Beaver County Times, March 16, 2014

The Steelers got some much-needed cap relief with Ike Taylor's new contract, but does it help their struggling defense?
Taylor agreed to a contract that will pay him $2.7 million, which is down from the $7 million commitment he had in place for the 2014 season. There wasn't really much choice.
Taylor knew that if he didn't make the concession, the Steelers would simply release him. Having watched the James Harrison scenario unfold a year ago, he also knew a fresh start wasn't necessarily a good idea. Moving probably wouldn't improve his financial situation much, and he'd have to learn a new system somewhere else.
Taylor and his agent were smart enough to realize familiar was better, even if it represented a significant financial hit. But now the Steelers are depending on a cornerback who readily acknowledges his skills are on the wane by accepting a pay cut of more than $4 million.
Is that going to help a defense that gave up too many big plays in 2013? Too much of the Steelers' defense looked old and tired last season, and Taylor was one of the prime suspects to fit that profile.
Having him back at a reduced price helps the bottom line, but it may not do a whole lot for a secondary that had major problems.
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--MIXED SIGNALS
The start of a new Pirates season is great for KDKA-FM (93.7 The Fan), which cleaned up in the ratings last year.
The Pirates' unexpected success gave the station a huge spike that culminated with spectacular numbers in October. The expected drop came after the season, but The Fan is still making piles of cash despite having a lot of uninspired programming on its regular schedule.
They're practically printing money with a sports talk station that hits a demographic advertisers covet. Because of The Fan's success for CBS, the expectation has been that Clear Channel, the other big operator, will launch its own sports station on FM.
That hasn't happened, and the reasons are complicated. Insiders say Clear Channel fears that a sports talk station would poach more listeners away from WDVE, which is the perennial jewel in Clear Channel's cluster of stations.
WDVE took a big hit in the most recent (January) ratings. It was sixth overall in the market, and even trailed two other Clear Channel stations. Some of that is seasonal because harsh weather tends to skew ratings in favor of news stations, but it appears WDVE has had erosion issues for a while.
Clear Channel's answer is to further spread sports programming among its other stations. Tim Benz, former morning host on WXDX (The X) now has responsibility for sports programming within the cluster. That includes hosting shows on ESPN 970 AM solo and in tandem with Stan Savran.
That's fine, but the station has a lousy signal and a lot of listeners don't have patience with anything that doesn't boom in on the AM dial. Meanwhile, the commercial breaks on The Fan get longer, the cash registers keep beeping, and they're looking at a fresh six-month boost from almost-daily Pirates' programming.
You can't have much of a sports talk battle if one side doesn't really commit to a fight.
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--NO PROGRESS
Duquesne must have had good reasons for firing Ron Everhart in 2012, but it isn't like things have gotten better.

Beaver County Times, March 9, 2014

Pirates fans loved Pedro Alvarez 36 times last season; 186 other times they weren't so crazy about him.

Alvarez's 36 home runs tied for the lead in the National League, but he claimed the strikeout title alone. There were 186 times when he didn't make contact, which meant he had no chance to advance runners or put pressure on the defense to make a play. That's an awful lot of swing and miss to put in the middle of a lineup.

That's why Alvarez represents one of the Pirates' most interesting decisions going forward. His salary took a leap from $700,000 to $4,250,000 this season because of arbitration eligibility, and there will be similar increases leading to his pending free agency after the 2016 season.

There's a perception that power hitters automatically strike out a lot, but that's not always true. Ralph Kiner struck out 109 times in 579 plate appearances as a rookie in 1946. It was the only 100-strikeout season in his major league career.

In 1949, Kiner batted 579 times and hit 54 home runs. He struck out 61 times and drew 117 walks. Then in 1951, he had 42 home runs with 57 strikeouts and 137 walks.

OK, that was a different era, and Kiner is a Hall of Fame player. There's a more recent comparison worth noting. Brian Giles hit 165 home runs in five seasons with the Pirates, and struck out 338 times. Alvarez has stuck out 366 times in the last two seasons.

Alvarez walked only 48 times last season. This could mean he lacks strike zone judgment, or it could mean opponents don't fear him enough to pitch around him. He was only walked intentionally seven times last year.

Giles in 1999 hit 39 homers, struck out 80 times and had 95 walks in 627 plate appearances. In 2002, his last full season in Pittsburgh, he hit 38 home runs, struck out 74 times and drew 135 walks in 644 appearances.

Alvarez's on-base percentage last season was .296. Perspective: Clint Barmes' career on-base percentage is .294.

Defensively, Alvarez has good hands and an exceptionally strong arm. Yet he also made 27 errors last season, tops among National League third basemen.

There's clearly room for improvement in a variety of areas, but how likely is that? Alvarez is 27. This season could be pivotal in determining whether the Pirates look to make an expensive multi-year commitment to him or start shopping him before he can leave as a free agent.

Some have compared him to Dave Kingman, an all-or-nothing power threat of the 1970s. That's not quite accurate. Kingman never struck out more than 156 times in a season. Alvarez has topped that twice.

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--NEW VOICES

Fox has chosen two people to replace Tim McCarver on its baseball coverage, perhaps an indirect commentary on the verbosity McCarver brought to the booth.

One is ex-player Harold Reynolds, who has bounced back from his sudden 2006 banishment from ESPN over sexual harassment allegations. The other is Tom Verducci. Shades of Howard Cosell, Verducci never played the game but he did cover it for Newsday and Sports Illustrated before entering broadcasting.

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--BUYING ON CREDIT

By restructuring contracts, aren't the Steelers just deferring their salary cap issues rather than solving them?

Beaver County Times, March 2, 2014

Ray Shero will define the Penguins this week.
The NHL trade deadline arrives Wednesday afternoon at 3, which means Shero has to decide if his team is good enough to win four rounds of playoffs.
It doesn't look like it is.
With Pascal Dupuis out until next season after reconstructive knee surgery, the Penguins desperately need an accomplished winger for Sidney Crosby's line. That slot has been an open audition process since Dupuis was injured, and nothing has worked.
The Penguins' star power is formidable, but beyond that their forwards are a whole lot of Chuck Kobasew. It would help if Beau Bennett weren't injured again, but even counting on a healthy Bennett would be risky, given his limited NHL experience.
Shero said it's "far-fetched" that he could make a deal that would adequately replace Dupuis, but that's what GMs always say. There's no sense in getting expectations up if they might not be fulfilled.
Shero said earlier that he doesn't want a rental player. This is the time of year when non-playoff teams look to shed players who are approaching free agency. That's what happened last year in the deadline-week trade spree that brought back Jarome Iginla, Brenden Morrow and Douglas Murray.
The Penguins wound up being disappointed with those acquisitions, but that shouldn't deter Shero from making a trade this year. Instead of trying to just augment a strong team, he needs to fix some weaknesses this season.
Few teams are sellers this season, but that shouldn't matter. Make a deal with someone who is lusting for the kind of defensive prospects the Penguins have stockpiled in the system. When Shero got James Neal for Alex Goligoski, it was a hockey deal, not one based on contract issues.
There isn't a lot of cap space, so maybe that means Shero has to deal a tenured veteran. That's OK, too. Shero seems to be reluctant to tamper much with his core, but sometimes that's necessary. Craig Patrick traded Paul Coffey and Mark Recchi when the Penguins were defending Stanley Cup champions.
The Penguins' other glaring need is for an experienced backup goalie. This entire season has been a warm-up for another test of Marc-Andre Fleury's postseason mettle. It's been lacking, which is why the Penguins got Tomas Vokoun last season and why they sent Fleury to a sports psychologist before this season.
Jeff Zatkoff has done better than expected, but would anyone trust him with multiple playoff games? That could happen if Fleury again gets the yips or gets injured.
Maybe Vokoun can still come back, but it's now March 2 and he hasn't played.
Shero always has to keep one eye on the big picture, but needs to focus just as sharply on this year's circumstances.
Is this team presently good enough to win the Stanley Cup?
A smart hockey man like Shero knows the answer to that, which is why he'll keep his phone fully charged and his mind open for the next few days.
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--LINEUP CHANGE
The biggest Pirates' change of 2014 hasn't gotten much attention, but Pepsi is out and Coke is in at PNC Park.
Caffeine-wired Mountain Dew fans might see that as a bigger issue than who's on first.

Beaver County Times, February 23, 2014

There's a billboard in midtown Manhattan that purports to constantly update this country's national debt.
The dot matrix numbers change constantly. It's a well-known gimmick started 25 years ago by a critic of government spending, and maintained by his heirs.
Pittsburgh needs a similarly conspicuous tote board for the Pirates' current payroll. Put it on Mt. Washington, where that big hillside sign used to flash the time and a sponsor's message.
There seems to be a constant focus on how much the Pirates are spending on players, and it's a curious obsession.
It seems to matter little whether the players are good, or whether they're signed to favorable contracts. What matters is that total, even though outspending the Pirates by $38,614,952 last season didn't do the Cubs much good.
Who got better value last season, the Yankees with the $28 million they paid Alex Rodriguez, or the Pirates for their $4.5 million investment in Andrew McCutchen?
But that overall number is the thing, and a lot of people can calculate it to the last dime at any given moment.
The Pirates had MLB's fifth-lowest payroll last season, and were fifth in winning percentage. One of the few teams they trailed was Oakland, which had an even smaller payroll.
These are facts. You can call it a one-year fluke and project doom for this season, but the numbers are indisputable. If you broke into GM Neal Huntington's spring training bungalow at 3 a.m. and zapped him with a truth ray, he would undoubtedly admit he'd rather have $150 million to spend.
Being rich is a less stressful existence, and it's pretty easy to cover mistakes when you can just write another check. Ned Colletti, the marginally-competent GM of the Dodgers, doesn't stress over what prospects are doing at Class AA when he can go out and acquire Adrian Gonzalez with little regard for the cost.
There is no doubt the Pirates run a preternaturally thrifty operation. It's going to be that way for the foreseeable future. That doesn't mean they can't be successful, as last season showed.
With MLB's alarming spike in salaries this offseason, it becomes even more important to run a quality scouting and player development system. There has to be a steady flow of genuine prospects coming up through the minor leagues.
The last two seasons produced Starling Marte and Gerrit Cole. Jameson Taillon and Gregory Polanco should be next.
A few of the players can be signed long-term. McCutchen already has been, and the deal looks better all the time. But there's high risk when locking up players.
The Pirates signed Jason Kendall to a six-year extension in 2000 that bought out his last year of arbitration and six years of free agency. Before it was over, the miserable Kendall was counting the hours until he could escape Pittsburgh, and the Pirates were stuck with an expensive albatross that made other acquisitions impossible.
Even when they were finally able to trade him in 2004, they had to pay part of his salary and take onerous contracts in return. Big signings are a one-day feel-good and headline; after that they're an obligation. Proceed with great caution.
MLB's grossly uneven playing field requires teams like the Pirates to be fluid, and to always look internally first. It isn't fun, and it isn't sexy. It's just reality.

Beaver County Times, February 16, 2014

The Phillies come to town for the July 4 weekend, so that should create a rowdy party atmosphere if A.J. Burnett pitches.
He won't get a good reception. You left us? Aw, never liked you anyway. That's the way Pittsburgh works for outdoor sports. (On the other hand, the Penguins produce warm and fuzzy welcome back videos for Tyler Kennedy).
Pirates fans booed John Smiley when he appeared in a visitor's uniform, even though Smiley had been traded away and wept when he was told he was leaving.
Burnett has a one-year, $16 million contract, which apparently represents $4 million more than the Pirates were willing to offer him. GM Neal Huntington says the agent told him Burnett's decision was based on the 100-mile proximity to his Maryland home. That seems like a pretty serious commute, but whatever.
Burnett didn't owe the Pirates anything. It would have been nice if the matter had been settled earlier, but that's OK.
Don't think the Pirates won't miss him. He gave them 191 reliable innings last season on a team that depended heavily on its pitching.
The mythical "leadership" qualities that have been ascribed to him are less of an issue. Whatever mentoring value Burnett had was undermined by his occasional selfish bursts of temper.
Unless the Pirates want young pitchers to yell at the manager and complain about  defensive shifts backed by extensive research, they shouldn't want them to follow Burnett's example. A real leader would have handled not getting the Game Five playoff assignment better, too.
At times it seemed like Burnett was cranky just for the sake of being cranky. No big deal, but it speaks to an overall peevishness that can wear thin.
Clint Hurdle has a track record of getting what he wants (Clint Barmes, for example). If Hurdle had been more adamant about wanting Burnett back, would this scenario have played out differently? At minimum, maybe the Pirates would have made the $14.1 million qualifying offer and set themselves up to get an extra draft pick.
We'll never know. Burnett is getting fitted for a Phillies uniform now, and the Phillies should be ready to expect some fits from him.
If he has another year in him like 2013 at age 37, good for the Phillies.
The Pirates have a challenge to replace what he contributed last year. They'll miss the 191 innings, the 3.30 ERA and the 209 strikeouts. But the supposed leadership? Don't sweat that.
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--FAMILIAR FACE
NBC's Olympics reporting roster is deep enough to include Root Sports alumnus Trenni Kusnierek.
Added as a part-timer, she's been covering curling. (This is based on spy reports and not first-hand knowledge. Even being snowbound can't justify watching curling).
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--ANOTHER FAMILIAR FACE
Joey Porter is back with the Steelers as an assistant coach.
Of course, Mike Tomlin couldn't step out of the bunker long enough to comment on this. Instead, he issued a statement which said in part, "Joey spent a number of years with Pittsburgh as a player, and now he's back to assist the coaching staff."
Hard to dispute that.
If anyone is figuring that Porter can motivate the defense to play better, that probably won't happen. The Steelers' defensive problems reflect a shortage of talent, not inspiration.

Beaver County Times, February 9, 2014

Let's nip this non-controversy in the bud and be blunt: Should anyone be surprised that Ryan Clark said some Steelers smoke marijuana?
Doesn't anyone remember the 2008 Santonio Holmes traffic stop that turned into something bigger when police searched his vehicle? When Holmes was Tweeting "wake and bake," he wasn't talking about popping a tube of Pillsbury biscuits into the oven.
Does this mean that when the Steelers called themselves a band of brothers, they were really doobie brothers?
Clark said players use marijuana as a pain killer and a way to wind down. That's understandable.
The players live in a bowl where they must perform. Most people can make mistakes in their job without listening to them enumerated on talk radio. Players function in a here today, gone (ganja?) tomorrow world. It's lucrative, but it isn't easy.
A past generation of Steelers' stress-relieving joint was a place called Dante's, where they got stinking drunk. It was considered a bonding experience.
A lot of NFL players come from environments where having a stash is no different than having a liquor cabinet. They all go to college, a traditional weed garden.
Once they're pros, they get invited to the best parties. They're surrounded by flunkies who delight in being able to deliver the goods to a celebrity.
It's not 1970. Attitudes have changed. Even squeaky-clean Rick Santorum admits to smoking when he was in college. Presidents and Supreme Court justices have, too.
Wasn't it just a few years ago when the Steelers invited hometown rapper Wiz Khalifa to perform at a game? Aside from Cheech & Chong, what recording artist has done more to glorify marijuana use?
Before anyone starts singing, "Here we go Stoners, here we go," understand that Clark was speaking of the Steelers because that's his frame of reference. It would be safe to assume that use is widespread across the NFL.
You can buy recreational marijuana at retail in Colorado. It looks like a mom and pop business now, but major corporations will probably get involved. There's profit in vice.
Someday the NFL merchandise catalog might include rolling papers with official team logos. Wait until Zig Zag bids on stadium signage alongside Budweiser. Synergy? NFL sponsor Frito-Lay can promote its products as the answer to midnight munchies.
Who knows, 50 years from now there may be a need to post a disclaimer at the Art Rooney statue explaining that the fatty in The Chief's hand is just a cigar.
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--HISTORY NOTE
At the first outdoor cold weather Super Bowl, the NFL charged $11 for hot chocolate.
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--PAINFUL REMINDER
The Seahawks defense -- fast, aggressive, violent -- brought back memories of the way the Steelers used to play.
It also served as a reminder of how much work the current Steelers have to do.
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--KINER'S CORNER
Ralph Kiner's passing brought back the famous Branch Rickey quote of, "We finished last with you, we can finish last without you."
What Rickey's dismissive putdown didn't note was how many tickets Kiner sold for the Pirates when the teams were pretty rotten.
Kiner was a genuine drawing card. The Pirates were last in a lot of categories in those years, but attendance wasn't one of them.

Beaver County Times, February 2, 2014

If the Pirates don't re-sign A.J. Burnett, what will they do to replace him?
You can make the case that Burnett is far from Cy Young, that he wants too much money, that he's near the end of the line, and that he's often a tattooed pain in the neck.
All valid points, but here's the overriding issue: He was a durable and dependable starting pitcher on a team that succeeded mostly because of its pitching in 2013.
There's a price tag on every player. Teams decide what a player is worth, and that doesn't always coincide with the figure the player has in mind. That's why salary arbitration and free agency are part of the process.
The Pirates may have decided Burnett is too expensive, and that's fine. But if he leaves, they have to make up 191 innings and some pretty good work.
What makes abandoning Burnett risky is the Pirates don't have a rotation that should inspire a lot of confidence.
Wandy Rodriguez didn't pitch after June 5 last year. He's 35. Jeff Locke made the All-Star team, but had a terrible second half. He was only trusted to start four times over the last 31 games.
Francisco Liriano did a tremendous job. He showed signs of wearing down at the end, though, and wasn't nearly as good in the last month of the season.
Charlie Morton, as always, has tremendous talent. But is he a go-to guy?
Gerrit Cole got better as the season went on, and was the Pirates' best starter at the end of the season. However, his resume consists of 21 major league starts.
Free agent Edinson Volquez has been signed with the hope pitching coach Ray Searage can engineer the kind of rebuild he did with Liriano. Searage is good, but he couldn't fix Jonathan Sanchez last year, and he didn't find a way to straighten out Locke in the second half.
GM Neal Huntington has said more than once that a team needs seven or eight starters rather than five. Injuries always happen.
The Pirates have Jameson Taillon in the wings, and he could be up by mid-season. He's a prospect, but Jim Leyland was fond of saying, "A prospect is somebody who hasn't done anything yet."
Brandon Cumpton was competent, but his track record is five major league starts. Jeanmar Gomez was a capable swing man.
The Pirates will still apparently have a spotty offense. Marlon Byrd, who helped greatly down the stretch, is gone. They're going to rely on pitching again, and that currently appears to be a risky proposition.
They don't have to re-sign Burnett. But they do have to replace him.
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--WINTER WONDERLAND
The New York Rangers had a two-game stand at Yankee Stadium last week.
They won outdoor games on Sunday afternoon and Wednesday night.
The NHL has struck gold with outdoor games. Not only do they get a gate that's two to three times larger than a standard game, they also sell commemorative merchandise at the customary mark-up.
One of these days fans are going to wise up and realize they're paying premium prices to freeze and sit a mile away from the action.
Until that happens, though, the league is redefining the term cold cash.