The Porch is Live in Pittsburgh - LETS GO BUCS!

00:00 We got you in there for that. We got you in there.

00:07 That was that. It's a big week for Pirates Baseball and welcome to the Sports Porch Sweep. It's Porch Live. We are live on Facebook on the Sports Porch Pittsburgh, beautiful Chicago, New York. We're on LinkedIn. We're on YouTube. We're on Twitter.

00:40 We're all over the frigging world and you can catch the Sports Porch podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, Spotify, or anywhere you get your frigging podcast. And of course on the porcheslive.com, the porcheslive.com, the porcheslive.com and you don't have to click the Philadelphia tab for that. You can just go right to the porcheslive.com. Get your brooms out. That's right. Get your brooms out. Sweep them up. Sweep up the birds. So a big story of the week is believe it or not guys, after all the years of doing this and ignoring the pirates, finally, you know, there's a little bit of relevance. And if in case you're not aware of this, you know, we're a live show on Monday nights at Eastern time live on social media. Please catch up with us there. If you like, you can become a part of the show. You can get your comments in the chat. You can ask questions. We love that. We love our fans. We love the people that join us and support us. But also we dropped the podcast right after the show. And currently your buckos report after every pirate's game on the podcast on Apple, iHeart and everywhere else. And I'm enjoying it. And the pirates, after getting off to a hot start, had their worst May, I think one of the worst Mays in franchise history. They come back and so far undefeated in June. Okay. And the big the big news there is that they swept the car. They took two or three from the Giants on the West Coast, which was the turnaround. They swept the Cardinals. And listen, the Cardinals have a great lineup. They're just not playing good baseball right now. As Scott Rowland says, St. Louis is baseball heaven. It really is. They took down the Redbirds. They did. They took down the Redbirds and tonight they are currently they're losing at the end of the first one to nothing to the athletics. But here's one of the things I said on the buckos report yesterday. Okay. It was great to sweep the Cardinals. It was a big test. It's a division rival in order to stay relevant in this division because it's it's fairly evenly matched. You have got to beat the teams in this division. You've got to win those series. However, you cannot roll over and die just because you're playing the A's when you can't assume the A's are going to come in here and roll over. You know, there's a lot of players on that does that team that probably want to get out of town and they've got some talent, but it's just, you know, it's like it's it's like a, what do they call the end of a presidency? Lame duck. They're a lame duck baseball team right now. But I'll tell you what, I hated to say it last night and I hate to say it right now, but the Pirates have to sweep the A's if they're going to make a real statement. They can take it two out of three ain't bad. Two out of three ain't bad. But if you're going to stay relevant, you got to sweep this team. You can't let them come into Pittsburgh and win. The other exciting thing is that Kutch is only three three hits away from 2000 and we'll talk a little bit about that. And he's I think he's a double away from 400. So we'll have a question about that. And I'll just, you know, I'll just lean into you guys right now as far as how do you feel about the Pirates after that Harrod May coming back and taking two from San Francisco, sweeping the Cardinals there on a five game win streak. They're four games above 500. You know, what do you think that says right now?

04:13 I think it says it's good news. That's it. That's all you got. Well, they weathered the storm. I mean, they were at a critical point where if they had, let's say, lost four or five in a row, season's over. Yes. Well, you know, probably, probably. But instead they came back and steady the ship, got a couple of games over 500. And if you can stay there for a long while, you're going to be in the wild card race. This is true. So huge. Now, I would say, though, you know, regardless of, yeah, it'd be great if they could sweep the A's. But the main thing you want to do, you just want to keep winning series. If you keep winning series after series after series, then you can hopefully maybe get your record up to like, you know, seven, eight, nine, 10 games over 500. And then you're really in the mix.

05:13 Yeah. I think it's possible. What do you think, Steve?

05:18 I think that somebody planted Todd Ross into our comment section because when he says that the Pirates need to open their checkbook, that's like my mantra when it comes to the Pirates. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I do have to agree with you that, you know, when you're playing against the division rival and look, the last time they were actually in the playoffs, that's who they lost to. They lost to St. Louis. And, you know, I'm talking ancient history here, but still, nonetheless, if you look, if you looked at the beginning of the season, you said, where will the Pirates be? Well, they'll probably be in last place at this point. And St. Louis or Milwaukee will be in first or second. Well, switch it around. Now we're actually the ones who are in second and St. Louis is in last place. So if you don't at least have a little bit of optimism from that, then you're never going to have optimism for this team. So I've always said that I think the Pirates need to be a good team. And because they'll never be a great team because of what Todd says, they'll never open up their checkbook to go get a superstar who will take them into the next stratosphere. But that being said, it finally seems like some of these prospects are coming around and the pitching and the hitting is kind of, you know, coordinating to a point where they're more relevant. I don't know what to make from the fact, and Chris, I like your opinion on this. I don't know what to make from the fact that they go through such a big winning streak and then such a long losing streak, especially as long as it was in the month of May, other than they played against quality teams and maybe they're just not going to be competitive against quality teams. And the good thing about that is their division, our division is terrible. So maybe it's just you have to beat, you know, the St. Louis is in the Milwaukee's of the world and then just take two out of three or every once in a while sweep the really bad teams.

07:18 Yeah, I think that the I think the issue here is that DG is in the house. What's up, DG? Good. I think the Pirates in the beginning of the season, it was almost as if they were the underdog and that was their identity because every team needs an identity. And then when kind of reality set in and Cruz went down and he did go down pretty early, they ended up playing very well even after he went down. I think they kind of lost that identity and they started to question themselves. Now, look, that's not to say that like, you know, Mitch Keller is pitching lights out and by the end of this year, we will know if he is going to end up being the ace that everybody thought he could be. Okay, it's still a long season. So one of the things I don't like are these calls for Mitch Keller in the Cy Young conversation. Like, look, you can talk about you can talk about a Clayton Kershaw in the Cy Young conversation. Three starts into the year, you know what I mean? Because he's demonstrated that he's got a track record or or back in the day, Justin Verlander. But you can't put Mitch Keller in any Cy Young conversation yet because he hasn't strung together a full year worth of pitching lights out. Now, he is definitely strung together this year and, you know, getting towards the end of last year, making it look like he's starting to understand how to pitch. And it's it's true. But after Keller, you know, it's kind of a crap shoot. You know, you've got Oviedo, who I think has great stuff, but he but but when he loses his confidence, you know, it's hard for him to locate pitches and they start to be in the guy, by the way, just being the guy. Yeah. So so I think the Pirates are a team that once they went into that that kind of downward spiral, they thought they had this identity that really was not their identity and they needed to get it back. And they kind of they kind of rekindled itself, which I think was interesting. Santana had to he was out for a couple series. And then as soon as he came back, it seemed like the team kind of righted itself again. They kind of calmed down and they started playing good ball. And there was one game where his veteran presence in the lineup, he hit the ball the other way for a ground rule double. And these younger players they have, you can tell that they're still kind of feeling their way through there at bats. You know, they're they're still hacking at things. They're still trying to pull the ball. And Santana kind of shows them that, like, look, maybe I'm maybe I'm not a 260, 270 hitter, but I know how to work the count. And I know where that pitch is going to locate or what the pitch is going to try to do. And it's called situational baseball. And so they're a young lineup still learning how to do that. I do think there's a little bit more talent in the younger players they have now versus last year, the year before, you know, going back seven or eight years. And I think I also what I and I've talked about this on the Buccos report. I can't stand the way that Shelton changes this lineup every night. And I know you guys are making fun of me. You know, how many more times are we going to talk about Bay should be lead off? How many more times are we going to talk about Hayes should bat five? But here's the example. OK, Hayes yesterday was three for four. OK, they move him in this game. Shelty moves him down to the number six spot. Why not just leave him in the number five spot? That's where he's hit the best all year. You know, why are you doing that? Why why is Castro was it was it a lefty righty thing? I it could be. But for me, consistency is what younger players need, you know, and I continue to think that Jay's G1 base should be the leadoff hitter. And and we'll see Reynolds that he's got him penciled in there every night at second. And I think that has a lot to do with, you know, again, the identity of the team when there's a consistent lineup and you know the role that you play, whether it's in the lineup or in the field, it's easier for you to settle into that and start to understand situational hitting and when I've seen so much there was a there was a a two out bunt the other day,

12:05 a two out bunt like what mean funding for a single? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

12:09 He was somebody who can out months to know Mark. I think was Marcano two out to strike bond like what who made that call? Yeah, that's that's an odd one. Yeah, like where are we getting that from? So that being said, I think it's a team still trying to find its identity, but I am I am encouraged by the fact that they were able to turn it around. God forbid they lose to the A's tonight. Seriously, I mean, I would hope that they're not fragile enough to turn a loss tonight. And it's early in the game. They're only losing one to nothing bottom of the second. And the pitcher for the A's is is not very good, but we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. I definitely think they have a chance to stay relevant because I think what you see is their potential when they turn things around. But again, with the Pirates, like they could be relevant near the trade deadline and still sell off half the team.

13:06 You know, well, that's the one thing that I would be a little nervous about. Not that he's anything special, but Stevenson being traded this early. I don't know what happened, but I really felt like in the first month of the season,

13:22 Stevenson was pitching really well. He was, but he had actually started to kind of fall off there. But I don't know if they had some arms that they wanted to bring up because they immediately brought up two other arms. I also know that they just promoted their catcher from triple A to double A to triple A. What's his name? Henry Davis. There's been a because if you look at the position right now, I mean, Hedges is a good catcher. He's a good game manager, but he's a terrible offensive. He's just not good at the plate and they need more production there. So it's kind of hard to decipher. You're right.

14:00 Well, I mean, the question is, I understand he wasn't pitching well, but he was pitching well in the beginning. And he was actually wasn't he actually the setup man in the beginning?

14:09 No, Holderman's Holderman's always been the setup man. Okay. Well, he was the guy before he did pitch in the seventh.

14:16 So I mean, to me, it's kind of like, wait a minute. I mean, like, are we not going to allow a guy to sort of like work through it? You know, like to me, it just seemed odd that he was traded this quickly. And he was traded for a second base prospect. And maybe the prospect's great. I don't know. Yeah. Because, you know, it's hard to break the lineup in Tampa Bay. Yeah. But obviously, I think the flip side of it is Tampa Bay, who's the first base, the first place baseball club thought enough of them to think, hey, we could use this guy at the back end of our rotation. Yeah.

14:53 So yeah, I don't know. Maybe there was something else going on behind the scenes that we're not aware of. Like maybe him and his wife are sleeping in different beds now.

15:04 That would explain a lot to me anyway. That would explain a lot. Now. Now I get it.

15:11 You guys got to listen to the pregame. We're going to start doing a pregame for the sports port. So anybody who is you got to have thick skin, though. You really do. You got to.

15:19 By the way, your point about hedges, he's batting 179. That's right. That's just pathetic. You have to get better production from your catcher. I don't care if he calls the best game ever. There's no way what he's doing behind the plate when he's out there calling pitches is helping his 179 average. Yeah.

15:40 You have to bat at least 205. Yes. Yeah. You would hope higher, but right. You got to be above the Mendoza line. Oh, that's terrible. No doubt about it. So it's really nice to see that the pirates turn that ship around and they fell one game under 500 and immediately it was almost like as a team collectively, they said, you know what? We're better than that. This was a horrible month. We can't go under 500. They've righted the ship and we'll see what goes on. They got three against the A's and then three against the Mets here at PNC Park. I would really like to see them come out of this six and three at worst. They're off to a good start because they already have three victories. Putting aside the they better sweep the A's thing, they need to notch at least three more victories, win one of these series. So, you know, it kind of goes both ways. So, okay, fine. If you're going to lose two more games, fine, lose them to the A's and take two out of three from the Mets, you know, but we'll see. It's exciting. I appreciate everybody that listens to the Buccos report on the sports sports podcast. I have a lot of fun doing it and, you know, drop a comment, leave us a review. If you listen to the podcast, we're trying to get you to the podcast. We're trying to get you to the podcast. We're trying to get you to the podcast. We're trying to get you to the podcast. If you listen to the podcast, we're trying to collect reviews. If you're going to leave a bad review, don't. But if you're going to leave a good review, you know, leave a good review. Let the people say what they want to say. Yeah, you could not influence what the people feel. I know it's a free country. It's a free country.

17:22 I'll say they want to puke all over their computer. Where does it end if you try to, you know, for free speech? Yeah, okay.

17:32 Where does it end? That's another podcast. We got a comment here. Let's get these comments in here. DG says he also thinks hedges has a weak arm for throwing out runners. You know, that's an interesting thing because I do think that the pitch clock, the adjustments and we didn't get to that with the Phillies as when we were talking about that on the sports porch, Philadelphia. But I think the pitch clock is good for baseball. I think he's done a lot of great things, especially in watching it and having to report after the game. But I also think it has changed the way obviously that catchers have to react, the reaction time. So I don't necessarily know about a weak arm. It may be more like the adjustment of, you know, like they've only got a certain amount of time to throw the pitch. They can only, you know, throw over twice to keep the runner. And so they're kind of off guard there because what I've noticed is that it seems to me more teams than not actually have pretty poor percentages and throwing out runners now. Don't you think so?

18:40 Well, that's always been the case. Yeah.

18:42 I mean, there's only a few catchers in the league that throw out a lot of runners. Yeah. And 30% is considered a great number. Right.

18:51 They're getting better jumps off first and second now too because of the pitch clock.

18:56 Jeff from York. What's up, Jeff? He's bummed because my diamond bucks lost to Virginia this weekend, college baseball. Oh, well, DG says he too late to second base from his knees once. I love you, Jeff. Once allowing a runner to score from third. Yeah. I hear you. I hear you. I just think DG that, that, that pitch clock and the whole dynamic of the game, it's kind of a learn on the fly thing. I'm not saying you're wrong. You know, he may have a terrible arm, but I'm saying that it's changed in the way that, that a catcher, that a pitcher and a catcher have to manage that as well now. And I, I do think that teams are being much more aggressive on the base pass than they were. You could see that, you know, obviously.

19:39 I think they were saying it's kind of toned down a little bit though. Since the beginning of the season. Yeah.

19:44 Oh yeah. The pirates went from the first month of the season. It felt like every single runner was stealing every single base. And then in May they were losing so much. It was like, who's going to steal. And then more guys are getting caught. So, all right guys, that's it for the pirates for right now, because I'm probably going to have to do a pirate support after the game. So let's move on to something near and dear to Steve's heart and our heart. Of course, it's the Steelers. Steve Jones is taking reps with the first team. And I know you love that.

20:17 Yeah. You know, one thing that I keep saying is look, what look to see what Broderick Jones, where he's going to be in his development. You know, is Tomlin going to put him on the second team? Is he going to treat him like a regular rookie? And the fact that he's playing with the first team already leads me to believe that he's being treated like he should. He's going to be on the first. He's going to be on the first team. That's where he's going to get all his reps. You can't beat it. I mean, that's going to do great for his development, especially with all the other guys that are up there. Then I think it's just going to be good things. So nothing wrong with Broderick Jones running with the first team.

20:59 I agree. I think that shows you that they're kind of penciling him in there. And I think that, you know, listen, even though, even though we know what Tomlin's protocol is, you look at a guy like him, and then you look at the guy that he would be replacing in the starting position, and then you just look at the line in general the last two years. And I don't care what your protocol is. You'd have to be nuts not to give him first team reps and get him in there right away because, you know, he's got the potential to be one of the best tackles in the game. And that's what makes all the difference for a guy like Kenny Pickett trying to take that next step. If that line is playing great and Kenny Pickett isn't, then we have our answer.

21:53 I think we already have our answer. I think we already have our answer when it comes to Kenny Pickett. You know, I totally believe they're going to turn him into a game manager. And I think in the long run, that's going to be terrible for him. Yes. I think by the end of this year, I'll give him a half of this year because he didn't really play all the games last year. So I'll give him half of this year. But the second half of this year, he's got to look like a superstar at least for three quarters of the games. You know what I mean? And I just, you know, we kind of beat this horse probably too much. But we beat a lot of horses around here. But it's not a dead horse yet. It will be soon if we keep beating it. I think the people will be after us. But the reality is that's what they want to do with Kenny Pickett. And I think it's just terrible with the talent that he could be surrounded with, with the offensive line that he might have. I just hope at some point Kenny decides, you know what, screw Canada. I'm just going to start chucking it deep. I really hope that's what he starts doing.

23:00 I think that'd be great for him. Yeah. And that's like the cloud over this whole season. Isn't it like a cloud? It's like the Steelers had a draft that I think most fans would say, we're impressed with what they did. We're happy with what they did. There's a lot of potential in what they did. And then exactly what you said, Steve, if you watch Kenny Pickett his last year at Pitt, he wasn't a game manager. He was the guy that created. Okay. Yeah, it's college football. It's not, it's not the NFL. Things change, but he created, you know, that entire exciting time with his feet, with his legs, with his arm taking risks. And I, I, I'm with you in that. I think he's going to have to, and we'll see, he's going to have to create in order to, to feel like he's part of the, part of the whole thing. And with Canada there, like that's the one thing this year that just bums me out completely. Like I, it's just like, what do you, what do you think Schwab or sitting in your seat, you know, being, being an Eagles fan and a secondary Steelers fan, doesn't that kind of put a cloud over the whole season?

24:18 Maybe. I mean, it's hard to say. I mean, cause I do think there's a chance what Steve's saying could occur where Pickett just decides to kind of take more of the reins himself and just kind of, you know, make mistakes and apologize later. Right. So he might do that. The other side of it too, is that it also isn't necessarily the end of the world. If Kenny Pickett is not a franchise quarterback. I mean, you can still win the Superbowl with a, I wouldn't say a game manager quarterback, but I would say like, you know, like a top 15 type quarterback. Sure. Joe Flacco. Yeah. I mean, like, you know, Nick Foles, you know, like, It's always got to go Nick Foles. Well, no, but that's basically what he is, you know, good year, one pro bowl, you know, that kind of thing. Right. But like, you know, like think Tampa Bay Buccaneers, like Brad Johnson, Yeah. In a Superbowl. Yeah. You know, and did he do anything phenomenal? Not really, but like, you know, the Tampa Bay defense was great. And he, you know, threw a little eight yard slant, the Keishon Johnson for a touchdown. You know what I mean? Like, you know, you can still win that way. I think the Steelers fans are just so used to having a franchise quarterback. Spoiled. You know, yeah. Having been through Ben and look, there's always a better feeling when you have a franchise quarterback because you figure like, you know, hey, if it's the beginning of their career, hey, next 10 years, we always got a shot. Right. So you don't have to depend on like, you could get away with having an average defense, you know, if you have a, if you have a, you know, a top quarterback, but I think it's still to be determined. We'll see what happens. I mean, honestly, I would be surprised if Kenny Pickett is a franchise quarterback,

26:17 but I wouldn't be surprised if he's a good quarterback. And what I mean by good is like top 15. Go for it, Steve. You've been shaking your head the whole time.

26:29 You know, I would normally agree with Mark on this, but there are so many good quarterbacks in the AFC. Now you have to be in the top five quarterbacks in order to beat some of these guys, just managing the game. Now these guys can score 28 points in the first half. That's how good these offensive are. So I don't, I don't, in as good as I think the Steelers defense can be when you've got to play against, and they're not going to play against them in the regular season, but when they play against Mahomes, when they play against, yeah, you know, when they play against Buffalo, when now they got to play against Aaron Rodgers. And I don't actually think that great of Aaron Rodgers, but he probably, he's better than Luke Wilson. So I just, I just think that, I just think that when you have Zach Wilson, who beat the Steelers last year, by the way. That's true. He did.

27:25 This is one shining moment. Yeah. Is one shiny moment. I actually think I'm better than Zach Wilson. No, you're not.

27:32 No, you don't think so? Definitely not. Really? And you don't have nearly as much game. I mean, with the older ladies.

27:37 Didn't you talk to me? Oh my God. You're hilarious. Yeah, that is true. I still sleep in the same bed as my wife. There you go. I don't think so. Did I just out us all in there? Are you bragging about that? Yes. I'm lucky enough to be welcomed up.

27:54 By the way, that's the, that's the, that's the, I would like to get back to the Steelers conversation. Uh, no.

28:04 All right. All right. Steelers, go ahead. Go ahead, Steve.

28:06 Tell us why Kenny Pickett is never going to win a Super Bowl. Well, I mean, he's, I didn't say that Kenny Pickett is never going to win a Super Bowl, but the Steelers actually have to start with winning a playoff game. They haven't won one in six years. And I know, you know, we, we are spoiled in Pittsburgh. We, we do have the most amount of, uh, of championships, uh, at least in the modern era. Super Bowls. Yeah.

28:32 That's, that's, that's a problem that's built into Philly DNA is like, you know,

28:38 you always got to refer back to that. No, but I'm just saying, like, I know we're spoiled from that standpoint, but we really haven't been spoiled in the past decade. You know, one, one playoff win in six years. I mean, that's, that's pretty bad. I mean, that's up there with the actually Cleveland Browns have more playoff wins in the past six years than the Pittsburgh Steelers do. And I guess you could say really, really bad considering that they did have a Hall of Fame quarterback during that time. Right. Exactly. I mean, you know, well, I mean, and you could go back to the AB Leveon Bell years where they actually won a couple of games. But still, they never made a Super Bowl with the, with that team. There was arguably maybe one of their most talented teams ever. So, so I mean, that's my, that's my problem is they have to think about getting one into the playoffs next year. They absolutely have to make the playoffs next year. And they literally have to win at least one or two playoff games in the next two or three years. And I'm just saying you're not going to do that with a good quarterback who manages the game when you're playing in the AFC against those other great teams.

29:53 Yeah. And what I was referring to is the fact that every time we bring up the number of Super Bowls that are respective franchises have won, Mark always has to throw in championships from before it was called the Super Bowl. No, nobody cares about championships anymore. They only care about Super Bowls.

30:10 No, they don't. What do you think Green Bay Packers announced themselves as 13 time world champions?

30:18 The only team I know that does it.

30:20 Yeah, nobody else does. Guys, it's, it's when football started. That's when it starts. Okay. You got it?

30:32 One Super Bowl and he thinks he's right.

30:35 I think the funniest thing ever would be for like people who make that argument, the most hilarious thing ever would be if the NFL moves to creating a division in Europe, like in the next 10 years, and then they just decide to do away with Super Bowl and call it the world champions. And then like some teams going to come out of nowhere, like the Buffalo Bills, and they're going to be, they're going to be like four time world champions. And everybody's going to be, but we won the Super Bowl.

31:06 Super Bowl doesn't matter. Yeah, right. I think that, I think that'll happen. That's stupid.

31:11 I think that's stupid. Everything counts.

31:15 Mark, they're always going to call it the Super Bowl, even if they do move in the Asia and Europe, because they are absolutely going to do that. I agree with you.

31:25 Oh, you think they're going to move? Yeah. Okay. I got you.

31:27 Oh yeah, definitely. But they're, it'll always still be called the Super Bowl. I don't know though, could be the World Bowl. Well, no, you can't think about it. I mean, they had the, they had the AFL before it was the NFL that merged with the AFL, thanks to Joe Namath. And after that happened, you know, nobody remembers who won all those AFL championships. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody remembers. Nobody, nobody cares.

31:54 It doesn't matter. Swab. Nobody.

31:57 And nobody cares. That's not true at all. Nobody cares how many championships the Eagles won. That's not true at all. I mean, that's not true at all.

32:06 I bet you, if I ask five people who watch the NFL on a regular basis, how many Super Bowls the Steelers have versus how many championships the Green Bay Packers have, I can guarantee you that four out of five will be able to name the Steelers and zero out of five will be able to

32:25 name the Green Bay Packers. Well, you're then not talking to anybody in Wisconsin, apparently.

32:33 Yeah, I could. I could easily get a fair weathered Green Bay fan and they wouldn't know.

32:39 So DG is talking about George Pickens who said he was snubbed with no Pro Bowl selection. You know, I think you're right, DG. And that is if we're going to kind of… Wait a minute.

32:51 Wait a minute. Are you insane? You think he's right? George Pickens? He wasn't a Pro Bowl receiver last year.

32:59 No, no, no. I think DG is right. That the attitude… Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you want me to pretend that I think George Pickens is right, just so we can continue this argument, because you got really passionate there.

33:14 I just thought it was ridiculous. I do too. I actually… You make yourself more clear when you speak.

33:18 I think George Pickens is right.

33:21 What? Shut up. You're just saying that. You're just saying that now.

33:24 Here's what I think about George Pickens. If that's what it takes for him to get excited about this year, to think that he got snubbed from the Pro Bowl, I'm 100% behind it. I'd rather him be focused on that than focused on his Instagram or his TikTok page.

33:41 You know what? I can see your point there. That, I can see your point. But it is one thing that kind of concerns me, and I think this is a greater issue in the NFL. And we've talked about this in previous years. It started with Juju. And I think, yeah, DG's chiming in again. I just worry about our history of flaky receivers. Right. When they start to go down that path of personal branding, and that starts to take over, and when you're drafted, of course, on the Steelers, you get a little bit more exposure because it's just the Steelers. And right, I worry about that. I think that the guy needs to put his head down and play. He's got to prove that he's more than what he was last year before he can be a Pro Bowl receiver. Now, once again, here we go. Right back to it. You know where I'm going.

34:31 I was going there first.

34:32 You got the cloud of Canada over this whole thing. Jet sweep. Blows my mind. It blows my mind. I mean, God, get rid of this guy. I mean, seriously, if I don't see in the first, and this is me personally, if I don't see in the first game, like a real running game, and throwing the ball over the middle and down the field and treating it like an NFL offense, I may just stop watching right then and there. If I see a jet sweep in those first two series, that's it. I'm done. I'm out. I'm not watching. Class starts at 9 PM. Thank you. I'll be there. I'll be there. Schwab. All right. Real quick. Calvin Austin apparently is dusting Patrick Peterson. But is Patrick Peterson really going to go full speed? The guy knows when he's the guy knows when to turn it on or not. Is that really mean anything?

35:26 No, it doesn't mean anything. What I think it means to me is that he didn't know who Calvin Austin was. Yeah. And he probably lined up against him once. He was like, oh, this guy, he couldn't even really make the team last year. Yeah. He's only four foot four. Or, yeah, Andy's hurt. I'll just kind of backpedal. And he just went, boom, right by him. You know, and then he was like, oh, I guess I need to learn a little bit about who's in front of me before I make any judgment calls. That's all. That's all I think it really is.

36:01 Yeah. I don't think it means anything at all. But it'll be nice to have this kid who supposedly is very, very speedy, although he's kind of short. But it'll be nice to have another option there. Because I'm not. Sweet. Yeah. If anything, if anything, it adds to the jet sweep presence. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

36:31 Hayward on a jet sweep. Yeah.

36:36 By the way, Hayward's going to make the team, and they're going to end up cutting Gentry

36:40 just because he's Connor Hayward. Of course. I would agree with that.

36:44 Yeah. I would agree with that 100% too. I would.

36:47 I would. No, I think that Hayward's better than Gentry.

36:51 I agree with you on that. No, he's not. No, no. Gentry's much better.

36:57 Let's talk about Jalen Warren. Let's talk about him. More carries this year? I think they did a good thing in giving. No. Same. You think same?

37:08 I think plus or minus 10% from what he had this year. Yeah.

37:13 I'm telling you, watch him.

37:15 Watch him. Hopefully, Harris is going to go into the season healthy. Yeah. He's going to have a bigger load over the course of the season, and I think he will play well. Yeah. Hopefully, behind an improved offensive line.

37:28 Well, that's the key. This is the year that he has got to prove that he is as advertised. Now, it's not that he's had bad years. He's had bad lines, but when he has been given holes, he doesn't really have a vision, or maybe he does, and once real holes open up, we'll see that. That's what I'm looking forward to this year.

37:49 Here's the thing. When you say as advertised, what are you talking about? Because everybody thought he was going to be a good running back coming into the league, but nobody said he was Barry Sanders.

38:01 No, but I think they thought that he was going to be a little bit… Look, he ground out his yards. They thought he was going to be a bigger impact player, and he just wasn't, and everybody blamed the line.

38:14 I think he kind of was in year one. Actually, in year two, when they started playing better, he was playing well. He was playing well.

38:24 Yeah, but he's not a home run hitter. He's not going to hit a home run, and I think everybody thought that they would occasionally

38:30 get that home run out of him. Remember, he was injured last year at the beginning of his championship. Yeah. Don't worry. He's good for 1,600 yards. Write it down. Look, not every back is destined to have an 85-yard touchdown run. He'll be a top five back in the league this year.

38:57 He's a little bit more in the Ligarret Blunt type mode where he knocks over a bunch of people, but it's a 45-yard run. He's tackled at the five.

39:10 Right. Okay. Yeah. All right. All right. Okay. So let's move on here. We got the NHL playoffs. I do have a comment coming in. Todd Ross, of course we agree with you, Todd. No jet sweeps, please. Please get that out of your frigging repertoire. Bubble screen. I want to thank you for subscribing to the SportsPorts podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your podcast. Of course, you can hear us replay every Sunday night on American Busker iHeartRadio at 4 p.m.

39:44 Eastern Time and catch us on the PorchesLive.com, the PorchesLive.com. The PorchesLive.com. I have one more favorite play I want to say. Okay. Bubble screen to Deontay Johnson running backwards.

39:58 One catch minus two yards.

40:01 So hockey Jesus is in the house. Hockey Jesus is in the house. And he did do his hockey Jesus Stanley Cup preview the other night, but what he forgot to do is actually predict who he thought was going to win. So lay it on us, H.J.

40:21 What's going on? Well, I did say before, you know, the game one synopsis, I did say what I was going to predict at the end of the preview, which was I actually do think that Vegas Golden Knights will raise the Stanley Cup in six games. And that was I and I even said to you, Chris, before, you know, the game even started. Like that's that's where I was going with it. That being said, game one was quite entertaining. It was a really good game. Like the first period was the best period of hockey in the whole postseason. The back and forth was really good. The hitting was solid. No, you know, not a lot of cheap hits. There was a little bit of extracurricular stuff, you know, after the whistle around the around the goal, that sort of thing. Florida likes to do that. Florida is very good at getting other teams to, you know, kind of get distracted from what it is they want to do during the game by, you know, kind of knocking them around after the whistle, at least in the first period. And, you know, when when Florida scored the first goal, they actually scored a short handed goal only the third time ever in a Stanley Cup finals that the short handed goal was the first goal that was scored. The other two were actually by Detroit teams. And it didn't even matter. I mean, you know, because what happened was Vegas came out and then they scored a power play goal of their own and they were getting a lot of power play opportunities because Florida was kind of gooning it up a little bit and not and not being very careful with their sticks. They were doing a lot of holding and and like I said, my preview, the problem isn't the first line for for Florida. The problem is that the fourth line and the fourth line just played really well for the Golden Knights. They were giving them problems in the first and second period and then they had to make adjustments on their defensive side to kind of slow them down. And then that allowed the first line to shine. But really, I was surprised that it was more about the power plays and the penalty kill and in the first period because actually both teams are pretty terrible at at at the special teams for whatever reason in this postseason. That really hasn't mattered. But the bottom line is Bobrovsky was human in the game and they need him to be superhuman if they're going to win. He had like an eight eight sixty seven save percentage. Normally he's at like nine thirty seven Aiden Hill just has to be good enough. He's not a great goalie, but he did make he did make a great save in the second period. And if you've seen any of the highlights, basically he reached behind him and he, you know, you put out that big paddle and it went right off his stick. And then actually Nick Cousins, who was a former gold knight player, one of the original members, he then went to shoot it again because it bounced right back to him. And then I think Petr Angelou or somebody like that stopped it and it went poof right up over the net. And it was a wide open net, you know, because he's basically laying in front of the net with only his paddle in front of the net. That was his best save of the night and it probably propelled them to take the lead. That being said, it was a tie game. You know, they ended up they ended up winning five to Vegas did, but it was two to going into the third. And it wasn't until Bobrovsky gave kind of a it was really kind of a leaky goal from from White Cloud just kind of shot it on that and it went under his arm. That's that's that's a save that Bobrovsky has made every single time in the playoffs. And if I'm a Florida fan, I would be worried about that because if Bobrovsky does that again tonight, they could be in big trouble. Nick So you're predicting Vegas in six. Nick I'm still predicting Vegas in six. I think Florida might come out with a win tonight, honestly. I don't I don't think it really I think they almost have to because I think if Vegas takes a two nothing lead, Florida has been so good on the road and they've kind of been OK at home. I think for them to not win a game on the road, I think that's going to play with their mind a little bit. And the other thing was at the end of the game, Kachuk and Bennett were just it was really kind of interesting. They just I don't know if you've seen these hockey scrums where there's just a bunch of guys all together. And normally, it's just a bunch of people, John and talking to each other. Kachuk literally was with his with his gloves still on, was just punching people. It was so funny. First, he first he punched Hague, who's kind of the big guy on that first line. Actually, I think he's I think he's a defenseman. Anyways, he punched him twice and then Jack Eichel came around. I don't know what Jack Eichel is doing in the scrum, by the way. He should be nowhere near Kachuk. But then Kachuk was Kachuk was basically doing the same with him. And you could see the referees there like they had enough of it. They gave him a double minor. They gave him four men a penalty, but they also kicked him out for doing that. Steve, did the long layoff kill the Panthers? No, actually, they came out. They came out probably out playing Vegas in the first period. I think what killed I think what killed Florida was dumb penalties. And I think they got they got to stop with the dumb penalties. And they have to they have to get better. They have to score that goal like that one that that Aiden Hill stopped. That's the goal they have to get. They always have to get that goal. And they they probably I think they hit like three posts in the game. And normally for for them, those go in. And instead of going in this time, they they just didn't you know, they bang off the pipe and knocked out. So it's I mean, it actually was a pretty close game. Five, two doesn't sound like it was a close game, but because they had all those penalties at the end, they ended up scoring a power play goal, a five on three power play goal with an empty net, which is which is just weird. You know, it's like you look at that. You look at the statistics and I think they went three for six or something like that on the power play. But that third goal was an empty net goal. So I don't even really know if you can count that. But that's what it looks like in the in the box score.

47:09 So we're going to get a hockey Jesus update tonight after the game. Oh, yeah, for sure. All right. Looking forward to it. So remember, you can catch the Sports Porch podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, Spotify or anywhere you get your podcasts. And you can visit us on the web at the porcheslive.com. The porcheslive.com. The porcheslive.com. That's right. And your buckos report after every pirate's game, which, by the way, like I said last night, you can't think this team's going to roll over and die. Trap game. Trap game. Three to nothing A's in the bottom of the fourth. And dare I say, as of this point, Rodolfo Castro is up to bat. The pirates are hitless.

47:55 They are hitless. But they do have an error. So they got that going for them.

47:59 Yeah. Yeah. So it's not going to be a perfect game by Jay Sears. Oviedo is not pitching his best. So this is what I fear before we sign off for the night. This is what I fear. It's a tale of two pirates. It's a tale of two teams. And all the hype around sweeping the Cardinals. You got to turn around and you got to ride that. And you can't take the A's. You have to take the A's seriously. They're a professional baseball team. So hey, it's only three run deficit. They got a few more innings left.

48:35 They came back from five against St. Louis. Yeah.

48:38 They're good. Well, and that was a finally kind of thing. That was like, finally, they're down a bunch of runs and they're able to come back. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. Well, listen, guys, until next week, catch the podcast. Listen for the hockey Jesus. Listen for the buckos report. And I'm just going to start the music right now.

49:04 Schwab is going to sing us out. Thank you for listening to the Sportsports podcast. Thank you for watching on social media. You can catch the Sportsports podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, Spotify, or anywhere you get your freaking podcast. Or on the porches live.com, the porches live.com, the porches live.com.

49:28 And every Sunday on American Busker iHeart radio at 4 p.m. Eastern time. That's it. We are out. Let's go bucs!