00:00:00
Speaker 1: Radio for Skeenes fans, Bucco fans. I'm afraid I've bought some bad news. Your hero soiled the bed again today. Joining me not to talk about the fallout and what the Bucks can do to deal with it is Pittsburgh's own Mike Decorsi. Mike is Skeen's done as a dominant pitcher, and if not, tell the pirates.
00:00:21
Speaker 2: How to fix it, because I don't think they.
00:00:22
Speaker 3: Know well he's done for twenty twenty six as a dominant pitcher. We've run out of time for him to recover his stuff, his feel, his velocity. You've got basically a month left in the season, and even skipping a start didn't help him at all.
00:00:41
Speaker 4: It might even have hurt because he was probably poorer.
00:00:44
Speaker 3: Today than he had been in maybe his two or three or four prior star and right.
00:00:49
Speaker 1: Off the bat walked the first two hitters and clearly had zero command.
00:00:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's so it wasn't a short term rest situation. Look, you can shut him down now if you want, but you and I both know, and I think most of baseball knows that the possibility of Paul Skeen's pitching in twenty twenty seven is slim, and not because of Paul Skein's current circumstance, but because of baseball's current circumstance. So I don't know whether other than the idea that he's not getting anybody out, I don't know what the value is of shutting him down because you don't have an obvious candidate to take his place. Machinski being promoted to take the space that was vacated prior hasn't.
00:01:37
Speaker 4: Helped at all. They really don't have an answer for that position.
00:01:41
Speaker 3: So I don't know that it hurts you as a team to continue to put him out there.
00:01:45
Speaker 5: Now.
00:01:46
Speaker 4: If he says, or his doctor says, or his agent says.
00:01:49
Speaker 3: It's probably in my best interest to not pitch anymore this year, that's doable, because again, this team's not going anywhere. But I don't think there's any real value in that relative to him, again, because I don't see, especially after the revelations that came out about the Dodgers yesterday, I don't see much likelihood that we'll have baseball next summer.
00:02:13
Speaker 2: No, I don't either.
00:02:14
Speaker 1: But the backtrack to what you said, I don't see the gain from shutting him down unless there's a reason that that makes sense, and that's the scariest thing of all about schemes, Mike.
00:02:27
Speaker 2: They don't know what's wrong.
00:02:28
Speaker 1: I don't since they have the Vegas clue, and that kind of makes me think it's got to be mental and that might be the hardest problem of all to solve because it's so inexact it is.
00:02:40
Speaker 3: But it's curious as well, Mark, I think you'll agree, because he went from being absolutely dominant and having everything as a pitcher that when we first started having conversations about the pirates for this year, we were talking about him as as a long term threat to be in the Gibson category, and now he can't get through four innings without serious issues. And I mean in terms of results, not necessarily what's going on.
00:03:10
Speaker 4: With his arm.
00:03:11
Speaker 3: It's apparent that it's not anything necessarily medical, because if it were, then he would have been put on a d L an i L.
00:03:22
Speaker 1: It had been shut down long before this, Mike, and I do wonder if the World Baseball Classic is at least a contributing factor, because he did crack one hundred at the World Baseball Classic.
00:03:35
Speaker 2: Was it too much too soon?
00:03:37
Speaker 1: I don't know, But when you don't know, you got to look at everything, and maybe that was a factor. Not the factor, certainly, not the lone factor, but a factor.
00:03:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree with you. I don't think that helped at all.
00:03:50
Speaker 3: I think playing competitively that early in the training camp cycle, the spring training cycle isn't necessarily good for anything.
00:04:00
Speaker 1: Don't need to have international baseball. There's no need to put these guys at risk. It's not that kind of game. It's different than the other games. There's too much negative fallout.
00:04:10
Speaker 4: Well, here's what I would say.
00:04:11
Speaker 3: If you want to get serious about international baseball, then put the World Baseball Classic where it belongs and give everybody off a month or whatever, three weeks, maybe for a week and a half Olympic tournament in every four years. And again this would be in LA at twenty twenty eight, instead of throwing a bunch of minor leaguers or college guys.
00:04:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, but then what's the toll on their arms at the end of the year. It's still it seems like there's fine night pitches for these guys, or maybe there's no. Bob walk was on the show yesterday and he said when he pitched in the miners, they had him pitched mornings every year to build up his stamina and the strength in his arm. And I gotta be honest, Mike, I'm wondering if what's old in that regard shouldn't become new again because now the pitcher's pitched less than ever, and there's more Tommy Johns surgery than ever.
00:05:01
Speaker 3: Exactly exactly, this is not working. It's the way they handle pictures now.
00:05:06
Speaker 4: It does not work. It works for some who are.
00:05:10
Speaker 3: Fortunate or have the right arm strength, or throw the right way, whatever it is. But the baby in concept of the players once they get in the professional system, that hasn't helped at all statistically in terms of the numbers of players that get hurt and the number of players that have to have major surgery.
00:05:28
Speaker 4: I mean, Tommy john used to be just well, remember.
00:05:32
Speaker 3: The Tommy John just passed on over the weekend and when he had the surgery, it was like, oh my gosh, what's.
00:05:40
Speaker 4: Ever going to happen? And now it's something that they do on the regular.
00:05:43
Speaker 3: It does cost a lot of time, but it's saved a lot of careers. But at the same time, there are more careers, as you said, than ever that need to be saved because players arms are burning out at a higher rate. I mean, Jared Jones on the on the Pirate staff had to have a major surgery last year and missed pretty much all of twenty twenty five, And he's just one example of many in the major leagues.
00:06:09
Speaker 1: Do you think he'll ever come all the way back to what he was his first two years? And I know that's impossible to predict, but gonna I'm gonna say no, Mike, until they tell me why this has happened. If they tell me why this has happened, they have a plan of attack, then I believe it's possible. But until they know, I think he's done Zoe in terms of domination.
00:06:31
Speaker 4: I will say this.
00:06:32
Speaker 3: I think that the fact that the strike, the lockout, whatever it's going to be labeled as, I think the fact that that's likely now probably certainly it's more likely than not that there's going to be an extended, extended stoppage in twenty twenty seven and possibly the entire year. And I think that's well timed for him because even though it's the prime, you know, it's when he really before was showing an advanced toward dominance. I think the fact that he's had this long a period of struggle in the twenty twenty.
00:07:04
Speaker 4: Sixth season is suggestive that.
00:07:06
Speaker 3: A year away from regular activity couldn't hurt him.
00:07:11
Speaker 4: It certainly can't hurt.
00:07:12
Speaker 3: Him because he is not the pitcher that he was a year ago, not even close. And I still think that the most illuminating stat that I've seen, of all those math things they're doing in baseball now, the most illuminating stat I can remember seeing is the chart of his ninety eight plus mile an hour fastballs from year one and year two compared to year three. In year one, avalanche, in year one earthquake, year three, there's not even a rainstorm. It's just how do you get that different that fast and without an injury? And again, if it were a if it were, it could be fatigue or whatever.
00:07:54
Speaker 4: But if it were an.
00:07:55
Speaker 3: Arm issue injury, then there's no way they would have allowed him to confute.
00:08:00
Speaker 1: It'd been shut down weeks ago, maybe months ago. We're talking to Mike the course he Mike's brought to us by South phils Kia. Mike, what sucks worst is this is just a wasted year for the Pirates, and it looks so promising.
00:08:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's it's very disappointing that it's gone this way. If you came off of two years of of every reason to expect that every time that he went out there that you were likely to win.
00:08:26
Speaker 4: Not guaranteed.
00:08:26
Speaker 3: You're never guaranteed, because he could always throw nine shut out innings and you could lose one nothing in the tenth. But you are likely to win with him as a starter, And then you had good quality starting pitching.
00:08:37
Speaker 4: Brash and as Ashcraft.
00:08:39
Speaker 3: Development another great uh uh progress story. You had every reason to believe you were better. But let's not pretend that that this was a loaded team. It's it's they've had injury issues.
00:08:52
Speaker 1: No, but it was a good enough team, Mike uh I can't seemed.
00:08:56
Speaker 4: To be competitive.
00:08:57
Speaker 3: But I still don't think that it's his team at team as good as the Cubs, certainly not as good as the Brewers. Could they have done better than they have, Certainly they could, And if he were what he should be or was, then yeah, I think you're right there in the picture with the Cardinals. But again, that puts you in the picture to play one game, to see if you can go.
00:09:18
Speaker 4: Out and then get smashed by the Dodgers.
00:09:20
Speaker 1: Wait to no three games because the first run's best of three now. But yeah, and the Dodgers are struggling now as it is. But yeah, but you're right. I want to get to the Steelers in the time we have left. Mike McCarthy said, Rudolph won't play Friday in the next exhibition game, so he's definitely the number two quarterback. I gotta be honest, Mike, I feel dumb forever imagining he might get cut and that there was a battle for the backup job.
00:09:43
Speaker 2: He's such the obvious backup.
00:09:47
Speaker 3: Well, I don't see any reason why you would bring back Aaron Rodgers for this season and then go into the year with a backup who's never played in the NFL.
00:09:58
Speaker 2: Right, right, it's like one of the other.
00:10:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know that there there was a one of one of the Pittsburgh Steelers media writers posted a Twitter poll yesterday and more than fifty percent said that they should dump or trade Mason Rudolph. So I knew right away now that I was right that that that's not the right choice. Mason absolutely should be the backup, and if you could somehow find a way to put somebody on the injuried list.
00:10:27
Speaker 4: Great.
00:10:28
Speaker 3: If you can't, then you either put Will Howard on the trade market see if there's any takers, and if there's not, then maybe you try to sneak him through to the practice squad by waiving him. That's unless he comes out and shows something on Friday in this start that is that is a part and over and above anything that he's done today.
00:10:50
Speaker 4: He was really fine.
00:10:53
Speaker 3: In last Thursday's game, but he wasn't He was fine, he wasn't dominant, he.
00:10:58
Speaker 2: Was pretty good.
00:11:00
Speaker 1: I can't go further now, and you know, but but are they going to keep four quarterbacks? And the only way to do that would be if they think that Howard, I mean ours their potential long term starter might not be, but but he's the best bet what they got.
00:11:14
Speaker 2: If you think Howard can be a long term number.
00:11:17
Speaker 1: Two successfully, that's got to be the floor for your expectations for him.
00:11:22
Speaker 3: Otherwise, I think he could. I think he could, and he's really bright. I think he's got a lot of good feel absolutely there's utility in that.
00:11:31
Speaker 4: But he's not ready to be in that role this year. And the problem is.
00:11:37
Speaker 3: How do you keep If you keep him, then there has to be somebody on the other edd of your roster, a special teams player, a linebacker, a safety, whoever it is that you think that you can get through waivers and bring back around and then and then you can keep on deactivating quarterbacks. But that puts you in a position where you're shorthanded at other positions that matter, uh, and you're shorthanded on special teams. I just don't I just don't see the utility of having four quarterbacks on your active roster. And like I said, if you think that you can sneak Howard through the practice squad, great, I'd be wonderful.
00:12:15
Speaker 4: If you don't think so. If you if you put them up for a trade and somebody's willing to offer you a fifth round.
00:12:20
Speaker 3: Picker, better take it, because again, his ceiling is most likely as a long term backup. There's there's value in that, but not enough value to risk what you're what you're trying to do with twenty twenty six. Did you didn't hire a sixty plus year old coach to go out and try to go five and twelve and then draft high in the in the twenty twenty seven draft.
00:12:45
Speaker 4: That's not what this was.
00:12:46
Speaker 1: Well, they it doesn't matter to coach is that's just not how the Steelers operate. I I don't necessarily agree, but I've come to accept what is now. Is Joey Porter Junior worth thirty million a year like all the other cornerback Why are the Steelers playing hardball with him?
00:13:02
Speaker 2: It strikes me as odd.
00:13:04
Speaker 4: Well.
00:13:05
Speaker 3: One thing I've been saying Mark is I don't think it's him.
00:13:08
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't think it's them. I think it's him, And I think.
00:13:11
Speaker 1: Okay, let me let me off. I mooted that on the show a couple of days back. But if it was him, the Steelers would leak that out to one of their many media stooges.
00:13:22
Speaker 3: But there was there's no reason for them to sign Keanu Benton to the contract that.
00:13:27
Speaker 4: They did when they did.
00:13:29
Speaker 3: If if, if, how excuse me.
00:13:32
Speaker 4: If Porter were ready and eager to jump in.
00:13:36
Speaker 3: I think it was smart on the part of his representation to wait until the upper end of the cornerback market is set.
00:13:43
Speaker 4: And that thirty three million dollar contract that went to the Seattle corner on Saturday.
00:13:48
Speaker 3: On Sunday, Saturday or Sunday, that was the market, and that Gonzales might get more or less right right around there, but it'll be in that neighborhood. So we know now what the high end is, and so it probably pushed his price up from what rape Vi Depaldo said a few weeks to go around twenty seven. I think he's now close to twenty nine or thirty because that's what the market says, and.
00:14:12
Speaker 4: There are a lot of skeptics about that.
00:14:14
Speaker 3: But you keep forgetting the skeptics, keep forgetting that he hasn't a lot of touchdown passings twenty twenty three.
00:14:21
Speaker 4: His penalties went way down last year.
00:14:25
Speaker 3: He's an outstanding corner and they have a chance to be really good in the secondary this year once they get him on the field. And honestly, once that contract happened on Sunday, this should have fallen into place fairly soon after. Maybe there's a hold up over guaranteed Bunny. The Steelers are always pretty averse to going too deep with that, but you understand, like the Steelers might not put it on paper because if you become a mess up a problem, they're not going to guarantee your money. But if you are Joey Porter, the guy who goes out and works tail off every day and plays his tail off every Sunday.
00:15:03
Speaker 4: Your money's guaranteed. They're not taking away from you. They never have.
00:15:06
Speaker 1: Right, They're not gonna cut you that. That's one hundred percent true. My great stuff as always.
00:15:11
Speaker 2: Uh.
00:15:11
Speaker 1: I wish we had time to talk about the Penn State cocaine scandal, and this news just broke the funnel cake at the creamer he is selling. I mean, I'm not sure what they're putting on it, but it might not be powdered sugar. That's Mike de COURSI I'm Mark Madden one O five to nine.
00:15:26
Speaker 6: The most talked about music festival on the planet is coming down.
00:15:29
Speaker 2: The Boulevard Soft and I use a bunch of pillows and I saw.
00:15:33
Speaker 3: The ex at one oh five nine.
00:15:44
Speaker 1: I'm telling you you don't want to hear it, but I'm telling you Skeeds' career is done, at least what it was supposed to be. He will never again be what he was them first two years, Rookie of the Year and Cy Young never again, nothing like that, because if you don't know what's wrong, how can you fix it? And they don't know what's wrong. Skeens hasn't shown one flash of what he used to be. He hasn't done it all season, not once, not one game, not one inning, not one batter. He's a junkballer. Now he's a relatively smart pitcher. I guess he's okay, I guess, but okay. Ain't what he's supposed to be, and it ain't what the Pirates need him to be. So Skeens is screwed. The Pirates are screwed. Ain't gonna be no baseball next year anyway. So let's talk Stellers. Here's Jeff Schwartz, the Fox Sports one, talking about these Steelers being stuck in the mushy middle.
00:17:02
Speaker 6: As far as Pittsburgh in the middle, man Like, as a sports fan, you have teams, you're four, you be in the middle is the worst place to be because you'll think about the postseason. You're not bad enough to draft anyone.
00:17:13
Speaker 3: Good.
00:17:13
Speaker 6: I want my team either stink My my baseball team stinks right now. Good like they selled, they sold off. They got a bunch of young guys. Maybe we're good in seven years, or you wonder you need to be good to win a championship. The middle is the worst place to be as a sports fan. Being a Sis fan right now has got to be pretty boring.
00:17:28
Speaker 2: I'm excited about McCarthy taking over.
00:17:30
Speaker 1: I'm excited about watching the quarterbacks, the young guys get better. But Schwartz Saint wrong. It could get boring. And I get told all the time, you don't have to stink to get your guy, your key player, your franchise guy. Look at Kansas City with Mahomes, That's what I get told. But you got a better chance to get that guy if you suck and draft high Mahomes. What happened in there, that's the exception and not the rule. Look at the Penguins with Lemieux. In March nineteen eighty four, New Jersey beat the Penguins sixty five. If the Penguins win that game, the Devil's finished behind the Penguins, as in dead last in the NHL. The Devils get Mario and the Penguins would be in Kansas City right now someplace else. But the Steelers in Penguins right now are both content to be in the mushy middle because it keeps interest at an acceptable level. But I'm telling you the way it looks right now. My excitement on McCarthy's hiring and what he's done duly noted. The way it looks right now, those teams are going to be stuck in the mushy middle indefinitely, especially the Steelers. Penguins might bottom out this year and it might happen by November. But that's a different discussion. Here's Robert Mays of the Athletic NFL Rider talking about a major strength for the Steelers, the defensive lot.
00:19:07
Speaker 7: The sheer depth on the Steelers defensive line. They just gave count Benton eighteen million dollars a year. We got why a Black's probably gonna be the starting No's on that team. You got Canu Betton, you got Derek Harmon, you got Cam Hayward's, you got all the edge guys. I mean, it's just if that all comes together with Harmon being healthy this year and now you have four into your defensive linemen you feel good about and three edge guys plus whatever you get from Jack Sawyer. Like, it's just that's a group that has a chance to be really, really impactful over the course of this season.
00:19:36
Speaker 1: It's also a group, with the exception of old man Hayward, that has a chance to be impactful over the long haul. So yeah, everything may said is true, but this traces back to the bushy middle talk that Steelers defense has a foundation with the young defensive lineman and Herbig and Sawyer and Porter to move forward and get better.
00:19:59
Speaker 2: But the problem is.
00:20:01
Speaker 1: At some point, and it's not too far off, you got to replace the old guys, and by then the young guys are getting a bit older, and you never hit a peak. And that's because the Steelers never shoot for a peak, just the mushy middle and the joy of one helmet guys. And that's a problem with the Penguins and Steelers. They never get rid of anyone whoever remotely gets perceived to be a club legend.
00:20:33
Speaker 2: Hate that word legend, but you hear that all the time.
00:20:36
Speaker 1: Even if like TJ Won, he's never won a damn playoff game, He's perceived as this club legend.
00:20:41
Speaker 2: You gotta keep TJ one helmet, blah blah blah.
00:20:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you ain't won a playoff game in nine years and he's never won one at all. We got Sean Casey up next talk in baseball, but right now I want to talk about Bett Parks because black and Gold football isn't and It's the perfect time to make your futures bets on the upcoming Pro football season. The Betparks Online Casino in Sportsbook app has got you covered for futures bets on Pro football and who's gonna win it all this year? Los Angeles, Baltimore and Buffalo are the top three favorites. But a twenty five dollars bet on the Black and Gold right now to win it all, pay sixteen hundred and fifty bucks. It's a black and Gold, big money bananza, baby. And then you got live betting. I'm talking live betting on Bucco's Baseball and all your favorite sports. It's better on the bet Parks app. Keep it fast, don't lose velocity.
00:21:40
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00:22:21
Speaker 3: Show.
00:22:22
Speaker 4: Guys.
00:22:22
Speaker 2: I had to get all my fighters blood testings done right.
00:22:25
Speaker 7: And you guys know my history with AIDS, right, No.
00:22:29
Speaker 2: I haven't.
00:22:32
Speaker 8: You when you were high, like got really mental of like, oh my god, I convinced myself I.
00:22:39
Speaker 2: Had AIDS all this stuff. Yeah, okay, all right, yeah, so keep that in mind. I've been tested. I had to do it all for this and.
00:22:48
Speaker 7: I got so in my head again and I was like, Morgie, this is this is how you find out you got age Dumbo.
00:22:55
Speaker 1: The most talked about music festival on the planet is coming.
00:22:59
Speaker 4: Back Toree So be a Baby THEX at one five nine.
00:23:04
Speaker 1: It's always great to talk baseball with the mayor, Sean Casey, the pride of Upper Saint Clair.
00:23:08
Speaker 2: You see him on the MLB Network.
00:23:10
Speaker 1: But I got a great stat to open up my conversation with Sean today. Case you batted three sixty four lifetime against Greg Maddox, who might be one of the five best pictures of all time.
00:23:21
Speaker 2: That's incredible. How'd you pull that off?
00:23:25
Speaker 1: Oh?
00:23:25
Speaker 5: I appreciate it. Rman Fozzi's double m You know what. I You know what, when I first got up there, he was he really ate me up.
00:23:32
Speaker 9: He had that good two seemer that got me. And as I've just faced, the more I learned how he wanted to attack me and attack lefties.
00:23:39
Speaker 5: And I was just really good at waiting on the ball.
00:23:41
Speaker 9: And Maddox's ball moves so late that I was just I just locked into it to it late.
00:23:47
Speaker 5: But I don't know how, man. You look back at your career now and I go, Man, how did I do any of that stuff?
00:23:51
Speaker 7: You know?
00:23:52
Speaker 1: Now? How was Maddox that great? Because to the naked eye you couldn't tell. But when you broke him down, when you analyzed, like I said, maybe one of the top five pitchers.
00:24:02
Speaker 9: Ever, the movement was so late. I mean that's the biggest thing. I mean, you know, listen at the end of the day, the pitchers trying to deceive the hitter. And for Maddix, I mean, I remember he hit me one time first time I faced him. He got me to one two and he threw a ball right at my It was I thought I was gonna hit me.
00:24:18
Speaker 4: In the back.
00:24:19
Speaker 5: I started to react like I started to almost.
00:24:21
Speaker 9: Scream, and then bam it it was a two seamer and I swear double m It ran in the last foot right into the insect corner, strike three, and I was like, wow, I've never seen anything like that.
00:24:32
Speaker 5: So he could just move the ball. He crisscrossed the plate late.
00:24:36
Speaker 9: Everything he threw was really late, and he could really you know, dial up the curveball to change up, and he threw anything for strikes when he wanted to.
00:24:43
Speaker 1: Now you mentioned the two seamer, doesn't appear to me like very many pictures throw the two seamer anymore. Why is that and what's the difference between the two seamer and four seamer.
00:24:54
Speaker 9: Guys are still throwing two seamers, you know, maybe not as much as they did back.
00:24:58
Speaker 5: In the day. But you know, the two is is a fastball. It's a two seam fastball.
00:25:03
Speaker 9: What it does is for a right handed, for a right hander, when they throw the two seamer, it comes into a righting and away from a lefty, and you know, it's just something that you know, it's trying to induce the ground ball. With the lefty, it's a great double play ball pitch, and with the right you're just trying to blow them up on their hands. And I think nowadays, I think the four seam fastball at the top of it, at the top of the zone, I mean, the zone is more you know, up to down now, when when I think we were pitching that Mannix and those guys might have been getting three inches off the plate, three balls off the plate sometimes, So I think they're pitching to the strike zone two and that four seam heater, you know, ninety five plus miles an hours. The top of the zone is a pitch that's tough to lay off of, So I think more guys are throwing it.
00:25:46
Speaker 1: Case Paul skin struggled again today, just can't rev it up. What are the pros and cons of shutting him down, because apparently that's being talked about.
00:25:55
Speaker 9: Really, you know what, I don't I'd have to talk to Paul about.
00:25:58
Speaker 5: That, you know, I you know, I know what he says.
00:26:00
Speaker 9: He's healthy, you know, I know he's you know, had some command issues in the last few starts here.
00:26:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I gotta be honest, case, if it's not an elbow or an arm issue, I just let him pitch.
00:26:14
Speaker 5: I agree. And the Pirates are still in it. I mean, the Pirates are right there. I mean they're you know, they're sixty three and sixty six.
00:26:20
Speaker 9: They just won a series against the Red Sox and the Tigers.
00:26:23
Speaker 5: You know they're they're I.
00:26:24
Speaker 9: Mean, Ashcraft looks like Cy Young right now, the way he's pitching. I mean, they're right in it. So and they're gonna need Paul Skans. I mean, Paul Skins is still a really good pitcher. I mean we you know, obviously it's been kind of a little bit of a hiccup a year for him for his standards. But even with the way he's pitching, he's still a really good pitcher, double im. So if they're gonna make it run, they're gonna need him.
00:26:44
Speaker 2: I would think.
00:26:45
Speaker 1: What worries me the most about skeens is they don't appear to know what's going on. And to me, that's always the big worry because case sports, all the sports, such an exact science. How often does a problem come around where nobody knows?
00:27:00
Speaker 9: Yeah, not often these days, you know, not off in these days. But I think sometimes a dipping velocity, you know, a mile proud mile and a half or whatever, it is a couple of miles proudly.
00:27:11
Speaker 5: Sometimes you know.
00:27:12
Speaker 9: Maybe you just can't pinpoint what that is because it looks like, you know, his arms his arms strong. He's the one that keeps saying he feels good. And I think you've got to go a lot of times with how the player feels. But you know, for whatever reason, you know, just there's some things happening with PAULI this year that haven't been you know.
00:27:28
Speaker 1: So in the last couple now we got to talk about ascraft because you're right, that's incredible. Seventeen innings over his last two starts, eight hits, two runs, just one hundred and sixty five pitches total. We just spoke about Greg Maddox. That's kind of reminiscent in some of the lines he.
00:27:43
Speaker 2: Used to put up.
00:27:45
Speaker 9: Well he's got electric stuff, doublem. I mean, really, he's making big league, big league hitters look bad. And you know he went, what did he throw eighty pitches eight innings?
00:27:55
Speaker 5: Like eighty some pitches? He threw eighty pitches.
00:27:57
Speaker 1: He threw eighty pitches yesterday when he pitched, excuse me a couple days back when he pitched, No, it was yesterday. He pitched eight innings and then eighty five pitches in the complete game.
00:28:07
Speaker 9: Okay, yeah, I mean that's efficiency, you know, that's that's that's attack of the zone. And that's getting weak you know, he's getting a ton of weak contact. So I mean, he looks when you're making big league hitters third time through the lineup, still look bad, right, I mean, it just it must look so nasty for those guys in the box right now.
00:28:28
Speaker 1: Now, Bob Wak was on the show and he feels pitchers should pitch more innings and build their arms up. And min I add Ashcraft appeared to be out of gas a couple of weeks back, but he's found a second win. Do you agree with what Walkie thinks and do you think it'll ever go back to that in MLB?
00:28:46
Speaker 9: Well, here's the deal, double and the game is so different now as far as the max effort. You remember, like, yeah, the case in point, I played with Verlain or six. He was a rookie at six and seven, and you would have watched JV pitch he would I'll tell you what he would sit ninety three ninety six, but I'll tell you what late in the game if he needed one hundred hundred and one. Bamn, there it was like, guys aren't doing that now. I mean, guys are max effort from the jump. It's almost like they're closers. You know, they're coming in, They're like, okay, here it goes. Here's my max effort every pitch, max effort, max effort, spin rate.
00:29:21
Speaker 5: You know, they're just going for it.
00:29:22
Speaker 9: So that's why you're seeing guys, you know, the pitch counts are getting up there, eighty ninety, you know, one hundred pitches through five and six innings because these guys are so max effort and the thought process is just like in the Big leagues with hit the ball in the ballpark, hit the ball in the air. With pitchers, it's like strake as many guys out as you can.
00:29:41
Speaker 5: So I don't know.
00:29:43
Speaker 1: If maybe that should become outdated too case. You know, like you know, we talk about pitching the contact and it frustrated me when Garrett Cole switched over to that. But then again that that gets out quicker if you have good stuff.
00:29:56
Speaker 5: Well that's the thing. Listen, if you can. If you have good stuff in zone.
00:30:00
Speaker 9: And you have good movement, you won't weak contact. Who cares if you're striking everybody out. You know, at the end of the day, you know, give me a good two seamer in the zone, or give me something running or a good you know, the best pitch of baseball is still a well located fastball, So you know, I think there's something to that. I mean, and Ashcraft's doing that. He's filling up the strike zone. Guys are having weak contact. He's still punching some guys out, but throw strikes and quality strikes.
00:30:27
Speaker 1: Raphael Flores Junior, who they got from the Yankees, and that bender traded a couple home runs today, including the game time home running the ninth. I hope he works out case. I think he looks pretty good. And if the Pirates could just get stability at catcher. I think stability a catcher gives the whole team stability, don't.
00:30:44
Speaker 5: You I think so too.
00:30:46
Speaker 9: Yeah, I tell you what, double M I really like.
00:30:48
Speaker 5: This kid's swing.
00:30:49
Speaker 9: I mean, he he came in today, hit homer solo homer, then tied it up in the ninth. But it's a beautiful right handed swing. I mean sometimes at the right handed swings, you're like, oh, that's a nice swing, but it's not like a lefty. He almost looks like a nice lefty from the right side. And he's got some real pop. I mean that ball jumps off his bat. So hopefully this is this turns out to be a real nice pickup. And yeah, we'll see if he can, uh, you know, maybe slide into that starter role at some point.
00:31:15
Speaker 1: And I just wish Andy could stay healthy, I think, And he's a legitimate big league catcher.
00:31:20
Speaker 9: He is, man, he's turning the corner too as far as like hitting and and and and being more of a you know, the experience he's getting is helping him.
00:31:29
Speaker 5: But the problem is he.
00:31:30
Speaker 9: Just can't stay healthy right now.
00:31:31
Speaker 5: So I hope.
00:31:31
Speaker 9: I hope so too. When I watch him play double him, I think the same thing. Man, his kid to be something special if he stays healthy.
00:31:38
Speaker 2: Who's the Nation League MVP Otani or pa.
00:31:43
Speaker 5: Oh Man? What a question?
00:31:44
Speaker 9: You know, being an MLB network, we've been going back back and forth with that so much. You know, listen, I love pca Man. I was, I was with him at the WBC.
00:31:55
Speaker 5: You know, when I watch him play center field.
00:31:57
Speaker 9: It's a different center field and he plays it every night, and he's a game changer out there.
00:32:02
Speaker 5: But I guess the one thing that I just have I.
00:32:04
Speaker 9: Just struggle with, and I think it's a little voter fatigue with with Otani is like he still has thrown eighty some innings with a one eight nine era.
00:32:13
Speaker 5: So if you are a.
00:32:14
Speaker 9: Great reliever, you'd be like, that's incredible, this guy's you know.
00:32:17
Speaker 5: But if you're a starter, I mean, he was in.
00:32:19
Speaker 9: The running for the Cy Young until he got banged up.
00:32:22
Speaker 5: So even with his numbers now what they are, if.
00:32:25
Speaker 9: The innings pitched his you know, his the offensive numbers are close, So then you've got to go is center field more valuable than a guy that can get on the bump and throw innings where which no one else in the world does. So I don't know. I guess I guess part of me still says that o'twi. You know, even with the innings he has right now, would probably edge out PCA.
00:32:48
Speaker 5: For me.
00:32:48
Speaker 1: Let me tell you my tie breaker case, because I think it is razor close, and I literally go back and forth. I gotta be honest, It depends who I saw play on TV the night before. If he can pitch a little bit down the stretch, get get more innings in and do well and win games, that would push it over the top for me.
00:33:08
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:33:09
Speaker 9: Yeah, I see what you're saying, double them, because you're watching I know what you're doing.
00:33:11
Speaker 5: You're watching PCA hit all these walk off home.
00:33:13
Speaker 9: Lines and all the stuff, all the stuff that he's doing, which is which is it is really impressive to do what he's been doing. But you're right, I just feel like, if Otani comes back, I think it's a it's a slam dunk. But if he doesn't, man, it's still raisor thing close.
00:33:29
Speaker 3: Hey.
00:33:29
Speaker 5: But but the good thing double them.
00:33:30
Speaker 9: The good thing is we're having this conversation, dude, oh yea, because for years we're like, if Otani's healthy, bam, you.
00:33:37
Speaker 5: Know, MVP. Now we got a guy like PCA.
00:33:39
Speaker 9: Who's really doing everything on both sides of the ball at such an elite level that at least we're having a conversation.
00:33:46
Speaker 5: About it now.
00:33:47
Speaker 1: Now, staying with the Dodgers, they're only seven and eleven over the last eighteen games. Is there a problem with them or are they just kind of biding time.
00:33:56
Speaker 5: I think they're kind of biden time.
00:33:58
Speaker 9: I mean last year, you go back to last year when one the whole thing. They I think they had a seven game losing streak right around right around this time, uh you know, in August, and they you know ended up you know, running the table. But uh, you know, I think they got smell back Glass now is coming back, right they got They just traded for scooball Donalmoto does what he does. I think the Kyle Tucker thing has been a you know, I think he's been a little bit better in the second half of man it's been a pretty much a struggle for him. Rookie Betts is a below average player right now. So we always think about the Dodgers, Oh you got Bets Freeman and Otani.
00:34:33
Speaker 5: Bets has just been like below average.
00:34:35
Speaker 9: Kyle Tucker's pretty much been a non factor. So uh with I think the biggest thing with them, with Will Smith being down at Dulton rushing being down with the catching, that's how big of a good catch a deal of good catcher is. I think that's been the biggest thing is they're catching. Uh, their main guys have been down too long now. I think they're gonna get Will Smith back here soon. But I think that's been the big problem.
00:34:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I kind of think they're biding time.
00:35:01
Speaker 1: I think they'll be there when the Cons, but they gotta be careful they don't drop into the the third seed and have to play that best of three series, because I I think that's the place where I mean, duh, that they're most vulnerable a short series.
00:35:14
Speaker 5: You're doublem, You're exactly righting.
00:35:15
Speaker 9: They don't want to They do not want to play that three game series against and I think right now it would be against the Phillies right right, I think they they would they would not want that.
00:35:24
Speaker 5: You don't want to match up.
00:35:25
Speaker 9: For a three game series and have to go Wheeler and san Chaz and Lozardo.
00:35:30
Speaker 3: I mean that, you know.
00:35:31
Speaker 9: Obviously with with that lineup too. So they're looking at it. They just overtook the Braves right now. I think they're two games up on them, So they're looking at it like we're looking at it. Like they can't just be like, oh, we're gonna just make a run at the end. Well, that's how you end up getting clipped in.
00:35:44
Speaker 5: A three game series.
00:35:45
Speaker 9: If if if you barely get.
00:35:47
Speaker 1: In And finally, case, what about Milwaukee. I'm flipping a dot. Last night They're beating Seattle twenty two to nothing, and it was it was like a Merry go run. They just kept running around the bases. How good are they really?
00:36:00
Speaker 2: In?
00:36:00
Speaker 1: What I find to be interesting is Yellick isn't even having a great season.
00:36:05
Speaker 9: I know he's I mean, Yellis is really kind of an afterthought in that lineup. Then there's a couple guys. I mean I was with Bryce Terrang at the WBC too. I mean, this guy is is really you know, a special player. But Jake Bowers has had a great year. Jackson Cheerios, he's the real deal. You know, Contreres, they have some star power in that lineup, some guys that are really good hitters, but they just beat you down double m They play good baseball. Uh, you know, Pat Murphy's a really I know, I know Murph very well. I mean, they love playing for Murph and they're just a good baseball team. You you really got a grind to get twenty seven outs against.
00:36:41
Speaker 5: Against the Brewers, and they're not gonna give you much leeway.
00:36:45
Speaker 1: Finally, case, if you had to pick the best team, in each league right now?
00:36:48
Speaker 9: Who is it, oh man, the best team in each league right now? I have to say Tampa Bay is playing really good baseball. I'd have to say they're up there right now with with with their pitching and what they can do. And you know what, I'm gonna give the edge to Milwaukee. I know we talk about the Dodgers, but hey, Milwaukee's got seventy eight wins right now, They're thirty games over five hundred.
00:37:11
Speaker 5: They're a really good team.
00:37:13
Speaker 9: That have not stopped since since the jump this year.
00:37:15
Speaker 5: They play good baseball. So I'm gonna go with the Milwaukee case.
00:37:19
Speaker 1: My producer Tom, he's on the case. He's trying to get Greg Maddox on the show to explain what the hell happened.
00:37:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, they don't hold your brother. I don't think mad Dogs coming on.
00:37:31
Speaker 1: Well, we're gonna try, and I bet I bet you'd kind of like to hear yourself. That's not Casey. I'm Mark Madden one oh five nine.
00:37:39
Speaker 10: Oh wait, it's time to submit your questions for Ask Mark Anything. Use your free iHeartRadio app and tap the microphone icon to send your questions to the super genius Instantly.
00:37:52
Speaker 4: It's The Woody Show weekday mornings at six one o five ninety X this hour of the Mark Madden Comet and.
00:37:59
Speaker 1: Damn it, I'll be popping or Pittsburgh, K I think I gotta start with pull pork nachos.
00:38:05
Speaker 2: Fantastic.
00:38:06
Speaker 4: On the X at one O five.
00:38:07
Speaker 1: Nine, we were so busy talking about cases success against Greg Maddox. I forgot to tell you to call and ask Mark anything eight three three or one two w x d x Uh.
00:38:27
Speaker 2: That's a three three four one two.
00:38:28
Speaker 1: W xdx brought to list by People's Natural Gas.
00:38:33
Speaker 2: You got to call eight one one before you dig.
00:38:35
Speaker 1: You dig even landscaping work requires you to call eight one one. Get more info at People's hyphengas dot com so you can call.
00:38:43
Speaker 2: Now you know what I'm getting a lot of heat for.
00:38:49
Speaker 1: On Twitter, I said, I don't that that I recommended you don't go to downtown Pittsburgh. There was a view of the city from PNC and I go nice to look at.
00:38:57
Speaker 2: Just don't go there.
00:38:59
Speaker 1: Now, I've been down tom Pittsburgh and besides the theater district, then right by the hockey rant gets dump. I was just in Toronto for a week. I love Toronto. Down Tom Pittsburgh. I love the theater district, but otherwise not so much. A lot of scummy people, vagrants, homeless and whatnot, and that sort of thing is bleeding over to where I live, and I am in the city my address, So I always like when people say about any place, if you don't like it, leave nah, nah, you fix it. A three, three, four one two w XDX the number to call. Let's go to Brian. Brian are on with Mark.
00:39:43
Speaker 8: Hey, Mark, I heard you talking about Jaws yesterday, which is also.
00:39:46
Speaker 4: My favorite movie of all time. You said you put it what you're like your top three probably.
00:39:50
Speaker 2: Uh, probably, yeah, Yeah. I watch it.
00:39:54
Speaker 1: If it's on cable and I'm flipping through, I watch the rest of it.
00:39:57
Speaker 2: I pick it up right where it's.
00:39:58
Speaker 8: At on every single time, I heard you talking about the mechanical shark failing, and I wondered if you knew the reason behind the shark failing wasn't just because it was the water part of it that that that it was because it was in the ocean, and the way that the salt messed with the mechanics and electronics or whatever is really what made it fail. And if I had to ask Steven Spielberg one question I would have asked him, like, why didn't you just shoot it on a lake?
00:40:28
Speaker 3: Oh?
00:40:29
Speaker 2: Because I'll tell you.
00:40:30
Speaker 1: Why did you see the costume movie water World, which is a world covered.
00:40:34
Speaker 2: Completely in water?
00:40:36
Speaker 4: I love that movie.
00:40:37
Speaker 1: Even shooting on the ocean as they did, it was so tough to get camera angles where you didn't pick up any land.
00:40:43
Speaker 2: I'm sure it would be the same way on a lake.
00:40:46
Speaker 9: Yeah.
00:40:46
Speaker 8: Possibly, But I guess the shark would have worked much better.
00:40:49
Speaker 2: But you know, like, thank you for the call.
00:40:52
Speaker 1: Like I said yesterday, Brian, the fact that the shark was very seldom seen made the shark much scarier villain. It worked out perfectly for Spielberg and for that movie.
00:41:06
Speaker 2: Let's go to a talkback. Is Fearless your favorite Pink Floyd song?
00:41:12
Speaker 5: Let's say you.
00:41:14
Speaker 2: I don't even know what Fearless is. I'm not much of a Pink Floyd fan.
00:41:17
Speaker 1: I mean, I know the is Fearless, the one where they play You'll Never Walk Alone at the end. I think it probably is. But no, I'm not a big Pink Floyd guy. I respect their body of work. They're great when you're high, none matter what the song is Dark Side of the Moon classic album.
00:41:33
Speaker 2: But I mean for me to quote Floyd songs, I can't.
00:41:37
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of Randall Pink Floyd from the movie Days to Confused, the quarterback who said I might play ball, but I will never sign that commitment sheet.
00:41:48
Speaker 2: Let's go to a talkback.
00:41:50
Speaker 3: Hey, Mark, not the dwell in the past, but how do you think toalmlan would be handling this qv situation of this preseason.
00:41:58
Speaker 1: I don't think he would have drafted, so I think it would be handling a much different I think Tom would say, Okay, we got our quarterbacks, let's pick defensive players.
00:42:10
Speaker 2: Defense. Yeah, let's go to Micah Mike, you're on the Mark Madden Show.
00:42:16
Speaker 7: Hey, what up?
00:42:17
Speaker 1: Man?
00:42:17
Speaker 5: What up?
00:42:18
Speaker 4: Mine?
00:42:19
Speaker 3: Hey?
00:42:20
Speaker 4: I'm just curious.
00:42:21
Speaker 8: Do you still believe in Kyle do this long term plan for the Penguins, or do you think this offseason was too big of a step backwards.
00:42:27
Speaker 1: I believe Kyle. How can I put this? I think Kyle's a really good general manager. I think he's handcuffed by the veterans. I think that those veterans want who they want in that locker room, but they still expect to win. Which is an impossible situation. Fans are kind of like that too. The fans want Gino to play forever, even though he's detrimental to winning. He gets points, he's a point collector. But you know, you have to turn a corner. And as long as the veterans are all there, and not just Sid and Gino and Tanger, I'm talking Carlson, we're Kellen Russ too. You can't turn a corner. Old is just old. You cannot build on old. And they liked yank and cranking about Sid, Geno and Latang being together for twenty years, the only time a trio has ever done that on a major American sports team.
00:43:20
Speaker 2: You know why it's never happened before because it doesn't work right.
00:43:26
Speaker 1: So I think Kyle's a good GM. I think he's handcuffed, and I think I don't think he ever dreamed all three of those guys would still be playing.
00:43:36
Speaker 2: And I know for sure he if he were left one of his own.
00:43:40
Speaker 1: Devices and in a vacuum, he would not have brought Geno back this year.
00:43:44
Speaker 2: But that's the way.
00:43:45
Speaker 1: The situation is a three three, four to one two wxdx. The number to call just around the corner. Stupid is as stupid does one oh five nine,
Speaker 1: Radio for Skeenes fans, Bucco fans. I'm afraid I've bought some bad news. Your hero soiled the bed again today. Joining me not to talk about the fallout and what the Bucks can do to deal with it is Pittsburgh's own Mike Decorsi. Mike is Skeen's done as a dominant pitcher, and if not, tell the pirates.
00:00:21
Speaker 2: How to fix it, because I don't think they.
00:00:22
Speaker 3: Know well he's done for twenty twenty six as a dominant pitcher. We've run out of time for him to recover his stuff, his feel, his velocity. You've got basically a month left in the season, and even skipping a start didn't help him at all.
00:00:41
Speaker 4: It might even have hurt because he was probably poorer.
00:00:44
Speaker 3: Today than he had been in maybe his two or three or four prior star and right.
00:00:49
Speaker 1: Off the bat walked the first two hitters and clearly had zero command.
00:00:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's so it wasn't a short term rest situation. Look, you can shut him down now if you want, but you and I both know, and I think most of baseball knows that the possibility of Paul Skeen's pitching in twenty twenty seven is slim, and not because of Paul Skein's current circumstance, but because of baseball's current circumstance. So I don't know whether other than the idea that he's not getting anybody out, I don't know what the value is of shutting him down because you don't have an obvious candidate to take his place. Machinski being promoted to take the space that was vacated prior hasn't.
00:01:37
Speaker 4: Helped at all. They really don't have an answer for that position.
00:01:41
Speaker 3: So I don't know that it hurts you as a team to continue to put him out there.
00:01:45
Speaker 5: Now.
00:01:46
Speaker 4: If he says, or his doctor says, or his agent says.
00:01:49
Speaker 3: It's probably in my best interest to not pitch anymore this year, that's doable, because again, this team's not going anywhere. But I don't think there's any real value in that relative to him, again, because I don't see, especially after the revelations that came out about the Dodgers yesterday, I don't see much likelihood that we'll have baseball next summer.
00:02:13
Speaker 2: No, I don't either.
00:02:14
Speaker 1: But the backtrack to what you said, I don't see the gain from shutting him down unless there's a reason that that makes sense, and that's the scariest thing of all about schemes, Mike.
00:02:27
Speaker 2: They don't know what's wrong.
00:02:28
Speaker 1: I don't since they have the Vegas clue, and that kind of makes me think it's got to be mental and that might be the hardest problem of all to solve because it's so inexact it is.
00:02:40
Speaker 3: But it's curious as well, Mark, I think you'll agree, because he went from being absolutely dominant and having everything as a pitcher that when we first started having conversations about the pirates for this year, we were talking about him as as a long term threat to be in the Gibson category, and now he can't get through four innings without serious issues. And I mean in terms of results, not necessarily what's going on.
00:03:10
Speaker 4: With his arm.
00:03:11
Speaker 3: It's apparent that it's not anything necessarily medical, because if it were, then he would have been put on a d L an i L.
00:03:22
Speaker 1: It had been shut down long before this, Mike, and I do wonder if the World Baseball Classic is at least a contributing factor, because he did crack one hundred at the World Baseball Classic.
00:03:35
Speaker 2: Was it too much too soon?
00:03:37
Speaker 1: I don't know, But when you don't know, you got to look at everything, and maybe that was a factor. Not the factor, certainly, not the lone factor, but a factor.
00:03:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree with you. I don't think that helped at all.
00:03:50
Speaker 3: I think playing competitively that early in the training camp cycle, the spring training cycle isn't necessarily good for anything.
00:04:00
Speaker 1: Don't need to have international baseball. There's no need to put these guys at risk. It's not that kind of game. It's different than the other games. There's too much negative fallout.
00:04:10
Speaker 4: Well, here's what I would say.
00:04:11
Speaker 3: If you want to get serious about international baseball, then put the World Baseball Classic where it belongs and give everybody off a month or whatever, three weeks, maybe for a week and a half Olympic tournament in every four years. And again this would be in LA at twenty twenty eight, instead of throwing a bunch of minor leaguers or college guys.
00:04:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, but then what's the toll on their arms at the end of the year. It's still it seems like there's fine night pitches for these guys, or maybe there's no. Bob walk was on the show yesterday and he said when he pitched in the miners, they had him pitched mornings every year to build up his stamina and the strength in his arm. And I gotta be honest, Mike, I'm wondering if what's old in that regard shouldn't become new again because now the pitcher's pitched less than ever, and there's more Tommy Johns surgery than ever.
00:05:01
Speaker 3: Exactly exactly, this is not working. It's the way they handle pictures now.
00:05:06
Speaker 4: It does not work. It works for some who are.
00:05:10
Speaker 3: Fortunate or have the right arm strength, or throw the right way, whatever it is. But the baby in concept of the players once they get in the professional system, that hasn't helped at all statistically in terms of the numbers of players that get hurt and the number of players that have to have major surgery.
00:05:28
Speaker 4: I mean, Tommy john used to be just well, remember.
00:05:32
Speaker 3: The Tommy John just passed on over the weekend and when he had the surgery, it was like, oh my gosh, what's.
00:05:40
Speaker 4: Ever going to happen? And now it's something that they do on the regular.
00:05:43
Speaker 3: It does cost a lot of time, but it's saved a lot of careers. But at the same time, there are more careers, as you said, than ever that need to be saved because players arms are burning out at a higher rate. I mean, Jared Jones on the on the Pirate staff had to have a major surgery last year and missed pretty much all of twenty twenty five, And he's just one example of many in the major leagues.
00:06:09
Speaker 1: Do you think he'll ever come all the way back to what he was his first two years? And I know that's impossible to predict, but gonna I'm gonna say no, Mike, until they tell me why this has happened. If they tell me why this has happened, they have a plan of attack, then I believe it's possible. But until they know, I think he's done Zoe in terms of domination.
00:06:31
Speaker 4: I will say this.
00:06:32
Speaker 3: I think that the fact that the strike, the lockout, whatever it's going to be labeled as, I think the fact that that's likely now probably certainly it's more likely than not that there's going to be an extended, extended stoppage in twenty twenty seven and possibly the entire year. And I think that's well timed for him because even though it's the prime, you know, it's when he really before was showing an advanced toward dominance. I think the fact that he's had this long a period of struggle in the twenty twenty.
00:07:04
Speaker 4: Sixth season is suggestive that.
00:07:06
Speaker 3: A year away from regular activity couldn't hurt him.
00:07:11
Speaker 4: It certainly can't hurt.
00:07:12
Speaker 3: Him because he is not the pitcher that he was a year ago, not even close. And I still think that the most illuminating stat that I've seen, of all those math things they're doing in baseball now, the most illuminating stat I can remember seeing is the chart of his ninety eight plus mile an hour fastballs from year one and year two compared to year three. In year one, avalanche, in year one earthquake, year three, there's not even a rainstorm. It's just how do you get that different that fast and without an injury? And again, if it were a if it were, it could be fatigue or whatever.
00:07:54
Speaker 4: But if it were an.
00:07:55
Speaker 3: Arm issue injury, then there's no way they would have allowed him to confute.
00:08:00
Speaker 1: It'd been shut down weeks ago, maybe months ago. We're talking to Mike the course he Mike's brought to us by South phils Kia. Mike, what sucks worst is this is just a wasted year for the Pirates, and it looks so promising.
00:08:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's it's very disappointing that it's gone this way. If you came off of two years of of every reason to expect that every time that he went out there that you were likely to win.
00:08:26
Speaker 4: Not guaranteed.
00:08:26
Speaker 3: You're never guaranteed, because he could always throw nine shut out innings and you could lose one nothing in the tenth. But you are likely to win with him as a starter, And then you had good quality starting pitching.
00:08:37
Speaker 4: Brash and as Ashcraft.
00:08:39
Speaker 3: Development another great uh uh progress story. You had every reason to believe you were better. But let's not pretend that that this was a loaded team. It's it's they've had injury issues.
00:08:52
Speaker 1: No, but it was a good enough team, Mike uh I can't seemed.
00:08:56
Speaker 4: To be competitive.
00:08:57
Speaker 3: But I still don't think that it's his team at team as good as the Cubs, certainly not as good as the Brewers. Could they have done better than they have, Certainly they could, And if he were what he should be or was, then yeah, I think you're right there in the picture with the Cardinals. But again, that puts you in the picture to play one game, to see if you can go.
00:09:18
Speaker 4: Out and then get smashed by the Dodgers.
00:09:20
Speaker 1: Wait to no three games because the first run's best of three now. But yeah, and the Dodgers are struggling now as it is. But yeah, but you're right. I want to get to the Steelers in the time we have left. Mike McCarthy said, Rudolph won't play Friday in the next exhibition game, so he's definitely the number two quarterback. I gotta be honest, Mike, I feel dumb forever imagining he might get cut and that there was a battle for the backup job.
00:09:43
Speaker 2: He's such the obvious backup.
00:09:47
Speaker 3: Well, I don't see any reason why you would bring back Aaron Rodgers for this season and then go into the year with a backup who's never played in the NFL.
00:09:58
Speaker 2: Right, right, it's like one of the other.
00:10:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know that there there was a one of one of the Pittsburgh Steelers media writers posted a Twitter poll yesterday and more than fifty percent said that they should dump or trade Mason Rudolph. So I knew right away now that I was right that that that's not the right choice. Mason absolutely should be the backup, and if you could somehow find a way to put somebody on the injuried list.
00:10:27
Speaker 4: Great.
00:10:28
Speaker 3: If you can't, then you either put Will Howard on the trade market see if there's any takers, and if there's not, then maybe you try to sneak him through to the practice squad by waiving him. That's unless he comes out and shows something on Friday in this start that is that is a part and over and above anything that he's done today.
00:10:50
Speaker 4: He was really fine.
00:10:53
Speaker 3: In last Thursday's game, but he wasn't He was fine, he wasn't dominant, he.
00:10:58
Speaker 2: Was pretty good.
00:11:00
Speaker 1: I can't go further now, and you know, but but are they going to keep four quarterbacks? And the only way to do that would be if they think that Howard, I mean ours their potential long term starter might not be, but but he's the best bet what they got.
00:11:14
Speaker 2: If you think Howard can be a long term number.
00:11:17
Speaker 1: Two successfully, that's got to be the floor for your expectations for him.
00:11:22
Speaker 3: Otherwise, I think he could. I think he could, and he's really bright. I think he's got a lot of good feel absolutely there's utility in that.
00:11:31
Speaker 4: But he's not ready to be in that role this year. And the problem is.
00:11:37
Speaker 3: How do you keep If you keep him, then there has to be somebody on the other edd of your roster, a special teams player, a linebacker, a safety, whoever it is that you think that you can get through waivers and bring back around and then and then you can keep on deactivating quarterbacks. But that puts you in a position where you're shorthanded at other positions that matter, uh, and you're shorthanded on special teams. I just don't I just don't see the utility of having four quarterbacks on your active roster. And like I said, if you think that you can sneak Howard through the practice squad, great, I'd be wonderful.
00:12:15
Speaker 4: If you don't think so. If you if you put them up for a trade and somebody's willing to offer you a fifth round.
00:12:20
Speaker 3: Picker, better take it, because again, his ceiling is most likely as a long term backup. There's there's value in that, but not enough value to risk what you're what you're trying to do with twenty twenty six. Did you didn't hire a sixty plus year old coach to go out and try to go five and twelve and then draft high in the in the twenty twenty seven draft.
00:12:45
Speaker 4: That's not what this was.
00:12:46
Speaker 1: Well, they it doesn't matter to coach is that's just not how the Steelers operate. I I don't necessarily agree, but I've come to accept what is now. Is Joey Porter Junior worth thirty million a year like all the other cornerback Why are the Steelers playing hardball with him?
00:13:02
Speaker 2: It strikes me as odd.
00:13:04
Speaker 4: Well.
00:13:05
Speaker 3: One thing I've been saying Mark is I don't think it's him.
00:13:08
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't think it's them. I think it's him, And I think.
00:13:11
Speaker 1: Okay, let me let me off. I mooted that on the show a couple of days back. But if it was him, the Steelers would leak that out to one of their many media stooges.
00:13:22
Speaker 3: But there was there's no reason for them to sign Keanu Benton to the contract that.
00:13:27
Speaker 4: They did when they did.
00:13:29
Speaker 3: If if, if, how excuse me.
00:13:32
Speaker 4: If Porter were ready and eager to jump in.
00:13:36
Speaker 3: I think it was smart on the part of his representation to wait until the upper end of the cornerback market is set.
00:13:43
Speaker 4: And that thirty three million dollar contract that went to the Seattle corner on Saturday.
00:13:48
Speaker 3: On Sunday, Saturday or Sunday, that was the market, and that Gonzales might get more or less right right around there, but it'll be in that neighborhood. So we know now what the high end is, and so it probably pushed his price up from what rape Vi Depaldo said a few weeks to go around twenty seven. I think he's now close to twenty nine or thirty because that's what the market says, and.
00:14:12
Speaker 4: There are a lot of skeptics about that.
00:14:14
Speaker 3: But you keep forgetting the skeptics, keep forgetting that he hasn't a lot of touchdown passings twenty twenty three.
00:14:21
Speaker 4: His penalties went way down last year.
00:14:25
Speaker 3: He's an outstanding corner and they have a chance to be really good in the secondary this year once they get him on the field. And honestly, once that contract happened on Sunday, this should have fallen into place fairly soon after. Maybe there's a hold up over guaranteed Bunny. The Steelers are always pretty averse to going too deep with that, but you understand, like the Steelers might not put it on paper because if you become a mess up a problem, they're not going to guarantee your money. But if you are Joey Porter, the guy who goes out and works tail off every day and plays his tail off every Sunday.
00:15:03
Speaker 4: Your money's guaranteed. They're not taking away from you. They never have.
00:15:06
Speaker 1: Right, They're not gonna cut you that. That's one hundred percent true. My great stuff as always.
00:15:11
Speaker 2: Uh.
00:15:11
Speaker 1: I wish we had time to talk about the Penn State cocaine scandal, and this news just broke the funnel cake at the creamer he is selling. I mean, I'm not sure what they're putting on it, but it might not be powdered sugar. That's Mike de COURSI I'm Mark Madden one O five to nine.
00:15:26
Speaker 6: The most talked about music festival on the planet is coming down.
00:15:29
Speaker 2: The Boulevard Soft and I use a bunch of pillows and I saw.
00:15:33
Speaker 3: The ex at one oh five nine.
00:15:44
Speaker 1: I'm telling you you don't want to hear it, but I'm telling you Skeeds' career is done, at least what it was supposed to be. He will never again be what he was them first two years, Rookie of the Year and Cy Young never again, nothing like that, because if you don't know what's wrong, how can you fix it? And they don't know what's wrong. Skeens hasn't shown one flash of what he used to be. He hasn't done it all season, not once, not one game, not one inning, not one batter. He's a junkballer. Now he's a relatively smart pitcher. I guess he's okay, I guess, but okay. Ain't what he's supposed to be, and it ain't what the Pirates need him to be. So Skeens is screwed. The Pirates are screwed. Ain't gonna be no baseball next year anyway. So let's talk Stellers. Here's Jeff Schwartz, the Fox Sports one, talking about these Steelers being stuck in the mushy middle.
00:17:02
Speaker 6: As far as Pittsburgh in the middle, man Like, as a sports fan, you have teams, you're four, you be in the middle is the worst place to be because you'll think about the postseason. You're not bad enough to draft anyone.
00:17:13
Speaker 3: Good.
00:17:13
Speaker 6: I want my team either stink My my baseball team stinks right now. Good like they selled, they sold off. They got a bunch of young guys. Maybe we're good in seven years, or you wonder you need to be good to win a championship. The middle is the worst place to be as a sports fan. Being a Sis fan right now has got to be pretty boring.
00:17:28
Speaker 2: I'm excited about McCarthy taking over.
00:17:30
Speaker 1: I'm excited about watching the quarterbacks, the young guys get better. But Schwartz Saint wrong. It could get boring. And I get told all the time, you don't have to stink to get your guy, your key player, your franchise guy. Look at Kansas City with Mahomes, That's what I get told. But you got a better chance to get that guy if you suck and draft high Mahomes. What happened in there, that's the exception and not the rule. Look at the Penguins with Lemieux. In March nineteen eighty four, New Jersey beat the Penguins sixty five. If the Penguins win that game, the Devil's finished behind the Penguins, as in dead last in the NHL. The Devils get Mario and the Penguins would be in Kansas City right now someplace else. But the Steelers in Penguins right now are both content to be in the mushy middle because it keeps interest at an acceptable level. But I'm telling you the way it looks right now. My excitement on McCarthy's hiring and what he's done duly noted. The way it looks right now, those teams are going to be stuck in the mushy middle indefinitely, especially the Steelers. Penguins might bottom out this year and it might happen by November. But that's a different discussion. Here's Robert Mays of the Athletic NFL Rider talking about a major strength for the Steelers, the defensive lot.
00:19:07
Speaker 7: The sheer depth on the Steelers defensive line. They just gave count Benton eighteen million dollars a year. We got why a Black's probably gonna be the starting No's on that team. You got Canu Betton, you got Derek Harmon, you got Cam Hayward's, you got all the edge guys. I mean, it's just if that all comes together with Harmon being healthy this year and now you have four into your defensive linemen you feel good about and three edge guys plus whatever you get from Jack Sawyer. Like, it's just that's a group that has a chance to be really, really impactful over the course of this season.
00:19:36
Speaker 1: It's also a group, with the exception of old man Hayward, that has a chance to be impactful over the long haul. So yeah, everything may said is true, but this traces back to the bushy middle talk that Steelers defense has a foundation with the young defensive lineman and Herbig and Sawyer and Porter to move forward and get better.
00:19:59
Speaker 2: But the problem is.
00:20:01
Speaker 1: At some point, and it's not too far off, you got to replace the old guys, and by then the young guys are getting a bit older, and you never hit a peak. And that's because the Steelers never shoot for a peak, just the mushy middle and the joy of one helmet guys. And that's a problem with the Penguins and Steelers. They never get rid of anyone whoever remotely gets perceived to be a club legend.
00:20:33
Speaker 2: Hate that word legend, but you hear that all the time.
00:20:36
Speaker 1: Even if like TJ Won, he's never won a damn playoff game, He's perceived as this club legend.
00:20:41
Speaker 2: You gotta keep TJ one helmet, blah blah blah.
00:20:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you ain't won a playoff game in nine years and he's never won one at all. We got Sean Casey up next talk in baseball, but right now I want to talk about Bett Parks because black and Gold football isn't and It's the perfect time to make your futures bets on the upcoming Pro football season. The Betparks Online Casino in Sportsbook app has got you covered for futures bets on Pro football and who's gonna win it all this year? Los Angeles, Baltimore and Buffalo are the top three favorites. But a twenty five dollars bet on the Black and Gold right now to win it all, pay sixteen hundred and fifty bucks. It's a black and Gold, big money bananza, baby. And then you got live betting. I'm talking live betting on Bucco's Baseball and all your favorite sports. It's better on the bet Parks app. Keep it fast, don't lose velocity.
00:21:40
Speaker 2: Right now.
00:21:40
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00:22:21
Speaker 3: Show.
00:22:22
Speaker 4: Guys.
00:22:22
Speaker 2: I had to get all my fighters blood testings done right.
00:22:25
Speaker 7: And you guys know my history with AIDS, right, No.
00:22:29
Speaker 2: I haven't.
00:22:32
Speaker 8: You when you were high, like got really mental of like, oh my god, I convinced myself I.
00:22:39
Speaker 2: Had AIDS all this stuff. Yeah, okay, all right, yeah, so keep that in mind. I've been tested. I had to do it all for this and.
00:22:48
Speaker 7: I got so in my head again and I was like, Morgie, this is this is how you find out you got age Dumbo.
00:22:55
Speaker 1: The most talked about music festival on the planet is coming.
00:22:59
Speaker 4: Back Toree So be a Baby THEX at one five nine.
00:23:04
Speaker 1: It's always great to talk baseball with the mayor, Sean Casey, the pride of Upper Saint Clair.
00:23:08
Speaker 2: You see him on the MLB Network.
00:23:10
Speaker 1: But I got a great stat to open up my conversation with Sean today. Case you batted three sixty four lifetime against Greg Maddox, who might be one of the five best pictures of all time.
00:23:21
Speaker 2: That's incredible. How'd you pull that off?
00:23:25
Speaker 1: Oh?
00:23:25
Speaker 5: I appreciate it. Rman Fozzi's double m You know what. I You know what, when I first got up there, he was he really ate me up.
00:23:32
Speaker 9: He had that good two seemer that got me. And as I've just faced, the more I learned how he wanted to attack me and attack lefties.
00:23:39
Speaker 5: And I was just really good at waiting on the ball.
00:23:41
Speaker 9: And Maddox's ball moves so late that I was just I just locked into it to it late.
00:23:47
Speaker 5: But I don't know how, man. You look back at your career now and I go, Man, how did I do any of that stuff?
00:23:51
Speaker 7: You know?
00:23:52
Speaker 1: Now? How was Maddox that great? Because to the naked eye you couldn't tell. But when you broke him down, when you analyzed, like I said, maybe one of the top five pitchers.
00:24:02
Speaker 9: Ever, the movement was so late. I mean that's the biggest thing. I mean, you know, listen at the end of the day, the pitchers trying to deceive the hitter. And for Maddix, I mean, I remember he hit me one time first time I faced him. He got me to one two and he threw a ball right at my It was I thought I was gonna hit me.
00:24:18
Speaker 4: In the back.
00:24:19
Speaker 5: I started to react like I started to almost.
00:24:21
Speaker 9: Scream, and then bam it it was a two seamer and I swear double m It ran in the last foot right into the insect corner, strike three, and I was like, wow, I've never seen anything like that.
00:24:32
Speaker 5: So he could just move the ball. He crisscrossed the plate late.
00:24:36
Speaker 9: Everything he threw was really late, and he could really you know, dial up the curveball to change up, and he threw anything for strikes when he wanted to.
00:24:43
Speaker 1: Now you mentioned the two seamer, doesn't appear to me like very many pictures throw the two seamer anymore. Why is that and what's the difference between the two seamer and four seamer.
00:24:54
Speaker 9: Guys are still throwing two seamers, you know, maybe not as much as they did back.
00:24:58
Speaker 5: In the day. But you know, the two is is a fastball. It's a two seam fastball.
00:25:03
Speaker 9: What it does is for a right handed, for a right hander, when they throw the two seamer, it comes into a righting and away from a lefty, and you know, it's just something that you know, it's trying to induce the ground ball. With the lefty, it's a great double play ball pitch, and with the right you're just trying to blow them up on their hands. And I think nowadays, I think the four seam fastball at the top of it, at the top of the zone, I mean, the zone is more you know, up to down now, when when I think we were pitching that Mannix and those guys might have been getting three inches off the plate, three balls off the plate sometimes, So I think they're pitching to the strike zone two and that four seam heater, you know, ninety five plus miles an hours. The top of the zone is a pitch that's tough to lay off of, So I think more guys are throwing it.
00:25:46
Speaker 1: Case Paul skin struggled again today, just can't rev it up. What are the pros and cons of shutting him down, because apparently that's being talked about.
00:25:55
Speaker 9: Really, you know what, I don't I'd have to talk to Paul about.
00:25:58
Speaker 5: That, you know, I you know, I know what he says.
00:26:00
Speaker 9: He's healthy, you know, I know he's you know, had some command issues in the last few starts here.
00:26:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I gotta be honest, case, if it's not an elbow or an arm issue, I just let him pitch.
00:26:14
Speaker 5: I agree. And the Pirates are still in it. I mean, the Pirates are right there. I mean they're you know, they're sixty three and sixty six.
00:26:20
Speaker 9: They just won a series against the Red Sox and the Tigers.
00:26:23
Speaker 5: You know they're they're I.
00:26:24
Speaker 9: Mean, Ashcraft looks like Cy Young right now, the way he's pitching. I mean, they're right in it. So and they're gonna need Paul Skans. I mean, Paul Skins is still a really good pitcher. I mean we you know, obviously it's been kind of a little bit of a hiccup a year for him for his standards. But even with the way he's pitching, he's still a really good pitcher, double im. So if they're gonna make it run, they're gonna need him.
00:26:44
Speaker 2: I would think.
00:26:45
Speaker 1: What worries me the most about skeens is they don't appear to know what's going on. And to me, that's always the big worry because case sports, all the sports, such an exact science. How often does a problem come around where nobody knows?
00:27:00
Speaker 9: Yeah, not often these days, you know, not off in these days. But I think sometimes a dipping velocity, you know, a mile proud mile and a half or whatever, it is a couple of miles proudly.
00:27:11
Speaker 5: Sometimes you know.
00:27:12
Speaker 9: Maybe you just can't pinpoint what that is because it looks like, you know, his arms his arms strong. He's the one that keeps saying he feels good. And I think you've got to go a lot of times with how the player feels. But you know, for whatever reason, you know, just there's some things happening with PAULI this year that haven't been you know.
00:27:28
Speaker 1: So in the last couple now we got to talk about ascraft because you're right, that's incredible. Seventeen innings over his last two starts, eight hits, two runs, just one hundred and sixty five pitches total. We just spoke about Greg Maddox. That's kind of reminiscent in some of the lines he.
00:27:43
Speaker 2: Used to put up.
00:27:45
Speaker 9: Well he's got electric stuff, doublem. I mean, really, he's making big league, big league hitters look bad. And you know he went, what did he throw eighty pitches eight innings?
00:27:55
Speaker 5: Like eighty some pitches? He threw eighty pitches.
00:27:57
Speaker 1: He threw eighty pitches yesterday when he pitched, excuse me a couple days back when he pitched, No, it was yesterday. He pitched eight innings and then eighty five pitches in the complete game.
00:28:07
Speaker 9: Okay, yeah, I mean that's efficiency, you know, that's that's that's attack of the zone. And that's getting weak you know, he's getting a ton of weak contact. So I mean, he looks when you're making big league hitters third time through the lineup, still look bad, right, I mean, it just it must look so nasty for those guys in the box right now.
00:28:28
Speaker 1: Now, Bob Wak was on the show and he feels pitchers should pitch more innings and build their arms up. And min I add Ashcraft appeared to be out of gas a couple of weeks back, but he's found a second win. Do you agree with what Walkie thinks and do you think it'll ever go back to that in MLB?
00:28:46
Speaker 9: Well, here's the deal, double and the game is so different now as far as the max effort. You remember, like, yeah, the case in point, I played with Verlain or six. He was a rookie at six and seven, and you would have watched JV pitch he would I'll tell you what he would sit ninety three ninety six, but I'll tell you what late in the game if he needed one hundred hundred and one. Bamn, there it was like, guys aren't doing that now. I mean, guys are max effort from the jump. It's almost like they're closers. You know, they're coming in, They're like, okay, here it goes. Here's my max effort every pitch, max effort, max effort, spin rate.
00:29:21
Speaker 5: You know, they're just going for it.
00:29:22
Speaker 9: So that's why you're seeing guys, you know, the pitch counts are getting up there, eighty ninety, you know, one hundred pitches through five and six innings because these guys are so max effort and the thought process is just like in the Big leagues with hit the ball in the ballpark, hit the ball in the air. With pitchers, it's like strake as many guys out as you can.
00:29:41
Speaker 5: So I don't know.
00:29:43
Speaker 1: If maybe that should become outdated too case. You know, like you know, we talk about pitching the contact and it frustrated me when Garrett Cole switched over to that. But then again that that gets out quicker if you have good stuff.
00:29:56
Speaker 5: Well that's the thing. Listen, if you can. If you have good stuff in zone.
00:30:00
Speaker 9: And you have good movement, you won't weak contact. Who cares if you're striking everybody out. You know, at the end of the day, you know, give me a good two seamer in the zone, or give me something running or a good you know, the best pitch of baseball is still a well located fastball, So you know, I think there's something to that. I mean, and Ashcraft's doing that. He's filling up the strike zone. Guys are having weak contact. He's still punching some guys out, but throw strikes and quality strikes.
00:30:27
Speaker 1: Raphael Flores Junior, who they got from the Yankees, and that bender traded a couple home runs today, including the game time home running the ninth. I hope he works out case. I think he looks pretty good. And if the Pirates could just get stability at catcher. I think stability a catcher gives the whole team stability, don't.
00:30:44
Speaker 5: You I think so too.
00:30:46
Speaker 9: Yeah, I tell you what, double M I really like.
00:30:48
Speaker 5: This kid's swing.
00:30:49
Speaker 9: I mean, he he came in today, hit homer solo homer, then tied it up in the ninth. But it's a beautiful right handed swing. I mean sometimes at the right handed swings, you're like, oh, that's a nice swing, but it's not like a lefty. He almost looks like a nice lefty from the right side. And he's got some real pop. I mean that ball jumps off his bat. So hopefully this is this turns out to be a real nice pickup. And yeah, we'll see if he can, uh, you know, maybe slide into that starter role at some point.
00:31:15
Speaker 1: And I just wish Andy could stay healthy, I think, And he's a legitimate big league catcher.
00:31:20
Speaker 9: He is, man, he's turning the corner too as far as like hitting and and and and being more of a you know, the experience he's getting is helping him.
00:31:29
Speaker 5: But the problem is he.
00:31:30
Speaker 9: Just can't stay healthy right now.
00:31:31
Speaker 5: So I hope.
00:31:31
Speaker 9: I hope so too. When I watch him play double him, I think the same thing. Man, his kid to be something special if he stays healthy.
00:31:38
Speaker 2: Who's the Nation League MVP Otani or pa.
00:31:43
Speaker 5: Oh Man? What a question?
00:31:44
Speaker 9: You know, being an MLB network, we've been going back back and forth with that so much. You know, listen, I love pca Man. I was, I was with him at the WBC.
00:31:55
Speaker 5: You know, when I watch him play center field.
00:31:57
Speaker 9: It's a different center field and he plays it every night, and he's a game changer out there.
00:32:02
Speaker 5: But I guess the one thing that I just have I.
00:32:04
Speaker 9: Just struggle with, and I think it's a little voter fatigue with with Otani is like he still has thrown eighty some innings with a one eight nine era.
00:32:13
Speaker 5: So if you are a.
00:32:14
Speaker 9: Great reliever, you'd be like, that's incredible, this guy's you know.
00:32:17
Speaker 5: But if you're a starter, I mean, he was in.
00:32:19
Speaker 9: The running for the Cy Young until he got banged up.
00:32:22
Speaker 5: So even with his numbers now what they are, if.
00:32:25
Speaker 9: The innings pitched his you know, his the offensive numbers are close, So then you've got to go is center field more valuable than a guy that can get on the bump and throw innings where which no one else in the world does. So I don't know. I guess I guess part of me still says that o'twi. You know, even with the innings he has right now, would probably edge out PCA.
00:32:48
Speaker 5: For me.
00:32:48
Speaker 1: Let me tell you my tie breaker case, because I think it is razor close, and I literally go back and forth. I gotta be honest, It depends who I saw play on TV the night before. If he can pitch a little bit down the stretch, get get more innings in and do well and win games, that would push it over the top for me.
00:33:08
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:33:09
Speaker 9: Yeah, I see what you're saying, double them, because you're watching I know what you're doing.
00:33:11
Speaker 5: You're watching PCA hit all these walk off home.
00:33:13
Speaker 9: Lines and all the stuff, all the stuff that he's doing, which is which is it is really impressive to do what he's been doing. But you're right, I just feel like, if Otani comes back, I think it's a it's a slam dunk. But if he doesn't, man, it's still raisor thing close.
00:33:29
Speaker 3: Hey.
00:33:29
Speaker 5: But but the good thing double them.
00:33:30
Speaker 9: The good thing is we're having this conversation, dude, oh yea, because for years we're like, if Otani's healthy, bam, you.
00:33:37
Speaker 5: Know, MVP. Now we got a guy like PCA.
00:33:39
Speaker 9: Who's really doing everything on both sides of the ball at such an elite level that at least we're having a conversation.
00:33:46
Speaker 5: About it now.
00:33:47
Speaker 1: Now, staying with the Dodgers, they're only seven and eleven over the last eighteen games. Is there a problem with them or are they just kind of biding time.
00:33:56
Speaker 5: I think they're kind of biden time.
00:33:58
Speaker 9: I mean last year, you go back to last year when one the whole thing. They I think they had a seven game losing streak right around right around this time, uh you know, in August, and they you know ended up you know, running the table. But uh, you know, I think they got smell back Glass now is coming back, right they got They just traded for scooball Donalmoto does what he does. I think the Kyle Tucker thing has been a you know, I think he's been a little bit better in the second half of man it's been a pretty much a struggle for him. Rookie Betts is a below average player right now. So we always think about the Dodgers, Oh you got Bets Freeman and Otani.
00:34:33
Speaker 5: Bets has just been like below average.
00:34:35
Speaker 9: Kyle Tucker's pretty much been a non factor. So uh with I think the biggest thing with them, with Will Smith being down at Dulton rushing being down with the catching, that's how big of a good catch a deal of good catcher is. I think that's been the biggest thing is they're catching. Uh, their main guys have been down too long now. I think they're gonna get Will Smith back here soon. But I think that's been the big problem.
00:34:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I kind of think they're biding time.
00:35:01
Speaker 1: I think they'll be there when the Cons, but they gotta be careful they don't drop into the the third seed and have to play that best of three series, because I I think that's the place where I mean, duh, that they're most vulnerable a short series.
00:35:14
Speaker 5: You're doublem, You're exactly righting.
00:35:15
Speaker 9: They don't want to They do not want to play that three game series against and I think right now it would be against the Phillies right right, I think they they would they would not want that.
00:35:24
Speaker 5: You don't want to match up.
00:35:25
Speaker 9: For a three game series and have to go Wheeler and san Chaz and Lozardo.
00:35:30
Speaker 3: I mean that, you know.
00:35:31
Speaker 9: Obviously with with that lineup too. So they're looking at it. They just overtook the Braves right now. I think they're two games up on them, So they're looking at it like we're looking at it. Like they can't just be like, oh, we're gonna just make a run at the end. Well, that's how you end up getting clipped in.
00:35:44
Speaker 5: A three game series.
00:35:45
Speaker 9: If if if you barely get.
00:35:47
Speaker 1: In And finally, case, what about Milwaukee. I'm flipping a dot. Last night They're beating Seattle twenty two to nothing, and it was it was like a Merry go run. They just kept running around the bases. How good are they really?
00:36:00
Speaker 2: In?
00:36:00
Speaker 1: What I find to be interesting is Yellick isn't even having a great season.
00:36:05
Speaker 9: I know he's I mean, Yellis is really kind of an afterthought in that lineup. Then there's a couple guys. I mean I was with Bryce Terrang at the WBC too. I mean, this guy is is really you know, a special player. But Jake Bowers has had a great year. Jackson Cheerios, he's the real deal. You know, Contreres, they have some star power in that lineup, some guys that are really good hitters, but they just beat you down double m They play good baseball. Uh, you know, Pat Murphy's a really I know, I know Murph very well. I mean, they love playing for Murph and they're just a good baseball team. You you really got a grind to get twenty seven outs against.
00:36:41
Speaker 5: Against the Brewers, and they're not gonna give you much leeway.
00:36:45
Speaker 1: Finally, case, if you had to pick the best team, in each league right now?
00:36:48
Speaker 9: Who is it, oh man, the best team in each league right now? I have to say Tampa Bay is playing really good baseball. I'd have to say they're up there right now with with with their pitching and what they can do. And you know what, I'm gonna give the edge to Milwaukee. I know we talk about the Dodgers, but hey, Milwaukee's got seventy eight wins right now, They're thirty games over five hundred.
00:37:11
Speaker 5: They're a really good team.
00:37:13
Speaker 9: That have not stopped since since the jump this year.
00:37:15
Speaker 5: They play good baseball. So I'm gonna go with the Milwaukee case.
00:37:19
Speaker 1: My producer Tom, he's on the case. He's trying to get Greg Maddox on the show to explain what the hell happened.
00:37:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, they don't hold your brother. I don't think mad Dogs coming on.
00:37:31
Speaker 1: Well, we're gonna try, and I bet I bet you'd kind of like to hear yourself. That's not Casey. I'm Mark Madden one oh five nine.
00:37:39
Speaker 10: Oh wait, it's time to submit your questions for Ask Mark Anything. Use your free iHeartRadio app and tap the microphone icon to send your questions to the super genius Instantly.
00:37:52
Speaker 4: It's The Woody Show weekday mornings at six one o five ninety X this hour of the Mark Madden Comet and.
00:37:59
Speaker 1: Damn it, I'll be popping or Pittsburgh, K I think I gotta start with pull pork nachos.
00:38:05
Speaker 2: Fantastic.
00:38:06
Speaker 4: On the X at one O five.
00:38:07
Speaker 1: Nine, we were so busy talking about cases success against Greg Maddox. I forgot to tell you to call and ask Mark anything eight three three or one two w x d x Uh.
00:38:27
Speaker 2: That's a three three four one two.
00:38:28
Speaker 1: W xdx brought to list by People's Natural Gas.
00:38:33
Speaker 2: You got to call eight one one before you dig.
00:38:35
Speaker 1: You dig even landscaping work requires you to call eight one one. Get more info at People's hyphengas dot com so you can call.
00:38:43
Speaker 2: Now you know what I'm getting a lot of heat for.
00:38:49
Speaker 1: On Twitter, I said, I don't that that I recommended you don't go to downtown Pittsburgh. There was a view of the city from PNC and I go nice to look at.
00:38:57
Speaker 2: Just don't go there.
00:38:59
Speaker 1: Now, I've been down tom Pittsburgh and besides the theater district, then right by the hockey rant gets dump. I was just in Toronto for a week. I love Toronto. Down Tom Pittsburgh. I love the theater district, but otherwise not so much. A lot of scummy people, vagrants, homeless and whatnot, and that sort of thing is bleeding over to where I live, and I am in the city my address, So I always like when people say about any place, if you don't like it, leave nah, nah, you fix it. A three, three, four one two w XDX the number to call. Let's go to Brian. Brian are on with Mark.
00:39:43
Speaker 8: Hey, Mark, I heard you talking about Jaws yesterday, which is also.
00:39:46
Speaker 4: My favorite movie of all time. You said you put it what you're like your top three probably.
00:39:50
Speaker 2: Uh, probably, yeah, Yeah. I watch it.
00:39:54
Speaker 1: If it's on cable and I'm flipping through, I watch the rest of it.
00:39:57
Speaker 2: I pick it up right where it's.
00:39:58
Speaker 8: At on every single time, I heard you talking about the mechanical shark failing, and I wondered if you knew the reason behind the shark failing wasn't just because it was the water part of it that that that it was because it was in the ocean, and the way that the salt messed with the mechanics and electronics or whatever is really what made it fail. And if I had to ask Steven Spielberg one question I would have asked him, like, why didn't you just shoot it on a lake?
00:40:28
Speaker 3: Oh?
00:40:29
Speaker 2: Because I'll tell you.
00:40:30
Speaker 1: Why did you see the costume movie water World, which is a world covered.
00:40:34
Speaker 2: Completely in water?
00:40:36
Speaker 4: I love that movie.
00:40:37
Speaker 1: Even shooting on the ocean as they did, it was so tough to get camera angles where you didn't pick up any land.
00:40:43
Speaker 2: I'm sure it would be the same way on a lake.
00:40:46
Speaker 9: Yeah.
00:40:46
Speaker 8: Possibly, But I guess the shark would have worked much better.
00:40:49
Speaker 2: But you know, like, thank you for the call.
00:40:52
Speaker 1: Like I said yesterday, Brian, the fact that the shark was very seldom seen made the shark much scarier villain. It worked out perfectly for Spielberg and for that movie.
00:41:06
Speaker 2: Let's go to a talkback. Is Fearless your favorite Pink Floyd song?
00:41:12
Speaker 5: Let's say you.
00:41:14
Speaker 2: I don't even know what Fearless is. I'm not much of a Pink Floyd fan.
00:41:17
Speaker 1: I mean, I know the is Fearless, the one where they play You'll Never Walk Alone at the end. I think it probably is. But no, I'm not a big Pink Floyd guy. I respect their body of work. They're great when you're high, none matter what the song is Dark Side of the Moon classic album.
00:41:33
Speaker 2: But I mean for me to quote Floyd songs, I can't.
00:41:37
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of Randall Pink Floyd from the movie Days to Confused, the quarterback who said I might play ball, but I will never sign that commitment sheet.
00:41:48
Speaker 2: Let's go to a talkback.
00:41:50
Speaker 3: Hey, Mark, not the dwell in the past, but how do you think toalmlan would be handling this qv situation of this preseason.
00:41:58
Speaker 1: I don't think he would have drafted, so I think it would be handling a much different I think Tom would say, Okay, we got our quarterbacks, let's pick defensive players.
00:42:10
Speaker 2: Defense. Yeah, let's go to Micah Mike, you're on the Mark Madden Show.
00:42:16
Speaker 7: Hey, what up?
00:42:17
Speaker 1: Man?
00:42:17
Speaker 5: What up?
00:42:18
Speaker 4: Mine?
00:42:19
Speaker 3: Hey?
00:42:20
Speaker 4: I'm just curious.
00:42:21
Speaker 8: Do you still believe in Kyle do this long term plan for the Penguins, or do you think this offseason was too big of a step backwards.
00:42:27
Speaker 1: I believe Kyle. How can I put this? I think Kyle's a really good general manager. I think he's handcuffed by the veterans. I think that those veterans want who they want in that locker room, but they still expect to win. Which is an impossible situation. Fans are kind of like that too. The fans want Gino to play forever, even though he's detrimental to winning. He gets points, he's a point collector. But you know, you have to turn a corner. And as long as the veterans are all there, and not just Sid and Gino and Tanger, I'm talking Carlson, we're Kellen Russ too. You can't turn a corner. Old is just old. You cannot build on old. And they liked yank and cranking about Sid, Geno and Latang being together for twenty years, the only time a trio has ever done that on a major American sports team.
00:43:20
Speaker 2: You know why it's never happened before because it doesn't work right.
00:43:26
Speaker 1: So I think Kyle's a good GM. I think he's handcuffed, and I think I don't think he ever dreamed all three of those guys would still be playing.
00:43:36
Speaker 2: And I know for sure he if he were left one of his own.
00:43:40
Speaker 1: Devices and in a vacuum, he would not have brought Geno back this year.
00:43:44
Speaker 2: But that's the way.
00:43:45
Speaker 1: The situation is a three three, four to one two wxdx. The number to call just around the corner. Stupid is as stupid does one oh five nine,
