BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
It’s time for Tuesday 10 Qs, our weekly session in which readers carry the conversation, and here’s the full transcript after going through all the entries:
mkozak25: Who ya got in the College World Series?
But the real question here is with Chicago winning a third cup in six years, would you call them a dynasty? Six years ago, everyone thought that Pittsburgh would do this, not the Hawks. What a bummer.
DK: Yeah, I can see that. It wasn’t so long ago that we watched that parade down the Boulevard of the Allies, all those younger players, all those stars, and thought it would be an annual affair. And it wasn’t just Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Marc-Andre Fleury. Jordan Staal was a big part of it, too. Anyone could reasonably look at those five as the core and think, man, all they have to do is build a decent supporting cast.
Well, they didn’t. Ray Shero didn’t. He didn’t draft. He didn’t sign the right players to extensions. He didn’t place any priority on youth. (Neither did Dan Bylsma.) And I’d be remiss if I didn’t repeat 1,000 times over that the drafts were a disaster.
I’ve heard and read a ton of praise for the Hawks in the past few hours, most of it richly deserved. However one wishes to define dynasty, the three-in-five or three-in-six champions like the Patriots, the baseball Giants and others are now the bar in that regard. They’re the best of the best.
But the only piece of praise that makes me cringe a little is this notion that the Hawks somehow mastered the art of the cap. They’ve done no such thing. What the Hawks did right is the same thing the Lightning did right to get to this Stanley Cup final: They drafted well and always maintained that balance between age and youth. Look at all that speed and skill Steve Yzerman has assembled in Tampa, enough to somehow push Steven Stamkos — legitimately — to a second line. That’s exemplary work.
There’s nothing to overthink here.
The Penguins need to get younger, and dramatically so.
But I’ll add this, too: I genuinely find the notion that somehow their window has closed to be perplexing. If anything, one thing I’d take away from this final — other than the appalling lack of scoring — is that I’ll take the Penguins’ core with either of these two supporting casts and call them a bona fide favorite to win it all right on the spot.
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akosek07: Another article stated that the Penguins won’t exercise a buyout this offseason. Does this mean there is a potential trade market out there for Rob Scuderi? Also do you see the Penguins trying to poach the Blackhawks? I think Brandon Saad is a stretch but maybe other players like Antoinne Vermette or Patrick Sharp?
DK: First off, let’s identify that the article you cite was some good work by Seth Rorabaugh of the Post-Gazette. He asked Jim Rutherford a smart question and got the answer that the Penguins are not planning to buy people out this summer. Unlike the two local newspapers, our policy is to credit the original source of any breaking news. We’re neither naive nor arrogant enough to think that you as a reader don’t have access to other outlets. It stopped being 1975, oh, roughly 40 years ago.
That said, this news surprised me, not just because Rutherford himself stated after the season that he was open to buyouts but also because I was told in no uncertain terms in New York, on the night the Penguins were eliminated, that they were strongly considering more than one.
But minds change, and that’s evidently what happened here.
It’s disappointing. Even though the cap savings on Chris Kunitz and/or Scuderi would have been minimal, I could still argue there are better uses for it, and I’d further argue that simply having them around will unduly force Mike Johnston’s hand into tilting toward veterans over youngsters. That’s not good for the Penguins, even if one or both of those above players upgrades his game a bit.
DK: Next arm up is Vance Worley, as I’ve mentioned previously. Nothing has changed in that regard, and don’t expect it to. He’ll get the ball if Locke falters.
I had a good talk with Locke before the game Monday about his inconsistencies — and you described them aptly that way — because those can be tough to solve. It’s easier sometimes to find solutions for someone who’s going all-bad because there will be a glaring issue. Not so with Locke. What Locke told me is that, with video work from pitching coaches Ray Searage and Jim Benedict, several issues were uncovered, but none that showed up all the time. So it’s made his rebuild, if you will, a tall task.
Now, Locke also expressed confidence that it’s going very well. We’ll see.
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jjvesco99: Has there been any indication from Keith Butler that the Steelers’ defense may be simplified a bit to give the rookies a chance to make a significant impact this year?
DK: Directly from Butler?
No, not yet. I was there for his only media gathering since being hired — just last week — and the topic never came up. It’s too bad, because yours is a good question, and I wish I’d asked it.
However, from other areas, the topic has come up, and the consensus has been that, one, the defensive vernacular will remain the same and, two, it will be streamlined and simplified at least to some extent. That most likely will come in the form of reduced options on a given play, as opposed to a reduced playbook. We’ll have to see how that plays out in Latrobe to know more, but that’s the sense I get. An edge rusher, by way of example, won’t have to solve the Rubik’s cube before deciding it would be a good idea to go crush the quarterback.
This is obviously a good thing. At the risk of belaboring old-vs.-young themes this morning, the Steelers, like their hockey neighbors, now have no choice but to go young on defense. And contrary to this team’s attitude for years, it’s not incumbent on the athletes to catch up with the coaching. It’s up to the coaching to get the most out of the athletes.
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steeltalk: How do you think Tyler Boyd will be disciplined related to the DUI situation? The Le’Veon Bell DUI comes to mind. While they definitely have differences, I believe I recall a stance of nobody should be driving while impaired.
DK: If you mean my stance at the time of the Bell DUI — and you didn’t make that clear — then you recalled it correctly. My stomach turns at DUI violators. I’ve made no secret of that. None at all.
But in both the Bell and Frank Coonelly cases, before I wrote any opinion, I had all the information needed and, in Coonelly’s case, had spoken with the man himself. I had enough that I could confidently criticize but in the proper context.
Honestly, I’m still not there with Boyd. What our site has been able to gather — including the actual Jefferson Hills Police affidavit (which neither newspaper has even acknowledged as existing, presumably because we published it exclusively) — is essentially this: Boyd admitted to drinking two shots late at night, then got behind the wheel shortly thereafter. And according to the test administered, his blood-alcohol came in somewhere above the .02 allowed in Pennsylvania for those under 21 years old.
Stop right there, and you’ve got a bad decision, one eminently worth Pat Narduzzi’s attention.
But I also have three problems with all this, and I’ll tell you right now that we’re still working on stuff here that might surprise people:
1. Boyd will turn 21 in November. If he were already 21, the legal limit is .08. We don’t yet have the actual test results on Boyd, but we’ve been told, unequivocally, that it came in below 0.8.
So right there, you can toss out any comparisons to Bell or other adults, at least in terms of gauging their level of impairment. Coonelly was a .16, twice the legal limit.
Some might disagree, but I feel this is a very fair point to raise. Especially since the affidavit cited zero indications of anything being amiss with Boyd’s actual driving.
2. Pardon my language here, but what in the hell could the Jefferson Hills officer in question have deemed wrong about Boyd if not his driving?
3. Why would a known bigmouth at Pitt — and it’s fairly common knowledge who this is — have leaked this story out?
The last one’s got nothing to do with anything, really, but I still find it odd.
Boyd made a mistake, absolutely. If what’s there now is all that it ends up being, I’d suspend Boyd for the Youngstown State opener. That’s fairly obvious. But I’m equally interested in how some of the above happened to Boyd, I really am.
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whovian87: Who is the best fit for the cleanup spot in the Pirates’ lineup? They seem intent on Neil Walker, but I enjoyed seeing Jung Ho Kang get a chance, and I like Starling Marte there, too.
DK: Seems a shame that there’s still such a stigma attached to cleanup with this team, but who can argue that it’s true?
You want my real answer on this?
How about Pedro Alvarez?
Really, what kind of a team carries a starting first baseman with immeasurable power but is simultaneously petrified at putting him at No. 4 in the order?
Alvarez has batted sixth 23 times, fifth seven times. And don’t think for a second that’s by accident. Clint Hurdle has stated repeatedly, this season and in seasons past, that they want to put Alvarez in a position where he’s more comfortable than cleanup.
Seriously, what does that even mean?
When does the comfort or coddling or whatever you’d want to call it stop?
Marte has made 16 starts at cleanup, and he’s batted .266 with three home runs and 18 RBIs. He hasn’t needed comfort or coddling. Walker has made 17 starts at cleanup, and he’s batted .252 with three home runs and 15 RBIs. He hasn’t needed to be walked home from the bus stop. Kang, for crying out loud, was at cleanup Monday night and came through with two hits, a two-run double, a walk and, even though he’s playing on an unfamiliar side of the planet, he seemed to have emerged unscathed from the horrors of being fourth in the lineup.
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Bridge: What is your take on a defenseman winning the Conn Smythe? In my view, it is long overdue. They don’t get enough credit, and it was well deserved by Duncan Keith. And for that matter, if Tampa would have won, I feel that Victor Hedman would have also been a worthy winner.
DK: Well, you sure couldn’t give it to anyone who scores goals, right?
Only 23 goals were scored in these six games, the fewest per game (3.83) since the 1999 final between the Stars and Sabres. Both the Blackhawks and Lightning would go 10-12 minutes at a time without generating a single shot, this despite having world-class offensive talent each way. In the finale Monday night, one could count 4-5 flagrant obstruction penalties on a given shift. With no whistles of any kind.
I love hockey. But that wasn’t hockey. I don’t know what that was.
I do know that a new commissioner is desperately needed.
And some drastic rule changes.
Sorry, Bridge, I hear you on Keith and Hedman and Brent Seabrook and Anton Stralman and every other defenseman that everyone was trying to turn into the real stars of the series. But when that starts happening, and people accept it, then something’s really wrong not just with hockey but the hockey culture.
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subyjay: I pride myself in being your lone Carolina Panthers fan. What’s your take on DeAngelo Williams? Good pickup for the Steelers or not?
DK: He was actually the one back I’d identified beforehand in hoping the Steelers would acquire him, so I’m not about to change now. Williams has the speed burst, the ability to run inside and out, to catch passes out of the backfield and, yes, the cap friendliness to fit the team’s needs perfectly.
He’s not going to be Bell. But he doesn’t need to be. Even up in New England, where Bill Belichick will have had six months to prepare to stop him specifically, all Williams needs to do is be serviceable enough to keep the Patriots — and the two teams after that — honest in defending the passing game. If that happens, the rest will work itself out.
The concern I have with Williams is the same that I have for the offense as a whole: Not nearly enough confidence in how they’ll fare in the red zone.
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alexrohlf: What is the one move you would make if you were Neal Huntington?
DK: Longtime readers know I don’t — and never have and never will — speculate on fake names that might come in or go out in trades. I found that, when I used to do that a long time ago, people would interpret it as an actual conversation that might be taking place between teams. So I just stopped doing it.
That said, I strongly feel Huntington should assemble his special assistants and have them bash their foreheads against the wall solving their first base problem. It doesn’t appear that there’s an internal solution, so external it is. There are 30 teams. One never knows which players are or aren’t available. We might think we do, based on what we read, but we don’t. Huntington and his guys do know. They need to scour every possibility.
From there, Huntington needs to go into the Geek Room and assemble all his stats guys and have them determine what would be of greatest value to the Pirates at first base, not so much in isolation but to the team as a whole. And I say that because this is not a sound defensive infield. It needs help. As such, an above-average fielder who could settle things a bit might come with more value to the Pirates than to another team. Heck, it might even afford Hurdle an extra bench bat if he ever has the luxury of avoiding the comedy of sending out a defensive replacement at first base night after night.
Huntington is smart enough to compile all that scouting information and statistical data and produce the right decision.
I can’t know this for certain, but here’s betting he can do a lot better at first.
____________________
Michael Dojcak: With the poor performance from Corey Hart, do you expect any aggressiveness on the Pirates’ part to get a proven hitter for the bench? Say, a Travis Snyder type?
DK: Hart could be gone, but I don’t get that vibe from Hurdle. Not yet, anyway.
At any rate, the Pirates rapped out 11 runs and 18 hits Monday night, they just put together their fifth straight brilliant pitching performance, and they again filled the highlights with defensive gems. So I don’t want anyone to think I’m being negative or sour on the Pirates. The regular coverage will support me on that. But the questions submitted about baseball, top to bottom, were of this ilk, so I’ll respect that and go that way if asked.
It’s actually an amazing time to follow the Pirates, if you ask me. There’s a lot of talent on this team. And, as Jordy Mercer told me Monday night, “It’s starting to come together. But just starting. We’re still not all the way there yet.”
Might as well enjoy it a little, right?
I’ll be at the opening of Steelers minicamp this afternoon, then back at PNC Park by nightfall. Thanks for being along for this portion today, but more to come!
Brandon Saad, Gibsonia native, raises Lord Stanley's Cup again in Chicago. -- GETTY
June 16, 2015
Tuesday 10 Qs: Hawks, Scuds, Locke, Butler
by Dejan Kovacevic • Five Qs at 5 • Penguins, Pirates, Pitt, Steelers
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
It’s time for Tuesday 10 Qs, our weekly session in which readers carry the conversation, and here’s the full transcript after going through all the entries:
mkozak25: Who ya got in the College World Series?
But the real question here is with Chicago winning a third cup in six years, would you call them a dynasty? Six years ago, everyone thought that Pittsburgh would do this, not the Hawks. What a bummer.
DK: Yeah, I can see that. It wasn’t so long ago that we watched that parade down the Boulevard of the Allies, all those younger players, all those stars, and thought it would be an annual affair. And it wasn’t just Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Marc-Andre Fleury. Jordan Staal was a big part of it, too. Anyone could reasonably look at those five as the core and think, man, all they have to do is build a decent supporting cast.
Well, they didn’t. Ray Shero didn’t. He didn’t draft. He didn’t sign the right players to extensions. He didn’t place any priority on youth. (Neither did Dan Bylsma.) And I’d be remiss if I didn’t repeat 1,000 times over that the drafts were a disaster.
I’ve heard and read a ton of praise for the Hawks in the past few hours, most of it richly deserved. However one wishes to define dynasty, the three-in-five or three-in-six champions like the Patriots, the baseball Giants and others are now the bar in that regard. They’re the best of the best.
But the only piece of praise that makes me cringe a little is this notion that the Hawks somehow mastered the art of the cap. They’ve done no such thing. What the Hawks did right is the same thing the Lightning did right to get to this Stanley Cup final: They drafted well and always maintained that balance between age and youth. Look at all that speed and skill Steve Yzerman has assembled in Tampa, enough to somehow push Steven Stamkos — legitimately — to a second line. That’s exemplary work.
There’s nothing to overthink here.
The Penguins need to get younger, and dramatically so.
But I’ll add this, too: I genuinely find the notion that somehow their window has closed to be perplexing. If anything, one thing I’d take away from this final — other than the appalling lack of scoring — is that I’ll take the Penguins’ core with either of these two supporting casts and call them a bona fide favorite to win it all right on the spot.
____________________
akosek07: Another article stated that the Penguins won’t exercise a buyout this offseason. Does this mean there is a potential trade market out there for Rob Scuderi? Also do you see the Penguins trying to poach the Blackhawks? I think Brandon Saad is a stretch but maybe other players like Antoinne Vermette or Patrick Sharp?
DK: First off, let’s identify that the article you cite was some good work by Seth Rorabaugh of the Post-Gazette. He asked Jim Rutherford a smart question and got the answer that the Penguins are not planning to buy people out this summer. Unlike the two local newspapers, our policy is to credit the original source of any breaking news. We’re neither naive nor arrogant enough to think that you as a reader don’t have access to other outlets. It stopped being 1975, oh, roughly 40 years ago.
That said, this news surprised me, not just because Rutherford himself stated after the season that he was open to buyouts but also because I was told in no uncertain terms in New York, on the night the Penguins were eliminated, that they were strongly considering more than one.
But minds change, and that’s evidently what happened here.
It’s disappointing. Even though the cap savings on Chris Kunitz and/or Scuderi would have been minimal, I could still argue there are better uses for it, and I’d further argue that simply having them around will unduly force Mike Johnston’s hand into tilting toward veterans over youngsters. That’s not good for the Penguins, even if one or both of those above players upgrades his game a bit.
____________________
pieratz: Gerrit Cole, A.J. Burnett and Francisco Liriano are pitching lights out. Charlie Morton is doing what Ground Chuck does. Then there’s Jeff Locke, who has been both great and cringe-worthy. How long of a leash does he have, and if it runs out who is the next arm up?
DK: Next arm up is Vance Worley, as I’ve mentioned previously. Nothing has changed in that regard, and don’t expect it to. He’ll get the ball if Locke falters.
I had a good talk with Locke before the game Monday about his inconsistencies — and you described them aptly that way — because those can be tough to solve. It’s easier sometimes to find solutions for someone who’s going all-bad because there will be a glaring issue. Not so with Locke. What Locke told me is that, with video work from pitching coaches Ray Searage and Jim Benedict, several issues were uncovered, but none that showed up all the time. So it’s made his rebuild, if you will, a tall task.
Now, Locke also expressed confidence that it’s going very well. We’ll see.
____________________
jjvesco99: Has there been any indication from Keith Butler that the Steelers’ defense may be simplified a bit to give the rookies a chance to make a significant impact this year?
DK: Directly from Butler?
No, not yet. I was there for his only media gathering since being hired — just last week — and the topic never came up. It’s too bad, because yours is a good question, and I wish I’d asked it.
However, from other areas, the topic has come up, and the consensus has been that, one, the defensive vernacular will remain the same and, two, it will be streamlined and simplified at least to some extent. That most likely will come in the form of reduced options on a given play, as opposed to a reduced playbook. We’ll have to see how that plays out in Latrobe to know more, but that’s the sense I get. An edge rusher, by way of example, won’t have to solve the Rubik’s cube before deciding it would be a good idea to go crush the quarterback.
This is obviously a good thing. At the risk of belaboring old-vs.-young themes this morning, the Steelers, like their hockey neighbors, now have no choice but to go young on defense. And contrary to this team’s attitude for years, it’s not incumbent on the athletes to catch up with the coaching. It’s up to the coaching to get the most out of the athletes.
____________________
steeltalk: How do you think Tyler Boyd will be disciplined related to the DUI situation? The Le’Veon Bell DUI comes to mind. While they definitely have differences, I believe I recall a stance of nobody should be driving while impaired.
DK: If you mean my stance at the time of the Bell DUI — and you didn’t make that clear — then you recalled it correctly. My stomach turns at DUI violators. I’ve made no secret of that. None at all.
But in both the Bell and Frank Coonelly cases, before I wrote any opinion, I had all the information needed and, in Coonelly’s case, had spoken with the man himself. I had enough that I could confidently criticize but in the proper context.
Honestly, I’m still not there with Boyd. What our site has been able to gather — including the actual Jefferson Hills Police affidavit (which neither newspaper has even acknowledged as existing, presumably because we published it exclusively) — is essentially this: Boyd admitted to drinking two shots late at night, then got behind the wheel shortly thereafter. And according to the test administered, his blood-alcohol came in somewhere above the .02 allowed in Pennsylvania for those under 21 years old.
Stop right there, and you’ve got a bad decision, one eminently worth Pat Narduzzi’s attention.
But I also have three problems with all this, and I’ll tell you right now that we’re still working on stuff here that might surprise people:
1. Boyd will turn 21 in November. If he were already 21, the legal limit is .08. We don’t yet have the actual test results on Boyd, but we’ve been told, unequivocally, that it came in below 0.8.
So right there, you can toss out any comparisons to Bell or other adults, at least in terms of gauging their level of impairment. Coonelly was a .16, twice the legal limit.
Some might disagree, but I feel this is a very fair point to raise. Especially since the affidavit cited zero indications of anything being amiss with Boyd’s actual driving.
2. Pardon my language here, but what in the hell could the Jefferson Hills officer in question have deemed wrong about Boyd if not his driving?
3. Why would a known bigmouth at Pitt — and it’s fairly common knowledge who this is — have leaked this story out?
The last one’s got nothing to do with anything, really, but I still find it odd.
Boyd made a mistake, absolutely. If what’s there now is all that it ends up being, I’d suspend Boyd for the Youngstown State opener. That’s fairly obvious. But I’m equally interested in how some of the above happened to Boyd, I really am.
____________________
whovian87: Who is the best fit for the cleanup spot in the Pirates’ lineup? They seem intent on Neil Walker, but I enjoyed seeing Jung Ho Kang get a chance, and I like Starling Marte there, too.
DK: Seems a shame that there’s still such a stigma attached to cleanup with this team, but who can argue that it’s true?
You want my real answer on this?
How about Pedro Alvarez?
Really, what kind of a team carries a starting first baseman with immeasurable power but is simultaneously petrified at putting him at No. 4 in the order?
Alvarez has batted sixth 23 times, fifth seven times. And don’t think for a second that’s by accident. Clint Hurdle has stated repeatedly, this season and in seasons past, that they want to put Alvarez in a position where he’s more comfortable than cleanup.
Seriously, what does that even mean?
When does the comfort or coddling or whatever you’d want to call it stop?
Marte has made 16 starts at cleanup, and he’s batted .266 with three home runs and 18 RBIs. He hasn’t needed comfort or coddling. Walker has made 17 starts at cleanup, and he’s batted .252 with three home runs and 15 RBIs. He hasn’t needed to be walked home from the bus stop. Kang, for crying out loud, was at cleanup Monday night and came through with two hits, a two-run double, a walk and, even though he’s playing on an unfamiliar side of the planet, he seemed to have emerged unscathed from the horrors of being fourth in the lineup.
____________________
Bridge: What is your take on a defenseman winning the Conn Smythe? In my view, it is long overdue. They don’t get enough credit, and it was well deserved by Duncan Keith. And for that matter, if Tampa would have won, I feel that Victor Hedman would have also been a worthy winner.
DK: Well, you sure couldn’t give it to anyone who scores goals, right?
Only 23 goals were scored in these six games, the fewest per game (3.83) since the 1999 final between the Stars and Sabres. Both the Blackhawks and Lightning would go 10-12 minutes at a time without generating a single shot, this despite having world-class offensive talent each way. In the finale Monday night, one could count 4-5 flagrant obstruction penalties on a given shift. With no whistles of any kind.
I love hockey. But that wasn’t hockey. I don’t know what that was.
I do know that a new commissioner is desperately needed.
And some drastic rule changes.
Sorry, Bridge, I hear you on Keith and Hedman and Brent Seabrook and Anton Stralman and every other defenseman that everyone was trying to turn into the real stars of the series. But when that starts happening, and people accept it, then something’s really wrong not just with hockey but the hockey culture.
____________________
subyjay: I pride myself in being your lone Carolina Panthers fan. What’s your take on DeAngelo Williams? Good pickup for the Steelers or not?
DK: He was actually the one back I’d identified beforehand in hoping the Steelers would acquire him, so I’m not about to change now. Williams has the speed burst, the ability to run inside and out, to catch passes out of the backfield and, yes, the cap friendliness to fit the team’s needs perfectly.
He’s not going to be Bell. But he doesn’t need to be. Even up in New England, where Bill Belichick will have had six months to prepare to stop him specifically, all Williams needs to do is be serviceable enough to keep the Patriots — and the two teams after that — honest in defending the passing game. If that happens, the rest will work itself out.
The concern I have with Williams is the same that I have for the offense as a whole: Not nearly enough confidence in how they’ll fare in the red zone.
____________________
alexrohlf: What is the one move you would make if you were Neal Huntington?
DK: Longtime readers know I don’t — and never have and never will — speculate on fake names that might come in or go out in trades. I found that, when I used to do that a long time ago, people would interpret it as an actual conversation that might be taking place between teams. So I just stopped doing it.
That said, I strongly feel Huntington should assemble his special assistants and have them bash their foreheads against the wall solving their first base problem. It doesn’t appear that there’s an internal solution, so external it is. There are 30 teams. One never knows which players are or aren’t available. We might think we do, based on what we read, but we don’t. Huntington and his guys do know. They need to scour every possibility.
From there, Huntington needs to go into the Geek Room and assemble all his stats guys and have them determine what would be of greatest value to the Pirates at first base, not so much in isolation but to the team as a whole. And I say that because this is not a sound defensive infield. It needs help. As such, an above-average fielder who could settle things a bit might come with more value to the Pirates than to another team. Heck, it might even afford Hurdle an extra bench bat if he ever has the luxury of avoiding the comedy of sending out a defensive replacement at first base night after night.
Huntington is smart enough to compile all that scouting information and statistical data and produce the right decision.
I can’t know this for certain, but here’s betting he can do a lot better at first.
____________________
Michael Dojcak: With the poor performance from Corey Hart, do you expect any aggressiveness on the Pirates’ part to get a proven hitter for the bench? Say, a Travis Snyder type?
DK: Hart could be gone, but I don’t get that vibe from Hurdle. Not yet, anyway.
At any rate, the Pirates rapped out 11 runs and 18 hits Monday night, they just put together their fifth straight brilliant pitching performance, and they again filled the highlights with defensive gems. So I don’t want anyone to think I’m being negative or sour on the Pirates. The regular coverage will support me on that. But the questions submitted about baseball, top to bottom, were of this ilk, so I’ll respect that and go that way if asked.
It’s actually an amazing time to follow the Pirates, if you ask me. There’s a lot of talent on this team. And, as Jordy Mercer told me Monday night, “It’s starting to come together. But just starting. We’re still not all the way there yet.”
Might as well enjoy it a little, right?
I’ll be at the opening of Steelers minicamp this afternoon, then back at PNC Park by nightfall. Thanks for being along for this portion today, but more to come!