It's that day :)

 

Today's Young Buc is?

 Gotta love it when the scores of the last 2 games are 12-1 and 7-1.  I just wish we could do that against the Reds and Brewers.  I think we just need to keep calling up guys from the minors, because they just keep coming through in Pittsburgh.  Roansy Contreras kept the Cubs offense mostly in check tonight and one of yesterday's young contributors, Bligh Madris smacked his first Major League Home Run.  You know, I think Captain Bligh might have turned Pirate after his crew mutinied against him, so it makes perfect sense that Bligh is a Pirate.  Don't go fact checking that one though.  Anyway, Bligh is a Pittsburgh Pirate and he's been invaluable the last 2 games.  So keep it up Cap'n.  

Daniel Vogelbach just looks like he should be clearing a path for Najee Harris.  He is one tough looking baseball player.  He can hit too, despite what his average says.  He went 2 for 2 with a couple RBIs and threw in a few walks for good measure.  

Keep it going Bucs.

Oneil Cruz Day

 Well, Father's Day young Buc was Jack Suwinsky with his 3 homers, including a walk off.  Then yesterday there were more young Buc sightings.  O'Neil Cruz showed up with his bat and finished 2 of 5 with 4 RBIs.  In the 3rd inning he put on a little show with his arm.  A ball was hit to the third base side of him.  It wasn't hit exceptionally and wasn't a difficult play, but what followed made you think maybe the outfield isn't a bad place for him.  He backhanded it easily, double clutched as he moved toward first base and uncorked a fireball to Michael Chavis at first.  Chavis extended and easily made the play, but I'm wondering if he expected the ball to drill a hole in his glove when it was released.  Hopefully he has practiced with Cruz and knew that it was a possibility.  The throw was clocked at 96.7 mph.  

As I said about Jack Suwinski the other day, I hope his potential is as good as the flashes of talent he's shown in his highlights and I hope they find a spot where he is comfortable.  

It also didn't escape my attention that JT Brubaker was finally able to put together a win and a scoreless 6 innings.  It didn't hurt that the offense scored 12 runs too.  It's a little easier to pitch with some offensive help.  

I'm a little disappointed in Jack Suwinsky.  C'mon Jack, I expected at least 1 HR after the hat trick.

Yet another Bucco made his Major League debut in the game in pretty impressive fashion, Bligh Madris.  He contributed 3 hits, 2 RBIs and a stolen base.  Quite a debut, what's he going to do next? hit 3 home runs in a game.  We can only hope.

The Pittsburgh Pirates

 

SUWINSKY!

 

One thing I love about sports is you get to watch a group of players become a team and hopefully succeed with each other.  You get to know the players and their strengths and weaknesses.  You hope that players will develop and be stars.  As a fan of the Pirates it seems like they always have some promising players but they have had huge problems developing any talent to the point where we have superstars.  

Right now we have Bryan Reynolds, and Ke'Bryan Hayes.  They both have provided the leather and Reynolds has hit for average and power, but it seems like there's another level to hit before he's considered one of the best in the game.  He's young though and maybe it will happen at some point.  Hayes will definitely provide the defense that we need from the hot corner, but he hasn't been an offensive machine that you want from a third baseman.  Again, though, these guys are still young and maybe it will happen soon.  

The reason I'm talking about this is the next group of hopefuls have been making appearances in the field and at the plate.  The latest of which provided the fireworks during the game.  Jack Suwinski picked Father's day with his Dad present at the game to give a show at the plate.  He smacked 3 home runs with the last one being a walk off shot in the 9th to finish things off.  He even walked on his other plate appearance.   Pretty good Father's day present, I'd say.  He's now tied with Reynolds for the home run lead for the Pirates.  There are other players I'm looking forward to see grow with the Pirates, but for now Suwinski was the man for one night early in this season and gives us some hope that the new guys have potential to achieve something in this league.

Just a thought

 At some point in every game, they should play the clip of Captain Kirk yelling Khaaaaannnnnnn.  I just don't know the scenario it would be in.  Omar might not appreciate it though, so let's put that on the backburner til the time is right.

Have the Pirates already Peaked This Year?

 

Back on June 6 I was looking at the standings and complaining to myself that the Buccos were still 4 under .500 despite the fact that they were looking decent and making the Dodgers look like they were in the cellar instead of vice versa(I know they're not quite in the cellar). It was nice while it was going on and it was nice to sweep a series and end that drought that lasted through last season and part of the season before. Reality is this is a team of promising young players and some older players that are closer to AAA caliber than Major League caliber. That short bit of success does give us a taste of what is expected of every team, but not familiar to the Pirates. After a 9-game losing streak, they're sitting 10 games under .500. Hopefully they are not done with sweeps and successes for the season. We can look forward to watching Bryan Reynolds bat and glove and KeBryan's golden glove. There's also a minor league with talent scattered. I think everybody is looking forward to a 6'7" shortstop/position tbd player to arrive and show off his bat. As they say, there's always next year.

Let the Omar Khan Era Begin

 Big news today in The Burgh. Omar Khan has officially put his stamp on the beginning of his career as the Steelers General Manager. Well, that's not actually the blockbuster news from today with the Steelers. It could be a co-story though.

The real news is that our All-Pro safety has signed a new contract or contract extension for another 4 years at around $18 mil per year according to sources with a bunch of that being guaranteed cash.

I was pretty surprised by the timing of this. I thought it would go similar to TJs contract timeline. It is good to have it taken care of though. Good start Mr. Khan, now have your team find a hidden gem to replace that hole on the d line so we can count on our rushing defense again.

Stephon Tuitt

 

Last year around training camp for the season Stephon Tuitt’s brother was the victim of a hit and run and lost his life. Stephon was obviously and understandably devastated. There was little to no information from the team or Tuitt about his plans for the season. There was a lot of speculation that he’d be back, but he never did return. There were also a lot of rumors about a knee injury and from listening to DK Pittsburgh Sports he had to have fluid drained from the knee regularly. But, again, there was no concrete source as to whether he was injured or just the fact that he couldn’t mentally because of his loss. Then came the current season. The Steelers were last in rushing defense and having Tuitt back would be a big step in improving that number. Last week, though, we found out that he had decided it was time to retire. You can look at this any way you want, but to me, he decided to call it quits for a number of reasons. He lost his brother, who he was very close to. That is reason enough for anyone to decide that family should be their priority and he should spend time with them. Also, he did have knee problems. Whether it affected him playing or not last year will probably only be known to him and the team. He wouldn’t be the first to leave the game mostly healthy. During his time off, he finished his studies at Notre Dame and earned a degree. I doubt he was hurting financially or even have trouble finding a job if he stayed in Pittsburgh but having a degree would help him move to the next step in his life. Putting myself into his shoes these are all very good reasons to call it a career. I can understand it and I’m sure most fans can too. That doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t like to see Stephon pushing through opponents' lines, stuffing running backs and smashing quarterbacks this year. It just means I understand. Good luck to you Stephon. 

Steel scraps 6-8-22

When I started up this site and later on Facebook page, I could not get enough information about the Steelers and Pirates and Pens. I read every article I could find no matter how factual the stories were or how high the quality the writing was. I could not find enough material. That was about 10 years ago. So, I started writing my own stuff. It wasn’t breaking news or anything because I’m sitting in the stadiums and arenas watching every game, but I summarized what I saw and put my own spin on that. Then, all the social media kicked in and there was info overload. If you wanted to read about the Steel City teams there was no shortage of articles and the last several years podcasts and videocasts.  

If I wanted to, I could probably listen to someone’s take on these teams every waking hour. If you look at the article history, I pretty much stopped writing stories for years. There was so much stuff out there I didn’t need to add my two cents in my own site. I could comment in 100 different places. I actually didn’t even visit the site for a couple years and was surprised that it didn’t get shut down because of inactivity. Whenever I did go there it was still active including about a month ago. There’s still plenty of sources of commentary and information about my favorite teams, but I decided to add my 2 cents again. Can’t say it’s going to be regular, so don’t set your alarm by it, but I’m going to call my random musings Steel scraps. So, check it out and tell me what you think.  

Hoosier

 The Indiana University mascot is the Hoosier. I've heard many explanations of what a Hoosier is, and I have no idea what it is after hearing them, but one of them is this. Everyone is familiar with everyone in Indiana towns. It's very down home and friendly. If you don't know someone and strike up a conversation one of the first things that comes up is family, and one of the first questions is who's your Mom or who's your dad or brother or sister. Well, this year The Dodgers when asked Hoosier daddy they're going to have to reply The Pittsburgh Pirates. Haha. The Pirates took another from the Dodgers yesterday 5-3. Tucupita Marcano brought his HR stroke to this series including this game. Wil Crowe finished the Dodgers giving Bednar a break for the night. So, the best the Dodgers can do is two wins in the season series. Hoosier daddy? I wonder if the buccos fans at Indy games ask that?

A win against the Dodgers yesterday

 

Love it. I wish we could get the Reds and Brewers to wear Dodger blue when they play the Buccos. Entertaining game too. Bryan Reynolds hit his 7th homer of the season. The Pirates had the lead in the 8th and brought Bednar in to finish. He finished, but not in the normal way. He had to give up the lead to have the Pirates take it back and come away with the W. Amazingly enough, with another win, the Pirates could take the season series from one of the, if not the best team in baseball. They've taken 3 of 4 from them with 2 left.