not just for the team but for the pitcher himself.
But hey, just to be a pain about it, I actually did approach the closer at his stall and open by saying, “Hey, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you seven straight questions about velocity.”
To his credit, he laughed and replied, “Please do.”
He looks fine. Still a few too many baserunners, but they don’t pay closers based on how much or little they make the public nervous. They pay them on that number you mentioned up there.
aglebagel: DK, how insane am I for writing in Andrew McCutchen’s name on my “Franchise Four” ballot on MLB.com along with Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell? Obviously– obviously– I’m not basing my vote solely on career stats, but on importance to the franchise. Is there actually a chance that Cutch is already one of the four most important players in the Pirates’ history, or am I just a prisoner of recency bias?
DK: Ha! Extra credit for the mention of recency bias! We need a bell to ding around here!
Always difficult to add current players into a discussion of a franchise with 129 seasons, five championships and 13 Hall of Famers. Unless you cut their careers off right to this day. I’m not saying it’s one way or the other. It’s your ballot. I just wouldn’t do it.
Wagner, Stargell and Clemente are locks, even though arguments can be made that Clemente wasn’t even the best right fielder the team has ever had, as compared to the great Paul Waner. Fact is, Clemente remains the franchise leader in games played, hits and total bases, and he won two World Series titles and was MVP of the 1971 edition. And, of course, all else that he meant. I’m not sure what exactly the criteria is for this ballot you’re mentioning — this is the first I’ve heard of it — but if it’s purely for the four best players, Max Carey has to get consideration for his overall contributions, including to the sadly unheralded but wonderful 1925 champions. I’m also in on Waner, Pie Traynor, Arky Vaughan, Dave Parker, Bill Mazeroski (not just for the home run, either) and the skinny version of Barry Bonds, though the latter would be well down my list for longevity reasons.
While we’re having fun with this …
My four for the Steelers would be Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Jack Lambert and Troy Polamalu, while courteously leaving Lambert’s spot open for Ben Roethlisberger.
My four for the Penguins would be Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, about as easy as it gets.
And my four for the whole city would be Lemieux, Wagner, Greene and Clemente.
Hey, this was fun!
Battleship Bob: If gambling on baseball and steroid use can keep players out of the Hall of Fame, shouldn’t illegally videotaping other teams and deliberately altering the air pressure in game balls carry the same punishment? Cheating is cheating, right?
DK: Why compare football to baseball rather than to itself?
Paul Hornung and Alex Karras, NFL stars with the Packers and Lions, respectively, both were suspended in 1963 for betting on their own team’s games. Suspended for that whole season, in fact, by the great Pete Rozelle. They were reinstated the following season, and Karras went so far as to once tell a referee he refused to call the coin toss because he was worried it would constitute gambling. Much further down the road, Hornung was elected to the Hall of Fame, while Karras never was despite many feeling he was deserving.
That’s your betting standard in the NFL. What Major League Baseball does has no correlation here.
For that matter, I’m not sure there’s any correlation between gambling and the specific cheating Tom Brady and the Patriots’ equipment guys did, even if more and harder evidence is found. There’s no cause to see these as equal crimes. Hornung and Karras bet on their own teams’ games. That’s a direct compromising of the integrity of the game. Brady went way too far in seizing on a stupid policy the NFL allowed — at the loudest requests of Brady and Peyton Manning, incidentally — that quarterbacks get more say about the game balls. That’s not excusing Brady at all. He cheated. He knowingly cheated, and he then refused to cooperate in an investigation. He’s guilty as sin. But my point is that this was a bed the league made, and it should have been obvious much, much longer ago it was a bad idea.
Christopher Hoffman: Any chance the Penguins get Mike Babcock? I know management says no, but if he were to publicly say he was interesting in the Penguins coaching position would they reconsider?
DK: Management told me in New York, in the minutes after the Game 5 elimination, that Rutherford and Mike Johnston both would be back. Nothing has changed in the interim. Absolutely nothing.
The Penguins would be — and I’m choosing this word carefully — scum of a very low order to announce they’re bringing their coach back, only to change their minds when a big name came along. That’s not how business works, not how professional sports work.
And Babcock would be scum of the absolute lowest order if he fulfilled your scenario and publicly declared himself to be clamoring for another man’s job.
Being that I don’t think the Penguins are scum, and I don’t think Babcock is scum, I’ll revisit the original sentence here: Nothing changed since that night in New York.
dncellis: DK, what are your interactions like with members of the clubs that are not normally quoted, such as equipment managers and athletic trainers? Do you have regular conversations that are understood to be off-the-record or is it something different altogether?
DK: Funny, but for as long as I’ve done this, I don’t ever recall anyone asking this. And it’s a dynamite question on a lot of levels.
Equipment managers are one thing. They’re there to be interviewed, if you like. No problem. Some of them actually enjoy it. You use enough common sense to not ask trade secrets, but there’s good stuff to be culled on occasion. I haven’t done this in years — since both hockey and baseball were afflicted with exploding lumber, if memory serves — but not for any particular reason.
Athletic trainers and medical officials are different. The former once served as the de facto spokesmen for injuries. If anyone had a question, they were told by the GM and manager to go right to the athletic trainer. Seems hard to believe now, as all that information is tightly controlled — usually by the GM — and then distributed through whatever means the team deems best. Baseball still offers by far the most detailed info. Football has been reduced to just identifying body parts: ‘Keisel has a neck.’ (Which is awesome, of course, for how it facilitates breathing and eating.) And hockey has just reached the point of flat-out lying, even beyond the upper-body and lower-body. Ehrhoff was listed as an ‘upper-body injury’ (which is true if one considers the location of the human head), but the whole world saw him get another concussion.
So yeah, the athletic trainers are off limits. You can approach them. You can chat. But it’s got to be about the psycho weather we’re having or something like that.
mjfry20: Has there ever been a time where you felt a team was feeding you a story that was not entirely true for some other purpose? For example, as a smokescreen before a draft, free agency, or trade deadline or even perhaps to manipulate public relations. Has there been a time where you did not publish a piece for this reason?
DK: If teams ‘feed’ pieces to anyone, I can assure you they don’t feed them to me. I don’t even know what this process is or what it would look like. I know the media relations people in this town, and I can’t conceive of even one of them approaching a reporter and saying, ‘Hey, you should write about this!’ For all that scenarios like this get discussed publicly, they don’t actually happen. The reporter in question would look at that media relations person as if they’ve lost their mind, then politely walk away.
And the funnier thing is, I’ll type this, and maybe 10 percent of the people reading it will believe it based on stereotypes from the movies or whatever.
I’m telling you, this doesn’t happen.
Not just the further-laid-out picture you painted. Any of it.
I’m quite glad you brought it up, though, because at least 10 percent of the readers will have a much better idea as to how this stuff works.
PittFan412: Do you know how the Pirates are going to approach Josh Harrison’s slow start with way Jung-Ho Kang is hitting? The Pirates can’t possibly keep Kang from playing, the way he is swinging the bat.
DK: No, and they won’t. I asked Clint Hurdle about this two days ago, and his answer was blunt: If Kang keeps earning his playing time, he’ll keep playing. And if he earns starting duty, “We’re always open to that, too.”
Fortunately for Hurdle — or not, depending the discussion — he’s got not one but two infielders struggling in Harrison and Jordy Mercer, so he’s got twice as many options to get Kang on the field while one or both of Harrison and Mercer get their stuff together. That makes the resolution somewhat simple in the short term.
In the long term, though, even if Kang has been mostly solid at short in his few appearances there, no one sees him as everyday material there. So if he does, in fact, push toward everyday duty, it’s going to have to be at third.
Do you ditch Harrison for that right now?
Bill from Blawnox calling into talk radio would do that in a heartbeat, but Bill almost surely will have completely erased from his short-term memory that Harrison was a legit MVP candidate and the Pirates’ most uplifting performer in 2014. Bill might throw that out after one lousy month, but no one else should. Harrison deserves much more than that.
timkawana: If the Rangers come back to win Game 7 against the Capitals, does it speak to the Rangers’ resilience or the Capitals continuing to be playoff underachievers?
DK: When in doubt, go with the longer trend, my friend: Washington has been gagging this time of year since Alexander Ovechkin was a little lad, and that’s all we’re seeing right now. When your franchise is coughing up big playoff goals to Rick Nash, it’s turtle time. No more, no less. And for all that Barry Trotz has brought to D.C., I dare say he didn’t exactly have to pack a whole lot of playoff success from his time in Nashville, so he might not make the difference, either.
I call Rangers by a 3-0 margin, with Nash getting all three, and Nash apologists across the continent — including those who work between the benches for NBC — pounding their fists with vindication!
Ha! I tease. But not really.
dyacker: Hey, DK, I live in Chicago and love both the Pirates and Steelers. I want to cull down all my Pittsburgh sites and just read yours but you don’t have a Pirates story each morn. Will there be a time that comes? Daily Pirates games commentary?
DK: On Saturday, I’m hoping to unveil our next big goal for the site, and it involves the subscribers. It will be a numerical model where a targeted number of total subscribers equals a promise from us to add to what you get. The first target will be aimed at covering — home and road — all games that all three of the big teams play. Stay tuned.
The answer to your question, in short, is yes. But not quite yet.
Donnie Mason: Any chance we will get 10 Qs with Josh each week, also?
DK: Yes, there is an excellent chance of that. We’ve just to get him out of jury duty!
On that note, that’s all for this session this week. There honestly and truly will be a Morning Java video tomorrow, one I’ll be doing jointly with Josh and one that should be some fun.
Later in the week, Josh heads out on his maiden voyage to Wrigley.
Thanks to all for participating!