All Things Pittsburgh

In case you haven’t noticed there has been a ton happening around the Pittsburgh sports scene the past couple of weeks that does not involve the Steelers. I have touched on a few of these things here and there but let’s take an all-inclusive look at everything going on in and around the ‘Burgh.

· Just the mere mention of the Penguins (without even writing their actual name) in the blog was enough to end their twelve game winning streak on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. The Pens followed that loss up with an awful 3rd period performance last night and are now on a two game losing streak. Skipping past the long winning streak, despite its impressiveness, and looking at the season as a whole shows that there is a ton to like about this particular Penguins team. The Pens are tied for fifth in the NHL in both goals for and goals against per game. They are second in the NHL behind the Flyers in goal differential. They are second in the league in penalty killing and have the second most short-handed goals. They rank a pedestrian 16th in power play percentage but that unit has look much improved lately and the goaltending of Marc Andre-Fleury has been superb over the past month, month and a half. The Penguins have done all of this without their best penalty-killer and third best offensive forward in Jordan Staal. Getting Staal back at some point will be like making a major trade acquisition without giving anything up. This Penguins team is well positioned to make another run at the cup and at this point I would make them the co-favorites along with Philadelphia and Detroit.

· One streak that has not ended yet is Sidney Crosby’s 20 game scoring streak. Crosby has 39 points in those 20 games and now leads the league in goals, points, and points per game. He is second in assists, ranks in the top 10 of forwards for +/- and is arguably the best face-off man in the NHL. There really are no superlatives to explain his greatness right now. Any argument over who the best player in the world is completely over, not that there ever was an argument in my mind.

· One positive from the past two losses has been the play of Evgeni Malkin. You may remember him being called out right here in the blog just a few weeks ago and the fact that the Pens had no problem winning without him in his four-game absence. Malkin still ranks well below his standards at 40th in the NHL in points per game and the Pens are going to need a lot more out of their other superstar if they are going to make a run at the Cup like they intend to do, but it was nice to see Geno score three goals in these past two games and more importantly, skate and look like the Malkin we remember from two years ago.

· If you did not watch the premier of HBO’s 24/7 Penguins-Capitals last night, make sure you catch one of the encore shows before next week’s second program and follow from there. HBO does a fantastic job with these behind the scenes documentaries and if last night’s premier was a preview of what’s to come, it will be another fantastic series. My only quibble with the show, and there really is nothing HBO can do about it, is the wide array of story lines that are not covered. We are used to seeing these 24/7s focus on two boxers, or in the Nascar case - of one driver, so with so many different and integral people involved with two hockey teams it is impossible to cover every story.

· Pitt has hired former Miami of Ohio coach Mike Haywood as its new football coach. What I do know about Haywood is that he is an excellent Xs and Os coach. He is a former Charlie Weis pupil at Notre Dame and took a talent depleted Miami team from a 1-11 record to a 9-4 season and a MAC championship. I watched probably too many MAC games for my own good this year but I can tell you that Haywood flat-out outcoached many of his colleagues in leading his team to the MAC championship. What I do not know, however, and what nobody can judge unless they know the person, is how Haywood will do with everything else that a head coaching position at a major college entails. That includes recruiting, public relations, schmoozing with boosters, working with administration and many other things that the public does not see. We know that Dave Wannstedt was fantastic in all of these areas, thus my reluctance in firing him. I do not know Mike Haywood and I do not think his time at Miami was enough to judge him on those things so I will withhold any judgment on him until he is given the proper amount of time in the position. The one thing I do know is that AD Steve Pederson does not have a great track record with hiring football coaches that are good at these things. His last two hires, Bill Callahan and Walt Harris, were excellent football Xs and Os guys but both proved to be terrible at the rest of the job requirements. That does not particularly instill confidence in me with Pederson’s choice, given Haywood’s resume and background.

· If Haywood is the excellent game coach that I believe he is, expect Pitt to have a good season next year with a good bit of talent coming back and a very manageable schedule. That could propel Haywood and his staff to continuing on Pitt’s strong recruiting efforts and get the Pitt administration and boosters on his side. This could significantly aid Haywood as he does his on-the-job training toward long term success. If he does not succeed immediately on the field, however, I will not be too confident in his chances going forward. In either case, we will not be able to properly evaluate this hire for at least three, but more likely four or five years down the line.

· The Pirates signed Lyle Overbay earlier this week to be their first baseman next year. I thought Bob Smizik on his Post Gazette blog summed it up best, “Since Overbay is a left-handed hitter and will start at first base, the team is basically replacing Garrett Jones with, uh, Garrett Jones.” Smizik went on to say that the Pirates are not exactly signing the “weapons” that Frank Coonelly talked about in one of his chats on the Pirates website. In reality the four players that the Pirates have acquired are not all that much different from their predecessors. Overbay for Jones/Ryan Doumit, Mat Diaz for Lastings Milledge, Scott Olsen for Zach Duke and Kevin Correia will be added as the 4th or 5th starter to a team that already has plenty of those.

· The Pirates have also made no secret of their desire to trade Ryan Doumit and his salary. Personally, I hope Doumit sticks around. For the Pirates’ signings to make any sense it is imperative that they use platoon rotations at first base and in right field. A platoon at catcher with Doumit facing right-handed pitchers and Chris Snyder facing lefties would also be ideal. I have a tough time believing that the Pirates will stick to these platoon roles, as it seems managers never do, but if the Pirates hang on to Doumit and strictly use the platoon match-ups they could run a halfway decent line-up out there against both lefties and righties. Here they are, with 2010 OPS averages in parenthesis, against those type pitchers:

Vs. Righties: Vs. Lefties:
McCutchen (.784) Tabata (.682)
Tabata (.767) Walker (.809)
Walker (.818) McCutchen (.903)
Alvarez (.858) Alvarez (.644)
Jones (.775) Diaz (.830)
Doumit (.832) Pearce (.964)
Overbay (.779) Snyder (.750)
Cedeno (.647) Cedeno (.767)

· As for all of those number four and five type starters, I have no answer for that. Pirates’ fans can hope that Ross Ohlendorf and James McDonald continue to develop and that Brad Lincoln develops into what management hopes he can become. Even at their peaks, however, those three are no better than good number three starters on a playoff team. No, the Pirates best pitching hope lies in their lower minor league ranks and is still a couple of years away. There is always Charlie Morton with that “electric stuff”.

· With the Cardinals and Reds looking as good if not better for next year, it could be another long season for the Buccos. The positive is that we get to watch the continued development of the young players and actually have some hope for the future.

· Lastly, and we will get into a lot more college hoops after the Bowl Season ends, but this Pitt basketball team has the makings of being the best team in the Ben Howland/Jamie Dixon era. There is no question that this is the deepest and most talented team from one through ten that Dixon has coached, but I am not sure if there is a player the caliber of a Sam Young or DeJuan Blair on the team. The more important question however, as has been with many of the past teams, is will there be a player that can put this team on his back when things are not going right. Pitt has lacked this superstar for much, if not all, of this modern era and it has often been its achilles heel. The closest thing Pitt had to this player was Sam Young from the Elite Eight team two years ago. If this Pitt team is going to match and hopefully surpass that team Brad Wannamaker, Ashton Gibbs or the darkhorse candidate Dante Taylor is going to need to take his game to the next level. We did not see this happen in the Tennessee loss, but the season is still quite young.

Thursday Night Pick

SAN DIEGO (-10) over San Francisco