Daniel Winnik had no points and a team-worst minus-6 rating in the playoffs. -- GETTY

Daniel Winnik had no points and a team-worst minus-6 rating in the playoffs. -- GETTY

Tuesday 10 Qs: Morehouse, bullpen, Cortez, Shero

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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.

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UPDATE 9 a.m.: And away we go …

ImblumAJ1: Awesome to see that the incomparable Josh Yohe has joined your team! Really looking forward to his Pens coverage.

Speaking of which, I’ve found it curious that, while everyone around the team has taken great pains to say that Jim Rutherford’s and Mike Johnston’s jobs are safe, no one has said anything about David Morehouse. I understand that his role with the team has increased since Ray Shero was fired last summer, and that Rutherford reports to him instead of directly to ownership as Shero did.

Given some questionable team decisions this season in terms of deadline acquisitions (Daniel Winnik, Ben Lovejoy) and mangling the salary cap, could you see Morehouse being on the hot seat?

DK: For trades?

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Proud to welcome Josh Yohe, full-time reporter

by • Site stuff •

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Coltie and Josh Yohe at a venue that’s very much familiar to the father.

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

DKonPittsburghSports.com is proud to announce the hiring of Josh Yohe, formerly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, as our first full-time reporter.

It’s our biggest move as a media site since launching, and there isn’t a close second.

For those familiar with Josh’s work in covering the Penguins, he needs no introduction. For those who will be new to it, he’s thorough, he’s articulate, he’s frighteningly knowledgeable in all sports, he’s professional, he’s personable, and he’s universally respected not only by his readers but also by the teams he’s covered. He’s a modern-day sports journalist in every sense.

I say this with no hesitation: Josh has been, for a while now, Pittsburgh’s best young sports writer.

That’s why he’s been my only target for this role from the site’s first day. It wasn’t going to happen overnight. My wife, who’s running the business, was adamant that we first needed a solid financial foundation of subscriptions and sponsorships. Well, we’ve since been blessed in both regards with nearly 11,000 subscriptions and three major advertisers. Because of that, with her clearance — she’s tough — we were able to pursue Josh not just competitively but aggressively.

I’ll let Josh himself speak later today to what he can offer, but to add one final note: You won’t get one less syllable from me. Josh is full-time, but his work, like that of our freelance contributors, doesn’t subtract in any way from what I’ll do. You’ll just get more coverage. A ton more, actually.

Please join me in welcoming my excellent friend, now officially along for our little experiment.

Monday planner: Reds, rivals and rookies

by • Site stuff •

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

A look at the week ahead on the site …

Monday: Going to take this one down, if possible, bracing for a busy few days to follow.

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Tuesday: Tuesday 10 Qs get going at 9 a.m., as ever. By nightfall, the Pirates will be back at PNC Park, with the Reds as visitors. I’ll cover that with a full column.

Wednesday: Return of the Morning Java video. For real. At 5:30 p.m., I’ll make my weekly appearance visit to the 105.9 the X to spar with Mark Madden. Then, more Pirates-Reds at night.

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Covering: NFL Draft, Rounds 4-7

by • Columns •

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Getting ready for the Buccaneers to go on the clock …

Event: 80th NFL Draft, Rounds 4-7, 12:02 p.m., Grant Park, Chicago

Steelers’ picks: Nos. 121, 160, 199, 212 (comp), 239

TV, radio: ESPN2, NFL Network, ESPN3 (online), NFL.com (online)

Online: Draft Tracker / Multimedia / Official media notes

Contributor Dan Scifo will make his site debut today with player-by-player detail of the entire draft.

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Column: Where is Steelers’ urgency?

by • Columns •

Memphis v Mississippi

Senquez Golson, the Steelers’ second-rounder, leaps for a pass aimed at Memphis’ Tevin Jones. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Maybe my problem is that I think more of the Steelers’ chances in 2015 than they do.

Honestly, that could be it.

Because, see, the view from here entering this NFL Draft was that this team, blessed with one of the NFL’s most bodacious offenses that includes bona fide MVP candidates at quarterback, wide receiver and running back, could have positioned itself to do something special. And not two or three years from now, but right now. This very fall. If only Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin would have taken meaningful steps toward upgrading its 27th-ranked pass defense.

Check that: Colbert and Tomlin could have begun such positioning back in the free-agency period by signing … well, someone, anyone. As opposed to watching reliable Brice McCain walk.

They didn’t. They waited, they watched, they shrugged.

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Saturday site stuff: New radio show on Steelers

by • Site stuff • ,

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

A weekly look at what’s new, what’s coming on our site …

• Happy to announce here that I’ll be doing my own one-hour talk show on Steelers Nation Radio this fall, the official HD online station of the team. It’s tentatively set for Tuesdays during football season, and it should begin during training camp.

Finding the station is as easy as it gets: Either save the link above or, on the Steelers’ official app, click the SNR button in the top right corner.

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I’ll let you know more about details as we get closer, of course.

As with my appearances on the Penguins’ HD station, I’m not being paid. I’m doing both solely to help raise the visibility of this site with those teams’ massive and widespread fan bases.

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Covering: Steelers draft cornerback, wide receiver

by • Coverage •

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Getting ready for the Buccaneers to go on the clock …

Event: 80th NFL Draft, Rounds 2-3, 7 p.m., Auditorium Theatre, Chicago

Steelers’ picks: Nos. 56, 87

TV, radio: ESPN2, NFL Network, ESPN3 (online), NFL.com (online), 970 ESPN

Online: Draft Tracker / Multimedia / Official media notes

I’ll have coverage from Steelers HQ with a full column tonight. Contributor Dan Scifo will make his site debut tomorrow with player-by-player detail of the entire draft, including Rounds 4-7.

Earlier today, the Steelers’ first-round pick, outside linebacker Bud Dupree of Kentucky, met with the local broadcast media for the standard photo-op session. Here’s video from that.

UPDATE 9:02 p.m. The Steelers take Mississippi cornerback Senquez Golson with their second-round pick, 56th overall. He’s 5-8 1/2, but he had 10 interceptions in 2014. Also, was selected in the eighth round of the 2012 Major League Baseball draft by the Red Sox as a center fielder.

Carnell Lake: “What I measure DBs on is how tough they are. That’s what matters to me.”

Lake said, “If he’d been 2 inches taller, we wouldn’t have gotten him. High first round. He has unusual ball skills. Even if you look at the corners taken ahead of him, they can’t match his productivity, especially last year.”

10:53 p.m.: The Steelers draft Auburn wide receiver Sammie Coates in the third round.

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Column: Steelers’ worn path not working out

by • Columns •

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Bud Dupree holds up his new Steelers jersey with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell Thursday in Chicago. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Alvin Dupree, or Bud, as he’s been known since he was big enough to tell kids to stop calling him Alvin, sounds like a sensationally nice kid.

He’s also a superb athletic specimen at 6 feet 4, 264 pounds, with speed and strength and, per his performance at the NFL Scouting Combine, he can long-jump from here to Long Island.

So yeah, maybe, just maybe the Steelers got a good one.

Maybe Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin will come up roses for investing their first-round pick in the NFL Draft last night, No. 22 overall, on this highly decorated outside linebacker from the University of Kentucky, and maybe Colbert will be vindicated eventually for declaring to us assembled media afterward, “This is a gift for us” and “We didn’t expect him to be there at 22,” or Tomlin for describing Dupree as a “unique animal.”

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Friday Insider: How serious is Cutch’s knee issue?

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Andrew McCutchen looks to the field from the visitors’ dugout Sunday in Phoenix. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Roundup of a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our teams …

• It doesn’t take much to see that Andrew McCutchen isn’t himself these days. No more than a casual glance at his statistics, really: He’s batting .194 through the Pirates’ first month, with two home runs, five extra-base hits and zero steals.

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It also doesn’t take much to see — or hear — that he isn’t healthy. On April 11, for the first time after a spring in which he was rested with what the team was vaguely describing as “lower-body soreness,” he came clean with reporters that his left knee was causing him “acute” pain and accounted for at least part, if not all, of that soreness. He further rated his health at “80 percent.”

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Covering: Steelers take Kentucky’s Dupree

by • Columns •

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Getting ready for the Buccaneers to go on the clock …

Event: 80th NFL Draft, Round 1, 8 p.m., Auditorium Theatre, Chicago

Steelers’ pick: No. 22

TV, radio: ESPN, NFL Network, NFL.com (online), 970 ESPN

Online: Draft Tracker / Multimedia / Official media notes

I’ll have coverage from Steelers HQ with a full column going up after midnight. I’ll have Rounds 2-3 tomorrow, and contributor Dan Scifo will make his site debut Saturday with the rest of the draft.

UPDATE 10:27 p.m.: The Steelers take Kentucky outside linebacker Bud Dupree.

10:37 p.m.: Kevin Colbert: “We talked about outside linebacker being deep in impact players, and we certainly feel we got an impact player. We’re excited. We’re excited he was down there for us at No. 22. Quite honestly, we didn’t expect that.”

Mike Tomlin: “He’s a very versatile athlete. We’re excited about having him.”

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Welcome our newest sponsor: Riverhounds

by • Site stuff •

Kevin Kerr converts a penalty Saturday at Highmark Stadium, part of a 5-1 rout of Toronto FC II. -- RIVERHOUNDS

Kevin Kerr converts a penalty Saturday at Highmark Stadium, part of a 5-1 rout of Toronto FC II. — RIVERHOUNDS

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Our third and newest major sponsor for the site: Riverhounds.

I feel compelled to make a post about this mostly out of appreciation for the team’s support of our site, but also because, well, they’re a team I cover for this site. And that sort of thing, in general, can and has raised eyebrows anywhere it’s happened, even though it happens a lot in this day and age of media/sports cross-pollination.

Our agreement with the team is such that coverage, whether praising or critical or none at all, isn’t conditional. If the team doesn’t like what it reads or doesn’t read here, it will be free to file any and all complaints in the same circular file available to the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates. It works the same way for agreements between the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates and both local newspapers — and every one of those entities is connected to one of those papers to some degree — and it will work that way here.

As one wise man once advised, it’s like church and state. There’s business, and there’s coverage.

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Column: In reality, Rutherford stronger than ever

by • Columns •

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Jim Rutherford addresses reporters Tuesday at Consol Energy Center. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Jim Rutherford never looked or sounded stronger.

Sure, the Penguins’ general manager made his share of mistakes in his first season in Pittsburgh, and he invested much of his half-hour, season-ending press conference at Consol Energy Center candidly, almost casually, citing some of those one after the other.

Sure, he repeatedly referred to Pascal Dupuis as ‘Du-pree,’ while somehow avoiding so much as a snicker from the roomful of us reporter types, presumably because, hey, we’d all do well in life to be handling a job like his at age 66.

Sure, he had to address any senstivity he might have toward criticism, in light of his profanity-laced criticism of a Tribune-Review columnist last week that made headlines across the continent, beginning, of course, with one in the Tribune-Review.

And sure, it came across as far less than convincing when he said, near the end of it all: “I think we had a pretty good team. If we were healthy, I’d feel good with the moves that were made.”

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