Young Guns and Steeler Signees

The Steelers were busy last week signing all their draft picks but two, the only unsigned picks are their top two.

The Pirates, while breaking a long losing streak recently, now have the future in their lineup on a day to day basis. Pedro Alvarez, Neil Walker and Jose Tabata have all been called up along with their best pitching prospect, Brad Lincoln.

Look for a couple articles on these subjects in the next few days.

Jameson Taillon

Hey Pirates Fans,

In case you didn't realize it the Pirates took another step back toward respectability when they took Jameson Taillon at #2 in this year's major league draft. Taillon, a Texas High Schooler is regarded as the best arm in this year's draft and the High Schooler closest to major league ready. That does not mean he'll be there anytime soon. It just means in a few years start looking for him. In the meantime watch him rise through the Pirates system.

The Pirates passed up a Florida high school shortstop who has been compared to ARod in order to take this prospect, so time will tell whether they made the right move. I'm looking forward to seeing him pitch. Go Bucs.

Opening Day

Man, I don't believe it. This year's version of the Pirates actually looks like a contender. With one game down and 161 to go it looks like they have a team that will contend for the Division crown. Ok, just kidding. I know there's 161 games to go. It is always awesome to win that first game though and to do it in the fashion they did against the Dodgers was great. 11-5, good start. Just gotta keep it going.

The Sequel
The story of the Legend continues. Garrett Jones not only smacks two homers his first game of the season he bounces the first one into the Allegheny. Think the Twins would like another shot at him now. Tough luck twinkies, you can't have him back. Let's see what you can do over a full season Mr. Jones.

The Leader
Seems that Ryan Church might be the team leader type this year. He was apparently one of the organizers of the team meeting to discuss the change of losing attitude in the Pirates clubhouse. Let's hope it works.

Go Buccos, We want 82!

Pessimism

Halfway through the time alloted for the latest poll and there are already 3 votes for last place. Those 3 aren't the only ones that are little pessimistic about the Pirates chances this year. Check out Ron Cook's article in the Post - Gazette today. I'm a little more optimistic. I can't figure how the Astros manage to stay out of the cellar. I know, because the Pirates are in the same division. We'll see how this new group of young Buccos fares this year in the coming months. My position by position analysis will be coming soon.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10093/1047635-87.stm

Bad News Ben

Well, I read this on TMZ earlier in the day and was hoping it was just a rumor, but once again Ben is being accused of sexual assault. This time it is a 20 year old in Milledgeville, Georgia. I didn't post it immediately after reading it hoping it was just a rumor. But, now it is in the Post-Gazette also. This is just another distraction the Pittsburgh Steelers don't need. Stay tuned for the continuing story of How Ben Roethlisberger Turns. Hope it's not true. The Pittsburgh Steelers will not put up with this crap.

The Pittsburgh Steelers Biggest Need

Although it is a very small sampling 3 out of 5 responders to the latest poll believe the Pittsburgh Steelers biggest need is that of depth at Safety which is a little ambiguous I suppose. Does that mean they need to make sure everyone is healthy and has a successful offseason program along with the resigning of Clark or does that mean they need ot acquire another quality safety. I think the Pittsburgh Steelers need to take the best safety available in the second round. Yeah, I know Troy was a first round pick. But, that is unusual to take a safety in the first round and Troy definitely has proven to be a very special player. A definite franchise type player.

Top 5 in the draft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3AQh6EB1CA

The Pittsburgh Steelers must do this to return to the Super Bowl #5

It was great to see the Pittsburgh Steelers resign Casey, and it looks like and sounds like there's a good chance Ryan Clark will resign, but that doesn't help the fact that the core of this team is getting older. Have you noticed that the Patriots haven't won a Super Bowl the last few years. Though I will not admit the quarterback on that team is the best, I will admit that he's pretty good. Good enough to win a couple of Super Bowls. But, a quarterback is just one part of a team. The reason the Pats haven't won a Super Bowl lately with a Super Bowl caliber quarterback is that they got old and lost that depth that they had during those Super Bowl years. Unfortunately, I see the same thing happening to the Steelers with their D-Line, Cornerbacks, Linebackers and Safeties. They need a good draft this year to improve their depth.

Ziggy Hood showed last year that he may be able to take over a spot on the D-Line and reclaiming Sonny Harris may have been a positive eventually. After that the depth is a bunch of 30 somethings, Travis Kirschke, Chris Hoke and Nick Eason. Believe it or not it is hard to find an athletic 300 pound guy, and even harder to find one of them that is a quality defensive lineman.

At Cornerback same story, Ike Taylor and Deshea Townsend are the senior members of the group. These guys still give quality minutes and Ike is still shutting down the other team's number 1 guy, but Deshea is no longer that guy that can play the whole game. In fact if he is around this year there's a good chance he'll be a Safety. William Gay is a younger guy in the cornerback position and after playing well 2 seasons ago it looked like he would take over the number 2 spot after the departure of McFadden. He got burnt time after time this past season and was finally replaced in the starting role by Townsend. The cornerback position does at least have a few other youngsters in Joe Burnett and Keenan Lewis, but the jury is still out on them.

At Safety there's Troy, Tyrone Carter, Ryan Clark hopefully, and Ryan Mundy. The Pittsburgh Steelers either need Mundy to grow quickly into a quality Safety or find one in the draft, especially if they can't keep Clark. Even if Tyrone and Ryan are around this year Tyrone is 33 and Ryan is 30. 2 out of 4 in their 30's.

At Linebacker James Farrior and James Harrison are in their 30's, Farrior 35 and Harrison 31. Farrior still provides quality play, but for how much longer. There are not many players still contributing a lot at 35. Harrison, at least is a young 31 since it took him a while to be a regular starter. So he doesn't have the miles on his legs that most 31 year olds do. They do have the 2 young studs at linebacker in Woodley and Timmons and Keyaron Fox played well last year. It wouldn't hurt to pick up another quality Linebacker to play behind Farrior, though and take over in a year or 2.

So, the 5th thing the Steelers must do to return to the Super Bowl is add some depth in these positions to spell the older guys and eventually take over. Supposedly this is one of the deepest drafts in recent history and one of the deepest positions is Defensive Line. So it wouldn't hurt for the Steelers to pick up one or two D-Linemen. Hopefully the can restock a few other postions with some depth, Safety anyone.