HR 2 - Paul Zeise

Paul Skenes future Yankee? Jason Robertson future Penguin? Paul Zeise at the bottom of the hour.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
This segment brought to you by eighty four Lumberg Dynasty
partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
No, Pittsburgh Pirates are actually in the All Star Game yesterday,
so the only connection that Pirates fans had to this
week's festivities Out in Philadelphia, we're seeing Paul Skeins and
Braxton Ashcraft walk the red carpet answer a few media
questions before the game, and that was pretty much it.
So when Paul Skeens was referred to as a future

(00:36):
Yankee by someone as they were wrapping up an interview
with him, naturally that raised some eyebrows back in Pittsburgh,
justin I don't know if we got that audio ready
to go, but can we hear that if we got
it from foul territory, they were the guys that found it,

(00:57):
Teacher Yankee, such as journalism and the social media era
folks the incident for the most part, in my opinion,
I didn't think it warranted anything more than rolling your eyes.
It was off. Mike Skeens blew it off, and if

(01:17):
we're being honest, come on, everybody in Pittsburgh is thinking
that anyway, If not the Yankees, someday soon that it'll
be the Red Sox, or it'll be the Dodgers, it'll
be the Phillies or some other team with a much
bigger budget than the Pirates. So as a result of
that media exchange involving schemes, that got most of the

(01:39):
attention Tuesday back in Pittsburgh. The one thing that got
my interest though, was this quote from Skeens that he
gave to Jason Mackie, the Pirates team reporter, and he
shared this in a tweet talking about skeens is dip
in velocity during the twenty twenty six seasons. So while

(02:00):
everybody else is bugging out about this, schemes is going
to be a Yankee thing. Here's what Mackie put out
that I thought was really more Germane to the Pirates,
at least right now. Anyway. He said, it's funny that
reporters only ask that when I don't have a good
outing in those outings. I don't think I really got

(02:20):
damaged on my four seamer. I don't think velocity is
something that I need to pitch very well. I think
it's probably the first time in my career that the
Velo has kind of dipped. It's not something that I'm
stressed out over at all. I'm healthy, I'm feeling good,
and still pitching at a high level. So that's what
he told Jason. Well, it's certainly not as high of

(02:43):
a level as he had been the two previous seasons,
and don't let the All Star berth fool you on that.
Maybe it's fooling Paul listening to that quote. Maybe his
selective memory is kicking in as well, because he's given
up as many home runs off of his fastball this
season five as he did in each of his first

(03:04):
two seasons. Now, his whiff rate and his putaway rate
on that pitch they're down a little bit too, slightly
from last year, and despite Skeines's point to the contrary,
his velocity did dip last year too. Is not the
first time he began his career averaging ninety eight point

(03:26):
nine miles per hour per fastball on the gun as
a rookie. That slipped to just over ninety eight ninety
eight point two last year and is now at ninety
six point nine this year. So we're not talking about
a massive decline, but it's noticeable, especially at bats like
the one against Showei Atani. Earlier this season when he
threw five different four seam fastballs and none of them

(03:49):
broke ninety seven miles an hour. He frequently broke one
hundred against Otani when he faced him as a rookie.
So if Skins could get it up to one hundred
miles an hour again, he'd do it against Otani. And
it's not just homers or slugging percentage against the fastball
that are concerning. It's the decreased putaway rate, the number

(04:13):
of times the fastball and all of his other pitches
are being fouled off instead of, you know, being blown
by hitters for strikeouts, to say nothing of what the
decreased velocity may be doing to the rest of his
pitcher rae because of its failure to set up the

(04:34):
other pitchers. Just like, for example, batters are slugging at
a three eighty eight clip off of his change up
this year that was at one twenty six last year
and one point eighteen as a rookie. So in other words,
the change up isn't being set up as well by

(04:54):
the fastball one would, at least looking at these numbers.
That's what I'm led to believe, and I've been in
some of those media scrums that Skeens is talking about,
and despite what he is suggesting, I feel like both
Skeens and Don Kelly have been asked about his lagging
velocity postgame after his wins too, or Kelly has brought

(05:15):
it up on his own. It's just that after those
wins the questions are usually framed or cushioned because Kelly
has frequently couched his observations about velocity. Since Skeens still
managed to get Chase off the fastball still set up
other pitches with it. Also for about nine outings in
a row this summer, there weren't many good starts to

(05:36):
analyze in the first place, so it's a little bit
harder to do. More importantly, look at what Skeen's comments
are and then try to match him up with what
Ben Cherrington said about the topic last week. This was
Cherrington's quote about Skeens and his velocity drop. We obviously
look at the biomechanics how his body is moving to
the extent that there are any changes there. Obviously we

(05:58):
want that information to get to Paul and for him
to be able to process and do something with it.
Then it's another thing to actually do something with it
and make these changes in season when you're trying to
compete every five or six days. It's an engine. It's
a finely tuned engine, and every once in a while
there's one thing that's a little bit different, and it

(06:19):
can affect what happens when the ball comes out of
the hand that doesn't sound. Look at GM, who thinks
the velocity dip is nothing. That's acknowledging the drop exists
and claiming that the team is at least trying to
figure out why. Meanwhile, Schemes doesn't seem to think it's
an issue. That's why we want that information to get

(06:43):
to Paul and for him to be able to process
it and do something with it. Part of that quote,
that's why that sticks out to me. Perhaps it should
stick out to Skeens a little bit more than it
does as well. I would think so. And if it's
too hard to figure out in the season, then that's
a problem because there's still a lot more season to go.

(07:06):
I sure hope he's gonna fix it when he's a
Yankee at some point after the work stoppage. But then again,
I don't want to sound like the girl in Philadelphia
eight three three four one two wxdx or four one
two three three three ninety nine thirty nine. Tell me
what you think. I do think the velocity issue is real.
I do think that the dip is warranted to be
looked at. I think Steam's blowing it off is either

(07:28):
denial or he is looking at it and he doesn't
have the answers. Either. He either wants to pretend that
it's not an issue, or he just doesn't have the
answers and he wants to fend it off that way.
So we can talk about that, We could talk about
the broadcast last night. We were discussing that earlier from Fox,
and we can also dive back into the conversation that

(07:48):
we're having earlier about the Pirates in the second half
of the season. Can they keep up this offensive assault
while other players are down, or, as Marcus said before,
is this a false dawn. I've got them on the
Seinfeld thing. Everything evens out up, then down, down, then up.
My guess is they're a little under five hundred, and
this twelve game stretch against plus five hundred teams like

(08:10):
they were a little over that stretch of like teams
right before the All Star break, in four one two, three, three, three,
ninety nine thirty nine when we come back. A Jason
Robertson tweet from Dallas of interest will tell you the
Pens are starting out their season with and Anthony Mantha

(08:30):
update and more on the Pens on your home for
the Pens one oh five nine the x Well England
have scored. I'm supposed to say it like that, right,
England have scored won nothing fifty five minutes into the
game against Argentina. That happened during the commercial break. Tim

(08:52):
Bens in from Mark and tweet me as well at
Tim Benz PGH. So I noticed this trying to dig
into some of the conversation about Jason Robertson, and there's
a lot to get to there. But I heard at
least one trade rumor about the Penguins trying to get Robertson,

(09:16):
and it was Ben Kindall, a defenceman and a first
round pick. I do that, especially if a contract is
coming along with it. I think there's a little bit
of ben Kindall delusion within the fan base because I
think there's some that exists with the team. I think

(09:36):
at his high point, he's never going to be the
threat as a scorer that Robertson is. I think he's
a smart, headsy two way player that would be a
real good second line center on a real good team.
But that's not where the Penguins are right now, and
I don't think he ever tops out at the same
level that Robertson is. So I would do that trade

(09:58):
if it was available, but I think the Penguins might
bulk at it. You know, they drafted three first round
guys last year. They don't have to live under the
assumption and prediction that all three of them are going
to pan out to be really good frontline players for them.
That's a real shot in the dark, to be honest

(10:20):
with you. So if somebody wants one of those guys,
even though Kendall might be the highest ceiling of the three,
they still have two other guys that could develop, I
think to at least the point that he is in
their NHL careers. In Zonnen and Horcroft say to say
nothing of the two twins. So as far as the

(10:40):
Robertson thing goes specifically from Dallas, Bruce Levine, who is
a Dallas radio guy there on Monday, tweeted out Robertson
has arbitration date set for July to twenty fifth. My
gut feeling is this will not happen one way or another.
The saga ends before that date, and that's encouraging to
me because because then it just comes down to trade

(11:01):
or sign And if he hasn't signed yet, then how
come it hasn't happened yet. I he's going to sign
there like he would figure by this point they would
have gotten a deal done. Did it have to come
under the gun of an arbitration. I mean, like the
variable is who else offers what from the rest of
the other teams in the league. So that feels like
it keeps it alive more for the Penguins. As far
as the Flyers and Penguins, they will continue their series

(11:23):
for one more night after the playoffs. It looks like
the Pens are gonna start with Philadelphia in the regular
season opener after the Penguins what didn't score until that
game ended in overtime in Game six to and the
playoffs last year, so that'll be where the Pens start
on the road. Anthony Manta signs with Detroit, So there's

(11:48):
your Penguins update there. And I do think the Robertson.
Thing is interesting, and I do think it's something to
keep following, because, as Marcus said, it just won't go away.
The conversation just won't stop, so there has to be
something else to it. One would think four one two
three three three ninety nine thirty nine eight three three

(12:10):
four one two w XDX. When we come back, Talktor
Paul Seiss, he'll join us. He's next at about four
thirty here on one of five nine they X. Quick
correction from last segment. My mistake, can't read my own
damn handwriting Anthony Mantha to the Devils on a two
year contract. I think I said Detroit before the break,

(12:31):
my mistake. Two years, nine point five million dollars deal. So,
to stick with soccer parlance, the Devil's sign Mantha. The
Devil have signed Mantha won nothing England in front of Argentina.
Sixty six minute mark in the World Cup game going
on right now, Paul Seiss joining US as promised, right now, Paul,
go to talk to you again.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
How are you doing, sir?

Speaker 1 (12:53):
All right? You still keeping eyes in the World Cup
even though Team USA is out. I know you actually
spend a lot of time in your life coaching and
did you play soccer?

Speaker 2 (13:03):
Two? Yeah, I played all the way through college, and
I watched pretty much every game except for I had
to leave at halftime of this one, so I'm probably
gonna miss the entire second half. But for the most part,
I watch them all, and I kind of I would

(13:24):
say that a Spain versus England final will be extremely,
extremely boring.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
Well, this one's so far. I mean, I'm on the air,
so I'm just glancing up from time to time, and
it definitely has been a little bit more entertaining here
in the second half than it was in the first.
And we've heard it, Paul and I anticipated it started
to die off here in the last couple of days.
But the catterwauling and gnashing of teeth and the usual
song and dance that we go through every time Team

(13:53):
USA is eliminated from competition. What's your view and what's
your opinion on it of how the America get better
and get beyond the round of sixteen? Is it something
that can happen and happen on a regular basis, or
if it does take place, is it just that they
kind of happen to fluke into it at some point, Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Mean I think they. I think if the United States
is gonna like make a deep run one time or
whatever and have a shot and be that, it's gonna
have to be something kind of fluke Timmy, where there's
you know three some er four three or four players
that are sort of generational that just happen to come
up together and you know, they hit lightning in a

(14:31):
bottle with the right goalie in the same situation combined
with them, I just think the culture of soccer in
this country is not nearly strong enough where we are
going to have enough people that are high level, elite

(14:52):
kind of athletes that are gonna, you know, gravitate towards
playing soccer from the time they're three years old up.
This is not gonna happen, you know. I mean, I
just think that there's other sports that that you know,
people value and people want, and they're more popular and
and all that other stuff. I think soccer's great, obviously.
I think you know, I'm biased because I played it.
I think it's the best sport to play. For Like,

(15:14):
if you have a kid who's like six, seven, eight,
nine years old, it's the best sport to play because
you can put everyone out there, even if your kid stinks.
You know, it's not like baseball where everyone's staring at him.
It's not like football where you know, it's clearly a liability,
not like you know, any other sport for youth, or
you put kids out there and they can sort of

(15:35):
just run around and I mean six, seven and eight
year olds, you know, and not talking at the cup level.
But I'm just saying it's a great sport for kids.
It's a growing sport from the standpoint of I think
there's a lot of youth programs, but I don't know
that any of these, like new youth programs are the
kind that are going to breed the kind of athletes

(15:56):
that fifteen, sixteen years from now are going to be
great soccer players. It just I feel like we were
always going to be sort of that team that's you know,
competitive and good and probably somewhere in the range of
ten to fifteen every year.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
As you were talking, Paul Fantastic saved by England's goaltender
at the hydration break. So it remains one to nothing.
You mentioned people staring at kids as their baseball players
growing up, We're going to be staring at the Pirates
for much longer after the All Star Break. Have we
seen the best from them already? Or how do you
see it going here? Particularly in the next dozen games.

(16:32):
They've got a stretch here against good, competitive wild card
contending teams from both leagues. They just went through a
gauntlet like that and went eight and five to close
out the first half. Could they replicate that or is
that as good as it's going to get for the Pirates?

Speaker 2 (16:49):
No, I mean, I think that they're gonna played really
well right there before the All Star Break. Well, we've
seen that before. I think if you look at the
history of the Pirates' recent history especially, it would suggest
that the cliff is you know, there's at some point
they're gonna find it and fall off of it, right.
I mean, in twenty eleven, twenty twelve they had seasons

(17:10):
like that. They've had three seasons in the last one
five or six years where they you know, looked really
good early and then fell completely off the cliff in
August and September. I don't know that they'll fall completely
off the cliff, but I feel like tim they're gonna
be a team that's gonna finish somewhere right around five hundred,
you know, one or two games up or one or
two games down and probably not be good enough to

(17:30):
make the wild card. And that will probably be very
much a source of I don't know how you'd say this,
a source of people being angry is that they're probably
not gonna make the one or two moves they need
to get over that little threshold of being one or

(17:51):
two games over five hundred. Right, you add a couple
to your bullpen, you add maybe one more you know,
legitimate bad and I'm not talking about you know that
hits fifty or sixty on runs, but another guy that's
not an automatic out. You know, maybe you could get there,
but they're gonna have to make some moves to get
to over the top and really get into the playoffs.

(18:13):
And well, Tim, I guess I have to I know
they made some moves this offseason, so maybe they're you know,
doing things differently, but I have to see it to
believe it.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Paul's eisen this on one O five nine the X
ten Benson for Mark madd today, Mark back tomorrow. Yeah,
I look at what their needs are, and everybody knows
about the bullpen, and you know you're hearing the names
like Chapman and Miller of course, that are dangled out there,
and they're gonna cost a lot for the pirates to get,
and I don't know that they're gonna be willing to

(18:44):
step up to give what other teams need when there
are at least then twenty eight other clubs that might
be vying for these guys, and most of them in
playoff contention. So I think the waters are gonna run
really deep on the closers. I think they're gonna try
to fix the bullpen Paul by throwing numbers at it
and beefing up the middle relief and still going closure
by committee. I don't think that's the right route to go.

(19:06):
But that's my hunch as to what they're gonna.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
Do, right, I mean, that's sort of you know, I
just feel like they're not gonna go and there's probably
gonna be one or two, you know, closers out there
on the market. And you know, my question, Tim is this.
I get why, you know, they they want to protect
prospects and all the other stuff, but baseball is probably

(19:29):
gonna have a work stoppage next year. So if you
have an opportunity, you know, to go on and get somebody,
even if it costs a little bit of money and
costs a little bit and in terms of capital, you know, uh,
prospect capital and all that other stuff. To me, isn't
this the year to do it?

Speaker 1 (19:47):
Yeah? I would think so, especially because like what you're saying,
they're gonna run into a spot here with their starting
pitchers where you're gonna get into innings limits of Braxton
Nashcraft and you're gonna start considering that as to whether
or not he should be continuing and pitching or they
flip flop him with Mjinski. I've heard that suggested. But

(20:09):
that looming thing about the CBA out there in the distance,
to me, should skew the whole calculus. There's probably not
going to be baseball or at least a one hundred
and sixty two game season next year. So if you've
got to burn innings on the starters and you don't
have the capital to get bullpen help and another starter, well,
then just push the starters longer, have schemes go deeper,

(20:32):
keep pitching aff Ashcraft, because you're gonna have a longer
time for these guys to recover in the off season.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yeah, and I'll tell you. I mean, another great example
of that is is Connor Griffin. I mean, it sounds
to me like, you know, they're just being extremely in
an extra supercautious with them. And again, I tell you,
my feeling is you're going to have a really long
off season for him to get healthy. You know, if
there's some things you can do to tape it up
or table whatever you gotta do to be able to

(21:00):
let him play, I would he would still be playing
unless he proved that he couldn't hold a bat or whatever.
I'm not sure why you don't have him out there either.
And I understand they try to be really cautious with
him because he's one of their young accts and all
that other good stuff. I'm just telling you this is
this is a year, if ever there was a year
where you kind of just have to sort of take

(21:21):
the mentality of the Penguins or the Steelers, which is
we're playing for this year and not worrying about next year.
It should be this year. But there, I just that's
not how they're built.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Here's the thing though, and by the way, Pickford just
made another great say for England. Here's the thing THO
was schemes. We could talk about him pitching deeper into games,
but there's a level of warrant to that. I mean,
there's a level of deserve to that. He hasn't seen
the seventh since mid May, and there haven't been a
lot of these games where I've been watching Paul where

(21:51):
I said to myself, Oh, they got to leave him in.
They gotta leave him in. I haven't been thinking that
when they had gotten him out. Largely I felt like
they needed to get him out when they did.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's been one of the
you know, probably most incredible parts of this story. You know,
if I had told you, hey, the Lstar break there
what two or three games over five hundred, I mean,
I think part of your equation would be, well, that
must mean the Skins has had a really good year.
Well not really, That's what's amazing. It's like, if he

(22:22):
turned into Paul Skins in the second half of the season.
You know, maybe some of the other things we're talking
about in terms of their you know, what they need
to do in order to fix some of the flaws
they have, maybe some of those things could go away.
But to me, I just I don't know that that's
gonna happen. It just seems like this is destined to
be a season where you know, he's not ever ever

(22:43):
going to reach that that that threshold that we saw
him the last year where you know, he was by
far the most dominant pitchers. So yeah, it would be
really nice if he came out in the second half
and looked like Paul Skins again. And then you talk
about a guy maybe that you want to go seven
or eight innings. But I agree with you though there's
been a number of times. There's been a number of

(23:05):
games or where he didn't give in, but he was
sure he was surely just teetering on the edge of,
you know, one pitch from from giving in completely, and
you know he somehow got out of a few dams.
Otherwise his numbers would be even worse.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
Well, you're talking about the entertainment factor of the soccer game.
We just had another chance while you were talking, aheader
that went wide and pick Ford's going nuts in the
net is over and over again. Argentina is suddenly getting
looks Paul's iis our guest had still won nothing. England,
by the way, you know, did you see the quote
that he gave to Jason Mackie. I was just talking
about it previously before you came on. He talked to

(23:43):
Mackie at the All Star Game, and he made it
sound like the media was only asking about velocity dip
after games where he didn't pitch well. Well, there were
nine of them in a row, so yeah, that's probably
how I could see why that would be the case.
And he seems to act like he doesn't need the
velocity to pitch well, but he didn't pitch well for

(24:04):
a long stretch of the season and the velocity went down.
Are we not supposed to go A plus B equals
see there. I don't see why he's got such a
different view of this than everybody else, And it looks
like he's got a different view than his general manager
to Paul based on what Sherrington had said.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
Well, absolutely, and I think that's the biggest thing. And
I've heard a number of theories as to what's going
on with him, you know, with but if you have
a velocity dip like that, you know that probably you know,
suggests there's something physical and not mental. You know, it'd
be one thing if he was all over the place
and couldn't find you know, the strike zone and stuff.

(24:44):
Then you'd say, well, maybe there's you know, mental stuff,
maybe the pressure of you know, being who he is,
or maybe there's stuff going on in his personal you know.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
All the girlfriend. Oh yeah, that I'm inundated with. Its
all Livy's fault. Emails now, all the time, emails and tweets,
it's all Livy's faults. So I mean, like, by the way,
she was his girlfriend when he won a national championship,
a rookie of the Year in the say young, So
I don't think it's her No, no, not at all.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
I don't think it's her distraction. I don't think it's
that she makes a lot of money. I don't think
it's that you know, any of that. But what I
was gonna say is it seems like it might be
a little bit physical, which is why people asking about
your you know, your velocity being down, because you know
that just doesn't just happen. You know, where you were
throwing a hundred and one hundred and two a year ago,

(25:29):
you're throwing ninety seven. Now, you know what I'm saying,
that's there's something there. That's the thing.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Guess what we're talking about.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
I was gonna say, guess what, even if you have
a good game, we're still gonna ask you.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
About it, right, Because like the thing about the average
velocity of the fastball, it's not that we're freaking out
over the fact that his average fastball was at ninety
eight nine in his rookie year and it's ninety six
nine now. It's not over two miles an hour that
people are bugging about this. It's that often times in games,
it's gone down as the game has gone along, and

(26:03):
it's about that he just can't get to one hundred.
That ninety eight point nine from his rookie year was
often beefed up by the fact that when he needed
to get to one hundred he could. Now he's not
getting beyond ninety seven against show Aatani, which is part
of the reason I really wanted to see the Miss
versus Schemes game on the Sunday before the All Star break,

(26:25):
because if he has that arrow in his quiver, pall,
I think it would come out in a day where
his opposing pitcher was throwing one oh five. You catch
my drift?

Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah? No, absolutely, I mean again, And and that's exactly
the point that everybody has made, which is, you know,
I don't know why he would be surprised that people
are paying attention. But when you when you look at
the you know, the hitters that he's had, where you
know he would set him up, you know, with his
splinker or whatever. He'd get him, you know, with two

(26:56):
strikes and then it would be sort of like you
know that that Major League movie, you know, where guys
like forgot about that, forgot about the curve ball, Rickie
give him the hate and he would dow back and
throw on a hundred and one or one hundred and
two and just blow people off. But he doesn't do
that this year. So that's a big part of his arsenal,
you know, and I think we, you know, we as
people who ask questions, should ask the question is there

(27:20):
more going on than just you know, his velocity's dipping?
Like why is it dipping? Is the question?

Speaker 1 (27:28):
Two things about the Steelers, Paul, and then I'll let
you go. First of which is I wrote about this
for our Specialist's going to Run a Trip live our
training camp preview. I'm going to talk about a little
bit at the top of the hour, but I know
that people are going to talk about defense and adding
the wide receiver corp in a different look at running back,
and new defensive coordinator, one new corner, all this other stuff.

(27:48):
There are variables to talk about with the Steelers, but
the biggest thing is the coach and the quarterback. And
I hate to be that boring and reductive about it,
but the biggest thing to be going into training. It's
not following the backup quarterback battle, which I'm sure everybody
will talk about. The biggest variable for the Steelers this
year is is Aaron Rodgers relationship with Mike McCarthy circa

(28:11):
twenty ten or is it circa twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen.
That's it to me? Period, end of sentence.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Right, No, you're right, I mean, are those two? Are
those two going to be on the same page? And
the other part of it is is Aaron Rodgers one
year older from what we saw last year? Does he
still have enough?

Speaker 1 (28:34):
What's the good guy? What's the biggest variable there? Is
he just one year older? Or is McCarthy going to
get more out of him because he's more of an
offensive mind than Tomlin was.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
I mean, I don't think there's any question McCarthy will
get more out of him, or at least attempt to
the question is can he make all the throws and
he needs to make, you know, can he do all
the things he needs to do in order to be,
you know, the guy that McCarthy had, you know, groomed
or whatever for all those Can he be that guy?
Is the question? And obviously he's not going to be

(29:04):
the guy from ten years ago, but there is a
chance that he can be a guy who's pretty good
who makes enough plays that they have a chance to win.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Lastly, defense, I'm looking at all these ESPN dot com
position by position rankings. They say TJ. Watson obvious decline.
He was dropped five spots in their poll. Cam Hayward
didn't get mentioned. Among defensive linemen, Joey Porter Junior and
Patrick Queen were just honorable mentions at their positions. Does
everybody else view the Steelers defense differently than we do

(29:36):
in Pittsburgh. I think it's pretty clear that that's the case.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Well, I mean, I think one of the things I've
said for years is that one of the biggest problems
that we have here in this town, and you know,
maybe it's like this in every town, is that we
tend to really overrate the guys that are in the
locker room of whatever it is team that we're covering,
and especially when it comes to the Steelers, thrown names

(30:01):
out there. Now, what's weird about Caim Heyward? Correct me
if I'm wrong. But wasn't he an All Pro last year?

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Second team? I believe yeah, and he was still left
off the list.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Well, I mean he's but but but I mean what
I'm saying is he actually was pretty good last year.
I kind of agree. I think Patrick Queen, I think
he's been for what they paid him. I think he's
been a very very very disappointing player.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Noo whatsoever, No splash plays to speak of, none.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
And I think that's, you know, one of those things
where you look at it and you basically say, you know,
he's a guy that I can certainly understand why he
would be looked at differently, but I think most people
in this town look at him the same way. Joy
Porter Jr. Again, I think people that probably watched from Afar,

(30:49):
they know about the penalties and whatnot, but they probably
don't realize that he's really, really, really been a very
good corner for them, and he's one guy disagree if
they're not rating him as one of the better players
in his position, because he, to me is for real.
But overall, Tim to answer your question, we always overrate
the guys that are here because we see them all

(31:11):
the time, and so you know, you look outside of here,
they don't see these guys all the time, and you know,
maybe that's a good thing in the case of certain players,
but certainly to me, the Steelers defense has probably been
very overrated, just because we've been so excited about the
individual names.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
Argentina have scored one to one after yet another huge
save by Pickford, they finally got one to go by him.
So Paul, I'll let you go enjoy the rest of
this game. It looks like it might be going into
extra time. Appreciate you checking in.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Ah my man, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
Paul's Ice joining us here on one O five nine.
The X brought to us by People's Natural Gas, Peoples
and Essential Utilities Companies Safe Reliable Natural Gas Energy, Peoples,
Hyphengas dot Com Pickford. While we were talking there at
the end, that England goalie jumped up and made a
great save with a left hand and a ball that
looked like it was gonna go right out of the crossbar,
and then Argentina got yet another crack and finally it

(32:10):
was like since we called Paul, they had like five
glorious scoring chances and they finally got one to go.
So we're all tied up in the eighty sixth minute
when we come back. Speaking of those rankings, kind of
an interesting note about George Pickens. We'll get to that
little note about the Steelers too, that you might want

(32:31):
having your back pocket if you're thinking about going to
Paris for the game against the Saints. This is one
O five to nine the x Argentina have scored again,
plus nine minutes of extra time, and they scored about

(32:53):
ninety seconds in beyond the ninetieth minute. They went far
side of the post, it bounced out. I think it
was messy that tracked it down. Argentina kept it in
the attacking zone and they scored on a hitter to
make it two to one. I don't know if they're
looking at this, if they're reviewing this or not, but
the English fans are inconsolable and the Argentinian fans are

(33:16):
going nuts. This is as close to soccer turets as
I've ever had watching a soccer game. I know Mark
always talks about having soccer turets during Liverpool games. I've
almost had it watching this game, to the degree that
I screwed up where Anthony Manta was going. I told
you he's going to Detroit. He's going to the Devils.
I apologize for that. I also during my soccer turette syndrome,
forgot to tell you that well. I mentioned that the

(33:38):
Pens are going to play the Flyers on September thirtieth. Yeah,
September thirtieth is when they're opening up the season because
it's now an eighty four game schedule in the National
Hockey League because you know, the regular season just wasn't
long enough in the NHL, so they open up against
the Flyers. Their first home game for the Penns will
be October third against the Montreal Cans, and home games

(34:04):
road games always here on one oh five to nine
the X. I think there's another one that we knew about.
Oh yeah, this is from seth Rob but trib Live.
The only game involved in the Penguins that the NHL
announced today was a road contest against the Caps on
October the seventh, no times on any of these games.
It's the first time since ninety three to ninety four

(34:25):
that we're gonna have an eighty four game schedule in
the National Hockey League mentioned those rankings with Paul Zeis
from ESPN dot Com brought him up before about the
Steelers defense. George Pickens ranked the seventh best wide receiver
excuse me, seventh best wide receiver in all the National
Football League. That was one spot behind Cede Lamb. And

(34:50):
it's kind of interesting because I saw one of these
unnamed personnel guys or unnamed general managers, unnamed coordinators. I
guess an opposing coordinator from the NFC told Jeremy Fowler
Pickens is now the guy you game planned for. You
game plan for Pickens, and if Lamb hurts you, then
Lamb hurts you. And that's why they've hurt so many people.
That's why DAK has weapons to play with. It's just

(35:13):
the consistency. And I agree with that statement because it
looks to me like he's the bigger weapon, and then
CD gets what he gets. But you game plan to
stop Pickens first, first and foremost, and then you worry
about Lamb's second, which is just wild to contemplate. But
that's where Dallas is as an offense, as opposed to
the Steelers, who are trying to make DK Metcalf look

(35:35):
like a number one guy and hoping that Michael Pittman
Junior truly is a number two guy and not a
glorified three. Well see how that goes. And if you're
thinking about going to Paris for the game against the
nor Orlands Saints, you can get yourself your own Pittsburgh
Steeler terrible towel from Paris a Paris them terrible towel,

(35:58):
and it's spelled wait for it, wait for you know
where you're going with this? Right here we go Steelers,
Here we go. Oh you I we I'll give them
that one. It's a little hokey. It's a little corny,
but sure it works. It sings four one two three

(36:18):
three three ninety nine thirty nine. Also eight three three
four one two w xdx in thirty seconds. Speaking of
the Steelers, I want to dive a little bit more
into that topic that I got into with Paul Zeist
before about as we approach training camp here in under
two weeks, all the attention that's going to be paid
to the backup quarterbacks, all the attention that's going to

(36:40):
be paid to changes on defense and how often her
big plays and where what is lining up. Don't let
anything else fool you. It's about Rogers, it's about McCarthy,
it's coaching quarterback. And I hate to be reductive, but
here we are with the Steelers in twenty twenty six,
one oh five nine The X