Thanks to all who submitted 171 Qs Monday, and without any ado …
Jeffreygray10: Considering some local athletes are at the height of the sports world right now, i.e. Meghan Klingenberg and Brandon Saad, who is the best athlete to come from Pittsburgh? So many names popping up in my head. Since you’ve covered everything from badminton to Stanley Cups from Bloomfield to Beijing, I’d love to hear your choice.
DK: Wow, not starting easy this week, huh?
Well, it’s a powerful question and, obviously, one that has nothing close to a correct answer, whether from me or anyone else. That’s partly because of the huge field involved but also because of different values assigned to the athleticism involved in sports.
So I could take the easy route and simply debate the greatest athlete to come from Pine-Richland High School, and you’d have a full medal podium of Klingenberg, Saad and Neil Walker.
Or I could take the even easier route and just list quarterbacks. Tons of them. Dan Marino, Joe Namath, Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas.
Sports Illustrated cover, Sept. 23, 2002 — GETTY
Or I could delve into the more single-event realm of Olympics and mention Kurt Angle, Lauryn Williams, Roger Kingdom.
Or I could go for baseball and the greatest of all the Pirates, Honus Wagner, born in Chartiers. Or National League MVP Dick Groat, born in Wilkinsburg. Or Stan Musial and Ken Griffey Jr., both born in Donora.
Or basketball and Pistol Pete Maravich, Suzie McConnell-Serio … and Groat, too!
Or I could try hockey and … nah, Saad owns that one now.
Or golf, depending again on your definition of athleticism, and Arnold Palmer.
Or I could go way, way back and mention boxing greats Billy Conn and Harry Greb.
But just as I do anytime anybody begins bandying about whether Tom Brady or Peyton Manning is the greatest quarterback of all time, I’ll interject with Unitas and not hear another syllable. Born in Connellsville and having plied his trade in Bloomfield, he was the Babe Ruth of football in the breakthrough sense, doing something no one else could do at a level no one else had ever seen. And as the field began catching up, he only got better and better.
With all due respect to Honus, the best our city has known in baseball, I’ll take Johnny U, the best the entire sport of football has known at its most important position.
____________________
Kevin: Dejan, Josh Harrison goes to the DL with a thumb issue, this after that awkward slide into second on Sunday. His isn’t the first slide that went awry. Recently, Starling Marte flipped over after sliding head first into second. Josh’s looked so similar. Is there any explanation for why both appeared to simply stick to the dirt? Seems like a strange occurrence to happen once let alone twice. And if Josh was injured because of it, either the Pirates slide feet first or look to use less clay around second?
DK: Spent the night at PNC Park, so I took your question, in essence, right to the source. I asked Harrison, who also plays in the infield, obviously, if he or his teammates had noticed anything unusual about its makeup of late. He acknowledged that, in his view, the very heavy rains of late have had an effect, making the dirt “sticky,” to use his term. But he also stopped miles short of blaming anything or anyone for what happened to him.
“I just got stuck and got all cut up,” he said with a small smile. “That’s all I know.”
____________________
iisbaer89: Taking in consideration that Jim Rutherford’s work with Toronto left the entire hockey world with their mouth wide open, where among the best moves in the Penguins’ history would you rank the Phil Kessel trade?
DK: Another historical framework question?
Hm. I won’t have much for you in terms of ‘best moves’ because not one aspect of this trade has even begun to play out. If Kasperi Kapanen goes on to become Finland’s next-generation Teemu Selanne, I won’t be much inclined to rave. No one likes to hear it, but trades don’t get judged the day they’re made or even the year they’re made, in most cases. Especially those founded on extremely young players.
But I will offer that, in terms of scope, this one certainly has to crack the top five, you’d figure, right up there in a second tier behind the two Craig Patrick megablasts that led directly to Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992, of course, involving Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson, Rick Tocchet and all that. I’ll always keep those a notch above, as they’re the very best kinds of trades, much more important than the silly immediate grades that get assigned. That second one for instance — with Tocchet, Kjell Samuelsson and Ken Wregget — wasn’t exactly some heist on paper and at the time, given that Mark Recchi went to the Flyers and was, as Kessel is now, the best player in the trade. But Patrick’s brilliant temperature-taking of his roster at that time provided exactly what was needed for a second run at the Cup. That’s a crucial variable in making trades that gets overlooked.
I’d put the Patric Hornqvist trade in this same category, if not scope. You have to help the team you have, not the one that’s toggled on NHL 15.
____________________
Wild Bill: Dejan, how did you see women’s World Cup action compared to their male counterparts? All are marvelous athletes, but the men’s game sometimes drove me crazy with guys trying to buy calls from the officials. Seemed like less of that with the women, and maybe a little more reliance on each other in playmaking.
DK: I can’t claim to watch much soccer that’s played outside of Pittsburgh, other than the men’s and women’s World Cups, and being busy with this site prevented me from watching much of the latter this time around. But I’ll share a couple of observations related to your question:
1. Yes, there is less diving in the women’s game.
It’s equally competitive, as I’m sure people just saw, and comes with a legitimately elite skill level. In fact, it’s gotten so much better even just over the past eight years, as have women’s basketball and hockey at the Olympic levels. But there’s also more of a sense of sportsmanship. And make no mistake: Diving and theatrics are terrible sportsmanship, no matter where they happen.
It’s crazy that in European, South American and especially African soccer, from what I’ve seen — Cameroon and Nigeria long have been notorious — that it’s wholly acceptable for a grown man to roll around, writhe in agony, even get carted off on a stretcher, then pop right off and run right back into the action. But FIFA never has taken control of this, and it’s never abated.
What’s worse, a side that wants to play properly often can’t because an official will be too blind or numb to the other party’s diving that not diving becomes a distinct disadvantage.
2. There is less diving in the American game.
The soccer snobs hate hearing this, because all that is European is gold and all else is garbage, but it’s absolutely the case that diving isn’t tolerated in our culture or, for that matter, by countries in the Far East. Understanding fully that the Riverhounds play in America’s second tier, I still feel comfortable using their matches as an example here. Diving does happen occasionally, and it cost the Hounds a match in Rochester just last week when one of the Rhinos took an ugly spill despite barely being touched by Anthony Arena in the box. The ref fell for it, a penalty was awarded, and Rochester won.
(Hilariously, the Rhinos omitted the pivotal penalty from their highlight reel that night.)
I’ve also noticed at Highmark Stadium that there’s little tolerance from the crowd for diving or milking, including those occasions where the home team has tried to do it.
____________________
smcohen1000: Hi, DK, I know 2016 is a ways away for the Steelers, but considering the fact they will have three free agents that year on the offensive line — Kelvin Beachum, Ramon Foster, Mike Adams — don’t you find it just a little odd that they didn’t draft one this past spring?
Also, I have been out of the country for the past two plus months, and this site has gotten me as close to Pittsburgh sports as possible, so thank you.
DK: Wait, you’re worried about losing Adams?
No, seriously, I get what you’re asking. It’s legit. Especially if you view that Adams is currently the backup at both tackle spots and isn’t someone you’d trust at either. That’s downright scary considering the rare healthy year the line just had and knock on wood and all that.
Beachum will have to get paid if he has another year like 2014, especially if he performs better against the Ravens, his only real shortcoming. That’s just the cost of doing business, and the Steelers have always ponied up for their left tackles in the past, notably Marvel Smith and Max Starks. The franchise plays quarterback, and the franchise must be protected. Security isn’t cheap.
Foster will be a decision better made after the coming season, with all due respect. He’s solid, and he’s a superb team guy. But there’s only so much money that can go into one fact in a cap league, and a guard is easier and less expensive to find than a left tackle.
Adams is free to go.
____________________
trailrunner: DK, do sports writers catch a ride on team charters? Or are they on there own to cover teams on the road?
DK: A lot of these questions are part of our weekly pool, so I’ll try to pick one each time. In general, I’m happy to answer them in the Saturday Site Stuff comments section, as well.
No, sports writers — at least not independent ones — don’t travel with teams. Not in any of the major sports. Just as there is nothing else provided by teams to the people who cover them for independent outlets, travel is the entire domain of the outlets. And since we’re completely an independent outlet, we book all our own travel, from planes to hotels to rental cars, when covering the Steelers, Penguins or Pirates. We’ll do the same when booking for Pitt football and basketball this winter.
We don’t travel regularly with anyone else. Our Matt Gajtka, who does play-by-play for the Riverhounds’ home matches as one of his 16 or 17 side gigs in addition to full-time work with Robert Morris University, hitched a ride with the Steel Army supporters’ bus — paid by Riverhounds president Richard Nightingale — to Rochester last week. Given that we’re not Matt’s primary employer, I can live with that. He’s free to do and go as he pleases, and he can be trusted to provide fair coverage to both us and his broadcast. He’ll be in Toronto with the Riverhounds this week, but he was heading up there independently.
There are two other exceptions I can cite: The most obvious is the Penguins’ preseason games. The team invites all media, including both of the city’s biggest newspapers, to accompany the team on its charters because of the crazy in-and-out nature of those games where there are no morning skates, no layovers. You fly up and down in the same day every time. I’ve made a few of those myself, and I remember one wild up-and-down to Halifax, Nova Scotia a few years back as being particularly wild. The team has always had that agreement with the local media, as well as an agreement that the media reimburses the team for the cost of a regular fare.
One other time, when a hurricane was about to hit Houston, the Pirates offered all of us covering that trip a spot on their charter to get out of town a day earlier. They were repaid, too. And thanked!
____________________
dpetrel: DK, you spent quite a bit of time at the NHL free agency opening talking about the young assets that the Pens should not trade. Assuming the Pirates are looking for offense and some bullpen help at the trade deadline and that prospects are the greatest chip the Pirates have, what prospects should they not consider trading?
DK: Honestly, I couldn’t think of one. And while sitting next to our new baseball beat guy, Nate Barnes, last night at PNC Park, I ran your question past him, and he couldn’t think of anyone, either, since both of us agreed that even Tyler Glasnow, their No. 1 prospect, couldn’t possibly be considered untouchable. We wouldn’t put Josh Bell in that category, either.
That said, I don’t think that will come to pass. The deadline deal the Pirates seek are much more in line with those that brought Marlon Byrd and Justin Morneau a couple years ago, where salary is assumed and a mid-level prospect goes out. (Ideally not one as good as Dilson Herrera, the Mets’ future second baseman as the result of the Byrd trade.) In that setting, there’s no need for a Glasnow or Bell to have even come up in conversation, whether or not they’re labeled untouchable.
Neal Huntington really doesn’t like that term, by the way. He brought that up again in a talk we had a couple of weeks ago. His standard policy, as with most GMs across sports, is that no one is untouchable in the purest sense of the term.
____________________
lucas.roncevich2014: Do you feel the Penguins’ roster, as it is now, will be too soft? And if so, who do you think would be a good potential grit guy for them to add?
DK: I’m not seeing outright soft, though it wouldn’t hurt if their fourth-line additions — the ones Rutherford said are pretty much his final pieces — would come with a little of that. Hard and soft isn’t always about fighting or even hitting. Hornqvist doesn’t do much of each, for example, but he plays the game as hard as anyone alive.
If fighting or other mayhem comes into need, Bobby Farnham is always a call away. He might not win that fight, but he’ll certainly take care of business.
I suppose a toned-down Steve Downie type wouldn’t hurt, someone who can play while also keeping opponents from taking liberties.
I don’t know. I guess I just have a hard time even having this discussion in 2015. Seems like the game is moving away from it, in general, and that it’s much more valuable to have toughness take the form of being tough on the puck or tough in front of the net.
____________________
stein.ryan: Dejan, if you were selected to Pitt’s new Fan Experience Committee, what would you propose to change?
DK: It would be a three-step process:
1. Play winning football.
That would be a change, of course, and it sure sounds like one that a ton of folks are expecting will happen immediately with Pat Narduzzi. We’ll see. Experienced, dynamic offense built on James Conner and Tyler Boyd. Colossal questions on defense. But then, that’s Narduzzi’s strength.
2. Change the schedule.
Attempting to manufacture interest in terrible opponents, or even opponents in the still-too-new ACC Coastal Division, won’t work. But set up a steady rotation with Penn State and West Virginia, and it will benefit the program immeasurably, in terms of facing better quality opposition, at the gate and in recruiting.
3. Form some weirdly named committee to discuss fan experience.
____________________
tflameinson: Everyone seems to be expecting Martavis Bryant to have a monster year. I’m a bit worried he goes through the so-called sophomore slump. If he does struggle I think it would stall our offense tremendously. Do you believe my concerns are legit or am I just nitpicking at this potentially lethal offense?
DK: Sophomore? I suppose, but I’ll still think of him as a freshman, if you will.
Bryant made his splash — and I use that in the Mike Tomlin context — with his eight touchdowns, but he also didn’t touch the field until Week 7 and, even then, participated in only 368 offensive snaps. For perspective, Antonio Brown participated in 1,159. It wasn’t even until the playoff game with Baltimore than Bryant participated in a dominant majority of the offensive snaps.
Wow, this kid’s got a lot of miles ahead of him.
And for what it’s worth, all through OTAs and minicamp, people were praising him at a level I was sure that they’d soon be writing beat poetry about him. Remember Darius Heyward-Bey telling Josh Yohe he thinks Bryant can become the best receiver of all-time?
He’s about 10 pounds thicker, all muscle, and he looks and sounds way more confident than last year. On a 53-man roster, Bryant probably shouldn’t crack your top-50 list of concerns.
____________________
bpn8pitt: How much does past PED use affect your professional opinion of an athlete? Some context to the question: Francisco Cervelli, Alex Rodriguez, Antonio Bastardo and Antonio Gates. Do you look at it as case by case, Dejan?
Me, I find it odd how quickly people can dismiss a four-game suspension by a football player for PED use, but light the torches when it comes to ARod. How do people know Gates didn’t use PEDs his entire career?
DK: Baseball loves to navel-gaze more than any other sport, for whatever reason, and thus, self-immolate when it comes to issues such as steroids.
Football has found a way to downplay steroids suspensions, and there isn’t some cultural fixation on doing anything more with it than that. Hockey just pretends that no one ever has, does or will do them, much the same way Gary Bettman pathetically dismissed concussions recently. But baseball lives for its manufactured agony, whether it’s something as serious as steroids or cheating (Is Pete Rose really the only professional athlete who had a serious gambling problem?) or a tie in an All-Star Game (let’s make it count!) or the increased level of witch hunts for Hall of Fame voters who don’t fall directly into line with one another (Someone find this cretin who gave his No. 10 MVP spot to Rafael Belliard!) or the hilarious level of seriousness attached to Jose Tabata getting hit by a flat, inside slider.
So yeah, I look at it case by case, but I also consider the context of the sport and how much it’s being blown up. I don’t like cheaters, but I don’t see cheating as necessarily being worse in baseball than in other sports. I just see a lot of self-absorbed hyperbole in baseball that makes it seem such a bigger deal.
Thanks to all who participated!
I’ll be back at PNC Park tonight, along with Nate.
Meghan Klingenberg, right, and Becky Sauerbrunn take the stars and stripes for a lap Sunday in Vancouver. -- GETTY
July 7, 2015
Tuesday 10 Qs: Meghan, Phil, Kelvin, PEDs
by Dejan Kovacevic • Five Qs at 5 • Penguins, Pirates, Pitt, Riverhounds, Steelers
Thanks to all who submitted 171 Qs Monday, and without any ado …
Jeffreygray10: Considering some local athletes are at the height of the sports world right now, i.e. Meghan Klingenberg and Brandon Saad, who is the best athlete to come from Pittsburgh? So many names popping up in my head. Since you’ve covered everything from badminton to Stanley Cups from Bloomfield to Beijing, I’d love to hear your choice.
DK: Wow, not starting easy this week, huh?
Well, it’s a powerful question and, obviously, one that has nothing close to a correct answer, whether from me or anyone else. That’s partly because of the huge field involved but also because of different values assigned to the athleticism involved in sports.
So I could take the easy route and simply debate the greatest athlete to come from Pine-Richland High School, and you’d have a full medal podium of Klingenberg, Saad and Neil Walker.
Or I could take the even easier route and just list quarterbacks. Tons of them. Dan Marino, Joe Namath, Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas.
Sports Illustrated cover, Sept. 23, 2002 — GETTY
Or I could delve into the more single-event realm of Olympics and mention Kurt Angle, Lauryn Williams, Roger Kingdom.
Or I could go for baseball and the greatest of all the Pirates, Honus Wagner, born in Chartiers. Or National League MVP Dick Groat, born in Wilkinsburg. Or Stan Musial and Ken Griffey Jr., both born in Donora.
Or basketball and Pistol Pete Maravich, Suzie McConnell-Serio … and Groat, too!
Or I could try hockey and … nah, Saad owns that one now.
Or golf, depending again on your definition of athleticism, and Arnold Palmer.
Or I could go way, way back and mention boxing greats Billy Conn and Harry Greb.
But just as I do anytime anybody begins bandying about whether Tom Brady or Peyton Manning is the greatest quarterback of all time, I’ll interject with Unitas and not hear another syllable. Born in Connellsville and having plied his trade in Bloomfield, he was the Babe Ruth of football in the breakthrough sense, doing something no one else could do at a level no one else had ever seen. And as the field began catching up, he only got better and better.
With all due respect to Honus, the best our city has known in baseball, I’ll take Johnny U, the best the entire sport of football has known at its most important position.
____________________
Kevin: Dejan, Josh Harrison goes to the DL with a thumb issue, this after that awkward slide into second on Sunday. His isn’t the first slide that went awry. Recently, Starling Marte flipped over after sliding head first into second. Josh’s looked so similar. Is there any explanation for why both appeared to simply stick to the dirt? Seems like a strange occurrence to happen once let alone twice. And if Josh was injured because of it, either the Pirates slide feet first or look to use less clay around second?
DK: Spent the night at PNC Park, so I took your question, in essence, right to the source. I asked Harrison, who also plays in the infield, obviously, if he or his teammates had noticed anything unusual about its makeup of late. He acknowledged that, in his view, the very heavy rains of late have had an effect, making the dirt “sticky,” to use his term. But he also stopped miles short of blaming anything or anyone for what happened to him.
“I just got stuck and got all cut up,” he said with a small smile. “That’s all I know.”
____________________
iisbaer89: Taking in consideration that Jim Rutherford’s work with Toronto left the entire hockey world with their mouth wide open, where among the best moves in the Penguins’ history would you rank the Phil Kessel trade?
DK: Another historical framework question?
Hm. I won’t have much for you in terms of ‘best moves’ because not one aspect of this trade has even begun to play out. If Kasperi Kapanen goes on to become Finland’s next-generation Teemu Selanne, I won’t be much inclined to rave. No one likes to hear it, but trades don’t get judged the day they’re made or even the year they’re made, in most cases. Especially those founded on extremely young players.
But I will offer that, in terms of scope, this one certainly has to crack the top five, you’d figure, right up there in a second tier behind the two Craig Patrick megablasts that led directly to Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992, of course, involving Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson, Rick Tocchet and all that. I’ll always keep those a notch above, as they’re the very best kinds of trades, much more important than the silly immediate grades that get assigned. That second one for instance — with Tocchet, Kjell Samuelsson and Ken Wregget — wasn’t exactly some heist on paper and at the time, given that Mark Recchi went to the Flyers and was, as Kessel is now, the best player in the trade. But Patrick’s brilliant temperature-taking of his roster at that time provided exactly what was needed for a second run at the Cup. That’s a crucial variable in making trades that gets overlooked.
I’d put the Patric Hornqvist trade in this same category, if not scope. You have to help the team you have, not the one that’s toggled on NHL 15.
____________________
Wild Bill: Dejan, how did you see women’s World Cup action compared to their male counterparts? All are marvelous athletes, but the men’s game sometimes drove me crazy with guys trying to buy calls from the officials. Seemed like less of that with the women, and maybe a little more reliance on each other in playmaking.
DK: I can’t claim to watch much soccer that’s played outside of Pittsburgh, other than the men’s and women’s World Cups, and being busy with this site prevented me from watching much of the latter this time around. But I’ll share a couple of observations related to your question:
1. Yes, there is less diving in the women’s game.
It’s equally competitive, as I’m sure people just saw, and comes with a legitimately elite skill level. In fact, it’s gotten so much better even just over the past eight years, as have women’s basketball and hockey at the Olympic levels. But there’s also more of a sense of sportsmanship. And make no mistake: Diving and theatrics are terrible sportsmanship, no matter where they happen.
It’s crazy that in European, South American and especially African soccer, from what I’ve seen — Cameroon and Nigeria long have been notorious — that it’s wholly acceptable for a grown man to roll around, writhe in agony, even get carted off on a stretcher, then pop right off and run right back into the action. But FIFA never has taken control of this, and it’s never abated.
What’s worse, a side that wants to play properly often can’t because an official will be too blind or numb to the other party’s diving that not diving becomes a distinct disadvantage.
2. There is less diving in the American game.
The soccer snobs hate hearing this, because all that is European is gold and all else is garbage, but it’s absolutely the case that diving isn’t tolerated in our culture or, for that matter, by countries in the Far East. Understanding fully that the Riverhounds play in America’s second tier, I still feel comfortable using their matches as an example here. Diving does happen occasionally, and it cost the Hounds a match in Rochester just last week when one of the Rhinos took an ugly spill despite barely being touched by Anthony Arena in the box. The ref fell for it, a penalty was awarded, and Rochester won.
(Hilariously, the Rhinos omitted the pivotal penalty from their highlight reel that night.)
I’ve also noticed at Highmark Stadium that there’s little tolerance from the crowd for diving or milking, including those occasions where the home team has tried to do it.
____________________
smcohen1000: Hi, DK, I know 2016 is a ways away for the Steelers, but considering the fact they will have three free agents that year on the offensive line — Kelvin Beachum, Ramon Foster, Mike Adams — don’t you find it just a little odd that they didn’t draft one this past spring?
Also, I have been out of the country for the past two plus months, and this site has gotten me as close to Pittsburgh sports as possible, so thank you.
DK: Wait, you’re worried about losing Adams?
No, seriously, I get what you’re asking. It’s legit. Especially if you view that Adams is currently the backup at both tackle spots and isn’t someone you’d trust at either. That’s downright scary considering the rare healthy year the line just had and knock on wood and all that.
Beachum will have to get paid if he has another year like 2014, especially if he performs better against the Ravens, his only real shortcoming. That’s just the cost of doing business, and the Steelers have always ponied up for their left tackles in the past, notably Marvel Smith and Max Starks. The franchise plays quarterback, and the franchise must be protected. Security isn’t cheap.
Foster will be a decision better made after the coming season, with all due respect. He’s solid, and he’s a superb team guy. But there’s only so much money that can go into one fact in a cap league, and a guard is easier and less expensive to find than a left tackle.
Adams is free to go.
____________________
trailrunner: DK, do sports writers catch a ride on team charters? Or are they on there own to cover teams on the road?
DK: A lot of these questions are part of our weekly pool, so I’ll try to pick one each time. In general, I’m happy to answer them in the Saturday Site Stuff comments section, as well.
No, sports writers — at least not independent ones — don’t travel with teams. Not in any of the major sports. Just as there is nothing else provided by teams to the people who cover them for independent outlets, travel is the entire domain of the outlets. And since we’re completely an independent outlet, we book all our own travel, from planes to hotels to rental cars, when covering the Steelers, Penguins or Pirates. We’ll do the same when booking for Pitt football and basketball this winter.
We don’t travel regularly with anyone else. Our Matt Gajtka, who does play-by-play for the Riverhounds’ home matches as one of his 16 or 17 side gigs in addition to full-time work with Robert Morris University, hitched a ride with the Steel Army supporters’ bus — paid by Riverhounds president Richard Nightingale — to Rochester last week. Given that we’re not Matt’s primary employer, I can live with that. He’s free to do and go as he pleases, and he can be trusted to provide fair coverage to both us and his broadcast. He’ll be in Toronto with the Riverhounds this week, but he was heading up there independently.
There are two other exceptions I can cite: The most obvious is the Penguins’ preseason games. The team invites all media, including both of the city’s biggest newspapers, to accompany the team on its charters because of the crazy in-and-out nature of those games where there are no morning skates, no layovers. You fly up and down in the same day every time. I’ve made a few of those myself, and I remember one wild up-and-down to Halifax, Nova Scotia a few years back as being particularly wild. The team has always had that agreement with the local media, as well as an agreement that the media reimburses the team for the cost of a regular fare.
One other time, when a hurricane was about to hit Houston, the Pirates offered all of us covering that trip a spot on their charter to get out of town a day earlier. They were repaid, too. And thanked!
____________________
dpetrel: DK, you spent quite a bit of time at the NHL free agency opening talking about the young assets that the Pens should not trade. Assuming the Pirates are looking for offense and some bullpen help at the trade deadline and that prospects are the greatest chip the Pirates have, what prospects should they not consider trading?
DK: Honestly, I couldn’t think of one. And while sitting next to our new baseball beat guy, Nate Barnes, last night at PNC Park, I ran your question past him, and he couldn’t think of anyone, either, since both of us agreed that even Tyler Glasnow, their No. 1 prospect, couldn’t possibly be considered untouchable. We wouldn’t put Josh Bell in that category, either.
That said, I don’t think that will come to pass. The deadline deal the Pirates seek are much more in line with those that brought Marlon Byrd and Justin Morneau a couple years ago, where salary is assumed and a mid-level prospect goes out. (Ideally not one as good as Dilson Herrera, the Mets’ future second baseman as the result of the Byrd trade.) In that setting, there’s no need for a Glasnow or Bell to have even come up in conversation, whether or not they’re labeled untouchable.
Neal Huntington really doesn’t like that term, by the way. He brought that up again in a talk we had a couple of weeks ago. His standard policy, as with most GMs across sports, is that no one is untouchable in the purest sense of the term.
____________________
lucas.roncevich2014: Do you feel the Penguins’ roster, as it is now, will be too soft? And if so, who do you think would be a good potential grit guy for them to add?
DK: I’m not seeing outright soft, though it wouldn’t hurt if their fourth-line additions — the ones Rutherford said are pretty much his final pieces — would come with a little of that. Hard and soft isn’t always about fighting or even hitting. Hornqvist doesn’t do much of each, for example, but he plays the game as hard as anyone alive.
If fighting or other mayhem comes into need, Bobby Farnham is always a call away. He might not win that fight, but he’ll certainly take care of business.
I suppose a toned-down Steve Downie type wouldn’t hurt, someone who can play while also keeping opponents from taking liberties.
I don’t know. I guess I just have a hard time even having this discussion in 2015. Seems like the game is moving away from it, in general, and that it’s much more valuable to have toughness take the form of being tough on the puck or tough in front of the net.
____________________
stein.ryan: Dejan, if you were selected to Pitt’s new Fan Experience Committee, what would you propose to change?
DK: It would be a three-step process:
1. Play winning football.
That would be a change, of course, and it sure sounds like one that a ton of folks are expecting will happen immediately with Pat Narduzzi. We’ll see. Experienced, dynamic offense built on James Conner and Tyler Boyd. Colossal questions on defense. But then, that’s Narduzzi’s strength.
2. Change the schedule.
Attempting to manufacture interest in terrible opponents, or even opponents in the still-too-new ACC Coastal Division, won’t work. But set up a steady rotation with Penn State and West Virginia, and it will benefit the program immeasurably, in terms of facing better quality opposition, at the gate and in recruiting.
3. Form some weirdly named committee to discuss fan experience.
____________________
tflameinson: Everyone seems to be expecting Martavis Bryant to have a monster year. I’m a bit worried he goes through the so-called sophomore slump. If he does struggle I think it would stall our offense tremendously. Do you believe my concerns are legit or am I just nitpicking at this potentially lethal offense?
DK: Sophomore? I suppose, but I’ll still think of him as a freshman, if you will.
Bryant made his splash — and I use that in the Mike Tomlin context — with his eight touchdowns, but he also didn’t touch the field until Week 7 and, even then, participated in only 368 offensive snaps. For perspective, Antonio Brown participated in 1,159. It wasn’t even until the playoff game with Baltimore than Bryant participated in a dominant majority of the offensive snaps.
Wow, this kid’s got a lot of miles ahead of him.
And for what it’s worth, all through OTAs and minicamp, people were praising him at a level I was sure that they’d soon be writing beat poetry about him. Remember Darius Heyward-Bey telling Josh Yohe he thinks Bryant can become the best receiver of all-time?
He’s about 10 pounds thicker, all muscle, and he looks and sounds way more confident than last year. On a 53-man roster, Bryant probably shouldn’t crack your top-50 list of concerns.
____________________
bpn8pitt: How much does past PED use affect your professional opinion of an athlete? Some context to the question: Francisco Cervelli, Alex Rodriguez, Antonio Bastardo and Antonio Gates. Do you look at it as case by case, Dejan?
Me, I find it odd how quickly people can dismiss a four-game suspension by a football player for PED use, but light the torches when it comes to ARod. How do people know Gates didn’t use PEDs his entire career?
DK: Baseball loves to navel-gaze more than any other sport, for whatever reason, and thus, self-immolate when it comes to issues such as steroids.
Football has found a way to downplay steroids suspensions, and there isn’t some cultural fixation on doing anything more with it than that. Hockey just pretends that no one ever has, does or will do them, much the same way Gary Bettman pathetically dismissed concussions recently. But baseball lives for its manufactured agony, whether it’s something as serious as steroids or cheating (Is Pete Rose really the only professional athlete who had a serious gambling problem?) or a tie in an All-Star Game (let’s make it count!) or the increased level of witch hunts for Hall of Fame voters who don’t fall directly into line with one another (Someone find this cretin who gave his No. 10 MVP spot to Rafael Belliard!) or the hilarious level of seriousness attached to Jose Tabata getting hit by a flat, inside slider.
So yeah, I look at it case by case, but I also consider the context of the sport and how much it’s being blown up. I don’t like cheaters, but I don’t see cheating as necessarily being worse in baseball than in other sports. I just see a lot of self-absorbed hyperbole in baseball that makes it seem such a bigger deal.
Thanks to all who participated!
I’ll be back at PNC Park tonight, along with Nate.