July 10, 2026 • 41 mins
Mark is joind by Noah Hiles to talk Bucco baseball. Tim Benz pops on for his end of week chat. Ask Mark Anything!
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
It's a big weekend for the Pirates, with a whole
lot to talk about, not at least their three game
series with Milwaukee that starts tonight at PNC.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Joining us now from the Post Gazette.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
It's calling this Noah, Hailes, Noah, when are they going
to upgrade Lezinski's role and what would you suggest?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I'm actually writing about that right now for the Post
Gazette for my Sunday column, Mark, So, I'm glad you
gave me a chance to promote it. I don't know
what you do with them, but you got to do
something more.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Than what he's doing now.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I think there are two options. One is make him
your top high leverage guy. Not saying he needs to
be the closer, but he's their best relief pitcher. He's
better than Gregory Soto, and if you look through the
entire Charrington era, he's been their second best relief pitcher
that they've had minus David Bednar. So he knows what
he's doing. You can put him in high leverage situations.
(00:54):
You need to be pitching him in relief more than
once or twice a week if he's going.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
To remain in the bullpen, and if that's not an option.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
If for some reason you don't feel comfortable pitching him
in high leverage, then make him a starter again, because
he's one of your best five starting pitchers. Mitch Keller
is just not as good of a starting pitcher this
year as Karma Maginski, And it's not really even close.
And while you know Keller probably wouldn't love a demotion
to the bullpen, and he has not been reliable, I
(01:22):
would rather see Mitch Keller pitch in the eighth inning
than Dennis Santana or any of these other rookies who
have proven to not be ready for the major League.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, talk of the devil.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Why is Dennis Santana so bad this year after being
pretty good last year?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
In Is he going to get DF eight?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
I don't know. I mean, I think we're approaching on
that territory just because how much more run can you
give him? There's no one who can hide in this
bullpen right now.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Mark.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Normally, when you have an even average bullpen and you
have a guy struggling, you can kind of bury them
at the bottom and put them in advantageous situation to
get them going again. But right now that doesn't exist
on this team because you don't have anyone you can
really depend on, and that's how you trot out a
guy in high leverage spots only to continue to fail.
(02:12):
So they've given him a lot of opportunities. I still
think they believe in him. But we're getting to a
point in the season where they're gonna start adding people
to this bullpen, and they're gonna start getting healthier too,
and when you're making roster moves, you might have to
clear space on the forty man and he might be
one of the casualties.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
This isn't till Sunday, Noah, but we've been talking a
lot about this matchup Skeens versus the Miz. What's your
take because it seems to be to be pretty big,
probably more so for Skeens.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, I think so. I wrote earlier this week that
this was the biggest week of Paul Skeens's time in
Pittsburgh because he had that nine game losing streak hovering
over him like a black cloud, and I said, he
needs to win both of his starts.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
He checked the first box. He won.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
He wasn't amazing, but he looked better than what he
had in recent outings, and now he needs to continue
that momentum. If he can go out and beat Misseraki,
who outpitched him the last time they faced each other
last year in Milwaukee, and who is by far, I
think the best pitcher in the National League this year,
If he can go out there and get his team
a win against the Brewers heading into the All Star Break,
(03:22):
you feel a little bit better about this team simply
because when you look at how injured they are in
their problems, this is a team who needs a starting
pitcher to carry them, to have a guy where once
a week you know we're gonna win when he pitches.
That hasn't been Paul Skames this year.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
He needs to.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Get back on track. And if he can go out
and win his last two starts before the All Star break,
halfway halfway there now, and go out and finish that
with a win over Miseraki, You're gonna feel good about
this team now.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Everybody is wondering why Skeens is lost to the Lasity,
not least me Noah in One theory is he's down
at on to conserve his arm for the long run.
Another is that he's been told to pitch the contact
by Garrett.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Cole do you buy any of that?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
And if any of that is true, wouldn't you dive
the velocity up when you face miss in Milwaukee on
Sunday for that matter, when you face showey Otani earlier
this season?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, I mean I did see his velocity was up
a little bit his last start, So I think that that. Yeah,
And I don't think it needs to be at one hundred.
I think if you get it to where it was
last year, which was around ninety eight, I think that's fine.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
He's pretty good last year.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, but you need to crack one hundred once in
a while because that's where the aura factor, the intimidation
factor comes in.
Speaker 7 (04:40):
I think so too.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Maybe the first inning you throw, not anything inside, but
just throwing a hundred just to say, yeah, the line
can still roar. Yeah. So I agree, and I'm sure
he's considered that. I don't know if this is by
design or if there's actually something wrong. I think the
only person who does is pall schemes truly, but overall,
(05:01):
I mean, velocity or not. If the fastball command is
there he had, that's a big first step for him.
So if it's at ninety seven and he can and
he can command it and tunnel other pitches through it.
That's how Paul Skins is great, and a couple of
miles an hour difference might not be that big of
a deal.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
We're talking to Noah, how's the Post gazette here on
the X. This is going all the way back to Tuesday, Noah.
But how about Fricka O'Hearn. He was like Willy the
Stars on Tuesday and it wasn't a fluke. I mean,
three home runs has an element of that, the right
swing on the right night. But he's been such a
great hitter all year. Everybody calls him a professional hitter,
(05:44):
and that is such an app description.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, this is their Russell Martin signing of this generation.
They're different players, they're different positions. But and I was
talking about this on my podcast, I think this is
a signing where other players in days fall will see like, hey,
you know what, he got paid decent money and he
went to Pittsburgh and his you know, production didn't crater.
Because that's been the story for a lot of free
(06:09):
agents who have come here over the last five, six,
seven years. As you come here and you get worse.
Ryan o'heart's having He's on track to have the best
year of his career here and he's going to be
here next year. So I think, yes, it's benefited the
Pirates in twenty twenty six. He's been a great player
in the clubhouse. He's been super productive at the plate.
But it's also a huge win for the organization where
(06:30):
I think now some of that stigma that prevented them
from getting other good players might have been a race.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I mean, they traded for Loud but the same story.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Right, yeah, and like that's they they needed that, man,
I mean they had that.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
On the pitching side.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
You could point to Quintana coming here and pitching well,
Chapman coming here and pitching well. There were a whole
bunch of examples there. And obviously the way they've developed
guys like Sean's and Jones and Ashcrat, but you have
haven't seen an external addition as a hitter really come
in and improve throughout.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
This current regime.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
And now you have guys i mean Lows in the
midst of a career year Ohearn Mangum is even improving.
I mean, this is a big win for their future,
even if they don't make the playoffs this year, which
I don't think they will. You can look at the
way that they added and say, like, hey, you know what,
like they have guys around you if you come here
(07:31):
that will help you become a productive hitter.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Can they survive all these injuries.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I think they've done an admirable job so far, but
I don't sense a move is intimate imminent and a
lot of times when you you know, we're dealing with
a number of injuries, it might take a while, but
it does catch up.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, I think it does catch up. Now I will
say I think Horowitz and Cruise will be back pretty soon.
So giving those two back will be huge. The Griffin
injury is the one that is tough because he and
everyone I was talking about this on Twitter. Everyone points out, oh,
(08:10):
he only has you know, a league average.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Ops, it ain't.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
About the bat, it's the gloves, it's the base running.
And in addition to those things, and.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
I'll throw one other thing and it's the top of
the order. The top of the order is is just
the whole New ball game with with Griffin, Batton leadoff,
yeah or Horowitz.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I mean the fact that you have those two guys
to platoon at leadoff Horrowitz against right handers, Griffin against
left handers. I mean having a twenty base stealer, having
a guy who's going to be able to get you
out of jams with defense and making spectacular catches and
double plays. You're losing a lot of value all around
(08:48):
the diamond when you lose him.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
So that's why I think.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
I mean, yes, the bullpen is obviously a clear need.
I think the bullpen could be better if they just
use Magensk the right way.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
They don't have that.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
As far as the shortstop is concerned, I think they
need to go get a legitimate shortstop who can maybe
not replicate Griffin's production, but play the position a little
bit better than Jared Triolo.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
You know, I want to.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Get back to Leginski for just a second, because why
won't they upgrade him? Like when a guy pitches as
well as he has and doesn't get more, you almost
conclude that they just don't like him, maybe because he
popped off when he got dropped from the rotation. But
I can't come up with another explanation.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Noah, I mean, and this is pure speculation, but it
makes me think that part of the way they even
got him to pitch in the bullpen was, Hey, we're
only gonna use you in long releaf situations, so you
can stay stretched out, and as soon as we need
a starting pitcher, we're gonna put you back in the rotation.
That's the only thing that would make sense to me.
And I'm not insinuating that that's indeed the case, but
(09:53):
I mean, if you look, he has not thrown just
one singular ending of relief yet, right.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
No, no, no, you're right, I mean, and when nothing
adds up logically, then you gotta kind of grasp. But
straws now this series with Milwaukee. No, it seems big,
don't it. And I'm very content, by the way, with
Ashcraft starting the first game and then he goes to
the All Star game.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Right now he's their guy.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Yeah, that's what you want. If you have a huge
series and you have Ashcraft and Schemes pitching in it,
like this is a if you want to be a
playoff team, these are the series you have to win. Yep,
the Birders are a better team than the Pirates. They are.
But you're at home and you have your two all
stars on the mound in two of these three games,
you gotta win. Them, and if you can't, then he
deserves to be under five hundred and you don't deserve
(10:37):
to make the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
No, here's an unpleasant question. If the trade deadline was
right now, would they trade Brandon Lau.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
No, I don't think they would. I don't think they
would just because I think if you look, I mean
they they gotta survive July. I don't think they're completely
out on this team yet, and I just think the
people making those visions know that they need to continue
competing otherwise their jobs are over.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Okay, I agree with you. Let's fast forward.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
What if there's still four and a half out at
the deadline, because that's not insurmountable at that point, but
it's unlikely. And I think this team has to really
think about optics.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, No, and I think, yeah, optics play a big part.
If Ben Sherrington's the GM at the deadline, which I've
heard nothing to suggest that he won't be, then they're
going to be buying, or at the very least.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I mean, it might not be overwhelming buying.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
But I just can't see a world where he would
be allowed to be a seller. Like if you're getting
to the point where you're selling. I think you've got
to be multiple games under five hundred. You got to
be at least five six back of the final wild card.
But if it's within four, if you're still hovering around
five hundred, you're making some sort of move and you're
(11:54):
certainly not selling off your most valuable player.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
There's some talk that they might try their compensatory pick.
You can't trade a regular pick, but you can't trade
a compensatory pick in the draft, and they pick what
at thirty six overall? I mean, what could you get
for that? Is that that big of a pick? That
first off, I don't think you should trade picks. I
think every sport would be better off if you couldn't.
But what could they get and how likely is it?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I saw ESPN reported that the asking price is a
mid to high leverage reliever, and I think that that's fair.
I mean, I haven't looked at the slot value at that,
but it's probably worth a couple million dollars as to
what the signing bonus would be. So I mean, you look,
I mean, ironically enough, you want to know who was
a cock pick, Carmen Maginski, So maybe you should trade
(12:39):
for a guy like that wouldn't it be cool to
have him in your bullpen?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
No, great stuff, great work at the PG two. We'll
talk again.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Soon, absolutely, Mark, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
That's no House up next.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
We've been talking a lot about the Skemes versus misstart
on Sunday, which I will be at. Joey Vado, the
X Cincinnati rans hitter, had a very bold statement to
make about the Miz.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
We'll hear that in a moment here on the X
I Heeard Radio.
Speaker 6 (13:07):
Music Trusting the X at one five nine.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
It's Madden on the X on National French Friday, National Friday,
because it's Friday, get it.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I'm going to talk about that later.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
But on Sunday we got the Miz on demand Familiar
Walkay at PNC Miz versus Schiens. What a matchup it's
going to beat? And Joey Vono, the X Cincinnati read
he went on the MLB Network and said, Jacob Miseraski
might have the best fastball of all time.
Speaker 8 (13:53):
He has the best fastball, the number one right handed
fastball maybe of all time.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
And what does that mean?
Speaker 8 (14:00):
That means that you can't train to prepare for Jacob
ms Rowski can't. You can't create a machine setting, you
can't have a batting practice thrower, you can't hit off
the tea to prepare for this. So the one most
important tool in all of pitching is a passball, and
he has the maybe the greatest fastball of all time.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
There's a ton to unpack there.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
What Vodo said, Missus topped out at one hundred and
five point five miles per hour. That's the fastest pitch
ever recorded. Now, they only been recording pitches since I
don't know, like two thousand and six or so, so
nobody ever recorded Nolan Ryan, nobody ever recorded Walter Johnson.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
But here's what's nutso about the miss.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
He topped one hundred miles per hour fifty seven times
in the same game.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Like Vodo said, you can't prepare for that.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
And if missus arm falls off at some point, well
it's better than Skiens pitching mediocre. I bet ms totally
overwhelms the Pirates. On Sunday, Bad Vibes headed into the
All Star Break.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
On ESPN some dipstick named David Dennis Junior.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
He says Kitlen Clark is just a victim of kind
of typical rookie hazing.
Speaker 9 (15:30):
What bothers me is when this is framed as some
sort of like petty jealousy or insecurity by these women
in WNBA, because that's not what I'm seeing what's happening
with Kayln Clark. Kaylen Clark is experiencing pretty much what
happens anytime a young player comes into the league with
a lot of hype, especially the hype that she's receiving,
(15:51):
that says all of these the whole entire league basically
should be thankful that she's there. She's going to be
the best player that you've ever seen. When I heard
this happens in any league, in any sport, in any gender,
there is back lasted.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Then Yeah, here's the thing, you douf us, that's just
not true. It doesn't happen all the time. And anyway,
Clark's been in the WNBA for a while now, three years.
Angel Reis came in at the same time and with
fanfare and got the exact opposite treatment. And what dumbass
(16:30):
is describing it didn't happen to Wayne Gretzky, didn't happen
to Michael Jordan, didn't happen to Paul Skeens, didn't happen
to Peyton Manning, didn't happen to Conor McDavid, It didn't
happen to any of those promising young stars.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Unquote.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
No, it only happened to Caitlyn Clark because she's straight
in whites.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
All of Caitlyn Clark's.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Problems stem from her being straight and white in a
league that is primarily not so. Unless you're willing to
admit that, Please STFU when it comes to Caitlin Clark.
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gonna talk to Tim Bins of the trib. It's Madden
on the X. It's The Woody Show weekday mornings at
six of course X music on one The X from.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
The NJM Insurance Weather Center.
Speaker 10 (18:55):
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Speaker 1 (19:00):
Scotted storms will continue tonight, but cloudy overnight, dropping down
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Speaker 6 (19:08):
With VX at one oh five nine.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Time to keep talking Bucco baseball, maybe a little Steelers too.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I'm joined now by Tim Benz of The Trip. Tim.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Are the Pirates still in the wild Card race or
do they just kind of look like it? There can
be a difference, can't there?
Speaker 5 (19:25):
There can be. I would say that they're still in
it now because I think enough the teams that are
directly in front of them for at least that last
spot are flawed enough that they could fall off as
well in the second half of the season. So I
would say right now, even though they're five back with
a couple teams in between, I don't think that there's
(19:46):
necessarily a bang on pick of those three or four
teams that they got to climb over to get to
the three hole that's absolutely going to take off like
a rocket in the second half. There might prove to
be some that are better and can hold off the Pirates,
But for the time being, anyway, I think they're in it.
Let's see how it all looks when the injuries come back,
and maybe some of these pictures can find themselves to
(20:07):
a certain degree. After the All Star break, who.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Do you feels go to wild Card locked up Philly
in the Cubs?
Speaker 7 (20:14):
I think yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
And maybe that's bias on my part because I thought
those guys would be in the playoffs anyway, So maybe
that's me just sort of seeing some self fulfilling prophecy
come to light. But yeah, I would say those two
are probably gonna make the wild Card unless Chicago finds
another one of its trademark ten game losing streaks, which
has stumbled into a couple times this year. But I
(20:36):
think they've righted the ship enough that you can look
at them being the one of the two and Philly
being the other one of the two.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
They caught up two pictures from the miners, but I
don't think that solves much.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
How would you shake up the staff?
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Well, I've heard the conversations about replacing Leginski into the
rotation and moving Keller out, and I wouldn't have a
problem with that. I would advocate for that, But I
don't know that i'd advocate for Keller coming out of
the bullpen. That's the problem. I don't know what you'd
do with Keller. The preference of do you want Majinski
(21:10):
in and Keller out. My answer would be yes, But
I don't want Keller working out of the bullpen because
he's started slow on a number of occasions and he's
not even pitching well enough to be a relief pitcher
right now period. So that's the tough part about that equation.
If he's going to be the guy out for Majinsky
to go back in.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
What are you expecting when Skeen's in miss square off Sunday.
It's almost like before versus after how it started and
how it's going. It's a real odd match up considering
where each pitcher is at.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
I have every reason to believe that Visarowski's going to
be the better pitcher, and he's going to throw harder,
and he's going to be more effective, and he's not
gonna overthink himself. That's what I'm expecting.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I would love.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
For Paul Skins to surprise this and you know, pitch one,
be one on one and say, okay, this is what
I still have and on what is amounting to a
National League starter versus National League starter All Star Game,
I'm going to show it to you guys. I would
love to see that, but I have no reason to
believe it's going to happen. So I think Misraski has
(22:19):
been the better pitcher will continue their pitcher, and Schemes
has to figure out how to tap back into what
he had, and I think a lot of that has
to do with trimming back his arsenal pitches, worrying less
about tunneling to make every pitch look exactly the same,
figure out what's wrong with his delivery, because I do
think that's got something to do with why he can't
(22:39):
find velocity with control.
Speaker 7 (22:42):
And I also think that he's.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Got to get over being perhaps spooked by the ABS system.
I think all of those factors are part of the
reasons why he is struggling so far this year.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yeah, and everything you could describe brings me back to
what my points been about his decline all along.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Why can't he just grow hard?
Speaker 1 (23:00):
If he throws hard like he did the last two years,
everything else he talked about, would one hundred percent take
care of itself.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
Well, did you see the quotes that Ben Sherrington had
when he was asked directly about Skeines's velocity dip?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Go ahead?
Speaker 5 (23:16):
He said, This is from Aiden Sebanski from MLB dot com,
who covers the Pirates, is new on the beat this year.
He said, we continue to dig into that with Paul.
We obviously look at the biomechanics and delivery and how
his body is moving to the extent that there might
be any changes with that. Obviously want that information to
(23:37):
get to Paul and for him to be able to
process and do something with it. To do then he says,
Then he added this, then it's another thing to actually
do something with it and make these changes in season
when you're trying to compete every.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Five or six days.
Speaker 7 (23:55):
What does that sound like to you?
Speaker 5 (23:57):
That sounds like to me that they think they found
something and they're trying to convince him that he's the
problem and they've got to convince him.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
To look into it.
Speaker 5 (24:05):
That's how I interpreted it. How did you interpret it?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Here's how I interpret it.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
I think he's a narcissist who thinks he's never wrong
and every decision he makes is right.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
I think you're close on that. I think I don't
think he feels like he's fool proof. I think he
feels like he can figure it out on his own and.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
He has it.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yet, let's get back to Leginski for SECN You you
talked about him a moment ago. Why can't he get
his role upgrade and either to replace Keller in the
rotation to become more of a high leverage reliever. They
must just not like him, That's the only conclusion I
can draw.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
I think they don't know what to do with him,
and I think I actually do think that they would
prefer to have him be a starter. But there's too
many agendas being served right now, and they're trying to
serve agendas of those they deem to be more important.
They deem Jones to be more important, they deemed Bubba
Chandler to be more important, and they deem Mitch Keller's
(25:04):
contract to be more.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Well, they're wrong about Mitch Keller because you got to
pay him what you're paying him anyway, Why not have
him in a role where he doesn't kill you?
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Is he's over five? For Heck's sake, you.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Know, honestly, if we're talking about piggybacks, they might be
better served with him piggybacking Keller than Jones at this point.
And let Jones try to stretch it out beyond the
sixth potentially now or beyond eighty pitches.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
But well, no, My point is about the salary though,
and I've said this repeatedly other sports, other athletes bigger contracts.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
You gotta pay him no matter what. If he sucks,
play somebody else.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
Yeah, you know it's diminishing.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, you don't have to pay him more if he
doesn't play, or less if he doesn't play.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
He just gotta pay him anyway.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
If the results are bad, you're just throwing bad results
after bad money if you keep him in there. It's
basically what you're saying. And I tend to agree with
that at this point. If you're going to trade him
and it looks like you're getting garbage in return, well
you're not getting good results for what you're paying, and
let somebody else pay it. Then, who might be desperate
for a starter because they're in it more than you are,
and they've had an injury or two or you you know,
(26:16):
just give them a mystery back ailment or a hamstring
or something like that, you know, the ever popular oblique injury.
Give them one of those and put them on the
il for a while until you absolutely need them again
because somebody else goes down. But there's no reason. I
understand your point. There's no reason to keep forcing them
out there just because you're paying it, if you're paying
(26:37):
them to be bad. Because it's like you mentioned this,
it's like with goalies. Sometimes you see those with goaltenders too.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
We're talking to Tim Ben's of the trip here on
the X. Tim.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
This three game series against Milwaukee feels big going into
the All Star Break. I think the Powers are a
fragile team. I think their status is a contend results
of very fragile. I think if they get swept here
and that could happen, that could have damaging repercussions moving forward.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Oh sure it could, especially if the negative scenario of
what we just painted with Paul schemes and Missowski passes,
If that happens on Sunday and that completes the sweep
and the Brewers kick them around like they're the big
dogs and the Pirates are just on the fringes, they
might not be on the fringes anymore. And then you know,
when you ask me before about are they still in it?
(27:28):
Yeah they are now, but you know, you get within
a week of the trade deadline, they're five back, with
maybe even more than that. If they're six or seven
back with three or four teams to climb over. Then
Brandon lauas out. And I'll say this for the back
half of the season, should that happen, Mark is going
to be a long slog of baseball because Ashcraft especially
and some of these other pitchers that they want to
(27:49):
control their innings count, they will shut those guys down.
They'll go three innings or they'll just be out of
the rotation and they'll just patch it over with bullpen
games every days. Lee in September. If they got to
get to that.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The Pirates won't trade to help get through the injuries,
will they? And given that I feel like they can't
survive them, they've kept the hitting up better than I
thought they could with the four guys on. I know
Horwitz and Cruz are supposed to come back here soon,
but doesn't have to catch up sooner or later. In
particular with Griffin being out.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
Griffin is the hitch, especially because it affects two things
at once. It doesn't only affect your leadoff spot, well,
actually affects three things. It affects your hitting, your speed,
and your defense at shortstop. Now you can patch over
the shortstop defense, because Treola is good enough there, even
though it's not his best spot, but he's good enough there.
He's hitting a little bit better than I think what
(28:44):
we assume would be the case at the start of
the year when he was still getting lots of that bats.
But it might be a case of a rising tide
carries all boats with him when it comes to offense.
So I keep waiting for the other shoot to drop
and the injuries to catch up, like it Ohearn slump,
if Mangum slumps, if Gonzales slumps. So these guys just
do they happen to be hot to patch it over
(29:05):
until the other players return. If that ends up being
the case, okay, good, But then everybody who's hurt, like
Horowitz crews, they can't just work their way back. If
those other guys peter out, they got to come back
at top four. And if you don't have that offense,
the bolster woulds been a quaky bullpen and an underachieving
(29:25):
starting staff. It could get ugly quick.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
If the trade deadline was Monday, would Brandon last stay
or go?
Speaker 7 (29:34):
I heard what Noah said there. I think if the trade.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
Deadline was Monday and they're five back with that many
teams to go over, and that would also mean by extension.
If the trade deadline was Monday, then you know the
season is in September, they probably do pull the trigger
in trade him. I think, you know, if we're moving
up the whole calendar, I think five with three or
four teams to climb over, despite how weak those teams
(29:58):
might be and potential for them to I think they
would like to get some good return from Brandon Law
because somebody's gonna need a left handed hit or whether
it's a second basement DH or whatever.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
If they're five back at the deadline, the actual deadline,
he definitely goes right.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
Yeah, especially if there's still three or four teams to
get over.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I want to talk a little bit of Steelers tim
because training camp is two weeks away, and I dreaded
what is the biggest story at Steelers' training camp because
it ain't the battle at backup quarterback.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
But that's all we're gonna hear about.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
Agreed, that'll be the most discussed, probably to a nauseating degree.
But I actually think it's the guy in front of everybody.
It's Rogers and his relationship with McCarthy. And I think
it's how quickly they get back in sync. If they
get back in sync, if they can rediscover what they
had before things went south in Green Bay. Not only
that's the biggest story in training camp, Mark, that's the
(30:53):
biggest story of the whole season.
Speaker 7 (30:55):
Because I think it's fair to assume that, especially after what.
Speaker 5 (30:58):
We saw last year when he against good teams as
the season dragged along, Rogers wasn't that good now the
offensive infrastructure around him was poor. I think the players
that he has to work with are better, and theoretically
he has a better offensive mind in McCarthy. But that's
my point that mesh point has to be what makes
(31:20):
the Steelers better, and if it isn't significant, I think
there'll be some natural slippage from Rogers and the offense
could effectively end up looking worse if you go down
that rabbit hole and it goes badly after the first
seven or eight weeks.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
So I think the.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Number one story is how quickly do McCarthy and Rodgers
recapture what they had early in Green Bay if they
find it at all.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Totally agree on the back of that, I think the
Porter Junior situation is big because there's the assumption you'll
hold in for a while, he'll settle blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
But I don't know if it's going to be as easy.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Tom Win used to tell Omar and the Steelers just
pay him the money, and Tomlin had such sway he
had final say it would get done. I'm not sure
it's gonna be exactly the same now. I think her
beginning overpaid makes Porter want to get overpaid. And let's
even say he does hold in and you know, come
in and play at the end of camp with a
(32:17):
new defensive coordinator, Tim and am much change defense. Porter
needs to be on the field during camp, no doubt
about that, and that seems to be being poop poot
is not a big deal.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
I'll go back to one of the first points you
made there, and that's the Tomlin factor. Not only would
Tomlin say that about most of the guys who are
holding in, he would specifically have said that about Joey,
don't you think because of their relationship.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yep, you know.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
So, like if if Tomlin would be here, it would
go away, go away quickly, and Porter would be paid
a lot more than maybe what he's gonna get. I
think so I agree with that part of your premise.
The rest of it, yeah, I do think it's important
for him to be there, especially if they're going to
change the defense, as much as as being positive that
things are going to be different now with Patrick Graham.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
Everybody talks about how it's going to be.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
Different with Patrick Graham, and they're only talking about the
front seven, specifically what and where he's going to go.
But I think how they deploy the secondary is going
to be every bit as much as important.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Finally, Tim, my biggest cause for optimism with the Steelers
is everybody says, and I think it's even visible from
a distance that this is a much better coaching staffer
McCarthy on down and I tend to very much believe that.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
I thought Tomlin was.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
A fraud for a decade, and I thought all his
assistants were yes men and cheap os.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
I don't know about the coordinators and other guys he hired.
He did hire a lot of guys who have been
his sort of cronies in the past. There's a lot
of familiarity being associated.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
That doesn't mean they're yes men.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
Though, no, not necessarily. But I just I don't know
about the new assistance. Yet I do believe that there
were flaws in how Tomlin hired his assistance and how
they went about their business as Tomlin's assistance to the
degree that, Yeah, I think a lot of people on
defense ended up being yes men for him, and I
(34:18):
think a lot of guys on offense had too much
autonomy for their limited coaching capabilities. I think that was
proven very much evident, especially after Ben retired or started
to wane in his skills, when it was Feetner who
became Canada who became smith.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Tim, great stuff.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
As always, We will talk to you Sunday when we
do your podcast.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
You got it, Mark, and people can find that on
the iHeartRadio platform, by the way, and at Triblatt.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
It's very exciting.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
That's Tim Ben's Now it's time to ask Mark anything,
and I do mean anything. Ask me whatever you'd like
about life, liberty and the pursuit of unlawful cardinal knowledge.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Dial four one two w.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Xdx, that's eight three three four one two w xdx,
or you can leave a talk back by using the
microphone icon at the iHeartMedia app UH Spain in Belgium
one to one in the eighty fifth minute, A closer
game than I expected. Call out eight three three four
one two w xdx. It's time to submit your questions
(35:22):
for Ask Mark Anything.
Speaker 6 (35:23):
Use your free iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
App and SAP the microphone icon to send your questions
to the super genius instantly.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
The only show weekday mornings at six wherever you are
and totally free on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (35:38):
One oh five City Big At.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Kenny Ros, Subaru Lisa twenty twenty six Subaru Cross Track
for just two seventy eight per month or a twenty
twenty six outback premium for the Roos, Mark Madden.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
Hey, Mark Cranky as.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
When you got a young trophy wife?
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Ohs Monday to I can't even quote the big o'bowski right, goodbye.
Speaker 6 (35:54):
DX at one oh five.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Nine Mark Anything brought to us by People's natural Gas
dot Com. Excuse me, People's Hyphengas dot com. Safe reliable
natural gas energy. That's People's Hyphengas dot Com.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Here's how the World Cup can go Tibo courtwip.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Uh. Belgium's great goalie got hurt, had to be subbed off.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
It was one one.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Belgium's backup goalie spilled a bad rebound Spain leads two
to one in injury time.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Uh, let's go to Dino. Dino, ask Mark anything.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
Hey, Mark, in the music industry, which these two managers,
do you think was more abusive Colonel Top Parker or
Joe Jackson.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Well, Joe Jackson, I mean he was physically abusive toward
his kids, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
Yeah, he would make him go outside to grab us
switch it do just to whip them with it anytime
they messed up.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yeah, I mean I would say Joe Jackson.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Tom Parker probably stole from Elvis and he got a
fifty to fifty split with Elvis.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
What the management is unheard of.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
But you can't say Elvis didn't have a great career
and Tom Parker was a big part of that, especially
at the beginning.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Well, I brought up Tom Parker because he also pumped
all those drugs to Elvis for that way he could
keep up with like all that excessive touring that he did.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Yeah, but Elvis could have said no, Joe Jackson was
mean to his kids. I think that's a big difference.
Let's go to way. Let's go to Dave.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Dave Favorite ice Cream in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
I'm sorry, Mark Favorite ice cream in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
It's been so long sinside ice cream. I like that.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
There's a place in Green Tree called Antony's at the
bottom of the hill. And there's someplace I'm missing, but
I just don't get ice cream very often.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Oh, there's a place on McKnight Road.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
I forget, not McKnight on Babcock Boulevard, right across Samnicello's,
and I forget the name of it, but they have
really good ice cream.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Thank you, thank you. Let's go to Ken Ken. Askmark anything.
Speaker 11 (38:17):
Well, mister Madden, all like good to talk to here.
We usually talk hockey or baseball. But a question about
the USA men's soccer team, Right, I don't follow a
soccer like you do. You're really a genius on soccer.
But were they maybe overrated or expectations?
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Oh, the US team is always overrated by the population.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Come every World Cup.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
That said, they reached exactly the minimum level of accomplishment
that was acceptable, losing in.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
The round to sixteen.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
The way they lost wasn't great because they were really
outclassed by by a Belgium team.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
That's it's good, but not you know, not like Spain.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Although they held Spain in this game up until their
backup goalkeeper made a mistake. But yeah, I I I, and.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
It goes applies to Polistic too.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Whoever the best US player is gets badly overrated, and
Polistic is the latest beneficiary of that. But in terms
of them over achieving underachieving, whatever they did about what
I expected them to do the minimum acceptable level of accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Let's go to a talkback, Mark.
Speaker 10 (39:32):
I don't know if you've been following the Indianapolis Indians.
Most people don't, But Mike Clevenger, former Cy Young Award winner,
is killing it down there. Bring him up, give him
a chance, saying with Trevor Bauer, take a chance on
these guys.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Clevenger's a former saying award winner. Yeah, bring somebody up
as he bucko property. Why wouldn't you do that? We'll
get those stats. Maybe we'll take a closer look at
that before the show's over. Let's go to another talkback.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Hey, Mark, what are the pirates?
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Is gonna fess up that the pitching coach sucks?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (40:07):
First off, the pitchers, led by Skiings, lobbied for the
pitching coach last year to be replaced. And why can't
Paul Skeens fix himself. You really think Paul Skeens is
bad because he's doing what a new pitching coach told
him to do. You really think that you're really notive
enough to believe that the guy that.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
The entire organization contost to.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Is being told bad things to do by the mean
old pitching coach because I don't believe it. I don't
believe it at all, but a pitching coach. Nobody has
a pitching coach jersey. What's his name, whatever his name is,
Nobody has his jersey. Nobody has a jersey that says
bullpen on the back. Nobody hasn't been Sherrington jersey. That's
why guys are easy to blame in that regard. I
(40:58):
was thinking I must have forgot out some local I
like Milli's. Millise has a few locations for ice cream.
I really like Millie's. There's Antony's Cookies Creamery is the
place on Babcock.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Those are all very good ice creams.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Millie's, Antony's Cookies Creamery my three favorite ice cream spots
in Pittsburgh, although uh the ice cream a cone at
Lake Like, what's that called up there?
Speaker 2 (41:23):
I've got given up plugs for one day.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Uh eight three three four one two w XDX, get
your calls in. A lot of people to blame with
the pirates, and there's one guy in protecting I'm gonna
blame quite a bit just around the corner. And we
got uh Danny Griffin, the River Haunts Captain on at
quarter after five. River Haunts hosting Loud United this Saturday
(41:47):
at FNB Stadium at Station Square one oh five nine,
also Crosstown
It's a big weekend for the Pirates, with a whole
lot to talk about, not at least their three game
series with Milwaukee that starts tonight at PNC.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Joining us now from the Post Gazette.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
It's calling this Noah, Hailes, Noah, when are they going
to upgrade Lezinski's role and what would you suggest?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I'm actually writing about that right now for the Post
Gazette for my Sunday column, Mark, So, I'm glad you
gave me a chance to promote it. I don't know
what you do with them, but you got to do
something more.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Than what he's doing now.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I think there are two options. One is make him
your top high leverage guy. Not saying he needs to
be the closer, but he's their best relief pitcher. He's
better than Gregory Soto, and if you look through the
entire Charrington era, he's been their second best relief pitcher
that they've had minus David Bednar. So he knows what
he's doing. You can put him in high leverage situations.
(00:54):
You need to be pitching him in relief more than
once or twice a week if he's going.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
To remain in the bullpen, and if that's not an option.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
If for some reason you don't feel comfortable pitching him
in high leverage, then make him a starter again, because
he's one of your best five starting pitchers. Mitch Keller
is just not as good of a starting pitcher this
year as Karma Maginski, And it's not really even close.
And while you know Keller probably wouldn't love a demotion
to the bullpen, and he has not been reliable, I
(01:22):
would rather see Mitch Keller pitch in the eighth inning
than Dennis Santana or any of these other rookies who
have proven to not be ready for the major League.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, talk of the devil.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Why is Dennis Santana so bad this year after being
pretty good last year?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
In Is he going to get DF eight?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
I don't know. I mean, I think we're approaching on
that territory just because how much more run can you
give him? There's no one who can hide in this
bullpen right now.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Mark.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Normally, when you have an even average bullpen and you
have a guy struggling, you can kind of bury them
at the bottom and put them in advantageous situation to
get them going again. But right now that doesn't exist
on this team because you don't have anyone you can
really depend on, and that's how you trot out a
guy in high leverage spots only to continue to fail.
(02:12):
So they've given him a lot of opportunities. I still
think they believe in him. But we're getting to a
point in the season where they're gonna start adding people
to this bullpen, and they're gonna start getting healthier too,
and when you're making roster moves, you might have to
clear space on the forty man and he might be
one of the casualties.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
This isn't till Sunday, Noah, but we've been talking a
lot about this matchup Skeens versus the Miz. What's your
take because it seems to be to be pretty big,
probably more so for Skeens.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, I think so. I wrote earlier this week that
this was the biggest week of Paul Skeens's time in
Pittsburgh because he had that nine game losing streak hovering
over him like a black cloud, and I said, he
needs to win both of his starts.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
He checked the first box. He won.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
He wasn't amazing, but he looked better than what he
had in recent outings, and now he needs to continue
that momentum. If he can go out and beat Misseraki,
who outpitched him the last time they faced each other
last year in Milwaukee, and who is by far, I
think the best pitcher in the National League this year,
If he can go out there and get his team
a win against the Brewers heading into the All Star Break,
(03:22):
you feel a little bit better about this team simply
because when you look at how injured they are in
their problems, this is a team who needs a starting
pitcher to carry them, to have a guy where once
a week you know we're gonna win when he pitches.
That hasn't been Paul Skames this year.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
He needs to.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Get back on track. And if he can go out
and win his last two starts before the All Star break,
halfway halfway there now, and go out and finish that
with a win over Miseraki, You're gonna feel good about
this team now.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Everybody is wondering why Skeens is lost to the Lasity,
not least me Noah in One theory is he's down
at on to conserve his arm for the long run.
Another is that he's been told to pitch the contact
by Garrett.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Cole do you buy any of that?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
And if any of that is true, wouldn't you dive
the velocity up when you face miss in Milwaukee on
Sunday for that matter, when you face showey Otani earlier
this season?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, I mean I did see his velocity was up
a little bit his last start, So I think that that. Yeah,
And I don't think it needs to be at one hundred.
I think if you get it to where it was
last year, which was around ninety eight, I think that's fine.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
He's pretty good last year.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, but you need to crack one hundred once in
a while because that's where the aura factor, the intimidation
factor comes in.
Speaker 7 (04:40):
I think so too.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Maybe the first inning you throw, not anything inside, but
just throwing a hundred just to say, yeah, the line
can still roar. Yeah. So I agree, and I'm sure
he's considered that. I don't know if this is by
design or if there's actually something wrong. I think the
only person who does is pall schemes truly, but overall,
(05:01):
I mean, velocity or not. If the fastball command is
there he had, that's a big first step for him.
So if it's at ninety seven and he can and
he can command it and tunnel other pitches through it.
That's how Paul Skins is great, and a couple of
miles an hour difference might not be that big of
a deal.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
We're talking to Noah, how's the Post gazette here on
the X. This is going all the way back to Tuesday, Noah.
But how about Fricka O'Hearn. He was like Willy the
Stars on Tuesday and it wasn't a fluke. I mean,
three home runs has an element of that, the right
swing on the right night. But he's been such a
great hitter all year. Everybody calls him a professional hitter,
(05:44):
and that is such an app description.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, this is their Russell Martin signing of this generation.
They're different players, they're different positions. But and I was
talking about this on my podcast, I think this is
a signing where other players in days fall will see like, hey,
you know what, he got paid decent money and he
went to Pittsburgh and his you know, production didn't crater.
Because that's been the story for a lot of free
(06:09):
agents who have come here over the last five, six,
seven years. As you come here and you get worse.
Ryan o'heart's having He's on track to have the best
year of his career here and he's going to be
here next year. So I think, yes, it's benefited the
Pirates in twenty twenty six. He's been a great player
in the clubhouse. He's been super productive at the plate.
But it's also a huge win for the organization where
(06:30):
I think now some of that stigma that prevented them
from getting other good players might have been a race.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I mean, they traded for Loud but the same story.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Right, yeah, and like that's they they needed that, man,
I mean they had that.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
On the pitching side.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
You could point to Quintana coming here and pitching well,
Chapman coming here and pitching well. There were a whole
bunch of examples there. And obviously the way they've developed
guys like Sean's and Jones and Ashcrat, but you have
haven't seen an external addition as a hitter really come
in and improve throughout.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
This current regime.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
And now you have guys i mean Lows in the
midst of a career year Ohearn Mangum is even improving.
I mean, this is a big win for their future,
even if they don't make the playoffs this year, which
I don't think they will. You can look at the
way that they added and say, like, hey, you know what,
like they have guys around you if you come here
(07:31):
that will help you become a productive hitter.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Can they survive all these injuries.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I think they've done an admirable job so far, but
I don't sense a move is intimate imminent and a
lot of times when you you know, we're dealing with
a number of injuries, it might take a while, but
it does catch up.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, I think it does catch up. Now I will
say I think Horowitz and Cruise will be back pretty soon.
So giving those two back will be huge. The Griffin
injury is the one that is tough because he and
everyone I was talking about this on Twitter. Everyone points out, oh,
(08:10):
he only has you know, a league average.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Ops, it ain't.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
About the bat, it's the gloves, it's the base running.
And in addition to those things, and.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
I'll throw one other thing and it's the top of
the order. The top of the order is is just
the whole New ball game with with Griffin, Batton leadoff,
yeah or Horowitz.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I mean the fact that you have those two guys
to platoon at leadoff Horrowitz against right handers, Griffin against
left handers. I mean having a twenty base stealer, having
a guy who's going to be able to get you
out of jams with defense and making spectacular catches and
double plays. You're losing a lot of value all around
(08:48):
the diamond when you lose him.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
So that's why I think.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
I mean, yes, the bullpen is obviously a clear need.
I think the bullpen could be better if they just
use Magensk the right way.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
They don't have that.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
As far as the shortstop is concerned, I think they
need to go get a legitimate shortstop who can maybe
not replicate Griffin's production, but play the position a little
bit better than Jared Triolo.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
You know, I want to.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Get back to Leginski for just a second, because why
won't they upgrade him? Like when a guy pitches as
well as he has and doesn't get more, you almost
conclude that they just don't like him, maybe because he
popped off when he got dropped from the rotation. But
I can't come up with another explanation.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Noah, I mean, and this is pure speculation, but it
makes me think that part of the way they even
got him to pitch in the bullpen was, Hey, we're
only gonna use you in long releaf situations, so you
can stay stretched out, and as soon as we need
a starting pitcher, we're gonna put you back in the rotation.
That's the only thing that would make sense to me.
And I'm not insinuating that that's indeed the case, but
(09:53):
I mean, if you look, he has not thrown just
one singular ending of relief yet, right.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
No, no, no, you're right, I mean, and when nothing
adds up logically, then you gotta kind of grasp. But
straws now this series with Milwaukee. No, it seems big,
don't it. And I'm very content, by the way, with
Ashcraft starting the first game and then he goes to
the All Star game.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Right now he's their guy.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Yeah, that's what you want. If you have a huge
series and you have Ashcraft and Schemes pitching in it,
like this is a if you want to be a
playoff team, these are the series you have to win. Yep,
the Birders are a better team than the Pirates. They are.
But you're at home and you have your two all
stars on the mound in two of these three games,
you gotta win. Them, and if you can't, then he
deserves to be under five hundred and you don't deserve
(10:37):
to make the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
No, here's an unpleasant question. If the trade deadline was
right now, would they trade Brandon Lau.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
No, I don't think they would. I don't think they
would just because I think if you look, I mean
they they gotta survive July. I don't think they're completely
out on this team yet, and I just think the
people making those visions know that they need to continue
competing otherwise their jobs are over.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Okay, I agree with you. Let's fast forward.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
What if there's still four and a half out at
the deadline, because that's not insurmountable at that point, but
it's unlikely. And I think this team has to really
think about optics.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, No, and I think, yeah, optics play a big part.
If Ben Sherrington's the GM at the deadline, which I've
heard nothing to suggest that he won't be, then they're
going to be buying, or at the very least.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I mean, it might not be overwhelming buying.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
But I just can't see a world where he would
be allowed to be a seller. Like if you're getting
to the point where you're selling. I think you've got
to be multiple games under five hundred. You got to
be at least five six back of the final wild card.
But if it's within four, if you're still hovering around
five hundred, you're making some sort of move and you're
(11:54):
certainly not selling off your most valuable player.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
There's some talk that they might try their compensatory pick.
You can't trade a regular pick, but you can't trade
a compensatory pick in the draft, and they pick what
at thirty six overall? I mean, what could you get
for that? Is that that big of a pick? That
first off, I don't think you should trade picks. I
think every sport would be better off if you couldn't.
But what could they get and how likely is it?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I saw ESPN reported that the asking price is a
mid to high leverage reliever, and I think that that's fair.
I mean, I haven't looked at the slot value at that,
but it's probably worth a couple million dollars as to
what the signing bonus would be. So I mean, you look,
I mean, ironically enough, you want to know who was
a cock pick, Carmen Maginski, So maybe you should trade
(12:39):
for a guy like that wouldn't it be cool to
have him in your bullpen?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
No, great stuff, great work at the PG two. We'll
talk again.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Soon, absolutely, Mark, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
That's no House up next.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
We've been talking a lot about the Skemes versus misstart
on Sunday, which I will be at. Joey Vado, the
X Cincinnati rans hitter, had a very bold statement to
make about the Miz.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
We'll hear that in a moment here on the X
I Heeard Radio.
Speaker 6 (13:07):
Music Trusting the X at one five nine.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
It's Madden on the X on National French Friday, National Friday,
because it's Friday, get it.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I'm going to talk about that later.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
But on Sunday we got the Miz on demand Familiar
Walkay at PNC Miz versus Schiens. What a matchup it's
going to beat? And Joey Vono, the X Cincinnati read
he went on the MLB Network and said, Jacob Miseraski
might have the best fastball of all time.
Speaker 8 (13:53):
He has the best fastball, the number one right handed
fastball maybe of all time.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
And what does that mean?
Speaker 8 (14:00):
That means that you can't train to prepare for Jacob
ms Rowski can't. You can't create a machine setting, you
can't have a batting practice thrower, you can't hit off
the tea to prepare for this. So the one most
important tool in all of pitching is a passball, and
he has the maybe the greatest fastball of all time.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
There's a ton to unpack there.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
What Vodo said, Missus topped out at one hundred and
five point five miles per hour. That's the fastest pitch
ever recorded. Now, they only been recording pitches since I
don't know, like two thousand and six or so, so
nobody ever recorded Nolan Ryan, nobody ever recorded Walter Johnson.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
But here's what's nutso about the miss.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
He topped one hundred miles per hour fifty seven times
in the same game.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Like Vodo said, you can't prepare for that.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
And if missus arm falls off at some point, well
it's better than Skiens pitching mediocre. I bet ms totally
overwhelms the Pirates. On Sunday, Bad Vibes headed into the
All Star Break.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
On ESPN some dipstick named David Dennis Junior.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
He says Kitlen Clark is just a victim of kind
of typical rookie hazing.
Speaker 9 (15:30):
What bothers me is when this is framed as some
sort of like petty jealousy or insecurity by these women
in WNBA, because that's not what I'm seeing what's happening
with Kayln Clark. Kaylen Clark is experiencing pretty much what
happens anytime a young player comes into the league with
a lot of hype, especially the hype that she's receiving,
(15:51):
that says all of these the whole entire league basically
should be thankful that she's there. She's going to be
the best player that you've ever seen. When I heard
this happens in any league, in any sport, in any gender,
there is back lasted.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Then Yeah, here's the thing, you douf us, that's just
not true. It doesn't happen all the time. And anyway,
Clark's been in the WNBA for a while now, three years.
Angel Reis came in at the same time and with
fanfare and got the exact opposite treatment. And what dumbass
(16:30):
is describing it didn't happen to Wayne Gretzky, didn't happen
to Michael Jordan, didn't happen to Paul Skeens, didn't happen
to Peyton Manning, didn't happen to Conor McDavid, It didn't
happen to any of those promising young stars.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Unquote.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
No, it only happened to Caitlyn Clark because she's straight
in whites.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
All of Caitlyn Clark's.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Problems stem from her being straight and white in a
league that is primarily not so. Unless you're willing to
admit that, Please STFU when it comes to Caitlin Clark.
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gonna talk to Tim Bins of the trib. It's Madden
on the X. It's The Woody Show weekday mornings at
six of course X music on one The X from.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
The NJM Insurance Weather Center.
Speaker 10 (18:55):
This report is sponsored by Groundworks, your local experts for
foundation and concrete repair.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Scotted storms will continue tonight, but cloudy overnight, dropping down
to sixty seven. Cloudy skies tomorrow, high of eighty partly
cloudy on Sunday.
Speaker 6 (19:08):
With VX at one oh five nine.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Time to keep talking Bucco baseball, maybe a little Steelers too.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I'm joined now by Tim Benz of The Trip. Tim.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Are the Pirates still in the wild Card race or
do they just kind of look like it? There can
be a difference, can't there?
Speaker 5 (19:25):
There can be. I would say that they're still in
it now because I think enough the teams that are
directly in front of them for at least that last
spot are flawed enough that they could fall off as
well in the second half of the season. So I
would say right now, even though they're five back with
a couple teams in between, I don't think that there's
(19:46):
necessarily a bang on pick of those three or four
teams that they got to climb over to get to
the three hole that's absolutely going to take off like
a rocket in the second half. There might prove to
be some that are better and can hold off the Pirates,
But for the time being, anyway, I think they're in it.
Let's see how it all looks when the injuries come back,
and maybe some of these pictures can find themselves to
(20:07):
a certain degree. After the All Star break, who.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Do you feels go to wild Card locked up Philly
in the Cubs?
Speaker 7 (20:14):
I think yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
And maybe that's bias on my part because I thought
those guys would be in the playoffs anyway, So maybe
that's me just sort of seeing some self fulfilling prophecy
come to light. But yeah, I would say those two
are probably gonna make the wild Card unless Chicago finds
another one of its trademark ten game losing streaks, which
has stumbled into a couple times this year. But I
(20:36):
think they've righted the ship enough that you can look
at them being the one of the two and Philly
being the other one of the two.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
They caught up two pictures from the miners, but I
don't think that solves much.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
How would you shake up the staff?
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Well, I've heard the conversations about replacing Leginski into the
rotation and moving Keller out, and I wouldn't have a
problem with that. I would advocate for that, But I
don't know that i'd advocate for Keller coming out of
the bullpen. That's the problem. I don't know what you'd
do with Keller. The preference of do you want Majinski
(21:10):
in and Keller out. My answer would be yes, But
I don't want Keller working out of the bullpen because
he's started slow on a number of occasions and he's
not even pitching well enough to be a relief pitcher
right now period. So that's the tough part about that equation.
If he's going to be the guy out for Majinsky
to go back in.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
What are you expecting when Skeen's in miss square off Sunday.
It's almost like before versus after how it started and
how it's going. It's a real odd match up considering
where each pitcher is at.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
I have every reason to believe that Visarowski's going to
be the better pitcher, and he's going to throw harder,
and he's going to be more effective, and he's not
gonna overthink himself. That's what I'm expecting.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I would love.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
For Paul Skins to surprise this and you know, pitch one,
be one on one and say, okay, this is what
I still have and on what is amounting to a
National League starter versus National League starter All Star Game,
I'm going to show it to you guys. I would
love to see that, but I have no reason to
believe it's going to happen. So I think Misraski has
(22:19):
been the better pitcher will continue their pitcher, and Schemes
has to figure out how to tap back into what
he had, and I think a lot of that has
to do with trimming back his arsenal pitches, worrying less
about tunneling to make every pitch look exactly the same,
figure out what's wrong with his delivery, because I do
think that's got something to do with why he can't
(22:39):
find velocity with control.
Speaker 7 (22:42):
And I also think that he's.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Got to get over being perhaps spooked by the ABS system.
I think all of those factors are part of the
reasons why he is struggling so far this year.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yeah, and everything you could describe brings me back to
what my points been about his decline all along.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Why can't he just grow hard?
Speaker 1 (23:00):
If he throws hard like he did the last two years,
everything else he talked about, would one hundred percent take
care of itself.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
Well, did you see the quotes that Ben Sherrington had
when he was asked directly about Skeines's velocity dip?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Go ahead?
Speaker 5 (23:16):
He said, This is from Aiden Sebanski from MLB dot com,
who covers the Pirates, is new on the beat this year.
He said, we continue to dig into that with Paul.
We obviously look at the biomechanics and delivery and how
his body is moving to the extent that there might
be any changes with that. Obviously want that information to
(23:37):
get to Paul and for him to be able to
process and do something with it. To do then he says,
Then he added this, then it's another thing to actually
do something with it and make these changes in season
when you're trying to compete every.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Five or six days.
Speaker 7 (23:55):
What does that sound like to you?
Speaker 5 (23:57):
That sounds like to me that they think they found
something and they're trying to convince him that he's the
problem and they've got to convince him.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
To look into it.
Speaker 5 (24:05):
That's how I interpreted it. How did you interpret it?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Here's how I interpret it.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
I think he's a narcissist who thinks he's never wrong
and every decision he makes is right.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
I think you're close on that. I think I don't
think he feels like he's fool proof. I think he
feels like he can figure it out on his own and.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
He has it.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yet, let's get back to Leginski for SECN You you
talked about him a moment ago. Why can't he get
his role upgrade and either to replace Keller in the
rotation to become more of a high leverage reliever. They
must just not like him, That's the only conclusion I
can draw.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
I think they don't know what to do with him,
and I think I actually do think that they would
prefer to have him be a starter. But there's too
many agendas being served right now, and they're trying to
serve agendas of those they deem to be more important.
They deem Jones to be more important, they deemed Bubba
Chandler to be more important, and they deem Mitch Keller's
(25:04):
contract to be more.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Well, they're wrong about Mitch Keller because you got to
pay him what you're paying him anyway, Why not have
him in a role where he doesn't kill you?
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Is he's over five? For Heck's sake, you.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Know, honestly, if we're talking about piggybacks, they might be
better served with him piggybacking Keller than Jones at this point.
And let Jones try to stretch it out beyond the
sixth potentially now or beyond eighty pitches.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
But well, no, My point is about the salary though,
and I've said this repeatedly other sports, other athletes bigger contracts.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
You gotta pay him no matter what. If he sucks,
play somebody else.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
Yeah, you know it's diminishing.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, you don't have to pay him more if he
doesn't play, or less if he doesn't play.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
He just gotta pay him anyway.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
If the results are bad, you're just throwing bad results
after bad money if you keep him in there. It's
basically what you're saying. And I tend to agree with
that at this point. If you're going to trade him
and it looks like you're getting garbage in return, well
you're not getting good results for what you're paying, and
let somebody else pay it. Then, who might be desperate
for a starter because they're in it more than you are,
and they've had an injury or two or you you know,
(26:16):
just give them a mystery back ailment or a hamstring
or something like that, you know, the ever popular oblique injury.
Give them one of those and put them on the
il for a while until you absolutely need them again
because somebody else goes down. But there's no reason. I
understand your point. There's no reason to keep forcing them
out there just because you're paying it, if you're paying
(26:37):
them to be bad. Because it's like you mentioned this,
it's like with goalies. Sometimes you see those with goaltenders too.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
We're talking to Tim Ben's of the trip here on
the X. Tim.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
This three game series against Milwaukee feels big going into
the All Star Break. I think the Powers are a
fragile team. I think their status is a contend results
of very fragile. I think if they get swept here
and that could happen, that could have damaging repercussions moving forward.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Oh sure it could, especially if the negative scenario of
what we just painted with Paul schemes and Missowski passes,
If that happens on Sunday and that completes the sweep
and the Brewers kick them around like they're the big
dogs and the Pirates are just on the fringes, they
might not be on the fringes anymore. And then you know,
when you ask me before about are they still in it?
(27:28):
Yeah they are now, but you know, you get within
a week of the trade deadline, they're five back, with
maybe even more than that. If they're six or seven
back with three or four teams to climb over. Then
Brandon lauas out. And I'll say this for the back
half of the season, should that happen, Mark is going
to be a long slog of baseball because Ashcraft especially
and some of these other pitchers that they want to
(27:49):
control their innings count, they will shut those guys down.
They'll go three innings or they'll just be out of
the rotation and they'll just patch it over with bullpen
games every days. Lee in September. If they got to
get to that.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The Pirates won't trade to help get through the injuries,
will they? And given that I feel like they can't
survive them, they've kept the hitting up better than I
thought they could with the four guys on. I know
Horwitz and Cruz are supposed to come back here soon,
but doesn't have to catch up sooner or later. In
particular with Griffin being out.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
Griffin is the hitch, especially because it affects two things
at once. It doesn't only affect your leadoff spot, well,
actually affects three things. It affects your hitting, your speed,
and your defense at shortstop. Now you can patch over
the shortstop defense, because Treola is good enough there, even
though it's not his best spot, but he's good enough there.
He's hitting a little bit better than I think what
(28:44):
we assume would be the case at the start of
the year when he was still getting lots of that bats.
But it might be a case of a rising tide
carries all boats with him when it comes to offense.
So I keep waiting for the other shoot to drop
and the injuries to catch up, like it Ohearn slump,
if Mangum slumps, if Gonzales slumps. So these guys just
do they happen to be hot to patch it over
(29:05):
until the other players return. If that ends up being
the case, okay, good, But then everybody who's hurt, like
Horowitz crews, they can't just work their way back. If
those other guys peter out, they got to come back
at top four. And if you don't have that offense,
the bolster woulds been a quaky bullpen and an underachieving
(29:25):
starting staff. It could get ugly quick.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
If the trade deadline was Monday, would Brandon last stay
or go?
Speaker 7 (29:34):
I heard what Noah said there. I think if the trade.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
Deadline was Monday and they're five back with that many
teams to go over, and that would also mean by extension.
If the trade deadline was Monday, then you know the
season is in September, they probably do pull the trigger
in trade him. I think, you know, if we're moving
up the whole calendar, I think five with three or
four teams to climb over, despite how weak those teams
(29:58):
might be and potential for them to I think they
would like to get some good return from Brandon Law
because somebody's gonna need a left handed hit or whether
it's a second basement DH or whatever.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
If they're five back at the deadline, the actual deadline,
he definitely goes right.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
Yeah, especially if there's still three or four teams to
get over.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I want to talk a little bit of Steelers tim
because training camp is two weeks away, and I dreaded
what is the biggest story at Steelers' training camp because
it ain't the battle at backup quarterback.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
But that's all we're gonna hear about.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
Agreed, that'll be the most discussed, probably to a nauseating degree.
But I actually think it's the guy in front of everybody.
It's Rogers and his relationship with McCarthy. And I think
it's how quickly they get back in sync. If they
get back in sync, if they can rediscover what they
had before things went south in Green Bay. Not only
that's the biggest story in training camp, Mark, that's the
(30:53):
biggest story of the whole season.
Speaker 7 (30:55):
Because I think it's fair to assume that, especially after what.
Speaker 5 (30:58):
We saw last year when he against good teams as
the season dragged along, Rogers wasn't that good now the
offensive infrastructure around him was poor. I think the players
that he has to work with are better, and theoretically
he has a better offensive mind in McCarthy. But that's
my point that mesh point has to be what makes
(31:20):
the Steelers better, and if it isn't significant, I think
there'll be some natural slippage from Rogers and the offense
could effectively end up looking worse if you go down
that rabbit hole and it goes badly after the first
seven or eight weeks.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
So I think the.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Number one story is how quickly do McCarthy and Rodgers
recapture what they had early in Green Bay if they
find it at all.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Totally agree on the back of that, I think the
Porter Junior situation is big because there's the assumption you'll
hold in for a while, he'll settle blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
But I don't know if it's going to be as easy.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Tom Win used to tell Omar and the Steelers just
pay him the money, and Tomlin had such sway he
had final say it would get done. I'm not sure
it's gonna be exactly the same now. I think her
beginning overpaid makes Porter want to get overpaid. And let's
even say he does hold in and you know, come
in and play at the end of camp with a
(32:17):
new defensive coordinator, Tim and am much change defense. Porter
needs to be on the field during camp, no doubt
about that, and that seems to be being poop poot
is not a big deal.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
I'll go back to one of the first points you
made there, and that's the Tomlin factor. Not only would
Tomlin say that about most of the guys who are
holding in, he would specifically have said that about Joey,
don't you think because of their relationship.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yep, you know.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
So, like if if Tomlin would be here, it would
go away, go away quickly, and Porter would be paid
a lot more than maybe what he's gonna get. I
think so I agree with that part of your premise.
The rest of it, yeah, I do think it's important
for him to be there, especially if they're going to
change the defense, as much as as being positive that
things are going to be different now with Patrick Graham.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
Everybody talks about how it's going to be.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
Different with Patrick Graham, and they're only talking about the
front seven, specifically what and where he's going to go.
But I think how they deploy the secondary is going
to be every bit as much as important.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Finally, Tim, my biggest cause for optimism with the Steelers
is everybody says, and I think it's even visible from
a distance that this is a much better coaching staffer
McCarthy on down and I tend to very much believe that.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
I thought Tomlin was.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
A fraud for a decade, and I thought all his
assistants were yes men and cheap os.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
I don't know about the coordinators and other guys he hired.
He did hire a lot of guys who have been
his sort of cronies in the past. There's a lot
of familiarity being associated.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
That doesn't mean they're yes men.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
Though, no, not necessarily. But I just I don't know
about the new assistance. Yet I do believe that there
were flaws in how Tomlin hired his assistance and how
they went about their business as Tomlin's assistance to the
degree that, Yeah, I think a lot of people on
defense ended up being yes men for him, and I
(34:18):
think a lot of guys on offense had too much
autonomy for their limited coaching capabilities. I think that was
proven very much evident, especially after Ben retired or started
to wane in his skills, when it was Feetner who
became Canada who became smith.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Tim, great stuff.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
As always, We will talk to you Sunday when we
do your podcast.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
You got it, Mark, and people can find that on
the iHeartRadio platform, by the way, and at Triblatt.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
It's very exciting.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
That's Tim Ben's Now it's time to ask Mark anything,
and I do mean anything. Ask me whatever you'd like
about life, liberty and the pursuit of unlawful cardinal knowledge.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Dial four one two w.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Xdx, that's eight three three four one two w xdx,
or you can leave a talk back by using the
microphone icon at the iHeartMedia app UH Spain in Belgium
one to one in the eighty fifth minute, A closer
game than I expected. Call out eight three three four
one two w xdx. It's time to submit your questions
(35:22):
for Ask Mark Anything.
Speaker 6 (35:23):
Use your free iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
App and SAP the microphone icon to send your questions
to the super genius instantly.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
The only show weekday mornings at six wherever you are
and totally free on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (35:38):
One oh five City Big At.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Kenny Ros, Subaru Lisa twenty twenty six Subaru Cross Track
for just two seventy eight per month or a twenty
twenty six outback premium for the Roos, Mark Madden.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
Hey, Mark Cranky as.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
When you got a young trophy wife?
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Ohs Monday to I can't even quote the big o'bowski right, goodbye.
Speaker 6 (35:54):
DX at one oh five.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Nine Mark Anything brought to us by People's natural Gas
dot Com. Excuse me, People's Hyphengas dot com. Safe reliable
natural gas energy. That's People's Hyphengas dot Com.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Here's how the World Cup can go Tibo courtwip.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Uh. Belgium's great goalie got hurt, had to be subbed off.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
It was one one.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Belgium's backup goalie spilled a bad rebound Spain leads two
to one in injury time.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Uh, let's go to Dino. Dino, ask Mark anything.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
Hey, Mark, in the music industry, which these two managers,
do you think was more abusive Colonel Top Parker or
Joe Jackson.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Well, Joe Jackson, I mean he was physically abusive toward
his kids, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
Yeah, he would make him go outside to grab us
switch it do just to whip them with it anytime
they messed up.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yeah, I mean I would say Joe Jackson.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Tom Parker probably stole from Elvis and he got a
fifty to fifty split with Elvis.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
What the management is unheard of.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
But you can't say Elvis didn't have a great career
and Tom Parker was a big part of that, especially
at the beginning.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Well, I brought up Tom Parker because he also pumped
all those drugs to Elvis for that way he could
keep up with like all that excessive touring that he did.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Yeah, but Elvis could have said no, Joe Jackson was
mean to his kids. I think that's a big difference.
Let's go to way. Let's go to Dave.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Dave Favorite ice Cream in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
I'm sorry, Mark Favorite ice cream in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
It's been so long sinside ice cream. I like that.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
There's a place in Green Tree called Antony's at the
bottom of the hill. And there's someplace I'm missing, but
I just don't get ice cream very often.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Oh, there's a place on McKnight Road.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
I forget, not McKnight on Babcock Boulevard, right across Samnicello's,
and I forget the name of it, but they have
really good ice cream.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Thank you, thank you. Let's go to Ken Ken. Askmark anything.
Speaker 11 (38:17):
Well, mister Madden, all like good to talk to here.
We usually talk hockey or baseball. But a question about
the USA men's soccer team, Right, I don't follow a
soccer like you do. You're really a genius on soccer.
But were they maybe overrated or expectations?
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Oh, the US team is always overrated by the population.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Come every World Cup.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
That said, they reached exactly the minimum level of accomplishment
that was acceptable, losing in.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
The round to sixteen.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
The way they lost wasn't great because they were really
outclassed by by a Belgium team.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
That's it's good, but not you know, not like Spain.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Although they held Spain in this game up until their
backup goalkeeper made a mistake. But yeah, I I I, and.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
It goes applies to Polistic too.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Whoever the best US player is gets badly overrated, and
Polistic is the latest beneficiary of that. But in terms
of them over achieving underachieving, whatever they did about what
I expected them to do the minimum acceptable level of accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Let's go to a talkback, Mark.
Speaker 10 (39:32):
I don't know if you've been following the Indianapolis Indians.
Most people don't, But Mike Clevenger, former Cy Young Award winner,
is killing it down there. Bring him up, give him
a chance, saying with Trevor Bauer, take a chance on
these guys.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Clevenger's a former saying award winner. Yeah, bring somebody up
as he bucko property. Why wouldn't you do that? We'll
get those stats. Maybe we'll take a closer look at
that before the show's over. Let's go to another talkback.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Hey, Mark, what are the pirates?
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Is gonna fess up that the pitching coach sucks?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (40:07):
First off, the pitchers, led by Skiings, lobbied for the
pitching coach last year to be replaced. And why can't
Paul Skeens fix himself. You really think Paul Skeens is
bad because he's doing what a new pitching coach told
him to do. You really think that you're really notive
enough to believe that the guy that.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
The entire organization contost to.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Is being told bad things to do by the mean
old pitching coach because I don't believe it. I don't
believe it at all, but a pitching coach. Nobody has
a pitching coach jersey. What's his name, whatever his name is,
Nobody has his jersey. Nobody has a jersey that says
bullpen on the back. Nobody hasn't been Sherrington jersey. That's
why guys are easy to blame in that regard. I
(40:58):
was thinking I must have forgot out some local I
like Milli's. Millise has a few locations for ice cream.
I really like Millie's. There's Antony's Cookies Creamery is the
place on Babcock.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Those are all very good ice creams.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Millie's, Antony's Cookies Creamery my three favorite ice cream spots
in Pittsburgh, although uh the ice cream a cone at
Lake Like, what's that called up there?
Speaker 2 (41:23):
I've got given up plugs for one day.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Uh eight three three four one two w XDX, get
your calls in. A lot of people to blame with
the pirates, and there's one guy in protecting I'm gonna
blame quite a bit just around the corner. And we
got uh Danny Griffin, the River Haunts Captain on at
quarter after five. River Haunts hosting Loud United this Saturday
(41:47):
at FNB Stadium at Station Square one oh five nine,
also Crosstown
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