Episode 006: Alexander Russell on alcohol alternatives, kava, and wabi-sabi versus digital reality

Right right right now it's right now it's raw you know an old point today did I you know expect for a season to be over it's just not the way this this group thinks it's not the way that I think and so it's it's it's it's stuff right now to be able to kind of really look back and say that I love this group there are some I mean they from start to finish just going back to training camp you know it just with the outside expectations are would never what the inside expectations were and all I really cared about was what this group thought and how they believed in themselves and how you know when things got hard they just found a way to dig in and keep pushing and so yeah it was I'm proud of each guy on the steam and everything that you know we worked to accomplish this year but you know in terms of reflecting right now it's it's yeah I'm not the point for that right now that of course was Penguins coach Dan Muse and Bob it's all over now it's all over but the shouting and it shouldn't have been this way that's my first thought yes we're gonna talk about the future and Maulkin and Latang and all of that but the the feeling I had at the end of the game at the end of the series last night was that the better team didn't necessarily win it just took the penguins too long to get into the series you can't give up six breakaways in game one you can't have two two games where you wind up not scoring but but it was really the first three games that buried them and then you have no margin for error after that you can't take three games to figure out somebody's system you just can't no I and listen Joe for me it was and we talked about this at the very beginning of this series that Philadelphia was on a heater they were coming in they had to play their best hockey just to get into this playoff tournament the penguins on the other hand had done something that I don't think many people expected they clinched early one second in the division so they played the last week with a lineup that was largely kind of sporadic with no reason to play other than to protect people from injury I think those two together made it real difficult for them to lose their mojo with Philadelphia playing the way they had and now I think as the season as this series rolled on you know Philadelphia hit a little bit of a wall they'd been playing really play a hockey for the last month and a half just to get here that wore off while the penguins finally got back to the game which we saw largely through most of the regular season but it was too late when you fall behind like that and that's why when you're going through the end of the season there's always that debate about do you rest people do what do you do because it could have an impact and I think you know it's it's an intangible kind of thing right off the bat but man they had an impact I thought they took a while for them to get back to where they were because they just didn't play the kind of hockey down the stretch they needed to play so where are we with how the season ended like how do we characterize this season we talked about that even before the series I mean the cynic in me would say nobody looked at the penguins this year as a team capable of winning a playoff round and they didn't win a playoff round so were those people right did they actually flip the script as the penguins put out there before this series but then as I watched last night I mean it was certainly a more competitive playoff appearance than your average Steelers appearance they went over time in game six you know and there were some memorable things about the season as well I'm glad I'm glad that they bounced back and made the playoffs I am glad about that but in the end is it a failure no but it's a major disappointment to lose to the flyers like that now if it would if they would have gotten swept or even lost in five and lose all three games at home then it's an abject failure but at least they fought back to where it's just it's just a major disappointment that that's all I would characterize it you yeah I think I was I still look at this is a really fun entertaining and successful season largely because of what they were able to accomplish a lot of moving parts including a new coach they're trusting an 18-year old kid they made some really nice trades which I think will help them in the future they came together and played and every time they faced that adversity I think they responded and you can say the same in this series now it was maybe self-inflicted this the way they started this series but they had to overcome it they almost did if they win that game last night I think I would have been with you thinking that Philadelphia is not going to win game seven and it may have been a decisive loss for them so they could have they should have it didn't happen so yeah it's a disappointment but I thought it was something certainly to build on it just hurts to lose to the flyers man with the and when that final shot goes in right after she loves makes the save part two that would have gone down in history as a legendary penguin save oh it was um marton was all alone he had him at his mercy and somehow he dropped a stick got his blocking whatever he used to make that save was incredible and I thought that's it that's the save that's going to get them to game seven and we'll talk about that so too like I was starting to write that and as soon as I started to on social media the goal you know came York scores and that goes to show you about traffic that's another thing flyers provided plenty of that on that goal the penguins didn't do enough of it and although I got to tell you Brian Rust had the game on his stick a couple of times and it felt like everybody did at one point or another it felt like everybody had a chance yeah they did I mean every one of them Chinatown had a goal post and kind of had a good shot I thought Tommy Novak but all those guys in the end didn't do much in terms of offering something on the stat sheet no none of them no points for Kindle or Chinatown one point for math and no goals no fact that's what they had an irregular season and it dried up in this playoff series. Yeah I thought Carlson might win it it honestly felt like every single penguin had a chance at some point in the game like a golden opportunity and they finally got to their game that's the annoying thing is is they dominated for large stretches that was their best game of the series by far but the old penguins bug a boo like before Kessel and Hornquist and those guys got here even with the stars was being able to finish being able to score enough ironically in playoff series and you can't get shut out twice. Vladaro was very good but they didn't make him they didn't make him work hard enough in my opinion. I mean he's not dominant cashic he's not and we'll find that out against Caroline. Well I see a lot of people saying on this social media streams are all flyers going to you've Caroline I go the opposite way I think Caroline and now the only thing that may affect them is this layoff starting the series again and maybe that's going to vote well for the flyers but as this series moves on the better team is clearly Carolina and I would be shocked if you didn't see what you saw the end of the penguin series which was complete domination in the attack zone I think Caroline is better at that than even the penguins are when they get to their game they put a lot of pressure and they do not get out of it I felt last night the flyers were content was just dumping the puck to center ice because they were always back on their heels and that was their only way out of a lot of this stuff so I also thought there should have been a delay of the game penalty on what what the flyers did after the icing the penguins had like two minutes of the same time that was crap and whatever they did was the official should have done the the referees should have said wait a minute no no this is a nice thing you get sure but aren't here yeah and they they I don't know how I was like a time out almost that's how much time elapses was ridiculous so what do you left with out there as a fan like how do you characterize this season 412 928 93 7928 93 70 off the top presented by JP Roofing and citing you know as I was thinking last night this morning I remembered what Kyle Dubas said after last season and what he said was I don't equate just getting into the playoffs with being a contender those two things are not the same he said I think if you ask the fan base if it was the decision between just get back to the playoffs once next year meaning this year or make the moves that are going to set us up to contend in the long run they would probably choose the latter and that's my focus every day somebody had asked him like you know basically you're walking this line between quasi rebuild and getting back to the playoffs could you get back to the playoffs next year and he stopped just short of saying probably not because we're focused on the long term but instead he gave that answer they surprised even him they surprised everybody this year and yet they lose to the flyers and then like where are they Bob in in in the rebuild because it's still a rebuild of some sort and you heard what Dubas said it's not enough just to get back to be a fringe playoff team look at the capitals they won the president's trophy last year and want to play off round look like they were building sword towards something big but they're still old in some areas and they're not that good so here they are taking a step back this year they did what Dubas warned of they got back into the playoffs but they maybe weren't really a contender and now they're definitely not so where are they and where are the penguins moving forward I still think the pan was going to put a good spot I think their goal tending is going to be really good moving forward and I anticipate she loves and mirror shaft to be the two goalies there that's not I like that one year old and a 24 year old. That's pretty good. And they're both highly thought of that's a good start I also think they have a lot of money to spend over $46 million which means they can go out and add to this group with younger players Two they could either make trades sign guys whatever the case may be So I do think with with Gina Kov with Kindle and I was very impressed with Elmer Soderblum I had no idea what he was capable and Connor doer. I thought it's good. Yeah, I mean they have guys who can certainly contribute now They need more help defensively. You may have to see them make a deal to get something defensively or sign somebody that You know that could have a different element to their defense But they still have Harrison Brunick who's many thought would make this roster. He's 19 years old They got I believe you're gonna see Will Horcoff here next year He's also 19 and played his butt off not not unlike what Porter Martone did in college So you have that you add to it. You still have a team. I think that could be a contending team and I believe that I also think the big question. What do I do with Maulkin? That's the big question some will say a lot tang But I don't have any reason to think that they can't contribute maybe not as the upper echelon guys on their roster but man If getting Maulkin was willing to move off center to wing He's willing to do a lie. He seems to be willing to come back here too and maybe at a discounted rate and if that's the case What's the harm in that? I Agree with you and I wrote that this morning for the tribus is the reflexive response here for a lot of people is okay That's it to the big three got to go Geno got to go and lettang has to go well Not so fast in my opinion I Mean when I'm looking at things to change and I'm looking at next season I'm not sure the two guys who led the team in goals in this series along with doer are The two places I'd look to get rid of them and I realize there's a bigger picture there, but you mentioned it with Maulkin I'm especially bullish on keeping him It's not like either one of these guys is blocking some massive wave of high-end prospects the penguins don't have that They don't have a horrible farm system anymore, but it's not it's not teaming with those kinds of guys You can still work in the guys that you mentioned and go sign a free agent and keep these guys Maulkin is more than a point per game player He didn't have a great series. He wasn't great last night But he could have had a multi-point game skated in alone at one point and Bordarm made a pretty good save Set up a couple guys. I think he set up Novak late in the game. He could have easily had a multi-point game Point being Bob that he can be a role player for you as a winger and take a lesser salary And he's still a good player that's not the problem Lateng's kind of a different story He was up mostly down this season, but he was a beast the last two games and how exactly are you going to get rid of him? He has a 6.1 million dollar cap hit he would have to agree to it Buying him out would be silly. He's still a functional player. He's a 34-point defenseman who just delivered to I thought Standing performances in a row late in the playoff series. I can still work in younger defensemen and keep leteng They're not the problem. You want to look at the problem? We can start with with with the supporting cast for the older guys Tony Manta with zero goals again and two egregious errors last night late in the game and then kindle and chena coffee Mention hopefully they learn from it, but I'm sorry they have zero points and minus eight so they need to be better in other words Bob The the theme of my thesis here is instead of getting rid of the old guys help them with the kind of people you talked about sign a free agent and have the younger guys be better in the biggest games and get rid of the dead weight like Manta Right, it's sort of like a weaning off these guys eventually especially you know, Malkena Maybe Lateng. Lateng still gives you 25 minutes a night. He's a workhorse He and Carlson had the most ice time in there and I don't I think Carlson got better too as this whole thing went on What a good year it was for him you still have guys that you could add to the roster to help them and maybe their roles are somewhat reduced That's a good thing. Yeah, if you get guys who who then are eventually are emerging to take over the minutes that they get I think they'll be okay with that so I'm not going to overreact to this in terms of just getting rid of everyone and say I'm they don't have enough in their system to just say get rid of people and plug and play Exactly, but they do have money to spend and they do You know are certainly in a position where they go out and spend it and help themselves in areas of need So defense is one of them a big kind of different kind of defensement they have You can make trays for that you can acquire that But you know get get me a legit 40 goal score on the free agent market and I think there are a few that could be had The problem would be if you were depending on Gino and Lateng to be two of your best five players next year or something like that They're not anymore and they're they're not they're not counting on that anymore They can play lesser roles Gino can play on a lesser salary And if he says no to that by the way, okay, then fine then move on But he's already shown that he's willing to Move around to play the wing. He seemed to really embrace that and I thought at times was an impact player in the series And even when he wasn't having his best game was still generating some chances Maybe if some guys could finish around him He would have had some points Gina cough was a disaster in the series. It's fine. He's 25 But him and Kindle got to learn from this and be better Bring up a couple guys go sign an impactful free agent that doesn't mean you have to get rid Necessarily of Gino and Lateng But that's where so many people go immediately Where are you on those two o limitless wonder? I would have a very difficult conversation with Chris Lateng regarding minutes And also is it time to be a third pairing defenseman because The season was a roller coaster for him and there were a lot more lows than there were highs But I'm with you guys on malkin. I would bring him back still an effective player still a point per game player I would sign into a one-year deal keep him on the wing on the second line and run it back. I think he's earned that He's earned that right to come back on like a one-year It was interesting your deal or five and a half million or do I think he would be fine with that he's man enough money But I was interesting that he led the handshake line Normally you don't see that this little or against protocol and I wondered about that when I saw it Who would normally it's the captains that always started normally Right All right, is that true. I mean, that's what I know. I think so yeah, you're yes. I think so I think it is But You read into that I don't know what I read into I was just a little surprise that he was maybe just want to get off the ice I'm gonna go we can ask Stiggy about that he's joining us at noon I'm not exactly sure what What exactly the protocol is there that was it it was interesting to see him doing that and I think they mentioned that on the broadcast too Yeah, he was quick to do it. He jumped he just kept going and I think I don't know what he was on his mind at that point And neither him nor latang apparently was available after the game probably because they didn't want to answer these kinds of questions I Let's take latang what exactly would you do because he has to agree to go I don't think I do my keep them I again. I was encouraged by I know what he is. Are you kind of forced to though Bob? Yeah Yeah, but I also know what he is he's a guy who could make mistakes He like walk and prone to what we saw last night lose your mind a little bit take a penalty That could have killed them at the end of the second period he can do that But he plays with such emotion and he does log lots of ice time and he's capable of giving you 40 points a year 10 goals 12 I mean you go find defenseman who consistently do that or they're hard to find and if you do they're probably seven million a year so I'm not gonna be sad. I'm gonna let that ride out Well, he's at 6.1 right now. I will acknowledge that that's not a great cap hit for what you're getting it isn't I just don't know that I see answers and as we saw Later in the series he can still be an impactful player that was a dumb play last then of course Connect me the cross checker got him to and got him first, but you can't retaliate there The ref is looking right at it when connect me You know, it was the way the cross team responded. Yeah, you can't just got it. You know not like that I mean he just is a roundhouse right but yeah, do you buy him out? I don't want that cap hit on there when I what to me the bottom line is he's still at least functional Oh, he's more than functional compared to a lot of defense of you see around the league. Yeah, now he's prone to mistakes fine I get it try to get him off of that. So it's Carlson for the Viscupper. I thought he was much better this year and that That's just not my focus in the offseason for a lot of people that's that's the primary focus my focus is Let's go out and get an impactful player here an impactful youngish free agent Let's dig into the farm or two. Let's dig into the farm system a little you're right about the goal tending I think you know, but but but the idea that this is some sort of you know Young team that's rising up right now. This was just the first step. No, they're they're an older team and the older guys need help They don't need to be gotten rid of Although Manta is 31 and he you just let him walk Bob correct. Yeah same with Skinner, you know, you'll say those salaries right off the bat. You don't have to worry about them Not that man. I think a chariot probably begun Man, we get more money in the open market, but they don't have to pay it. So long as this next team doesn't make the playoffs You'll be fine. Yeah, he's at a career now. I think it's 20 games is it with no goals. Yeah, that's you don't want that Um on your back. No So this was uh uh, this was something to watch. How gut-wrenching was that last night, by the way? Uh, it should have been over so many times. I mean, I really thought the flyers were playing just get to puck out of the zone hockey. You know, they, every time the penguins put on sustained pressure and the fourth line started several times and they were able to make a line changes to keep the hockey in the zone and wear guys out who were in, on the ice for Philadelphia, they had to just lift at the center and hope to get to the bench. Yeah. And they couldn't score though. That was the problem. That's so many great chances it could not score. For sure. Looking at Jesse Marshall, I like him a lot. It's fair to have your list of concerns about the penguins. It's part of being a fan and there's plenty to talk about. However, I'm not going to significantly challenge those of you who are putting Ben Kindle on that list. Your emotions should be excitement. I'm going to significantly challenge. He says your emotion should be excitement, not concern. Don't get me wrong on Kindle. That was a fabulous pick and I'm looking forward to his future. But he's one of the reasons they lost. Obviously him and Chinacoff didn't produce a point to very different things. He's a guy you you build around. He's a guy absolutely you're excited to bring back. But right now, smart. He's a good defensive player. He's aware of everything on the ice for 18 years old. That's pretty impressive. For sure. He also unfortunately lost the face off that led to the game losing goal. When you're doing the autopsy under these bright lights, he's a reason they lost. Sure. And he's a reason to be excited about the future. Both can be true and the same with Chinacoff, by the way, he's a big reason they lost. Second on the team in goals per game to Sid during the regular season. But again, this is the autopsy right now. I like having him back next year and I love having Kindle back and I love the young goal tending situation right now. Those are nice things to build around. Give me a little more of that and a little more of that does not have to come at the expense of Gino and Latang. That's my whole point here. One two and soda blooms and other you didn't mention, but I really thought he came on. I have lots about brazo being scratched in favor of him, you know, just because brazo's been around all year, but this kid, he threw his weight around. He's faster than I thought. I liked him. He's a find and as long as he stays away from the pure wetz bob, he had one play there. I think it was the second period, maybe where anytime he tries anything fancy except when he scored the goal that buried Pony and gave Donnie his payoff against the Red Wings. Just keep it north, south. Big Elmer. He almost won them the game, though, didn't he? Let's create a chance for him, so he's only dead. Let's hit the phone lines. Shall we bomb 412 928 93 70, a little old school sports talk as we pick apart this series and look to the future with the penguins? How was Tyler Kennedy not here? The dude is here every week during this season. I know you did not tell us. He's here the night after a random game against Nashville on a Thursday and now he's not here today. Now after the playoff series, Bob, what's happening? I was already given the proper introduction and I just now I can't do it. So it's unbelievable. TK said, call me coming up here next segment. So we can check it out for sure. Come on TK. Let's go. What do you mean call you? He was in with the morning guys last or yesterday, I think for like an hour and he yes. Yesterday or here. And yet he bailed on us. He was like every week who insulted him. Yes, he did. Tyler Kennedy. Well, when he does get here brought to you or on the phone brought to you by save your settlement.com helping injured people and their families plan for the rest of their lives. Fan Twitter brought to you by South Hills Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, root 19 and Peter's Township and you can get on the text line with the limitless wonder. Let's hear random text today from time to time limits if we could and bring the textors into the fray. Brought to you by Edgar Snyder and associates personal injury law firm where they always say there's never a fee unless we get money for you. Who's up? All right, Bob. It's Ryan and New Jersey. All right. Ryan is a real good hockey observer. I always bring her salient points. I'm a real good hockey observer to live 10 miles from downtown Philadelphia. So you tell me how good of a spot I'm in. Well, I mean, you're transplanted, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very much. A little worsened and a little worse. Anyway. So here's the problem. So what the pens need to do and do this is fully aware of this. They need to build a team kind of like the flyers moving forward. And in a few years, like a lot of youth, but you're not going to have your lottery stars anymore. I think they're kind of split the baby trying to kind of build around these guys. And I get it. I mean, I think Malkin's coming back, contrary to what some people in that town very loudly every day try to say, I think he's coming back because they need to sell tickets. I mean, look at the ownership here. What's going on? They can't close the sale. I don't know that Malkin and Lateng's sell tickets anymore. I think Malkin does. I think Malkin always has. So you think it'll be a lot of that? I don't know. You think if they traded or a financial decision, you think if Malkin doesn't come back, there's like a noticeable dip in season tickets. But their attendance has been down for what, five, six years now, but they're thinking. Which is proof that he doesn't sell tickets anymore necessarily. That is true. But they also were not making the playoffs and like Sullivan kind of ran them into the ground. I mean, let's be fair. Listen, I'm in favor of I'm in favor of keeping Malkin. I don't think necessarily that he's a big swing in the season ticket base anymore. Either way, I think if that if you keep them, that's the reason. But if you get them for $4 million a year, you don't get $60 points for $4 million out of the open market. You just agree. Are you bombing? I want to say he averaged a point for game. You can tell me all you want about, you know, what he is, what he isn't. He still, and he was in position to make a couple of plays. He scored in this series more than other guys have done. There's a lot to like about him, especially because he seems really responsive to moving around and not being the second line center. He'll do what's necessary. So I'm encouraged by that. Do you think, however, here's the part we didn't have. Ask, do you think Kyle Dubas thinks like we do on that? Or do you think he's ready to move on? I think he might be ready. They might be. But that's why they left that conversation until after the season. Now, maybe Malkin already knows something, which is why he quickly left the head shakes and didn't talk afterwards. Maybe he knows, but maybe not. Maybe they have to get that settled out. So, man named Patrick Roberts, a faithful listener and contributed to the mailbag I might add. So, in the morning, Joe, the pens had a stealer season. Well, not really because they were actually competitive in the playoffs. You didn't have a national announcer wondering if they were quitting. Like Kirk, Kirk Street did two years ago. Are they were given up 300 yards rushing to the Ravens? What in great lives into the flyers? But I would say it was a more competitive appearance than the average stealer playoff appearance. Would you agree? Yes. And also it was a new coach, not many people knew about. I think he really showed his system, how he employs lines, what he does with lines, his belief and lines was far different than what Mike Sullivan had done the last couple of years, where he rode guys, you know, until the wheels came off to use this expression of Mike Tomlund likes to use. And he didn't trust some of the other guys. I saw Kindle out there in big time moments again last night, penalty killing a lot of things. I liked the way, you know, Dan Mews thinks. And I think whatever he's done to change that component of their game is something to build on. I do. Wonder, twin, do you agree with Patrick Roberts? The pen's had a stealer season. You agree with me and Bob. No, I agree with you and Bob, just because of where the expectations were. Like, I'm not going to move the goalpost significantly because while you're giving a different rationale though, you're saying because they overcame expectations. So do the Steelers from time to time. They weren't expected to win the AFC nor. No, but the Steelers were expected to finish right around 10 and seven. The penguins were expected to finish bottom five in the NHL and the second division. Their over under was eight and a half. So they exceeded it by by a win and a half, which is significant in the NFL. My reasoning is the penguins were more competitive in a playoff situation than the Steelers have been. Well, also with that logic, let's say that the penguins are hypothetically playing in the NFL. Their win lost. Hota would be right around four or four and a half. So they well exceeded that to be able to make the playoffs and finish second in their division. So I think the penguins ultimately had the better season. The Steelers said, I don't think that's debatable. Like, I don't care if you win your hat and T-shirt game with winning the division. How did you ultimately perform? Like partly the AFC North is a down division. Caroline is a juggernaut. They might end up going to the Stanley Cup Final. I mean, I think it's worthy of a conversation. I'm not going to paint you as as wildly different seasons. They both overcame expectations to make the playoffs and they were both dismissed. I just feel like the penguins were more competitive. Yeah. The penguins were more competitive. Yeah, unfortunately they weren't in their first two games at home. And that's where you when you get home, I should can't go away down to the way they lost. Yeah, they buried themselves. Yeah, they did. That's why the numbers are what they are. Four teams ever. No, but right. Exactly. That was my reasoning. Yesterday for picking the flyers to win the game. It's just it doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen. You think it'll happen in the NBA? You think the rockets will do this, Bob? No. No. They've won two in a row. Yeah, but I don't think they're going to do it. And there's no Luca. I think it might happen. It's never happened in the NBA. Next. Emmanuel and Carnegie. Hello, Emmanuel. Hello, how are you all doing? What's up, Emmanuel? I'm just sobbing over that last night. It was a great competitive series. Yes, not like the stillers. It was more competitive. We had our chance. this we had our chances last night and I think you run it back. If you Maul can definitely should come back. I think let's say she'll come back, but maybe more and they had to crease or roll. Let our young guys play. I thought our goal ten was pretty well. I mean, they played well throughout the series. I think that's a very encouraging sign. I thought we would have lost the series to be with us in our goal ten. And I thought we played well. Did you literally cry? I wonder, I think if I were like a die hard fan, that might have made me cry, bump that whole thing last night. Did you cry, Emmanuel? No, no, I didn't. I was looking forward to going to game seven. I was there, game five. This is a phenomenal atmosphere. And I was ready. I was on my cheeky app ready to put tickets to game seven because we were like dominating that whole third period in and over time. I was trying to go to game seven and didn't happen. But you know, the future is still bright for us. I'm not going to, you know, call this a failure as a season, but it's still disappointing. And last thing is now it got me second guest and maybe we should have went more like harder on the trade deadline and try to get a couple pieces because we're a couple pieces away for being in the second round right now. Yeah, I just think they were, they were flat coming in based on how they ended the season. I don't, sometimes I really wonder and I've talked to a lot of people in sports when you clinch early and you're, you're kind of worried about injury. We've seen it in football all the time where teams just, you don't have any kind of momentum going in. That was to me very obvious in the first two games. The carer, the flyers had it and they jumped on it. And then it then it started to end and the penguins picked up their game, which is why you play games that are less meaningful down the stretch a little bit more competitively than they did. Yeah, it's hard to win when guys who were literally leading your team and scoring, which meant there was in goals at least during the season, China cough, second on the team in goals per game, Kindle had what 17 goals in the end. None of them scored. I would have, you know, I would have, I, it's, it's going to be tough to overcome that. Yeah, I would have tried Avery Hayes at some point of the series. I really would have. He was a guy who plays that kind of nasty style, but he can score to. I would have tried Avery Shriver, Bob. You remember him? No. On the Doritos commercials, the big thick mustache. Oh, that was his name. I never really tried. Yeah. Avery Shriver. And that is Michael Burst. Is that the guy's name, but the stealers, he is a beard now, Bob. Is that right? Yes. I think it actually looks pretty good on him. So do I. I haven't seen him in a while, but I'm looking at this inner, they, they video of Drew Aller meeting Mike McCarthy and Michael Burst looks like he's in ZZ top. When did this happen? He must not, he must have been growing this for over a year. I think it's been there, but you haven't seen him in a while. Not a long time. I know. I think it looks good. Some guys that looks good on some guys. It doesn't. It's incredible. It's one thing to grow a beard. It's none of the grow it down to your belly button, Bob. Have you ever tried? Yeah. I'm not really too good with that. I don't think. Are you? Have you tried? I've tried. Not like that though. And then there's the maintenance involved. Have you asked him why he did that? And I think it looks good. No, but I will when I see him the next time. Sure. We could have him on the show. Good week. How to demonstrate. To keep your beard. Belly button length. It was the word when you, when you, I don't know. Manacure it. Is that a word for your beard? I guess. Manacure. Yeah. That is, that's something. Okay. Coming up, your calls on the penguins. What happened here and what about the future? It feels like with a lot of people. It's chop off, genome and latang. That's where you start. Not for us. Not for any of us. Limits a little more on latang. And believe me, if you could find a taker for latang, and find a trade and get him to, to wave his no movement, I'd sign up for that. I would. I don't think that's happening. I don't think that that's going to happen. And 6.1 is, is it, is a decent cap hit. That's a, that's a good size cap hit is what I mean there. So I wouldn't be averse to moving him, but I don't think we've reached the disaster buyout stage either. I really don't. I thought he was a beast the last two games. Am I crazy, Bob? No, I thought he was. And again, if you look at players, did you say yes, Limits? Yeah, I just said it with my mic off just to say he just shouted yes. Am I crazy? Limits said yes. You don't think he played really well in games five and six? No, I think you did. I didn't think you'd hear me. I was just saying that to say I'm not buying that bomb. He was, he was yelling to himself that I am crazy. I'm just looking at some of the defensemen who, that was on the mic, who make what, Latain makes or what their production is. You'll find that many of these guys who are making six to eight million dollars on defense don't put out the amount of numbers that Latain does. Now, they're probably better and plus minus haven't gotten that deep, but they're, I mean, Latain comes up with chances and he's good at making those chances. And he's accepted his role as second fiddle to Eric Carlson. Another guy was concession a little bit. So I say, I guess my point is there that keeping him is not the worst. The worst thing in the world. I still think he's a functional player. He's a 34 point defenseman. Again, if you had like a bunch of guys who were knocking on the door who were transformational prospects, yes, you have Bruno. Great. They're still a spot for him. Why would Latain be blocking him? And I don't know who else. Pickering, you think he's right. Right. Pickering should be ready by. It seems to be disappointing. Yeah. But I mean, those are two guys who you can have, you know, a path to the roster and should be able to, you know, hold their own. Yeah. That's fine. I still say there would be a spot for Latain. Do you? Yes. Again, you're going to go through the season. You're going to need eight defenseman at some point. However you do it. I thought Watherspune is somebody worth, you know, he was really good. You know, amount of minutes he played and how he played. Really outstanding. Gerard got better as this season went on. You know, I thought I didn't like how he was playing heading into the playoffs, but they obviously believed in his abilities. And he significantly had lots of minutes in this series too. Yeah. I thought he had some rough moments in the series, but I thought he played pretty darn good last night and he's a keeper. And I think he's a good partner for Carlson 412 928 9370. The phone lines lit like Mulzie in a craft beerhouse fan hotline presented by Sullivan super service, providing trusted plumbing and HVAC service for over 50 years. Bob, do you go to craft beer where they give you the little check off list and you take a little shot glass and I don't know what you do after that. What do you comment on it? I don't do that. Yeah. So I don't have an answer for you. Okay. Limits, have you been to these places? I have not. I thought you had. What's wrong with you today? Something seems to be wrong. Nothing's wrong. Other than the more or a trillion of the penguin season, that's the only thing you need to press. You're usually very, very depressed. Yes, but look at the weather out there right now. It's Bob. Do you read the jump in more? There's something wrong. Can you tell? I'm having just, you know, a day of morning. Okay. You expect to be game seven. I did. I was very upset. I was already on ticketing website. I did not cry, but I was already on ticketing websites ready to purchase tickets. Nick Fairbond, I were planning to go to game seven if they won. I know a lot of people who said that actually. Can you imagine with that? Including a manual from Carnegie. Yeah. He was all ready to do it. I'll tell you why. You want to talk about the flyers being tight. If that, if that had gone. Oh. All the pressure in the world is on them. I think that talk made a good, a good move scratching the haunted half the way. I think that idiot would have maybe won the game for the game. And whatever he did to get me, she had back in this game. He was a factor. Yeah. He scratched them. All that stuff that went on with him. And then he got back in the line. I mean, he was motivated. It's a sad day. It is great game. At least as far as, you know, drama, intensity. Like watching a movie, wondering how it'll end and it ended with that with the flyers celebrating in Philly with those fans, Bob. That's a dagger, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, what are you going to do? I thought it was a really entertaining game though. I mean, I was the edge of my seat. It was. I'm watching it. I was flipping back between that pirates and some other stuff, watching a lot of those other Montreals of beast, by the way. It took Tampa at home. Another guy who had a chance to win it. There's some really good games. Bob, show a rip Tyler Kennedy for not being here. When we get him on the line here, why don't you introduce him right now and Stanley Cup champion? Tyler Kennedy. A whole. That's a just, it's a combination of them losing and him not being here in person. Where are you, Tyler? You were here every week for the whole season. You showed up for all 82 games. Now you've gone and pulled an Anthony Manta not shown up for the playoffs. I have a little bit of a cold caught, pretty heavy coffee now. I'm doing what that's like. You're a hockey player. You know how paranoid I am. Thank you for not coming. We're going to set up a screen here then. Come on, he's a hockey player. Hold is going to get you down. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Yesterday. Did you get Crowley sick? Because if you got him sick, then he's going to get me sick. Come on, you're the weather right after last night. Geez. Man, that was a tough one. What's your biggest takeaway from that entire series? That's what, there's a couple things. I think one, that's what happens when you let a team go up 3-0, right? One mistake and it cost you the series. And another one, we talk about the line combinations. It was almost a tale of two teams. I'll say we went back to the original. cheating golf, Malcolm, Rust, Crosby, Recalc, it was a different series. Last night, I thought the penguins had the momentum more and played better than Philadelphia. They were all over Philly, especially from halfway through the second period, all the end of the game. The penguins pretty much dominated Philadelphia. They had their chances, but the penguins were playing on their toes. It looked like it was a duet or a die for them a lot more than Philadelphia. So when you look at the goal-tending performance by Vladar, Tyler, was he great or did the penguins sort of make like thezionim or maybe a little bit of both? A little bit of both. I thought he played well. He had some really key stops. I saw there was some post hit, but the save on Brian Rust was a game changer. That one was one you would like to see go in because even the rebound. When you have a goalie that he believes himself, he's very confident, he's a guy that kept them in the game when he needed to. That's why they were successful. He made those huge stops. He played very well for struggling the last two games. He had some rough goals go in and now he comes in in a game six and puts his best performance of the playoffs against us. That's a big difference maker for me. Well I thought this series was lost in the beginning and my theory on it and as a former player who's been at high level hockey, I'd like to get yours. I just thought not playing competitive games at the end of the year, resting players took them out of their mojo a little bit while the flyers were as red hot as can be. I think that told the story of the first two games until the penguins shook out of it and started playing the way they played all year. Yeah, they rode the hot streak through playoffs and they got a hot start. They started on their toes the first two to three games and it took the penguins that long to get into playoff mode, to get into Pittsburgh playoff hockey mode. If you watched the last two games, the Pittsburgh penguins were a lot better than Philadelphia. You watched the first three games. It was a completely different story but again, that said, I don't know. I don't think Dan Hughes can win. If he sits guys, he doesn't win because they start slow. If he plays them hard all the way to the end and maybe someone gets hurt now, he's hearing a lot of controversy while you did it. That's a tough call by a head coach but ultimately, I don't think it was a right decision. They didn't start off playoffs the right way. They didn't start off eager enough playing the right way and it does come down to how you finish your year. When you're sitting guys in the last week of the year, it's kind of not vacation but a little less light. I do think it affects the start of the playoffs. TK was game six, the final NHL game that Sydney Crosby of Gennie Malkin and Crystal Tangle play together. I don't think. I don't see Malkin. I don't know what he's looking for price wise but I'm telling you right now, you can't let Malkin walk because you know where he's going to go? He's going to Washington capitals. He's very close with Oveskin. If Oveskin, I think Oveskin's coming back and if they don't sign Malkin, who do you think his first call is going to be? He's going to Washington capitals to play with Oveskin in his last year and that's the last thing I want to see. Is that a theory Tyler or do you know something? No, that's a theory. I just see when you, you know, the last two games they played against Washington, you see Malkin at Oves house. They're extremely close. You know, they're countrymen. They've become very close over the years and when you hear Malkin talk about OV and how he still has gas left in the tank and I think he would probably want to play with a guy that he's competing this whole life and that he looked up to or may not looked up to but they push each other through and now they have an opportunity to maybe end their careers on the same team. You know, both Russian guys, like I think that's an opportunity I think Malkin would probably take and knowing Sid, I don't think he's going to let that happen. It's just how much does Gino want to sign for? Is he willing to play third, fourth line minutes? Because we do need to turn the page. We do need other guys getting bigger minutes. We need Ben Kindle getting more minutes than of getting Malkin next year and that means of getting Malkin has to take a little bit of a back seat to him and if he understands that, yeah, I'm very happy having him back. I'm understanding the situation he's coming into. I thought if anywhere you go to Florida just because he likes it down there but we're never the case. It's hard for me to believe he would go to Washington. I don't care about. I'm still close with OV. I know. But to go to the capitals. There's a lot of us on the team. All right. Yeah, I think OV would convince him and I think they'd all pay him too. Do you buy that bump? I don't know if I know I don't. You don't think that sparkle Malkin and OV. I think that would light a candle under there but for one last year. Well then why not bring OV. He's out of a contract. Just bring him out. Let's go. Our whole team will be over 40. But I do think he's, I've seen signs that he's willing to do things that he never was willing to do before. And so that's incorrect. Again, this is a one year deal and it's not like he's going to, as Joe said, we're not blocking anybody from doing anything. He's just got to take a lesser role and be effective at that role. And I thought largely he was this year. Same is true of Lutang. He took a lesser role. He gave up being number one on the power play. The point man for Carlson. I think they get older and they start realizing, you know, and I just want to complete this and see if we have a chance and give it one last chance. Now again, this has nothing to do with what they need to do in the off season. They have a lot of work to do still, but they can help those guys achieve what they want to do before they say that's enough. And I think having Malcolm back will help Chinacop a ton too. I think they have a great relationship too. I think Malcolm understands that he has to mentor Chinacop and how to get to the next level because when we think of guys that you would probably want to see on the scoreboard that needed to get going in the playoffs was Chinacop, right? Like he didn't score. We needed him to be a point, a goal score for us. You know, we needed him to get that big goal last night, but having Malcolm there and showing them and teaching them and all that, I think would help them. Again, it's tough for an older guy in his career to like to take a step back, especially those guys. Me, it wasn't too hard to have no choice, but those guys, when they've always played those big minutes and as you get older, it's harder to play hockey with less minutes because you cool off, right? When you're older, as soon as you stop playing for that five to seven, eight minutes, it takes you that many more shifts to get warmed up again and get back into the game. So it's going to be a tough call. And even with Kyle Dubas and Bob, you said they have a lot of work to do. They do like a lot of the moves Kyle Dubas did this year. They all worked out and is that going to happen next year? Who knows? But we have cap space. We have a we have some money that we can spend. I think this is going to be a big summer to turn the page and start building something for the next generation of Pittsburgh Penguin fans, right? Like, hey, this is the future. This is the guys. We still have some of the former guys that want Stanley Kaus. But these guys are, you know, this is their time to start taking over the team. How about letag then? What do you think of his future? I mean, I don't know what they're going to do because he is a $6.1 million cap hit in a no movement clause. I don't think it would be the worst thing to have him back, but I'm not sure what exactly the options are if you don't want him back. Yeah, like having Crystal Tang on the, you know, five, six defensemen, I have no problem with that. I think it's more of getting those guys to understand the situation. You know, and be like, Hey, you're going to start here. You can move up the lineup with your play, but we're going to start you here. You're going to be more of that veteran leadership in the room. They have now, but in a different way. And at that price tag, like that's a lot of money to pay your six defensemen, but again, you're kind of stuck with them, right? Did he have a great playoff? I thought he played really good for, say, two and a half of the six games. I thought he played really good. I think the first three games that the Crystal Tang struggled. Oh, yeah. in mind. Tyler. or anybody in mind for the offseason forward or defense that you'd love to see the penguins go get. I'd love to see him maybe throw an offer sheet that Brady could chalk, right? There's a lot of rumors with him and Ottawa and all that stuff. I think he's a guy that he's already captain of the team. He's a heart and soul guy. He brings a sandpaper to the top six that we haven't had since Ornquist or Chris Coonets. I think a guy like that or that kind of player, I think we're looking for and willing to spend money on because those guys, when you look at the playoffs and how they're being played, they're really fancy high-end skill teams. They're not getting it done. It's the guys that have some sandpaper up front, the Anderson, the guys like that, the Pagels, like those guys that bring a different element to the game or the ones that are looking forward to Panthers. They could be a lot of different ways. They had toughness, they had skill, they had a little bit of everything. I think for the Pittsburgh penguins, we got to keep adding a little bit more sandpaper every year. I think we did a great job this year, but we still have to keep adding. I bring up this name because we always have talked about him. Jason Robertson is a restricted free agent. Roberts is Brady Kuchak a restricted free agent or an unrestricted free agent. I don't think he's got ease. He might be restricted, which means you can offer him and they can match if they want to. They have a lot of guys who fall into that category. If you want to make a play, but they're going to cost you quite a bit, I would imagine. Robertson, somebody who would make me interested. He was a 40-go score again, one of two on that team. He's young enough where you can do it. He's making seven and a half right now. I don't know. I just find that it's interesting that he is potentially available. Next year is Carlson's last year on that big contract. He might be an easier target to get rid of because he's only got one year on that target. In my opinion, I think you're better off paying a Robinson 13-14 compared to a Carlson making 11 and a half in my opinion or 10 and a half. You know, right now Dallas, they know he's like the cornerstone guy. It is so hard in the NHL that a young guy that can score 40 and score goals consistent. That's the hardest thing in the NHL to find right now. All right. Go ahead, Bob. The NHL has also restricted for Asia, which means he could take offers from other teams. That'd be interesting. All right, Tyler. 15 seconds left here because we're over time. The number one reason the Penguins lost this series is what? Slow start. First three games kind of crushed them. And they just, that's the first three games. They just, they didn't have enough and they is one, one opportunity. They made them pay. And they got, they got their, their chance in this court. Appreciate it, man. And do appreciate you coming in the whole season. It was great and a lot of fun. Thanks Tyler. Get well. Thanks again, boys. Have a great day. I think he's golfing. I think the truth is, are you golfing? Is he still there, Limits? He's definitely golfing. He's on the tee right now. Yeah, the hit is shot. Except it's raining out, isn't it? Doesn't matter. He's an indoor dome facility. Bob, I'm going to give you a choice. Are you ready for this? Yep. Because Limits and I are torn. Would you rather talk about what art said regarding Aaron Rogers and what Mike McCarthy is saying regarding Aaron Rogers or talk about the pirates and how that game had a horrific ending as well? I would, I would prefer pirates just because of the way this is gone and some of the things in that game, which could have been completely different. Let's do it. All right, Bob. While that was happening last night, I had the pirate game on the tee. On my laptop, God bless me. And I looked up at one point, a very important point, the game on the line and ninth inning. And crack goes the Nick Gonzalez bat. And I think that he just won the game with a walk off home run only to see who was it out there in left field who reached over the fence. Church. I mean, if there's such a thing as a routine home run saving catch, I think that was it. It wasn't like this ridiculous spectacular play, but it was a good play. And there goes the game. And now the pirates are in the last place again. I know it's all relative. They still have a winning record every team in the NL Central does. But man, just the other night, they had a chance to go five games over against St. Louis in that bullpen game. Santana blows that one. Are you concerned at this point? Are there going to be something more than a team that hovers around 500 all year, Bob? Yeah, I do think Ron. I should say Ron. Thank you, Mr. Hester. No, I think if you look at all these teams are kind of slogged together with record wise. Now this was a bad loss. There have been a few of them. The bullpen game, which went so well through it, it exploded, imploded on them. And so they lose. I'm not sure if Santana is the everyday closer. That's what my conclusion out of that was. The other thing is more than anything last night, Bubba Chandler was not good again. And they have a lot riding on him. And he's not been able to do it so far. But also when you have chances to add on and they certainly could have in that two nothing or that two run loss for two when Santana gave a four in the ninth. Last night, the bottom of the seventh, they're down five to three. Basis loaded one out. Ryan O'Hern comes up, strikes out. Marcelo's unit comes out grounds out. They also had bases loaded in the eighth inning and they could get nothing done. That's where you need to make those hits. And listen, doesn't have to be a grand slam. Just put the ball in play and get some runs and they couldn't do it. Well Chandler is an issue right now. And he's young, very young. He's 23 wildly talented. It's not about that. It's about what is he giving this team right now? A team that has designs on the playoffs. And the answer is not much. He walks to many people. He has 27 strikeouts and 20 walks in an ERA that's hovering around five. And it looks like Kurt Schilling was right when he said this dude needs to go down and get tons of innings in the minors. Though I hope Bubba Chandler proves him wrong. But Bubba I'm not so sure that I'm not so sure that Schilling wasn't more right than wrong. He looks like a guy who still needs to refine his arsenal and learn how to pitch a little more. I agree. You agree? Yeah, I do agree because it's, you know, he feasts on his arm. And yeah, you know, well, if you can get up there at a hundred miles an hour, that's good. But you have to still place it. These guys in the majors now know how to hit that kind of pitch. They see it on off a lot. And he nine to one on one. By the way, Jared Jones hit that a few times last night in the rehab stint where he was really good. But I think, yeah, he has to be a more of a refined pitcher. I mean, he's he I'm sure he watches closely with Paul Skains does and how he does it. That should be a big, you know, opportunity for him to learn from a guy like that. All those pitchers just around him and wonder how he does it. He has insane work ethic. He's created and used new pitches. It's about pitching, not just throwing it. I think I still think Chandler sometimes gets a little too wild when he falls behind that. He becomes hitterball. Yeah, I mean, there's only what four pitchers in the majors, three who have more walks than Bubba Chandler and they've all pitched more innings than him. So it's just it's been rough. On the other hand, the game against Tampa, it looked really good. The talent nobody would dispute is there. And I'm not saying send him to the miners tomorrow either. You know, I want to see how this plays out. I'm just not sure that shilling was too far off base with that appraisal limits. You're a big pirate guy. What do you think of Bubba so far this year? I'm concerned that the walks were a problem for him in the minor leagues or a problem this year. He only had four a year ago. And I think right around 30 innings, maybe that's because of how they utilized them first out of the bullpen and then finally starting the last four or five games of the year. But he's a problem. He's got a lively arm. Great stuff. But if you can't control it. It's the same conversation we've had with pictures that have gone on the bullpen and it have been wild. He has everything in his arsenal to be a great starting picture. But you cannot just give out free passes, especially with the way he throws. You're going to have a lot of hard contact against you. If it's fast coming in, it's going to be fast coming out. And he has not done a good job of being able to find any consistency. No, and their bullpen also, you know, it's sporadic at times. It's good. Sometimes it's bad. They bring up guys and search them. And when they do, they give up runs, but I also have to wonder only because now we're hitting into May. And I'm not by no means is this the panic take here. But Marcel O'Zoonas coming up with guys on, you know, I'm starting to panic on O'Zoonas. I think for me at least that is a borderline panic take because he looked like he was going to rebound. Yeah, I thought so too. But he's had many opportunities and just in this series anyway has not worked. It looks like the McCutchen versus O'Zoonas conversation has just become, yeah, both they're having bad years. I mean, when I look at this whole team, I think two guys that are holding them back from what they could be as far as what expectations were to compare to. performance of the two guys we're talking about. Yeah. Chandler and Ozuna. I would agree with that, Bob. Yeah, I do largely those are the guys. You expected Ozuna to come through with more like what he did in 2024, not so much last year. We were sure that his hip injury was anything, you know, but over. So you expect and again, he is a slow starter. I'll give him that. I've watched his career. I've looked at his numbers and he does heat up as the season goes on. They better hope he does. He they better hope he's a he's a minus player right now minus point eight. Yeah, and more. Of course, his numbers, you know, Henry Davis makes Marsella Ozuna look like Henry Aaron for God's by the way, Andy Rodriguez went for for four last night. Did he? Well, that's getting interesting because the catching spot offensively is killing them and I know Bart had a couple hits last night, absolutely killing them, right? Yeah, I mean, collectively they're 160. I'm disappointed, Bob. I'm disappointed that they're hovering that they're one game over. They might be under 500 here or or at 500 at the end of April. Well, they have schemes going today. So I would imagine that they get a win in this game. I hope. Joe, can I give you a stat that somebody tweeted at me? Please, this guy had 40. This guy had 79 home runs combined in 23 and 24. And then in a down year, had 21 last year, Ozuna, a man named Nick Rayas tweets at you and I and says, this is interesting. Bubba Chandler's career splits by Ketcher. He has a nine 92 ERA in four games caught by Joey Bart in eight games 39 innings with Henry Davis, a 208 ERA. Well, that why is he always Davis every time. Just just like so here's the thing. They lined up Chandler and schemes back to back. And it's a day after night game today with Chandler going last night, schemes going today. You know that Davis is going to catch every single scheme start. Davis should be catching Chandler every single start too, but you run the risk of, oh, well, here we are since they're back to back. We don't want Davis to catch a day game after a night game. Yeah, I'm happy that Henry Davis is good defensively and you raise a good point. So does that guy because Joey Bart can't hit or catch. No, no, or run. Yeah, right. Other than that of the five star out of the five tools. He has maybe one. He's a one tool player, Bob, but let's let's go back to Henry Davis because you limits assured me about four weeks ago, Henry Davis is fine. And all I heard on on the broadcasts and everywhere else was, oh, I love Henry Davis's approach this year. Oh, it's way different. He's going to be fine. Look at Henry Davis. Bob, it's no exaggeration to say you wouldn't notice a difference if there was no DH in the National League and you still at a pitcher batting night instead of him. The offense, let me put it this way. The offense does not make up for the defense with him. No, he has to be better. And the defense is great. It was an unexpected turn in his career. I mean, the defense does not make up for the offense, but he needs the offense to at least get respectable. It doesn't have to be anything crazy. Just respectable. And when you take a catcher situation that hasn't produced a lot, when you take, you know, a first base position, which is average, when you take a third base, which is growing now with Gonzalez there, Reynolds has been stuck on a little bit of a, you know, lack of RBI's situation. You got to get offense from a lot of different people. Can't just be the same through what you count on. Listen, we've all the way last night. Did you see what happened also? What? For the second time this year, Brandon LaWazpin, pinch hit for with Nick and York. And this time you came through. So I give Don Kelly credit for that. He wasn't going to let that first situation with the basis load. He batted for LaWazpin. Change his opinion of the strategy in that situation. He stood by his guns. I still vehemently disagree that when a guy is as hot as honest Wagner, which was the situation the first time around that you pinch hit for him. But I do give him credit for that. But back to Davis. Because we've all seen a lot of baseball over the years. And even guys who are defense first, no matter the position, teams reach a point where they say, listen, man, if you're hitting 160, you're deep. We can't live with with that no matter how good your defense is. Henry Davis, that's borderline major league right now. Like the other teams would say, you have to go to the minors. You're hitting 160. So I guess his defense is saving him with Bart. I don't know what's saving him. What's he batting? It's less than 200. He's under 200 as well. You went two for three last night, which given his playing time, I might have him up to 190. You tell me your limitless wonder. Yeah. So Davis is at 161 and Joey Bordes at 195. Your catchers are right at the windows. You can't have it. You can't have that. So I'm ready for Andy or Flores. How are they doing down there? Limits? Can you look both them up? It's like the catching version of Jared Triollo. You have a guy who's playing good defensively, but he doesn't get a lot of hits. Andy's hitting 360 over his last week plus. Then he should be up here. He went four for four last night. I would go so far as to say Joey Barts time here. Days here are numbered. Yes. Would you agree? Yes. Because he's put them in a position where they need to and if they have somebody hitting the minors, they seem to like Davis. He does more defensively and as a play caller than, you know, what Joey Barts does. You bring up on those other guys and you pair those two to do that. By the way, I'm willing at this point to sell out to Henry Davis swinging on every pitch like it's game seven of the World Series. I think he tried a different approach this year. I think they tried it with him. You know, we'll go opposite field. We'll try to get bad on ball. Maybe strike out a little less. He tried to stand more straight up. Forget that. Go up there and try and hit a homer. Okay. It can't be worse. You're at 160. You're at 167 last year. So go back. Watch tape of your college days. Watch tape of the Otani game. Although we later learned that Otani was injured that night and and just swing for the fence's Bob. Give me a home run, you know, two home runs a month. Well, they're striking out anyway. What's the difference? That's a case. Give me two home runs a month and your defense and then have somebody else here who can hit. I get that philosophy, but I would try to do the other thing with him. And I look at O'Neal Cruises are good example to follow. If you look at his bats this year against left hand pitching, he is willing to just put the ball in play. Go with a pitch. Never have I seen that from him, but he's also hitting homers. Yes. But I mean, when the the left hand pitching is dealing with him on the outside of the plate or off the play, he's still going with the pitch and he's getting hits. I think maybe Henry Davis needs to go right back to that. Just try to put the ball in play so that you can get something that's what he's trying to do. I don't know. I still see some wicked swings. I don't know what I think he's for a catcher. He falls behind in the count as an offensive player quite a bit. Limits you love the approach and you told us he was going to be okay. Yeah. I thought he was going to be okay. Oh, really? This is a slump for Henry Davis slump. His whole career has been a slump. Yeah, but make them say about it. He's not going anywhere. When I mean, the numbers that we gave with how he catches by the Chandler and Paul Schien's personal catcher. I know he's not going anywhere. I know he's not, but my point is in all of baseball history, anybody who's a regular in line up who's hitting 160 is a candidate for the minor. Yeah. Very true. Like if this was here's the thing though. If this was in luck, his hitting has been bad. I'm not excusing that whatsoever. But I think this is a different conversation than what we had with key Brian Hayes where his hitting was so bad. I'm not so sure. How was it a different conversation? He was an elite defender, probably the best in all of baseball at his position. But don't you think that catcher is the most important defensive position on the field? Don't you think that it's a different story when you're catching a pitching staff and the numbers that I gave you with the difference between Chandler with Barton Davis, that changes games significantly. I think more so than third base defense. By the way, key Brian Hayes is hitting 130. Yeah, it's been awful. Hey, at least key Brian Hayes was up around two thirty five with hot five home runs last year. Again, compared to Davis, he's Mickey Mantle. Yeah. Yeah. He's a good guy. What is his RBI total because he was he went through his stretch of the one RBI Bob in 77. I your season one run well, see in Henry Davis is three. By the way, he's also like a barometer for Henry Davis in that sometimes in that sport. Once it goes south for somebody, they never come back. Jackson one ski. Like that's the worry with Henry Davis. Henry Davis never really arrived offensively, although it looked in his first year like there might be something there. Is this ever going to get better with key Brian? It's only gotten worse and worse and worse. He's he's unplayable now. Yeah, but they're stuck with him. They traded for him and they have his contract on and not that it's overwhelming, but that's still money spent for guy who has won RBI so far this season. That's crazy. Henry Davis is career at this point. He needs to be martin Maldonado, who was known as somebody who has batted ninth for the Astros one world series there is bounced around the league. Good defensive, catch your handles, a pitching staff, but he hits right around 210 220 a couple of home runs a year and you just do it now. You know, the batting average doesn't even bother me if he gets his share from production. Yeah, that's that's all he's got to do. Bavarian Maldonado was at years with 15 home runs limits. I'll take one 91, which he batted in 2023 with 15 homers. Give me something. Give me something, right? That's all you need and you're not getting anything from that position at all. If I get one more person who's calling me trying to buy my house, Bob, I'm going to become upset, but you can't you can't talk back into the phone because then they record your voice these days and then they use your voice with other people. Do you know that? I don't answer anything anymore. Don't answer. I answer like this now. I either pick up and listen until they talk or I'll pick it up and say, just like that. - Yeah, but that's you, they know you. You identify as the upper. - Yeah, but they could. - But they could use my voice to fool like somebody in my family and say, oh, listen to this. - They know you, y'all. - Try it, Bob. - Do it. - Hey, Joe, what's up? - You know what, you can't replicate that. - You know what, can't be replicated? - What? (buzzer) You can find someone to perfectly grab that and utilize against you, Joe. That would be fascinating. (buzzer) Do you pick up, stop. Do you pick up the phone and when it's an unfamiliar number and say hello in your real voice? - I never pick up a phone that I don't recognize the number. - So you don't? - Okay, and I won't. Not only that, I'm sure I've missed some emails that I think are spam or something. Like I look at it and looks real to me, but I don't know why it's coming. I don't answer it. And unfortunately, I'll probably leave some people out that I need to get back to. - It's worth it. - I'm not going down that road. - Well, if you did answer it. - Take one time. - Right. - That's it. - That's it. - They capture your voice and they go to other people in your family, particularly older people. - And they say-- - And say-- - It's the money. - Yeah, right. That's exactly right. So if you did disguise your voice on a phone, what would it sound like Bob, so they couldn't capture? - You're not going to get one for me. - Okay. - I'm not going to answer it. Unless I know it as a name on that call, - Interesting. - Okay. - If anyone calls me in, it goes to voice mail, it's by design. I'm not picking up. If you don't have-- - They keep wanting to buy my house. I don't want them to do that. I don't want to hear-- - Stop for sale too, Ian. - Well, everything's for sale for the right price, but none of these people want to give me the right price. - I don't want to talk to them. - Everything's for sale for the right price. Your house is-- - All right. - Somebody came along and said, "Two million for your house." Suddenly, your house is for sale. - Bob has two million. He doesn't need another two. - Oh, yeah, you're right. I'm not going to-- I'm not going to get my voice away. - Bob confirmed-- - It is, like the little mermaid. When Ursula comes and grabs her voice. - No. - No. - Never when we looked up Bob. Never when we looked up Bob's network. No, we don't remember that. - I never did that. - Yeah, we did. - Remember? We were back here looking up Bob's net worth. - It's inaccurate, whatever you thought. - Yeah, Bob said it was inaccurate. It's way more than what they claimed. - It's inaccurate. - All right. - In order to distract you from your penguin torture, let's delve more into your pirate torture at the moment. They've lost four in a row. What would you do with some of these people? Bubba Chandler and Henry Davis. Marcello Zuna. Come on. Another guy like this, Bob. Why can't they ever get an aging free agent who comes in here and hammers the ball? We have to live with-- start naming them. You name one all name one from Pirates History, Tommy Fam. And I know he got better when they were 10 and 60. Tommy Fam, you name one. Go ahead, Limits, join the game. A free agent who came in here and peed all over the place instead of hitting the ball. - Michael A Taylor. Jeremy Burnett. - Jeremy Burnett is a good one. It was going to say him. - Adam Frazier, too. - Who was the guy in center field, Reggie Sanders. - I thought he was pretty good for them. - Not long term, he wasn't. - Lonnie Chisholm, who never played. - Lonnie was probably the worst. - What did they give him two years, four million? - It was a one year deal. It was like right around five, I thought. - Adam Lerosh, who didn't start hitting like Fam until they were in last place in June. - Todd Frazier, a third base. - There you go. - You were like 99, remember that? - I mentioned Adam Frazier. Look at this. And right away, is that you calling me Bob to bust me? What does that say on my phone? - My phone's over there, I'm sorry. - What does it say? - No caller ID, there's four in the corner. - No caller ID. - So I'm just trying to get you. - Right, right when I mention that. - So they don't answer. - Now they listen and now they do it and they're torturing me. - Did you answer once before? - Hello. - No, don't do that. - No, they hear my voice. - Why are you answering? - Because they can't capture my voice that way, it doesn't matter. - Yes, it does. - No, it doesn't, Bob. They can't use that voice in any-- - You accidentally forgot you thought you hung up and you didn't. - How would you answer limits? Now it's limits calling me. Why are you calling me? - I'm just for the fun of it. (laughs) - So you do have a caller ID, you do have-- - Yeah, that's why it said no caller ID. - So they never answer, it just hit the decline button. - But then I'm afraid I'll miss something. - No. - And I'm afraid I've got a call. - No, if it's no caller ID. - No, there's insurance situations I have happening in my life right now. - They won't leave a message. - No, they won't, because my answering machine's broken. So I have to pick it up. - No. - It is broken, you gotta get that fixed. If you call Joe, it won't like beep or there's no message saying, "Hi, this is Joe." - Joe, wait a minute. - You're still on your cell phone, you know. - You know what I paid for this thing? This iPhone, whatever it is, 10.0. I'd like to take this and whip it against that wall. Plus I see these little Apple charges in my cell phone bill every month. - I do. - A nickel and dime-eated debt. - For what? - 237. - I get Apple charges for $4.35, $197, $1099. What am I paying for? Then I'll show up at the place and say, "What's the problem?" And they won't know and they won't replace the phone. - And here's the other thing they do. - The Apple store. - That's where you have to go. - Here's the other thing they do, Bob. They upgrade everything by every year. So suddenly this brand new, you know, state of the art iPhone that you had is a relic a year later. Plus that even the chargers that you put in it don't fit anymore, so they get you on the charger. Boy, I'd like to whip this against the wall. You know what commercial I love? The one where the guy takes his iPhone at the beginning and throws it in the ocean. - I would love to do that forever and never see this blank, blank, blank thing again. - Joe, you don't have to set up your voice mail. - Let alone what it's done to society. - Oh yeah. - Well, that's true. - Bob growing up with social media and phones, it was a nightmare at times. - Yeah, you're too bad you missed out on the days without it. - I know, I wish I had that. - You missed it. - There were much better ways to numb ourselves. - Yes. - Nintendo was one. Plus we went outside then. - Outside and play and just run around and. - That's right. - That is my ballroom. What ball was created. - That's right. - Go outside, have fun. And I get to see all my friends. That's how we can, that is the good thing about social media, Bob, because you get to still connect with people that you were friends with so long ago and you don't lose touch. - Someone calling you again. - Oh my. - I don't know. - What is going on here? - If someone keeps calling you, they are fishing for you, Joe. - And now, yeah, that's the other thing is I don't actually mouth the word hello. So it's more like just like that. Try it, Bob. - No, because it's like that. - Just in case. Do a practice round. - Oh. - There you go. - That's it. - Why would I play that game? - Like a sick, don't even answer. - Just try it again. - Right. - That's right. - They could never capture that. - I can go, though. - Hello. - There you go. All right. Where are we headed here? I was going to say, "Molsey, limits. Do we have phone calls? Anybody on the pirates?" - We had a couple, but I think they were deterred by our phone conversation. - They don't want to call us under any circumstance right now. - Not now, no. - All right. Then let's, you want to call in about the pirates. What would you do with any number of their issues right now? - For this guy, it's a pro-mazoner, the Henry Davis. - Chris Kingman says Joe is so worried about having his voice recorded, but he's on the radio. Can they do that? Can they take your voice? - Don't give him any ideas now, Bob. - I'm just saying, can they do that? - Of course they can. They can do anything. - Yeah, they can do anything. - So we're vulnerable for everything. - My God, I hadn't thought of that. - I hadn't thought of that either. - I'm as well just answer the phone normal. - No. - Somebody said that they were going to call center, and when somebody even answers the phone and doesn't say anything, you best believe the company is calling back. Just blocked a number and don't answer. - Well, if they get-- - But I've never heard about it. Maybe he's right. Maybe your voice on here. They could just record it. - Yeah, they could just record it here. - Well then what are we doing? - Probably getting scammed in one way or another at some point. - Textor is Joe aware that he is able to block the spam callers and then an iPhone will reject calls from unknown numbers. Just saying. - I don't even know how to turn-- I don't even know how to get my answering service working. I'll tell you what, I'm paying a visit to that store tomorrow. - Oh boy, this will be on the air Monday. - This is going to be one of those calls. - It's ugly fast. - No, don't let it get out. - Because I'm going to-- no, and I never blamed the people. I just got into a dispute with somebody from Bob's discount furniture the other night. The first thing I said was I'm not blaming you for this at all. But here's my grievance and I've got a lot of them. And then they came through with a nice piece of furniture I might add. It's a wonderful place. But what was the other thing you asked limits? - I don't remember. - I don't remember. - Textor Joe better quit with that sound. They're going to think he's the next great voice actor for the Muppets. (laughing) - Or you can be the Charlie Brown teacher. (mimicking) - Oh my goodness, what's happening? We're off the rails again. - Why did the Charlie Brown teacher sound like that? Seriously? - No, because a lot of us were like that. We could relate to that. Mrs. Snowden said, "Joseph Starkey, you're never present." That was her quote. I would just daydream in her class and her voice was like, "Someone yelling underwater from the background." - So you're in class. - Oh, I wonder what I'm going to do after school today. - Right. - And all you hear is, "Wat, wat, wat, wat, wat, wat, wat, wat." - That's exactly right, Bob. Do you remember listening in class or no? - I listen, I think. - Did you get good grades as a kid? - Yeah, I was a good student. I worked hard for them. I didn't come natural. I can tell you that. You better believe this is our new show promo. That's being cut up today. (laughing) Alright Bob surely you're not buying this notion that Mike Tomlund could replace Mike variable if he moves along. There was a story. I'm reading via Benzzie here in Trib Live, the US Daily Mail in London, one of the great NFL chronicling websites, saying, yes, if this proved to be too much for the craft family to handle, of course, he's had some things in his past. Well, if I recall, what if they have to fire variable or equits? They say Mike Tomlund's an option, and here's the thing. WEEI and the sports hub in Boston don't seem to be ruling it out, as Ben says. And if you listen to the clip, they're talking about this, like it would be legitimate. I say beyond ludicrous, you? Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen. Just for a whole bunch of reasons. Number one, I don't think Ravel's going to quit a job like that. I just don't. Whatever's happening there. Well, forget about that. If if Ravel would were to be gone, I do not see Mike Tomlund. No, I don't either. Coaching that team. I think he's, you know, from what I understand, he's getting a pretty handsome paycheck to do, is going to do on television. I didn't think he'd ever do it, but the money became apparently too good to pass up. So yeah, he's going to do that. I just the whole thing there is just ridiculous. It's such, I mean, I guess the bottom line and less than to be learned is the camera never blinks. You know, if you're in their cameras everywhere, you, if you think you're going to get away with something, you're never going to get away with it. And they were trying to get away with something, obviously. I hope they don't look at Tomlund's record against the Patriots in Foxboro if they decide to hire. That's probably a good point. No, I just, first of all, do you think Ravel would walk away from that? No, I think it would have to be a situation where the Patriots decided that, that whatever the publicity or the situation would never not go away. If they lose, it becomes, that's one thing people will be talking about all the time and all the, the memes and everything you see will happen. If they win, then it's not an issue. They'll just win and forget about it all. All right. But more than anything, it's just, it's between those two, figure it out in your families. You know, the fact that he's, he's, he started one way about, oh, this is nothing blah, blah, blah, blah. Now he's in counseling. You know, what's next? Maybe, maybe that is something that could happen. I doubt it. I still doubt it. But in 100% it wouldn't be Tomlund. We agree on that. I don't know. I think it would not be Tomlund. Not at all. What were you going to ask? No, I just, do you think that would actually happen that Ravel will not be coaching their team? Not unless he got, not unless, not unless the Patriots got pressure from the NFL or something like that. And I don't see that happening. Not only there. All right. So in the meantime, art on the flagship at some point in the last day or two tells Judy Batista that the franchise quote, alerted Rogers and his reps that the, what are we calling this tag? The UFA tag. This was on the NFL. Yeah. This is on network. Let's hear it. The main thing that the tender gives us is potential for a comp pick, you know, if Aaron would choose to go to another team. We don't expect that. But by the same token, you never know. And it's just something that, you know, we had an opportunity to protect if needed. The deadline was Monday. So if we were going to do it, we had to pull the trigger on Monday. We alerted Aaron and his representative that we were going to do it. And so not a real big deal. But, but, you know, just something that, if, you know, in the unlikely event that he goes somewhere else, we do, we are eligible for a comp pick in that situation. So this is all normal. Bob, we're now in the, you never know. Well, that's a big difference to the Aaron Rodgers drama. Yeah. That's a big difference in what we heard about everything is fine. It's just a matter of when and it'll happen before this. It'll happen before that and still not happening. So it, to me, it reads like, we don't know. And so we're going to cover our butts here with this potential thing just in case, but also we don't know. They make it sound like this is just, you know, a regular old transaction or cover in our basis, which they are. And Waley said it was a smart thing for them to do. But that's really not the point. The point is, why did they do it? And more to the point, if they had a 100% guarantee, if they knew this guy was coming back, they had a handshake and they were positive about it, then they wouldn't even think of doing this. Not only did they think of it, they did it. Yeah, I think it had to be tied in some way to the news out of Denver over the last couple of days that Bo Nick's needed more surgery. And they may not be ready to go for a while. And if that's the case, maybe they reached out. So there had to be a reason that they did this. If everything was fine and you knew he's going to come back, because honestly, he doesn't have many other options other than retirement. But this Denver situation might get, you know, I don't know what the long term timeline is on a Bo Nick's. But if he's not there, we saw what happened to them in a playoff game. They may want to have a string guy who can do it. They might have won the Super Bowl with Bo Nick's. I honestly believe that they also should have taken. They should they should have kicked a field goal when they had an opportunity because that the private points that could have won that game potentially fan hotline presented by Sullivan super service providing trusted plumbing and HVAC service for over 50 years. Listen to the show on demand on Apple podcasts. Spotify wherever you get your podcasts, pump and Joe cloudy today with a high a mic Webster 52 a low of Troy Paul Amalo 43 fan weather brought to you by secure money advisors looking to retire soon. Let's secure. What's that? Bob. I forgot to turn my phone off again. Answer it the way you do. Say I'll get back to you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Look at your retire soon. Let's secure money advisors get your retirement on track. Bob, what did you think of the news that came out of Cleveland Mary K Cabot reporting that the Sean Watson is number one on the depth chart. And it's her belief that they should just go ahead and name him and move forward with him as the guy here. Thought two things. Number one, does y'all you need to know about Shudder Sanders and Dylan Gabriel and they may turn out to be wasted picks. That's pro bowl or Shudder Sanders to you. Right. You may as well just put Dylan to you. Make him an MVP, whatever you want to do. And also makes me like the Sean Watson despite everything we know about him. What he's gone through all the things that have happened. He's still only 30 years old. Now do I believe he could be there a good quarterback in no, but is either a best option? Probably yes. You know, we've seen things from him before all this happened that you argue and say, well, he was a pretty good. He was one of the best in the game at that time. Then he got injured. Then all the, you know, the massage parlors stuff came up and all this other stuff. And so I don't know what I think it's a waste for no matter who they pick. They probably should have read drafts of the position again. And they may do it next year. Who knows? Well, he's only 30, which is incredible. He's only 38 based on all the times we've talked about him. Yeah. And before he got hurt last time, let's take a look at that. Shall we buy a kill these injury for him? Really messed him up through. He is better than Shudder Sanders. What if what if he recaptures, you know, his early career magic and he was really, really good. I don't think that'll happen. This is what I think I'm saying. I've given him a lot of money. I got to get something out of this. Jimmy Haslum's the same one who said not long ago, we swung and missed. We swung and missed on the other guys too that they drafted. So they're swinging and missing quite a bit. 16 to 23 against the Eagles 15 of 17 against the bangles for 128 yards when he got hurt. He had passor ratings above 90 in both of those games, Bob. Giants 21 to 37 200 yards to touchdowns. No picks. He's better than Shudder. That's what I'll say. You know, so, you know, if he's allowed to play, which he is, I guess he'd be the best of the options there for me too. Well, they've done a pretty good job with their draft this year and they have some really intriguing talent. They brought in two wide receivers who I thought maybe the Steelers might want to get with their pick to add to what they have. Really good young tight end who emerged last year, although he got injured in that Steelers game. But, you know, if they get any sort of average to below or better than average quarterback play, they could be a team that can score some points. But I don't see. I do. Do you see that with him? I don't with Watson. Yeah. No, I don't. But I think I think it's possible. And I think there were signs of competence at times late in his Brown's tenure signs of competence. Believe me, I'm only talking in the context of your other option is Shedor Sanders. Jeff Darlington said that Watson's deal is quote, the worst contract and transaction in sports history. It's hard to argue that, isn't it? It is hard. Yeah. Given what they gave up, how much they gave them and guaranteed money and what they got after that by far the worst contract. The best game he had. He was playing well in Baltimore. That was like three years ago. That was his best game. I thought as a Brown. Anyway, Bob, back to the Steelers situation. How does this play out over the next few weeks? Wonder Twin. You want to take a stab at that? Is Rogers going to be here? We continue to wait around, wait around the beginning of June comes. It's the start of mandatory mini camp and it's, hey, here comes the Malibu pulling up to the Steelers facility on the south side. Aaron has arrived hours before the first workout. That's what I think will happen. You agree with that, Bob? Again, there's part of me that thinks it's going to end up in retirement. I don't know what part I'm talking about, but the fact that they went through this little exercise and know they couldn't have done it last year. We have some people asking about this. You can't do it to a free agent. You don't even have and you're out to get this is about somebody you've had and you can utilize it and they've done exactly that. But it's certainly the narrative change from this is fate of complay. He's going to be here. There's nothing to worry about. That's for sure. The fact that even art brought up the fact that just in case he never know he said that's that's that's real different than what it was early in the process. All right, coming up our friend Stiggy to take one last look at the 25 26 penguins after a pretty fun and entertaining season, but a devastating defeat to their arch rivals in the playoffs. And where do we go from here? Should be mighty interesting. We're back. Pomp a Joe show sports radio 93 seven the fan with Austin city limits back behind the glass. We're going to have Paul Stigraw on here momentarily as we go back and kind of review this entire series which ended up with the last last night as you know one nothing in overtime. Man, it was it was a goalie game. There's no question about that. Both of those guys did very well. LaDar was excellent, but I thought she was actually played better than him, but the penguins for a team that was one of the top scoring teams all season in the NHL could not. Muster more in that game. They had certainly their chances their zone time was incredibly good, but they got no goals. And when you know score goals, you're not going to win games period. A lot of blame there to go around from guys who you expected it from based on the regular season, which was Anthony Matha. You know, Igor Chinacop he had some chances, but they couldn't get the puck to get into net. Were they the better team as this series of evolved? I think so, but the better teams don't always win, especially when you give a team a fast start. And that's exactly what they had by winning first three, especially those two at home. I still believe that the way they ended the season carried over into the postseason for both of those teams. That is the flyers were playing very good hockey. They had to get into the playoffs. They carried that into the first couple of games. That's when they were at their best and the penguins on the other hand, you know, we're just trying to get to the finish line and with really a limited lineup or a line of the change based on, you know, protection of players. So let's delve into it with a man who's lived and died with the penguins his entire life. One of the best play by play guys when he was doing his job there. He knows a lot about the penguins was the first guy to greet Mario Lemieux when he came into town. You have so many great moments. Paul Stigerwald joins us here on pop and Joe show. What's up Staggy? How are you? Are you doing Bobby? You're going to talk to you. Yeah, you too. So I look back at the beginning of the series as I want to get your assessment on all of it. But the way it started to me was a carryover of two teams are going in opposite directions at the end of the year. Did that at all play as big of a role? I think in the first two games is maybe I'm making it out to be. Well, I think it does help when you're playing the kind of hockey the flyers were playing down the stretch where they're really trying to play as best they could just to get in. They ended up with the same point total as the penguins in the final analysis, but they were playing better hockey at the end. I think their identity had been forged very well down the stretch and they knew exactly what they wanted to do to coil the penguins, if you will. I think they had a good game plan for the penguins and I think that they were in a position to be able to execute it right from the start of the series. And it took a little while for the penguins to kind of warm up to the task and figure out how they were going to deal with what the flyers were doing. So yeah, it wasn't good that the penguins fell behind three games to none. And I think if they could have avoided that, it would have made a big difference. But you know, you blow the first two games on your home. It's not just that you lost the first three. You lost the first two at home as well. It just had a bad feeling about it. But you know, once again, it was a case of the penguins being challenged in their adversity, ability to overcome adversity being challenged. And their DNA or their identity this year was sort of overcoming the odds and defying the predictors and all that. So how it unfolded was kind of typical the way the whole year went for the penguins. They just didn't have enough at the end to make it happen. The one thing that really was you know, disturbingly different than I expected in the regular season when they scored, I don't know how many goals, almost 300. They were one of the best teams in hockey scoring goals in the Sydney Crosby era. They scored just six or 11 goals and six playoff games. And there were a lot of people blamed for that. How do you you attributed just to Dan Flodar, who was very good. I'm going to give him his props there because he was. What else contributed to that? Well, first of all, the regular season, anything that happens during the course of the regular season. I'm not going to say you dismiss it, but you have to sort of put it in its proper perspective. Playoffs are a completely different animal. That's the first thing. You know, the penguins didn't win a game two-one all year. They won two games this season, three-two. One of them was in this series, game five. So that's where playoff hockey. They outscored a lot of teams this year and they did have the nights where they just exploded because they had players who could do it. But in the final analysis, they didn't necessarily play playoff style hockey all year. And I'm not saying that there is such a thing even because regular season in playoff hockey are two completely different things almost. Well, let's put it this way. They're both fruit, but they're apples and oranges. If you look at what happened in this series, it's kind of typical of sometimes what does happen in the playoffs. Teams, it's matchups, it's styles, make the match, things of that nature. So you can't get too caught up in the fact that a team could score a ton of goals in the regular season and then would necessarily be able to outscore the opposition in the playoffs because you're dealing with a team maybe that's their build on playing defense or maybe their goal he gets hot or any number of things that can happen that can kind of throw you that out of wax. So you've got to be able to win different ways when you get to the postseason and the penguins were worst. I kind of I felt like and then we've seen this in the past. Back in the 90s, I think when EJ was a coach, sometimes they'd have to kind of learn how to play playoff hockey on the fly and they would figure it out and then turn it into a good run. And I kind of felt like that's what was happening here. All right, Stiggy, two of the big names looking forward. The lightning rod names really are Gino and Latang. First, let me ask you this though. Bob and I think also people on the TV broadcast noticed that Gino was first in line with the handshakes. Is that significant in any way? Do you think? Yeah, I do. I think that I think also that Gino wanted to hurry up and get off the ice. I agree with that. I think I think Gino wanted to exit stage left and he didn't want to stay in around too long and and he just wanted to get get get on with it and like it was over. Let's get it over with and I can't even tell you what might be going on and he said right now. I think his head is kind of swirling, you know, and and it would be I think for anybody who spent 20 years of his life dedicated to one team and and accomplishing all the things he accomplished it now. Here he is in a situation where he doesn't know exactly what his future is with this team or in general in life maybe even too. So it's hard for us to get inside of his head and figure out why he did what he did or what his thoughts are. I know that you know he's still Gino and he was still loose during this series. He kind of applied his sort of a loose and humor sense of humor to the whole situation. I think they kept the team kind of loose. He came up with a couple of big goals in the series but it might not have any impact whatsoever on what Kyle do of his decision is because I think he may have already decided what he wants to do and it might be that he might want to bring him back under certain circumstances depending on the terms and those things or he may have already decided in his mind that he's moving on. Yeah, but whatever it is he's not whatever it is guys he ain't telling us right now. So it's all speculation, right? But Maulkin did tell us that he wanted to stay. He campaigned for a contract not just one year but two years. If I remember he's part of the quote was I want to retire in Pittsburgh. So I think he threw that out there in the hopes of something would trigger but so far nothing has. Totally. I mean he did say what he wants. We know that and Kyle has said I will wait till after the season. So I think it's a tough situation Kyle's in in general. You know I think he inherited a tough situation. It's both a blessing and a burden in some ways to have the big three where they are at this stage of their careers and when you know that the team's trying to kind of return to family cup contention. You look at what it requires to get to the top of the mountain, how most teams that get there have to go down to the bottom first. If anybody knows that it's Pittsburgh. It's the penguins especially. It's happened a couple of times. So he's in a tough spot where he's trying to thread the needle kind of like what the Washington capitals have been doing in the Alex Ovechkin era. OV's done, but now it'll be interesting to see how the capitals approach things. I give them credit for remaining competitive, but they missed the playoffs. And I think the penguins, you know, having missed the playoffs three straight years and then getting back was awesome because it gave us all a taste once again. There are probably some people who got to go to those games you'd never seen a playoff game. I'm sure they were really, really thrilled with the product and what they saw all year. And why wouldn't they be? It was extremely entertaining. It was awe-inspiring actually the way the penguins overcame adversity and defied the odds. It was a great story, but it was a story. It was kind of magical. And Kyle Doe is in a magician. It may seem that way because of what he put together this year, but I think you have to look at the big picture, which is that it's at some point the penguins, if they're going to get back to the top, are probably going to have to go closer to the bottom. And they made a great pick in Ben Kindle, 11th overall. But if you look at the teams at the top, most of them have players who were picked very high in the draft. One team that's been very competitive is the Minnesota Wild. They have Kareel Kaprisov, one of the top paid players in the league, one of the best players. He was a fifth round draft pick. So sometimes you can get lucky too. But Matt Boldy is one of their best players. I think he was taken 10th overall. So that's one position ahead of Kindle. But generally, Carolina took Andre Svetchenikoff. They missed the playoffs eight straight years. They took Svetchenikoff's second overall. Nathan McKinnon first overall, Kyle McCarr. I think he was what, third or fourth overall. You know what it is, Bob? And we all know the story. People are afraid to say it. But you know, at some point, that's probably the reality. And the key is not to be Chicago. Okay. You keep doing it year after year and show no signs of progress. I don't care what anybody said. They went scorched earth and everybody thought that was great that they did that. But one of the players they traded while they were going scorched earth is one of the best players for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Brandon Hagle. I think there's a way to do it. And I think Kyle knows that there's a way to do it without going into hell, you know, to get to heaven. It's similar to the Steelers, right Joe? Looking for a quarterback. You find yourself in this situation where you have to figure it out, but you're trying to compete. You're trying to add something to rebuild or retool or whatever. It's the mushy middle. It's tough. It's stuck. Staggy. What do you think of Tyler Kennedy's notion that if Ovechkin does come back and Malkin isn't wanted here, he would go there to play with some of the Russian guys there, notably Ovechkin. I thought of that Brian Metzerni were discussing that one day, you know, about the possibility of that happening, but I don't think Ovechkin's coming back. It's kind of a fantastical notion. I, you know, those kinds of things do happen. I guess it's a question of whether or not Oby and Geno, I listen to Geno went to Oby's house and hung out with him when they were in Washington at the end of the year. So anything's possible in this world, okay? I mean, those Russians stick together. And if it happened, it wouldn't shock me. Let's put it that way. Well, China coffee is Russian. He seems to like Malkin. They play together. There's a lot. I think. Yeah. No, no, no. No, this is a bigger. This is bigger than the Gorki-China coffee. It's even bigger than if Geno Malkin. It's business, you know? I mean, all good things come to an end. There's a point at which you have to make these tough decisions about your personnel. And it just had like Sidney Crosby's in a world of his own in this regard, you know? It even said, even said in his agents and his dad and the people who influence him. And, you know, it may come to the point where we have to decide what to do about Sid. I mean, you know, you love the story of a player playing his entire career with one franchise and retiring and doing like what Anjie Copapita did in Los Angeles. Those are great stories, but they're not necessarily what you have to do to fulfill, you know, your career, your promise on this earth. I mean, it's, you know, sometimes the greatest players go somewhere else at the end of their career and then they come back and their numbers retired and that's the way to them. I'm not saying that's going to happen with Sid. I'm just saying, why is there some things that just you can't say that it can't possibly happen? There I think anything's possible in the world of sports, especially now, the way the money's being thrown around. I mean, look at Sidney. Sid's been making 8.7 million a year while there's guys that-- Debris are. Now make it 14, 15 million a year. You know, I mean, the guy's done everything you can for this franchise. You can't ask him to do anything more. It's unbelievable what he's done for the penguins and for Pittsburgh. Unbelievable. I know what he's saying. He couldn't-- I'm sorry, Staggighead. Go ahead. Now go ahead. I'm done. I just-- you know what I'm saying. It's like anything that would happen with Sid regarding his future, it doesn't matter because what he's done in the present and the past for the penguins is so far beyond what anybody could have expected or asked for that it's ridiculous to even question any decision he would make going forward as being something that you would think less of him for. I would say that about all three of those guys, actually. I mean, 21 years together from Ed Austin. Yeah. Well, let's say that all things are equal. I know what thanks to last two years left on his contract. Who do you think it would benefit the penguins most to bring back? The Tang or Maulkin, if all things were equal? Well, it isn't just a question of who you bring back. It's like Crystal Tang's in a unique situation. He's of an age where you can't buy his contract out. So there are things like that that you have to take into consideration when you're making decisions about personnel. And these are tough decisions that are made at the very high level of the organization. Don't forget the penguins have new owners coming in too. They may have certain things that they would like to see happen to maintain a certain standard of excellence or at least a standard of competitiveness that allows their business to be a successful business. So it's a business decision as much as it is a decision that we make about our hockey team and how it looks or who is on it. It's way bigger than that. So it isn't just about, "Oh, we need this piece. We need this piece more than we need that piece." It's a way bigger story than that. Stiggy, I'm just thinking about this because I've been thinking about it since after the game. You say that you think they might need to go back toward bottom to rise. Their farm system is middle of the road right now. They've got some good young players, some still really good older players, and money, I think this summer, why can't this continue to move forward in a direction of winning without having to sink toward the bottom? It seems like if Kyle Dubas wanted to do that, that they would have had a total rebuild type situation. Now I think that they're headed down a certain path where I think if you make a couple of ads this off season, you sign an impactful free agent. You have one or two guys come up from your farm system. I think that they could win a playoff round or two, maybe moving forward here without having to sink to the bottom. I agree with that, but you have to decide what it is you're trying to accomplish. You saw what happened. This exciting is hell getting into the playoffs. Then it's gut wrenching to get to a game six and losing overtime, and that's as far as you go. What are you trying to accomplish? I don't want to be Chicago, it goes scorched earth. I just don't want to do it. At the same time, some teams miss the playoffs for a couple of years, get a couple of high picks, and they go right back to the top again. I have such faith in Kyle Dubas and his staff and his ability to thread that needle if you will. I don't disagree with you, but just operating on the premise that you want to get into the playoffs and maybe play a couple of exciting rounds for your fans. That's pretty cool. It's fun to watch. People filled the building, but Kyle talks about wanting to get back up to the top again. The goal is to get to the very top. The reason why you have to thread the needle right now is because you have city crossbeen. You can't just go scorched earth with Sid in your lineup. It's not going to work. You've got to, as long as Sid is still here and he wants to compete, you've got that to take into consideration. You also have to look down range and think, what is our ultimate goal here? Where are we trying to go? I don't think you can really do that without putting yourself in a position to get a high draft pick, who can make a really big impact on your team, but even that might take a couple of years. It's been a tough thing to reconcile these last couple of years. Kyle, to me, what he did this year was almost miraculous. If Kyle can keep working his magic, I think the pain was going to be competitive. But ultimately, I think you're going to have to get one of those high end players. By the way, look at the teams right now that are challenging and are trying to get up. The Anaheim ducks, the Utah mammoth, even the flyers are starting to look like one of those good young teams on the rise. They need that upper echelon. offensive player to kind of complete the puzzle. And I don't know if that's going to happen, but I look at these other teams and who they're drafting. Even Utah, they got Logan Pooley for Pittsburgh. He's a really good player. They got Dylan Gunther. He wasn't picked at the very top. He was like 12 or something like that overall. You can get great players down there in that mid range, which is where the penguins got Ben Kindle. I think they had Kindle ranked fourth overall. You saw what Porter Martones doing already for the flyers. I said they didn't get. They do that. They do have him. He's a hell of a occupier. He's only 19. The Washington capitals, they've drafted some pretty nice players. I go to Montreal Staggy because I look at them and they went for years struggling until they put together the kind of picture you're talking about with Cole Coffield with Slav Kowski, who's emerged as a really good goal scorer, Lane Hudson defensively. Where do they get Slav Kowski Bob? Where do they get it? I don't remember. I know he's a draft figure, but I don't remember. They drafted him first overall. That's what I'm talking about. They're all. I know that's what they go. They what the how many years did they miss the playoffs and how many years were they drafting and missing on guys and suddenly. Years, right. Many. I mean, look at how just look at their year by year result. I hear it. You see a lot of business. Exactly. That's the problem though. And Chicago has done the same exact thing. Let me ask you this about all the money they have to spend. It's $46 million. Where can they best utilize that money? Well, you're not going to sign guys that are old. You know, I mean, there's some young guys out there that you can get. You might be able to get a couple of years. I don't think there's any good free agents right now. That range or maybe somebody coming along here that we're not thinking of. I know as a guy, apparently I heard Seattle might be interested in moving Maddie. But here's this is a nice player. I don't know, Bob. You know, I'd have to sit down and talk to somebody who's really into this stuff and knows all the players are available for the agents. I don't really involve myself in much of that. You know, I don't play GM much. I never have because, you know, Bob, I mean, we don't I worked together KDK for years. You know, at some point, you just got to be good at what you're good at. You know what I mean? I don't try to be a general manager to make all those decisions. They're so complex. And you're now you're talking about big money, new owners. I mean, there's so much stuff involved in what the penguins are trying to accomplish. And Kyle Dubbos, do this, has played a lot of money to come up with those stuff. I just know that his thing is create a good system for developing players, find good players everywhere you can find them. Try to put a good team on the ice that the fans find entertaining and do it under the circumstances or the cards that you've been dealt. And one of the cards he's been dealt is that he is acquired or, you know, inherited a team with three aging, great, great legendary players. He's trying to navigate his way through all of that to still have a competitive team and eventually get back to the top. It's a very difficult way to go about it. But I believe he's one guy who might be able to pull it off. Paul Stigerwald on the Sullivan Super Service Fan Hotline fan Twitter brought to you by South Hills Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Route 19 and Peters fan text line brought to you by Edgar Snyder and associates personal injury law firm where they always say there's never a fee unless we get money for you. Stiggy, you were a big she-loves guy and man was he great. Oh my gosh. And I think next year we're going to be starting out with him and Miroshov and they could be a nice duo for a long time. Do you agree with that? Yeah. And I think it'll be, I mean, Wilkesbury's grand is in the playoffs and Miroshov is going to be playing. I think it's going to be very entertaining. And they open their series tonight against Hershey in Wilkesbury. And if you want to have some fun, watch some of those games because that's important. You know, they played in that first round of three game series the last couple of years and you lose one game and you're out. This year they're in a five game series to start. And I'd love to see them win and keep going and we'll see what Miroshov can do in the big game. And if you think it doesn't mean anything, just look at she-loves. More in the colder cup last year. American League was the MVP. Think that might have served him well. I think it did. That's what we're underrated trades by the way that I think, you know, the penguins may Wickeyell Dubas to get him at the time of people didn't know anything about him, but he was a good trade. Well, I, what Kyle Dubas did, I'm telling you, it was ridiculous what he did. Okay. The reason why the penguins had such a good years because he may like not just one, but many, like good deals, smart deals, man. I mean Parker Watherspootter, not to be a, you know, number two defense will play with Eric Carlson. He changed Eric Carlson's profile for the penguins by being a good partner for him. Meaning go down through the list. Anthony Math had a career year scored 33 goals. Justin Brazo was a role player for the Bruins. They know they got him all of a sudden he scores goals at the beginning of the year. You know, he go down through it. It was just sort of made that deal he made for Gina Coppamos. I mean, he did a great job of making this team competitive this year and it's going to be hard to sustain and then, you know, what made this year so great was that it was unique and because it's unique, you can't expect it to happen again. You know, it's stupid to think that this is, you know, necessarily sustainable in exactly the same way that it was this year. But what I do think is sustainable is Kyle Dubas' ability to continue to develop players and also acquire players. He'll deal, he'll prove that he could do that no matter what. But that next level that you want to get to, get to the very top, you might have to have a couple of bad years. Doesn't mean you've got to go eight straight years of futility to get there. But you look, it might take, it may be much of your all, you know, they're a pretty competitive team for a few years now. But it was just only a few years ago that they dropped to the bottom and got slapped Crosky, but you know, here they are now. And they're liable to upset Tampa, but that still might not be good enough, you know? Yeah, exactly. They still might not be good enough to win at all and they're getting closer, but it is hard to get all the way to the top and you look at Colorado. They're unbelievable. They're an amazing team beginning of the year. It looks like nobody could beat them. I think it's going to be interesting to see if they can get back to the point where they're unbeatable. It kind of looks like they are right now. So we'll see. Stiggy, we appreciate you taking the time. Thank you. I was appreciate it, ball. Thank you. Okay guys, take care. See you, buddy. The fan and the pirates want to visit your teams in action for our youth baseball softball showcase. Parents, coaches, email us at youth sports at 937thefan.com to register your 12 and under team and the fan might make a stop to your field brought to you by Keystone custom apparel details at 937thefan.com and Bob, I might also add that 937thefan trading cards are brought to you by the baseball card castle. Your go to destination for sports cards, collectibles and memorabilia. These cards have picks and stats of the fan hosts and you can pick them up at the baseball card castle and cranberry or anytime we're out in the community. Jeff Hathorn was in Philly last night. He's going to join us at one for the whole hour, Bob. We can touch on penguins, pirates, dealers. I love you. I love you like on trolls or whatever people that just sit behind a computer in their mom's basement. It was a joke. Let me put my wooden teeth in so you can understand me better. And we're sitting here again. We're sitting here again talking about the same thing. Now you're insulting my intelligence. No, I'm insulting your integrity. That's incrinculant. All aboard. Bob, the intro is longer than the train ride itself, but I sure do enjoy it. Do you not need glasses, Bob, but your age? Do you wear them at all? Ron? I have them over here. I just don't, I wear, I use them to read and to drive, but I don't like putting them on here. Interesting. Because you're reading stuff over there, aren't you? Yes, but this big, if you ever saw my font, you dog you my font. I don't know if I want to see your font. All right, limits. Let's start this thing. JJ weather hold home run. JJ weather hold. We're not going to get swept by the Cardinals. What is happening here? JJ weather hold, I think already. And this is four dang games. Eventually, because it's just a start, might end up becoming a bigger pirate killer than he in half was. And remember, he had happened like a 25 game on base streak against the pirates. Was that against the pirates or no way? I'm thinking of this way wrong. I think it was like 40 plus games on base streak. Is it weather hold versus Griffin into the future here? It was a big young star. That's why I asked that question to Jonathan Mayo on opening day. Like they both play in the infield. They're both one plays in Pittsburgh. One is from Pittsburgh. They came up in the same year, only a couple days apart. Like what is the? Oh, gosh. Uh oh, word. What happened, Bob? Another Homer? Yeah. They're going to get swept by the Cardinals. And Jordan out of the first inning yet. He's given up. Jordan Walker. I drafted him last year. My home run. He's pulled like four homers. Now he's hitting homers off schemes and as 10. Yeah, yes, that home runs out. So he finally figures it out the year after I draft him. Paul schemes who is supposed to put that's not even a bomb. We're a terrible pitch. No, you got you got. side half of the plate. That's a great picture of power. Oh, was that a guy had it right in his hands and let it go? Bob, why aren't you mad that they're going to get swept by the cards? It's only first ending, Joe. I can't stand St. Louis. Bob, they're not going to score four runs in this game. I think they might. St. Louis's pitching has been better in this series, but it's hittable. And I think they'll get some right. Every time the pirates are good, the car no end up kicking their ass every time. And they're doing it with a lot of guys who, you know, most people would never hear of and never know. However, Alan Craig in like 2013, bad, had 350 with runners on base. Remember that, Bob? Maybe those runners in scoring position. Alan Craig at 100 RBIs in a year. They went in the 100 games in 2018 in 2015, the year that the pirates won 98 games. Oh, no. Yeah. And they also have, they've had some pirate killers over the years. Now they hit two home runs off of schemes. Jordan or JJ Weatherhole is going to become one of them. JJ Weatherhole is the new pirate killer. Just like Ian Half-Los. It was a second. It was a second. He always said, um, cold and wall always hit the pirates, no matter what Bob. I'm in big trouble. Uh oh. Robert Sapolsky. He's a Stanford neuroscientist who demonstrated that chronic stress is the silent killer that doctors ignore. I've been telling you that for a long time. I know. But here's what he said. This is on a tweet by somebody named Alvaro J. I guess. I don't know. I just thought he revealed 10 habits you do every day that rob you of years of your life. And number one is rehashing conversations in your head. It's a wonder. I'm not dead already, Bob. That's all I do. I do that too. Yeah, but a lot of this is just common sense too. You know, holding onto grudges. I see a lot of people do that. It's just it serves you no purpose whatsoever. I can't help it. Your brain. He said he said, ruminating about something you said to a teacher 15 years ago. Could be anything. I'm still replaying things that happened 40 years ago. You know, a little interaction in a supermarket or something like that. Really? That in deaths. Yes. Bob is numbering over his issues with interned dog. I didn't saw Bob. I have I never have issues. It's the other people having issues. What have I done interned dog had an issue with you? I didn't say that someone else said that. And that was his response to someone else saying that. Wait a year. Habit number two that robs you of years of your life. I'm surprised. I'm still alive. That number one is rehashing conversations in your head. No. Number two was worry about scenarios that haven't happened. That's why I wake up at 4 a.m. every day. When it comes to health or hard to avoid that, but you do it. I tell you my wife is the best at that. She is the most just everything rolls off her back. She moves out of the good attitude no matter what. And it's it helps me. You know what he said about this? A zebra reacts to a lion for 30 seconds then grazes peacefully. A human worries about an imaginary lion for 30 years. That's me again. But again, most of that has to do with health issues. And I understand that because when it gets onto your mind, it's very difficult to get rid of that's thought, but you have to. You're worrying about something that I mean, no, it could be anything for me. It's things involving people in my family. It's what we're getting about. I lose everything one day. Well, will I have money? All the things we worry about. Yeah, but you can't you can't worry about it. You just well, that's very easy to say. When my brain is activated, I feel that more than I've ever it's more liberating for me. I don't worry about any of that stuff. Number three, scroll through the news. That's our job. I'm going to be dead by the end of the show. Number six. Number six. What in the mood? Number six from Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford neuroscientist talking about chronic stress, 10 habits that rob you of years of your life. You ready for number six, Bob? Lack of sleep, setting aside social relationships because you're quote, too busy. Bob, this is why I sit alone every night. I don't want to do anything with anybody at any point. No, I'm com chronically too busy. I invited Joe to hang out with us at the draft and Joe declined. You have to do. Yeah, you have to take advantage of the opportunity to forget your mind from work. Get it away and think about you. You time is important time, Joe. He says lack of social support is one of the five factors that aggravate stress and turn it into chronic stress. What is this, Bob? You can, you can turn normal stress into chronic. And he should put that in the article. He studied that. Look at this man. He's doing everything that you're not supposed to do. This man, woo, this man. He's done everything wrong. He studied. He studied baboons and said those with strong bonds showed lower cortisol levels, longer lives and stronger immune systems. Bob, let's do something after work today. Let's socialize. Well, golf is a good escape for that. It is. You've incorporated that in your life. And that's a good thing. It takes you away from everything else. Your mind is free. You do what you got to do until you throw a club because you're mad at yourself and your downswing is not what you expected to be. And then you get all stressed out for that. And that's why you should be playing it more coffee shops, bring your guitar and sing it. Oh my god. Number nine is stress level goes up on the people in that coffee shop. It's not for them, but it goes down for gel. Number nine, robbing this will rob years of your life, constantly seeking the next dopamine hit. Bob, I'm addicted to dopamine, whether it's phone, whether it's whatever little thing gives us that jolt. And this is how he gets rid of all the dopamine. He says all it wants. He says we are species that always want more and more. That's exactly the way I feel, Bob. If I'm having a good day, I want it to be better if I'm having a great moment and it'd be better. I don't control it. It's the dopamine in my brain. You control it. If you have a good day and you wanted to be, you know, you have to come to grips with the fact that every day is a good day. And you have to look at it that way. It's hard to do for a lot of people. I understand it. There's roadblocks along the way, but you can't let that stop you from saying to yourself, this is going to be a good day. You only get so many of them. You never know what it is, Joe. The last one might be for you. This will rob you of years of your life says this guy staying in environments that drain you toxic work environments can have that effect on people. I don't have that. Okay. I let that I let that I didn't want to be have any part in your device. There was a time when that kind of stuff could really play on you can when you're younger especially they say analyze this. He says at the end analyze who is the person who drains you the most and then disconnect him from your life. Is it me, Bob? For you? No. Limits is it me for you? It's close. Is it for am I for you? No, you don't drain me at all. I'm glad you lift me. You give me a lot of positivity and hope in the world. Good. Bob, about you. I someone drains me. I'm not I don't look at things that way. I just about Richie Walsh. No, Rich and I are fine. We need to play more golf. I'll say that. So that drains me. All of us do. But Joe drains me when he says I'm five foot two and we're a hundred pounds. I haven't said that in a while. A week. If someone drains you with that, don't you have to acknowledge that he's or she is doing it and then you have to say, okay, you're the CEO of your own life, Joe, you are the one who can hire and fire anyone around you. So fire those people if they're taken away from you. I can't them too busy ruminating over conversations. I can't believe that's number one on the list and that's my that's like my greatest foible is imaginary conversations with people. I can't believe you do that. Do you limits? You ever go back after a slight altercation in your head and replay it? I do. And then come up with the right thing to say that will crush them. I do. And I think about that for like a couple of days and eventually it just kind of fades. But sometimes it pops back up again. And I don't want to think about that. You never do that, Bob. I mean, I'm about a conversation. Maybe I would want to do that. What about when Ron shut you out for a couple of months? Did it bother me? Did it look to you like I was bothered? No, I didn't. I mean, that's more on him than it is on me. I don't. Yeah, but Bob, didn't you try to reconcile with Ron or would see very standoffish? It was very instructive to watch your behavior than it was like it wasn't happening. You never change. No, and I wouldn't because it's not me doing it. So, you know, I can't worry about how. You and I have as different a constitution as two humans could possibly have. And by the end of getting to know you have already got you in the golf, you're going to change your constitution. There will be some amendments changed or added amendments. There's your line-up for today. Jake Maynard. Notice that. Oh, Zuna's not in it. Thank God. No, he's not very good, Bob. All right. They should just have the password when he's healthy come up and be the DH. Yeah, he's really doing well. He can't even calculate his average. It's so low at triple. Well, who cares? Would you rather have a young guy who's got some upside and potential compared to Marcelo Zuna at this rate? I mean, I still think you have to give him time, but it's going to be. It's been horrendous. Yeah, it has been horrendous. He's running out of time. It'll be better. It's getting dark early right now. It's getting late early. I did it again. It's getting later early. It's getting laterally. I can't. Bob, we had this conversation on Tuesday. I screw up analogy. So bad. I lead the clubhouse in that. Believe me. I'm Bob. He's a he's a cliche destroyer. He's a Malaprop miser. I have the ideas in my head and they're in their great. A Malaprop mangler. Whatever, whatever cliche. You're affecting your own dopamine by doing this. So you need to reach out. I need to go to the Malsie School of phrases and grammar. Here's the crazy thing. Very articulate about everything. His recall is great. He and Pony both can do that. Who? Chris and Andrew. They're very good with the recall and expressing themselves. Yeah. All right. Well, I'm glad that we did all that. Do you have anything else? Let me just mean do we have anything for the long of six brush? Are you stressed over? Sabotimes again by Saint Louis. Are you stressed? The only thing I'm stressed about is the cardinals, the sight of them annoy me and the fact that it was the flyers last night, simultaneous to the cardinals sweeping them is a little bit much to take. Would you agree with that? How? Atlas one thousand percent because the cardinals are just a team that you love to hate because they do the fundamentals well. Their pitching staff came in. I think with the third lowest ERA in baseball this series and they have the one again. And this is all happening on top of the Eagles swooping in to embarrass the Steelers on their first pick. This has not been a good week and a half. No. I mean, the draft was fun and there was a lot of people, but no, I'm just talking specifically to that. You're right. The draft was wonderful. It's okay. All right. Jeff. Jeff Hathorn coming up next. Who's Hunter Dobbins, Bob? Is he any good? The cardinals picture? I don't know enough about him, but I think they can get some runs off of him. He's got a knee array and I think the threes. So he's been the guy last night. Who was it? Polont? Yeah. Polont. I like him for them for years. Dobbins ERA is actually 475, but he's only pitched. He'll shut us down. I'm depressed about the pirates right now, Bob. Let all your anger go. It's not angry yet. All right. Coming up, Jeff Hathorn was in Philly. He saw the whole thing happen. Let's talk to him next about what that locker room was like after the game. Fan Twitter brought to you by South Hills, Chrysler, Dodge Jeep, Ram, Route 19, Peter's Township, text line brought to you by Edgar Snyder and Associates personal injury law firm. Are they always say there's never a fee unless we get money for you? Jeff Hathorn was in Philly. He was in the locker room last night. He's driving back from Philly right now. Jeff, that was obviously a gut punch for everybody watching, everybody playing. What was the locker room scene like afterward? Yeah, I mean, we waited a little while and you could imagine there were, you know, I don't even know if much was said. It's just the emotion of it. When we got in, there were only a few guys in there, but I mean, I'd people might find this hard to believe, but they really thought they were going to be playing Saturday. Like it wasn't something that they had to convince themselves of. They really believed they were going to be in a game seven with a chance to advance into the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. So as Dan Bilesma said, it was, it was still pretty raw. Yeah, we're also good. We're damn Bilesma. Damn news. Hey, you're driving and you're a long night. I get that. But Jeff, it was, it was a case where, you know, this team that made its mark as a goal scoring team in this past season, where they were third in the NHL and most goals scored just got shut down. It wasn't because of lack of chances. It was the lack of finishing and affected a lot of people there. So you can easily say that the Ladara was great, which he was, but you got to find ways to get on the score sheet somehow somewhere. They did so in games five, not so much last night. Yeah, and I think they reverted a little bit and we've seen it from this group for as great as they are. You see it at times where they kind of get, oh, we've got this figured out. It's like a confidence. Flash arrogance and what they did to be the third highest scoring team in the league was they got bodies in front. They got 30 goals. They made it hard on the goal tender. Who was in front for a projected period of time, whether it was power player five on five. They didn't, they often didn't have those opportunities. That's what made what Mantha did in game five so great where he went, he battled rest of line and got that puck, found the center of the ice because they went into those areas and worked hard. Yeah, they had 42 shots. Yes, Ladara, stopped them all kudos to him, but a number of those he could see his plane as day in it. There should have been more bodies in front and they didn't do a good enough job of establishing that in this series. Jeff is it fair to say that if the line combinations were what they were the last three games of the penguins would have won this series? Maybe, maybe, I mean, I think depends really in the last, with the exception, I think the series was lost in the second period of game three because in the first period they'd established themselves and then they fell back into that same crap and ended up losing game three. Line combinations were better, but the line combinations were changed last night and they couldn't get a goal. So I think it was as much about a mindset. I do agree with that line combination change, but it was as much a mindset that at times they just didn't have enough offensively defensively. They played their tails off. They were very responsible, but they didn't get to the areas they needed to get to in Philly Zone. I mentioned this earlier in the show. So I'll repeat it for you, Jeff, and tell me what you think. The way the series started, you cannot afford two losses at home, especially the way they did it. They had very few shots in the first period of both of those games. It's almost as if they were victimized by the fact that they hadn't played a meaningful game in a week and a half or whatever, and they were kind of resting guys, whereas Philadelphia was on a roll and they kept that roll into the first two games. I agree, and that Rik Tauke knew exactly what to do. And he was able to get in some heads. He was able to turn the game into something the penguins didn't want it to be. And I think both of those factors played in credit to Dan Mews. He got the pens out of it for a good period of time. Got him back to their game. They were the better team in the series, and that's why I thought they had a chance to come back. And one lucky bounce, and we're talking about game seven, but just, you know, it was. And Crosby set a number of guys. Carlson set it after the game. You know, the series was lost early. They, and they battled the way they should have the last few games, but it, they put themselves in too big of a hole. Jeff Hathorn on the Sullivan super service fan hotline Pittsburgh's trusted plumbing and HVAC provider for over 50 years. All right, Jeff. So everybody's looking toward the future. And I think the first place a lot of people look is Gino and Latang to the big three for all these years. What will happen? What should happen with both those guys? So I think, I mean, Latang's under contract. I think he'll be back. I mean, it was mostly good Latang in the playoffs. I anticipate him being back. I wouldn't say 100%, but Malkin. Malkin has some people in the organization that love him and some people in the organization that would like to go into different direction. And the last time we talked to Kyle Dubas, he played it down the middle like, hey, I've got to make the best decision for the organization. There was no resounding. Hey, yeah, he's gone out to wing and he's done some great stuff for us. It was like, well, you know, we're having talks and we'll see what's best. I mean, it was very, hey, I'm setting the door here in case we don't bring him back type talk. I think on the positive, he was agreeable to go to wing. He was over a point of game guy. He still can be at times a very dynamic player. I mean, what's crazy is Malkin was pretty consistent this year. He only had one stretch where he went or two stretches where he went more than one game without a point. He had a two game stretch and a three game stretch. That's pretty damn consistent for somebody of that age. And the other part is it's not like most of these young forwards did anything. I mean, Coivin M was absent. McGorority didn't do much. Avery Hayes was your best of the young forwards outside of Kindle and Chinacoff of the guys that kind of bounced back and forth. But Avery Hayes is probably a third or fourth line or so. If you look at your options unless you go out and acquire a bunch of young forwards as it sits right now, Malkin still might deserve to be given your roster on a top two line. Yeah, I think those three guys you mentioned, you have to expect a growth from all of them. Actually, there were big parts of what coming into the season we thought we'd see with some of the younger people. I thought you're right. Hayes was the guy and I would have played him in the series a little earlier or he didn't even get in. I would have played him when they were going through their struggles. They're just to change things up a little bit. But I also want to ask you, concerning the goalie situation to me, it seems almost obvious. It's got to be Murechov and She-Lovs. And to be honest, I don't know who's the starter. I think She-Lovs will probably start the season as a starter. He's a restricted free agent. So they're going to sign him. They don't have to sign Skinner. He'll be an unrestricted free agent. But I think this showing gives She-Lovs an advantage. Eventually, I think there'll be a passing of the torch to Murechov. Do you like that idea or do you think it's Murechov as number one? I think to your point they will compete, but it's going to be those two guys. I mean, Stuart Skinner is a great guy. He was part of a rotation that got the pen's back in the playoffs. He played some solid minutes and it was far better than anything Jari had done recently with the team. So, you know, that combination worked for the most part. But I would agree that those two will battle. I think they want Murechov to win it, but they've got an option and someone that's got some experience and has played some good hockey over time to be the backup. And, you know, that's the one place where they're strongest in their organization is goal-tending. Jeff, I'm very curious what happens with the Carder, Kell and Brian Russ this year because there were trade discussions last year, obviously, with missing the playoffs three years in a row. Will those same conversations be had this year? Well, you know, they're keeping tabs on it. They realized that we were all saying that at the beginning of the year, hence their flip the script campaign that they had. They even got you on something like that, Jeff. They even got, they did. They got you were on with us. Me and Bob and Joe was off that day. They got a lot of us on there and that's fine. I mean, not whatever, but I think many of those same questions persist into this offseason. I don't think that they've flipped the script, if you will, into this young core of, you know, next run at the Stanley Cup. I mean, they've, these questions, if the season doesn't start off as great as it did last year, are going to persist. And, you know, that's why I'm a little hesitant with what's saying is Chris going to look at it and what a contending team think, man, this guy could be, you know, a certain third-parent offense, or second-parent offense, and we'd love to have him for his experiences. And, you know, Dubas could work a deal there. I just, I go into this season, this next coming season. Unfortunately, with many of the same questions, I feel good about Dan Muse. I feel good that Kyle Dubas made some really good acquisitions in the offseason. And if he has a year like that next year, they will be a playoff team, but there's a lot of work to be done with this organization and its roster. Joe, can I ask one more thing? Of course, Limit, C. May. This is the question I wanted to get to in the limelace express. And I'll ask it to Jeff and you guys, would you rather have had this past season for the penguins, 98 points, get back to the playoffs, lose in game six, or be a bottom five team and have a lottery, ping pong ball, try to go your way for Gavin McKenna-Jeff. Yeah. You're not guaranteed no matter what. I know, but the chance. No, no. It's easy to sit back now. From my perspective, it's easy to sit back now and say, yeah, I would have rather just tanged and had that opportunity. But I think there were enough positives that came from this year. And it was enjoyable to see playoff hockey again and see these guys get another chance as disappointing as it ended. So no, I would rather have the season they had. It is easy to say and that's why I'll say it now that it's done. I would have rather had the lottery pick. And that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the season. It doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the playoff run, but then the, you know, the reality of their immediate future sets in. And I think it can still be pretty good. They've got some money to spend. But what I rather have a lottery pick and maybe a chance at the number one pick, of course, I would then again, then again, as I talk out loud, Jeff and Bob and Limits, where would Sid be with all that if that had actually gone down? Like you may have had a lot of unintended consequences. Of course, they could have gotten there on their own. Right. They didn't necessarily have to clear down, but, but sitting here now, would I like to have a lottery pick? Yes. I'm still not going to trade that in for what they did this season. I think there's a lot of good that will come out of this that they could build onto it. It may take more than one year after this year. It's going to take some time like it does with a lot of these teams, but I mean, we cited all the teams that have been trying to do this and it hasn't worked that way because of their drafting. I think Kyle Dubas is drafting. This particular draft was really good. If you look at the reports on all the guys they have, there are three first rounders in particular, but even second rounders, they have some guys who could have been in the court could emerge here in the next year or two. If McKenna becomes the player that he is being hyped up to beat, don't you think the Crosby would kind of see it like the passing of the torts, like how Mario passed it down to him and played a couple of seasons and Crosby would do the same thing to McKenna? Yeah, but you're expecting him to be the lottery. How about that one? That's if you win it. Yeah. Yeah. Then you may end up with a ninth overall pick again or something. You could get a good player, but it certainly not going to be a franchise changing player. Some of them would say this, I think Crosby would be okay if they came out and gave their best effort. And, you know, Malkin just didn't have it and, you know, everything went south. And I'm just using Malkin, but a lot of Manta didn't have a career year and all of these things didn't happen. And they ended up being a lottery pick. I don't think he would be okay with a perception of what we're just kind of throwing in the towel on this season. All right, Jeff. Can we move on to a Steelers question, please? Of course. Love to hear your take on this. Yes. Man, I'm reading now Mike Floreo's account of the Aaron Rogers situation with the unrestricted free agency tender to him. And they're saying it still doesn't make sense. And in some ways, I agree. We have now Mike McCarthy in art on the record. Oh, this is no big deal. Nothing to see here. Well, what they've done really is take away Rogers freedom here. They have as Floreo says as of July 22nd. And he says this is the most significant consequence of this tender as of July 22nd. The Steelers acquire exclusive negotiating rights with Rogers. If he is yet to sign a contract with them or any team, that takes away his option to play the waiting game remaining a free agent for much of the season as he chooses before joining a team whenever he wants. They've basically put a constraint on him. And that's very interesting to me, Jeff. They've injected something very unexpected and constraining into the Rogers situation. And I wonder what he really thinks of that. And I wonder how this plays out your thoughts. I mean, there is no way. I don't care what comes from the South side. There is no way things are going as swimmingly as they project them to be. If you're putting out a condor, you're putting out a this tender that is rarely used to protect yourself from him signing with somebody else. I get the covering your butt. I don't have a problem with that. But don't tell me you're covering your butt and then say, "Oh, everything's great. We talk about the sunshine and golf and caves and gummies and all of this great stuff. We don't talk much about football, but man, this is going great. That's why we're going to restrict him from signing with somebody. Well, wait. If you're restricting him from signing with somebody else and there's a concern that he might sign with somebody else or play a waiting game. They can say whatever they want, but this action proves that there's something amiss. At this point in time, I don't know about you guys. I get it. He would be their best quarterback this year. Let's find out about the kids. Let's stop kicking the can down the road. Let's figure out about these quarterbacks right now. That's what I've been saying all along. I have never ruled out the retirement possibility here that he's just going to get fed up with this whole situation. They admitted that they had talked to Rogers and his representative. They were going to do this. There's no way he could have been happy with this. I brought this up earlier to Joe. They have some issues now in Denver. It looks like Monix could have more physical problems here. Maybe that was the team. If they were truly worried about another team that would step in here, you could look at that and say that was a possibility. Would you agree with that, Jeff? Yeah. I think you could look at that team and let's say he just hung out during training camp and waited for an injury to happen. What if you're Cincinnati? You can all of a sudden play with those two receivers. I'll be with that offensive line. There are other teams that have had quarterback injuries or are so close that if they're star quarterback were to go down, it would be a great spot for a veteran to step into. We know that there was a working relationship with McCarthy. We don't know if that desire is as strong because we haven't heard from Aaron. We just know that they're talking. That's all we know. We know that it's to the point where the dealers felt like they had to protect themselves in case he signed with somebody else. Bob, did you see the story on Kevin Colbert talking with our very own Larry Richard and Jake Caulfield? This is a quick aside here, Jeff and I apologize, but I'd love your thoughts on this. um, the Larry and Big Man show. Have you heard of that pop? - Yeah, they do a good, very good podcast. Yes. I don't know if you'd time say it. They have a good, you've been on it. Why don't I ever get invited on the Larry and Big Man show? - You don't get invited to the showdown. You don't get invited to golf. - I got kicked off the showdown, Bob, I'm being ostracized by you and Jay. - Oh, Larry. - Yes. Jeff, I'm not allowed on the showdown either. Bob tried to get me on and then seemingly stopped trying to get me on at one point. - Well anyway. I think it's Larry. Larry's just a bad guy. - Jeff, you're a part of the showdown. Why can't you advocate for Joe and I? - I have no power in the showdown. - Neither do I. That's not an accepting yes. - I have no. - Bob, you're the host. - So what? I don't think, you think I'm responsible for everybody who goes on there? - Bob, I think we all know that you have some power. - I have no power. - Now he sounds like Ron. - Well, Ron got mad at me for the same reason. - I know. - I told him I said, "I don't want to troll you." - Ron stopped talking to you for three months. - Well, I won't let that affect my stress levels. I need my dopamine. - Anyway, Kevin, this is the first time I've ever seen Kevin Colbert talk about this. - What do you say? - How things work in the Steelers room on draft day. We've always been, well, we've been guessing a lot at how they work. He says, "I keep telling the same story "and nobody believes me," Colbert says. "In our room, if we weren't 100% consensus, "we wouldn't draft the player." But those disagreements and arguments and discussions were held over the four weeks once we get all the final information. So we'd sort it all out myself, Mr. Dan Rooney, when he was living, Colbert says, "Art and either coach, "cowar or coach, Tomlough would sit in the room and say, "Okay, this is what we've come up with. "Are we all in alignment?" And if we couldn't reach a consensus, Mr. Rooney and Art would gently remind us, "Hey guys, figure it out." And we would go back and sort through whatever differences there were. And once we came out of that room, it was unanimous because everybody got a chance to talk. And if you didn't talk, that's your fault. That's pretty interesting stuff, Bob. Can we get Kevin Colbert to say stuff like that on our show? - Kevin's pretty honest about everything. I mean, yeah, I'm sure he could talk about that. And it goes against what I think a lot of people thought was going on in that situation, but, you know, the bottom line is. - Well, he can, I'll go ahead. - No, go ahead. - You can say, "Yes, I'll go with your pick." That doesn't necessarily mean you don't if people still thinking he got the wrong guy. - Well, I think everyone in that room would probably want to get the player that helps their room. All these different coaches have guys, they want. So there's a little bit of battle, I'm sure that goes. It's healthy to do it. You can talk about pros and cons. I think I've never ruled that out. Whoever makes the final pick, I'll still say it's Mike Tomlough has more sayover everything. - So do I. - And most coaches do have that. You think Sean McVeigh is going to let their GM decide. I think Sean McVeigh knows what he wants. I mean, they. - No, but this one has always been, there's always been questions of, wait, how do they arrive at a consensus with the Steelers? And while that's very interesting, I still have questions about. If you and I and limits analyzed 35 draft picks and said we got to decide on one, and we all had different ideas and we were adamant about it, well, if our boss tells us figure it out, then we're gonna have to go with something. That means if we go with your guy, Bob, I still think you're wrong. But if you have the last say amongst us, you're gonna get your guy. That was Mike Tomlough. - Well. - You agree, Jeff? - I agree. I think you convince other people. I mean, the story is, you know, if Ben Rothfussberger that Dan Rooney said, you know, this is our guy and that's how it all became. Well, what you don't hear is the story of who walked in and said, "Jermaine Stevens is our guy." Because those things don't get out. So I think what he's saying is right, like, hey, we've gotta come up with, you don't all have to agree, but we have to at least admit that this is gonna be our guy because it's human nature. Everybody's gonna have a favorite. It's just can you convince or figure out that the best favorite, if you will, there's enough agreement on that person as opposed to disagreement on somebody else. - Bob? - Yeah, I'm be anxious to see how it happens that with Mike McCarthy. It strikes me that it'll be a little bit different there. I think I, from what I can tell, it looks like Omar has put more of his signature on a lot of this. - Yeah. - But I do think that's also when you come into an organization as the new coach, you may be willing to let that happen, but essentially, maybe there's a shift in that. And Mike McCarthy, and the day has more say, he's gonna want what he wants, especially on offense. - For instance, the Jewel. - Jewel. - I have to believe that was a big-- - It could also be big. - Since we saw this restricted free agent thing, unrestricted free agent tag that they use, it may be because they feel not confident that Rogers will be back and they need it another person. So you've always said you'll take big swings. And until you figure this out, okay, why not? If you like the guy you think you have developed him, I'm sure McCarthy thinks he can develop him. He's pretty confident in his ability to do that. - Yeah. - Guys, I don't know about you. This one has been really interesting to watch for me and the fact that with the first year with McCarthy, it seems like a Kane-Wigeon might be a great player. But fourth round-- - Where's the throws of it? - With Kyle Lewis and Mohammed and the running back from Arkansas and Skyler Bell still available. Like somebody really advocated for a kick returner. It, that early, and advocated for a full back in the next round. But I think actually, I, you know, Ryan Wilson kind of sold me on what kind of player this guy might be for this deal. I'm not as much about him, but that fourth round pick, I'm just like, how in the world did they come to consensus that I wouldn't rather take a flyer on Kyle Lewis than a kick returner? - Yeah, especially because you need more depth than that department anyway. I agree with you. Plus they got a guy in Hydenreich who can do that too as it turned out. Maybe not to the degree. Wigeon's very good, but not in a fourth round. - He is. And I don't have anything against him personally. He might be great. But man, there were a lot of players around. And as we all know, the story now, I mean, we're talking to him on a conference call is he's walking up the ninth screen. You know, he had no idea. And so that, that went to me when we discuss how do these decisions get made? Like how did it turn out that in the fourth round, they decided, all right, we got to jump on this guy now. Like who made that call? I don't know the answer to that. Jeff, what the hell is going on with the pirates? They're about to get swept by the Cardinals. This is not good. They're about to go five games over 500 the other day. Santana on the mound. Everything looking good. You're a hot team, you're playing well. And then he blew it and now they just don't look right. What's happening here? Is this a blip? Is this a good baseball team? What's your take? - Yeah, I mean, it got to the point. You take two out of three in Milwaukee where you never win. - Yeah. - Then you got a perfect game going on a bullpen day. And even over at the Penguin game, like you know, you started to hear in all the murmurs, like, hey, you see what's going on over PNC Park? Like, wow, this is pretty, this is amazing. Look at what's happening. And then it fell apart. And then the last few days, I mean, man, you know, I get Tuesday, you know, as crap is coming off for the briefments, you've got, you know, Hunter Barco who had landed in Pittsburgh at 630 and was rushed, you know, in and it, okay, you're going to have a game like that. Yesterday, I still think it's a blip. I still think they're a good team. But it does suck that it's the Cardinals because they're not quite Philadelphia. They're not Philadelphia. But still, how many times is they Lewis just taking things from you? And they do it not in a as mean way, but almost as small of like, oh, that's okay, little brother. Someday you're going to get nice. And like, damn it, the Cardinals. Yeah, and the Cardinals now have put, see Paul Schienz is up. He was over 70 pitches in four innings. So they're making him work too. I was watching one particular bat where I think it was Nolan Gorman fought off. I don't know how many pitches in a row. And it's just been that kind of day and they're getting no offense. That's another thing right now. We saw that last night, Jeff. They had two opportunities with bases loaded. One was in the seventh with only one out. Oh, her and strikes out. Oh, Zuna grounds out bases, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, they could have won that game where there was a bullpen starter, the opener. If they had more opportunities to score and they didn't, they couldn't. So two now there could have been four or five. Nothing would have made life a little easier in the ninth inning. And Bob, they're falling behind early. Like they're getting runs, but they're getting them late. Yes. I mean, and you could argue last night like, hey, that guy doesn't make the catch. It's a walkoff win. And everybody's at least feeling good about the pirates last night. So I still think they're a good team. I think this is just one of those blips in a season. At least that's what I'm going with right now. I agree. I think they're good. Better. What do you make, though, of this bullpen right now, Jeff? Because I've had concerns since the start of the season. when people are trying to talk up this bullpen. and i just i i naturally did not see it where they have pieces they have a couple of back end arms but the overall complexity of it doesn't compare to thirteen fourteen fifteen like is it too early to make a move and is that actually feasible no no i agree with you i mean listen charrington says all the time that we're always looking we're always looking go make a move yeah i'm i'm with you i mean until you if you wait till jerry jones is ready that's not going to be until the end of may i know yet it pitches over eight of his first eleven over a hundred miles an hour and that that looks awesome and and maybe maginski is the guy who goes and helps shore that up but that's still a few weeks away go go get a better and go get an arm like you've got some prospects this is why you for the most part why you could teams have prospects to trade them for players that can help you right now go do that they've shown you've given them enough time to prove that they're good enough back there they're not good enough back there they at least need another arm and you owe it to this group and of this fan base to go get one what do you make of the ongoing struggles of henry davis jeth between him and barred it's that not a lot of even though he had a couple hits yesterday barred uh. i i i guess i still want to give him some time that the adjustments will work i i just don't i don't see it's not of hard hit balls i see strike out like it still just isn't clicking for the kid and i know he works hard uh. which is great but at what point do you have to look at options you have a triple a i don't think it's right now i mean you got a guy that you traded bednarr for looks to have a pretty good badness pretty decent behind the plate you got to at least start thinking about things like that's too early yet man he's got to be able to hit something he just he can't be all who was the do is with the pirates and then went to texas in one the world series the kids who have it was it was a yes he can't be often had to do this team he needs to be more than that no question about that they have a guy sitting about well down there they moved around in and you are driggas but still he is a catcher uh. i'm looking more joey bar does being the person who may suffer because of that they need that both their catches are hitting under two hundred and they're not providing any sort of power whatsoever so that's a that's tough to have that continue i in as we talked about earlier even if the average remains where it is a little bit above it just get some production have some you know pop in your back where you can drive in a couple of around here you can expect brand and loud i have you know that type of of numbers had over a sustained time or even a her in the continued to hit at a level that he was hitting at that those guys help carry you know neal crews has been incredible uh. prime Reynolds has picked up the slack a little bit but they need some more to more production down the line of now i say that they had seven runs the other night and and gave up eleven so i think to limits point it's more about and and probably your guys as well as more about getting some help in that middle relief because uh. of the weaknesses that's the one that just jumps out like while that's when you don't have days off like pirates haven't had it just it it exposes those situations jeff we appreciate the time your wonderful man all right you have and you know it always i'd have a good weekend boys see you buddy and you can do the limitless express i think you interrupted it with your worry about stress in life and how you may die at the end of the show did we not do that now we didn't but it's that's okay yes we did you did an opening question and you came back later with a question about the penguins in the next second was the first question that i asked in the list expressed i don't remember what i do and i'm going to be into a deep dive on how stress can ruin your life and has yes yeah and we discussed what was going on in the pirate game bob this can't continue alright they got to find a way to win this game i know it's early it's April if i told you to be getting here they would be only five hundred in april would you be okay with that i guess i kind of what i want to see what goes on here now there's a they've already blown one a b s challenge here's the problem the rest of the the the nl central they just flashed the the standings up there with a stat that said the nl central is their basis loaded bob yes two outs though that said the nl central as the best cumulative record in in all the baseball it's the how did this happen limits when did the nl central become this dominant division well we knew it the cops were going to be good no we didn't we did they were predicted to win the division by like everyone who hit a homer bob that was yesterday so it's a horrible it's at one well let's see a grand slam will tie it up in here to tie it and milwaki always is just pesky and right around the fold and is 190 games seemingly every year the last five years when are we going to win a playoff round again other than the river hounds and the Pittsburgh passion the the three major sports sports teams yes and the passion and the passion around here football in 2021 that's college although it's pro now right colleges pro pro is college ankle is fine horn is fine horn is think all um i don't know that i liked your tone there when i think that was the point i thought it was pretty funny actually uh think a lisa in horn and i in horn this think all pop what was i going to say oh we have a one a playoff round around here a playoff round since 2018 when gensal scored four goals to beat filly and our major pro sports teams well at least this year you don't have to worry about it if you get in as a wildcard it is a round it's the best of three so you have a chance to do it sure i'll take the wildcard round yeah so who's the next and when i don't know i thought this year but hey listen that division it may be collectively looked at as a good division because of reserve 500 they're all about the same right now look at this bob weve a challenge and a big one at that they challenged it and it's a ball ball and now he's going to hit a grand slam and tie it do you like the ABS system yeah i do and they earlier davis went for one and he missed although it was a good call i thought i really think that it's uh like like a lot of things they've done in baseball a lot of their innovations it has totally surprised me how seamless and great it's been like i thought there were all kinds of problems with the pitch clock everybody abides by it perfectly every once in a while the last time you saw someone get victimized by your clock expiring or the batter not in the box i mean i'll never i don't ever see it and then with this i'm like are you kidding me they have to tap themselves on the head how is that going to work to make it very quick or also last night they got the cardinals catcher on that they said you didn't do a quick enough i absolutely love this bob this picture is falling apart by the way this is what i told you about this pitching staff they have would you give him a green light here we allowed to say this live limits or no it's our it's our it's our team is bob allowed to call this bob is not allowed to do play like play no bob you're not allowed to do play by doing it i was doing i could tell you we can tell whether what it happens can't we limits uh oh after the fact it's a three and oh count bases loaded we can't do that to uh we can't do that i can say that no you can't i can't say it's a bases loaded i can't say bases loaded but you're saying the count you're acting as if your joe buck team up the next box i said it's bases loaded i could reread that off the sp and other computer i'll recap it that Spencer Horace just threw a four pitch walk with the bases loaded so dobbins has fallen apart jk dobbins on the mound today is is Connor Griffin up to hit a grand slam bottom all happened with two outs social media's biggest loser brought to you by awaken 180 weight loss visit them at awaken 180 weight loss dot com i say it's limits for getting us in trouble bob i say it's pony for tweeting yesterday that the penguins are going to win and sports at Pittsburgh said delete this pony you have still of time and then you didn't did they really do yeah bob it's Connor Griffin with the bases loaded it's four one i'm not going to call it live but i sure hope he gets a hit is pony the biggest jinx and all of Pittsburgh sports bob every time it takes to predict sports his the opposite happens so yeah i mean based on the history I suppose that's true what's cooking brought to you by your local guy go rep Tim Hester thank you mr hester cloudy day high 52 mug webster a low of oh she is that enough playbub play for here we go Connor Griffin that's okay we forgive him it's four one he grounded out to third didn't he bump i don't know i didn't see it fielders choice fan weather brought to you by secure money advisors looking to retire soon let's secure money advisors get your retirement on track i can't tell you limits how much fun i've had today with you and bob had a fun week with you guys especially a lot of fun especially with bob bob we will miss you tomorrow could you call in for a segment what's going on with his story what what's going on with this story a lot of things going on tomorrow specific golf probably Bob is golfing Bob why is everybody talking about route 66 is it closing or something is it an anniversary what what's happening it can't close that's like the most famous road in the country i was listening to our station as a matter of fact on Saturday morning early in the whole conversation was about route 66 and now google if you go ahead and google something limits comes up g o they do that a lot route 66 g le what what's the deal here what what's going on with route 66 bob is this the anniversary of route 66 all i know is we're running out of time but i just have enough time sufficiently to answer that question but something's going on with route 66 Can I Bob? See you guys. Have a good one. Bye, Austin. Bye, Bob.