Meet Don Kelly: The Worst Player In Baseball

Now that the 2007 Pittsburgh Pirates 25-man roster is set, it's time to start complaining about the 25th man because, well, that's what we do. This years 25th man?

Don Kelly.

Don. Freakin'. Kelly.

The only real plus that Kelly has going for him is the fact he's from Pittsburgh, so this will at least give Lanny Frattarre something to talk about when Kelly is hitting .192. While it's nice to see local guys making it to the big leagues, it shouldn't be any sort of determining factor in whether or not they make the team. And it probably wasn't, but we'll hear about it. It's the same type of thinking that gets people to love John Wehner and Chris Peters and make fans scream for Russ Grimm to be the head coach of our football team.

The trouble is, Don Kelly (like the rest of those guys mentioned above) stinks. He stinks in the minor leagues and he'll probably stink here.

Kelly has spent the last two seasons bouncing between AA and AAA for the Detriot Tigers. During his time in AAA Kelly has posted such awe inspiring numbers as a .616 OPS last season, and .625 OPS in 2005.

In other words...he was the Toledo Mudhens Humberto Cota at the plate the past two years. Humberto Cota, by the way, is also on this years team along with Ryan Doumit. I'm not sure why we need to carry three catchers, but there he is.

With Freddy Sanchez starting the season on the DL for at least the first two series, the Pirates obviously needed another middle infielder. But why waste your time on a guy like Don Kelly when Todd Walker, who has at least shown he can play at the Major League level, is available for as cheap as a Minor League Contract?

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Today's spring training finale against the Minnesota Twins is on TV and here are some observations during the first two innings:

- Paul Maholm has cruised thru the first two innings retiring all six batters, two on strikeouts, two on comebackers to the mound and two more on regular groundouts.

- After the Pirates started the top of the first with two quick outs from Chris Duffy and Jack Wilson, the Bucs had four consecutive guys reach base and score a pair of runs. Bay singled, Laroche doubled him in, Paulino blooped a double into shallow right-center field and after that Xavier Nady worked a walk.

And now Laroche just dropped another double in over Torri Hunters head in deep left-center.

I'd still love to see Bay and Laroche be able to bat in the first inning when they didn't already have two outs up on the board, but here we are......

And now Paulino doubles in Laroche......the Pirates are pounding Sidney Ponson today.

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After clubbing six homeruns this spring, Brad Eldred is heading north with the big club and is the only source of actual power on the Pirates bench. I'm glad he made the team (because he should have made it) but i'm still not sure what to expect from him. Despite the ungodly power he displayed in the Minors the rest of his minor league career makes him look a lot more like J.J. Davis or Chad Hermansen than Adam Dunn.

During his stint in AA Eldred hit 30 homeruns in just rougly 250 at-bats. Which is good. But he only drew 14 walks...which is bad. Very bad.

Just for comparisons sake:

Player-----------OBP-----BB/AB-------SO/AB
J.J. Davis--------.330------.095---------.290
Hermansen------.347------.109---------.274
Brad Eldred-----.349-------.083--------.308

Eldred is going to hit homeruns no matter where he plays, the problem is going to be whether or not he is capable of doing anything else. Even during his brief big league stint in 2005 he hit 12 homeruns in under 200 at-bats......but he had a .279 On-Base Percentage. That's not going to cut it no matter how many homeruns you hit.

There is more to being a productive hitter than pounding a mistake 800 miles every now and again.

Three Questions With Georges Laraque

A couple of weeks ago I found an article on the Penguins website that was featuring newly acquired forward Georges Laraque. Included in the article was a paragraph stating how Laraque loved to interact with fans. He loves it so much he actually allowed his personal E-mail address to be included in the article. According to Laraque, he gets a couple hundred E-mails per day and tries his hardest to respond to each and every one of them. He even carries a laptop with him on the road so he can check his mail and chat with fans.

Last night I decided to put it to the test and fire off a quick E-mail with three simple questions to see if he would get back to me. Surprisingly, Mr. Laraque has already responded. Below is our brief exchange with my exact questions and his exact answers to my exact questions:

Me: As a player, how big of a momentum swing can a good fight be for a team? Announcers talk about it all the time - how a fight can turn the game - Do the players feel that way?

Georges: "it brings energy to the bench."

Me: There has been a lot of talk recently about removing fighting from the game. If this were to happen, instead of fighting Donald Brashear on the ice, would you then be tempted to fight Gary Bettman off of the ice for removing such a long standing part of the game?

Georges: "ha ha good one."

Me: Getting an assist and winning a fight against one of the NHL's heavyweights on the same shift less than a second apart from each other: A great accomplishment? Or the greatest accomplishment?

Georges: "just my job."

Clearly he is not one for lengthy responses, but that's okay. The very fact he takes the time to respond to e-mails from fans is cool enough. In fact, it cements my previous opinion that hockey players are the most fan friendly athletes involved in the four major sports. For some reason I just can't picture Terrell Owens or Barry Bonds responding to e-mails from people like me. So Georges gets a ton of credit in my book for that. He gets even more credit for laughing - or at least pretending to - at the idea of fighting the commish.

Even more than all of that, I like the signature line in his E-mails......

Georges Laraque

"PAY IT FORWARD"

I'm not sure what that means. But I like it......I think?

I do have to disagree with his take on setting up a goal and wrestling Donald Brashear to the ground in just a matter of seconds - That was quite simply the stuff of legend, mainly because Brashear looked like he was completely terrified the instant the throw down was set to begin.

In other news, the Penguins are in first place with only four games to play and currently have 100 points, a feat that only three other teams in Penguins history have accomplished. Not bad.

I think we all felt pretty confident days like this might one day be coming for this group, I just don't think any of us expected it all to happen this season.

Sign Todd Walker

An interesting discussion emerged over at the MGS Pirates board. That conversation was centered around the idea that the Pirates should go after Todd Walker who is expected to be released by the Padres. Now, I don't know for certain if Walker has been released - or even if he will be released - but if he is...then the Pirates should go after him. Quickly.

Of course, it could be one of those situations where if it seems to good to be true, then it probably is. And this would appear to be to good to be true.

Walker is the type of left-handed hitting infielder that Dave has been talking about all off-season and the Pirates still have a pretty big cushion under their self imposed "budget."

It's a perfect fit.

He wouldn't be an everyday player, but with his ability to play second, third and first (he doesn't really play any of them all that well, but he can play them without taking too many grounders off of his forehead) you'd have to figure that he could find himself in the batters box at least 300 or so times.

Who would you rather have up 300 times in 2007? Todd Walker? Jose Castillo? Don Kelly?

Jose Castillo's problems are well documented and Don Kelly is a bad player in AAA. Walker on the other hand could at least put up a .350-ish OBP and bang a few doubles off of the right field fence.

Of course, Walker has to actually be available for this all to make any sense. And as far as I know right now, he isn't. So it's all just wishful thinking.

Joe Theisman Out At Monday Night Football; Other Things

The recent news of Joe Theisman's demise from Monday Night Football is kind of sad to me. After all, it was Theisman's inane rambling and constant contradictions of himself in a matter of seconds that got me into the 2006 Pro Football Prospectus. It was one of my first published "things" in a relevant publication. So even though it was nothing much - really, it wasn't - it was still kind of a big deal to me. If I ever meet Joe Theisman i'm going to ask him to sign my free copy of the book...perhaps right on page 449.

I still wonder if he - or any of that group - ever read the skit and i'd probably sleep a lot easier at night knowing that they did.

The Theisman-Kornheiser duo had the potential for a similar type parody but in the end it just wasn't meant to be. Kind of a shame in a way.

Hopefully Theisman gets reassigned within the network in a similar manner in which Mike Patrick and Paul Maguire were. Perhaps there will be some sort of glorious Sunday Night Football reunion among the college ranks in the near future? Honestly, those Northwestern-Indiana games could use such a boost.

We could only be so lucky.

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The three people that read this thing may have noticed I haven't added much lately - or maybe you haven't?Perhaps you don't care? - but i've been kind of tied up with a bunch of crap the past couple of weeks. I've been working a lot more than normal at my "job" and i've been trying to do a lot of newspaper work that doesn't seem to be getting done for various reasons. It's actually quite frustrating.

I spent the last two days working at the WPRA food show for the company. I hated working Sunday and driving into Pittsburgh on a Monday morning during rush hour...but I made some extra cash, got paid mileage and ate a boatload of free food.

On Sunday I actually found a giant HD TV at the front of the show that was broadcasting the Penguins-Bruins game. I managed to sneak away for minutes at a time to watch the game as I chomped down on a complimentary steak sandwich. Since I was "on the clock" I couldn't make my way over to the beer booth, which sucked.

On the downside, I missed my chance to buy Penguins playoff tickets.

I couldn't get onto the internet today at the convention until 11:30, and by that point in time games A and B were already sold out. As it turns out they sold out - The 2,000 remaining tickets for each game - in 14 minutes.

Solid. For the people that bought them.

The only drawback to the PEnguins return to success is the people that are now going to games simply because it's "the thing to do." Don't get me wrong, people in the seats is a great thing for the team and the city...it just sucks that I can't get in now. The same thing happened during the cup years...the arena turned into a bunch of suits and corporate people that could give a damn about the team on the ice and just showed up to "entertain clients" and bullcrap like that.

But, just so the team wins...it's all good.

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Now that baseball season is set to begin i'll be sure to update the old girl more often as baseball always inspires me to jot stuff down. It doesn't matter if i'm complaining about Jim Tracy's unheard of idiocy or expressing my love for Joe Mauer, it all rules.

Random Stuff

Felt like updating even though it's likely no noticed my week long absence...some recent happenings and thoughts:

Steelers Stuff

The Steelers started some (in)voluntary off-season workouts this week and nearly 85% of the team showed up. Among the 15% that haven't been there (yet)? Troy Polamalu - who is expected to be there shortly - and Alan Faneca, who is slowly but surely starting to become somewhat of an annoyance along with his buddy Hines Ward - who was in attendance for the first day of workouts.

Ward arrived and still can't seem to get over the release of Joey Porter:

It's shocking that they let him go," Ward told Michael Silver of SI.com last week, "because he was really the emotional leader, the guy who brought out the best in a lot of players. That's why so many veterans -- Alan Faneca, James Farrior and others -- called me when they heard he was released. We were all shocked.

"You can always replace players, but you can't always replace leaders. That's what we lose more than anything. It was tough when we lost Jerome [Bettis] before last year, and then we lost coach Cowher. Now we lose Joey Porter? It's going to be different."

Yes. It is going to be different. Perhaps all of this will blow over before the season starts but it's time it started to move on out now. It would be nice if Ward or Faneca - who are starting to become the resident nattering nabobs of negativity - would come out and say something along the lines of - Yeah, Joey is a big loss but maybe i'll have to step up in his place and yatta yatta y atta. Instead, they continue to gripe about how their boy didn't get the head coaching job and how Joey Porter is playing somewhere else...and still trying to take out Bengals in the process.

Get over it guys.

- Ben Roethlisberger is among the large group of players that made their way into the South Side training facility this week - which is a good thing - and Cedric Wilson - of all people - was the only player made available to the media after the first day of workouts.

"He laid down the law," wide receiver Cedrick Wilson said Monday. "Just basically saying, `Hey, you can go train in Orlando, and you can go train in Arizona, the nice climates or whatever, but you can't get out of those places what you can get here - and that's football.' That's what he's preaching and that's what he's coaching."

...

"It's different terminology," Wilson said. "He (Arians) is a passing-game type of guy, so as a receiver you've got to really learn a lot and that's why this time here is so important for us right now."

There you go. Does this mean the yearly training camp trip to the movies is out of the question? Alan Faneca's not going to like that.

- Various print and media reports seem to indicate that Brett Kiesel is going to get some looks at outside linebacker this season which seems kind of interesting. My first visions of Kiesel in his rookie season were of a 280 pound mad man running down the field like a bull in a china shop cracking skulls on special teams. I'm not sure how he's going to do - even if it is in a limited role - but I think it's worth the shot, especially with the Steelers current lack of depth at the position. Speaking of which, today (Tuesday) the Steelers welcomed in unrestricted free agent Rocky Boiman who spent last season with the Super Bowl Champs - the Indy Colts.

Matt Turk - joy - is also on the radar in the never ending quest to replace Chris Gardocki.

Pirates Stuff

- General Manager Dave Littlefield announced today that Andrew McCutchen - and his legend that grows by the day - will not make the 25-man roster out of spring training, which isn't a surprise to me. I figure his stay in the Minor Leagues this season will be short and I expect to see him patrolling centerfield of PNC Park somewhere around August.

Also, Neil Walker - who had a fantastic spring - and Brian Bixler were sent to the Minors. Walker will start the season at AA Altoona where he is likely to be one of the youngest players in the Eastern League.

- Late last week the Pirates signed former Mets pitcher - and Cuban defector - Alay Soler. Soler marks the fourth free agent the Pirates have signed this off-season who hails from outside the United States. While none is likely to make the major impact of an Ichiro or Hideki Matsui...there is a chance that Herrera or Soler could make some sort of positive impact to a very near future Pirates team. For a franchise that has ignored - from an outsiders view - the foreign markets for years, these small steps are a solid start. I think? Or at least I hope.

- In semi-non-baseball news, PNC Park is now a smoke free facility. Because of this the infamous Monte Christo Cigar Club - a horrible idea to begin with - is now being replaced by a sports bar type place called "Club 21," in tribute to former Pirates great Roberto Clemente. The "club" will be open to anyone that has a ticket on the club level - perhaps the best seats in all of baseball - and will feature all sorts of Roberto Clemente merchandise, including his locker from Three Rivers Stadium.

Even more impressive than that is the 21 beer taps the bar is said to contain.

I like it. I like it a lot.

Penguins Stuff

The Penguins are still within striking distance of the first place Devils despite dropping a tough one last night at the Garden. T-Bo played a fantastic game but Henrik Lundqvuist was just a tad bit better as the desperate Rags pulled out a 2-1 win. I can't get to upset about the loss as the Pens have won 26 of their past 30 and are a near stone cold lock to make the playoffs. After five years of miserable hockey i'll take any seed just so it's somewhere among the top eight.

- Two Penguins goalie prospects are finalists for the Hobey Baker Award: Notre Dame's David Brown and St. Cloud State's Bobby Goepfert.

Pitt Basketball Stuff

Despite blowing a 19-point second half lead to 11th seeded VCU, Pitt managed to take its second round contest in overtime to set up the much anticipated Jamie Dixon Vs. Ben Howland showdown on Thursday night. Pitt will try once again to advance past the sweet 16 for the first time in school history and it'll probably have its hands full. I'm pulling for them as I think an extended run in the tournament would bring a lot of excitement to the city. Granted, it wouldn't quite be 2005 Steelers run excitement...but it would be pretty fun in its own way.

The only negative of Thursday's game - aside from the fact that UCLA is pretty good - is the all of the "TEACHER VS. STUDENT(!)" headlines and storylines we are currently being subjected to.

That's all I've got for now.

Welcome Home Old Friend

It's like you never left us.

Today it became officially official. The Penguins and all sides involved signed off on "the deal" and the Penguins will have themselves a brand spankin' new home well within the city limits of Pittsburgh.

Right where they belong.

Which means we should probably do away with this website that is currently wasting bandwidth - perhaps not as much as this blog, but enough nonetheless.

To celebrate the announcement that the Penguins will remain here for at least the next 30 years, the Penguins nearly killed their entire fan base by blowing a two goal lead with less than seven minutes to play against the Sabres, who seemed to bring an unhealthy number of mullet heads driving down in their rice burners. Disgusting.

Of course it wouldn't be a Penguins game without overtime and a shootout, and fortunately Erik Christensen, Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury did their thing in the shootout and the Penguins came away with another crucial two point night.

Four games ago the Penguins started a 10-game stretch of hell and through the first four games have managed to capture seven of a possible eight points. You can't ask for much more than that.

On the downside, the Senators overcame a 2-0 deficit on the road and beat the Rangers which keeps them ahead of us for the number four seed - and the final home ice spot in round one - in the east. Of course, even that came with a comedic twist as the Rangers have now lost 11 games in which they've had a two goal lead. Honestly, it couldn't happen to a better team.

Tonights game had a healthy flow to it and featured some superb goaltending from Fleury and Buffalo's Ryan Miller. The Pens had spurts where they struggled in their own end but for the most part kept the Sabres contained, i'd still like to see fewer backhanded clearing attempts from their own end and less Mark Recchi - seriously Rex, you used to be great but that was a while ago - but a win over the number one team in the east is a win over the number one team in the east.

It's A Great Day For Hockey

KDKA and Fox Sports Pittsburgh are both reporting tonight that the Pittsburgh Penguins, City, and State officials have agreed on an arena deal that will keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh. While no official announcement has been made, both say an announcement will be made prior to Tuesday nights home game against the Buffalo Sabres.

You have to figure this is legit as the supposed Wednesday meeting was scheduled for Pittsburgh and Rendel, Onorato and Ravenstahl are all set to march in Saturday's St. Patricks day parade. As the shady politicians that they are, you'd have to think they would love to be able to waive to the crowd and kiss babies with the opening line, "Hi, I'm Luke Ravenstahl and I saved the Penguins."

Of course.

Perhaps i'm going to overstate this just a tad, but this could be perhaps one of the best days in Pittsburgh sports history. Winning championships is great, but losing a professional sports team could be equally devastating to a city and a fan.

Kansas City can now stop circling like the vultures they've been and can stop trying to steal the fruits of our labor. We as Penguin fans have watched a lot of really bad hockey and waived goodbye to a number of stars who were sold for pennies on the dollar the last five years to get to where we are today. Did you really think we'd give it all up to some cow town that has no connection to the team or sport?

Of course not.

The atmosphere at the old shack should be quite festive tomorrow night.

Pitt Gets A #3 Seed

Expected I suppose. When you get trounced in your conference title game like the Panthers did on Saturday you really shouldn't expect anything more. They draw Wright State up in Buffalo on Thursday night. Should they get through that game - which you would hope that they will - they will play the winner of the Duke-VCU game. And should they get through THAT game, it could set up a potential sweet-16 match up against Ben Howland and UCLA.

Exciting.

I'd be lying if I said I knew anything about Wright State, but they do have a 6'8 forward - Jordan Pleiman - that logs about 25-minutes a night. Who knows what that means for Aaron Gray who usually struggles against other big dudes.

Only one guy averages double-figures for this team and that would be 5'11 Senior Deshaun Wood. He's averaging 19.7 a night. Nobody else on the team is over 9 points per game.

If Pitt can't get through this one......God help us all.

As for the rest of the bracket - the West bracket by the way - Kansas and UCLA are the top two seeds while Southern Illinois rounds out the top four. Duke is in with the six seed.

1. Kansas
16. At large game

8. Kentucky
9. Villanova

5. Virginia Tech
12. Illinois

4. Southern Illinois
13. Holy Cross

6. Duke
11. VCU

3. Pittsburgh
14. Wright State

7. Indiana
10. Gonzaga

2. UCLA
15. Weber State

My useless picks for the first round:

Kansas, Villanova, Virginia Tech, Southern Illinois, Duke, Pitt, Gonzaga, UCLA/

More On Sean Mahan

According to Jim Wexell, here are the details of Sean Mahan's deal with the Steelers:

Mahan agreed to a five-year deal for $17.5 million. He'll be paid close to $5 million the first year of the deal.

Doesn't seem too bad, especially when you consider the other interior lineman on the free agent market this off-season have picked up Steve Hutchinson type money despite the obvious flaw of not being as good as Steve Hutchinson.

This all leads me to this question: What is the difference between Eric Steinbach and Sean Mahan? What makes Steinbach worth $17 million in guaranteed dollars while Mahan only earns $17 million if he plays out his entire contract with the Steelers?

Mahan's signing bonus is roughly $4 million dollars.

Same question is asked of Leonard Davis and Kris Dielman. Steinbach, Dielman and Davis as a collective group have played in the same amount of Pro Bowls that Mahan has - zero - and they somehow struck it rich with major deals while Mahan signed for what appears to be table scraps. At least as far as this market is concerned.

Of course, Wexell mentioned in his article that the Mahan may have taken less money to sign here, which is always a cool thing.

It's certainly possible that Steinbach and Dielman are better than Mahan - actually, it's quite likely they are better - but are they $14 million dollars in guaranteed money better? I'm having a hard time believing it.

Or I could just be a raging Steelers homer, so there is always that at play as well.

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Here is an excerpt from an article I found on the web talking about Mahan's play at center in a game against the Chiefs two years ago:

A year and a half later after Mahan’s selection, the Buccaneers are awfully glad they grabbed the standout interior lineman when they did. Mahan’s performance at center against Kansas City last week, after John Wade was hurt on the Bucs’ first offensive play, helped Tampa Bay’s offense maintain its ever-improving level of play. With Mahan in the middle, the Bucs racked up 130 rushing yards, 288 passing yards and 34 points.

It was exactly the type of performance a team hopes to get out of a reserve, the kind that allows the rest of the team to continue operating at the same efficiency.

“It wasn’t just me,” said Mahan. “As an O-line we really communicated and played well. (Quarterback Brian) Griese obviously had a great game. Everyone stepped up. Whenever an injury like John Wade’s happens that needs to happen. It wasn’t just me – it was everyone stepping up together.”

Mahan’s sharing of the credit is both accurate and admirable, but one cannot overstate how important his strong performance was in the Bucs’ narrow win over the Chiefs. Locked in a shootout and facing Kansas City blitzes on seemingly every play, the Bucs couldn’t afford tentative or error-filled play from their center, who calls the blocking schemes at the line of scrimmage. Both Griese and Head Coach Jon Gruden were thoroughly impressed by Mahan’s play, and they have the utmost confidence that he can continue to perform well.

In other random Sean Mahan news, he appears to be Mike Tomczack's long lost twin brother. Or at the very least, a distant cousin? I'm not sure what that means, but I think I see it.


Yes? No? I don't know.

The signing likely makes offensive line a little less of a priority in Aprils draft - at least as far as the first round is concerned - as the Steelers now have a number of guys set to fight it out for playing time, especially along the interior. It also begs the question is this the end of Chuky Okobi? Or perhaps the consistently inconsistent Kendall Simmons as well?

It also could allow the Steelers to explore a defensive pick in round one, and just so it's not Paul Posluzny, it's all good. Seriously, the object of the draft is to pick the best player to improve your team...not to pick the best Penn State player to improve your team. If I never hear another word about Paul Posluzny or Tony Hunt I will be quite the happy camper. There is an entire glorious world of college football beyond Happy Valley that is beaming with bright prospects that could impact the Steelers for years to come.

Your Newest Steeler: Sean Mahan

Pewter Report is reporting that the Steelers have agreed to a terms with free agent lineman Sean Mahan.

Seems to be a solid pickup for the Steelers as Mahan is still young and has the versatility to play any of the interior line spots. All the reports i've read suggest everyone was looking at Mahan as strictly a guard while the Steelers like him as a center...sounds kind of similar to the last guy the Steelers signed to play center. That move turned out fairly well.

Mahan is the first free agent the Steelers have signed this off-season and it should, for at least the time being, silence some of the "WHY AREN'T THE STEELERS DOING ANYTHING!!!" cries on the internet and yak-back shows.

According to Jim Wexell in todays Herald, Mahan actually left the South Side facility yesterday without a contract and was hauled back in from the airport by the Steelers who closed the gap.

Other guys who have come in for visits:

- 49ers punter Andy Lee -a restricted free agent - was the first guy to come in and actually signed an offer sheet with the Steelers. The 49ers have since matched the offer and Lee to the Steelers is a no-go. There were reports that the Steelers did not put a "poison pill" in the deal which would have been completley awesome had the Steelers actually done that. He's a freakin' punter! It appears now - at least according to various online rumors - that the Steelers may go after Matt Turk. Whatever.

- Pork Chop Womack made what seems like his yearly free agent visit to the South Side and left without a deal.

- The same day Womack was in free agent Wide Receiver Alex Bannister was in town. Bannister went to the Pro Bowl in 2003 as a special teams player and is highly regarded around the NFL as one of the leagues top gunners. He'd clearly be a replacement for Sean Morey as Bannister has only actually caught nine passes in his NFL career and none since 2004.

- Joining Mahan on Friday was free agent linebacker Colby Bockwoldt. Colby started all 16 games as a rookie in New Orleans before moving on to the Titans where he played mainly on special teams. Supposedly he begged the Steelers to sign him but the two sides couldn't agree to a deal....yet. He's a BYU guy which seems to mean something to the Steelers who already employ Brett Kiesel, Chis Hoke and Shaun Nua. All BYU products.

Excellent

For the second game in a row the Penguins were caught sleep walking for over a period only to come roaring back for a shootout victory. It's not the type of style you want to start to develop, but the two points count just the same regardless of how you get them.

The Penguins scored three goals in under five minutes during the third period to completely erase a 4-1 Senators lead, while Erik Christensen and Sidney Crosby did their thing in the shootout. Gary Roberts continued to impress as he scored his second goal as a Penguin, Jordan Staal scored what seems like his 900th shorthanded goal of the season - actually, it was his seventh - and Ryan Malone scored the tying goal with under seven minutes to play.

The impressive thing about this game - compared to the comeback over the Flyers on Sunday - is this game was on the road and against a real NHL opponent.

Because the game went to overtime the Senators also gained a point which still leaves them one point ahead of the Penguins for fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings. I'm really not too concerned about that because the Penguins getting one point - let alone two - was the main issue tonight.

This is the type of shit we should be talking about with this team. Not who is more incompetent in arena negotiations: Mario, The Governor, The Mayor, or the City Councilmen. Get it done and keep this team where it belongs you greedy bastards. All of you.

News, Notes and Ramblings

Heading into last weeks NHL trade deadline I felt one of the Penguins biggest needs was a power forward who could play on the top two lines and go to the net. I was thinking of someone like a Bill Guerin. We ended up with Gary Roberts.

There are pros and cons with the move; He's a rental, he's 40 years old...but he's also still pretty good and a physical presence on the wings. Judging by his first couple of games...an extremely physical presence.

In the two games i've seen him play with the Pens - I missed Friday's game - I have been extremely impressed with the old mans play. Today for example, he was playing like a miniature horse eating pit bull around the net and delivered a couple of rock solid checks along the boards. He chipped in a classic Gary Roberts garbage goal on the doorstep and set up both of Erik Christensens goals - both of which came on rocket wrist shots - and earned himself one of the top stars of the game. It's still extremely early, but he is looking like an excellent addition to this team.

As for the game as a whole, the Penguins seemed to be sleepwalking for the entire first period before finally waking up about ten minutes into the second. In the end however, none of that matters to me because they walked out of there with two crucial points. Does the end justify the means? Absolutely it does. You don't get extra points for style, so take the win and roll with it. Really big game coming up on Tuesday when the Pens travel up to Ottawa, who at last check, were one point ahead of the Penguins in fourth place in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Marc-Andre Fleury gave up a really bad goal to Braydon Coburn in the first period but rebounded quite nicely the rest of the way. He was huge in the second and third periods and was a brick wall in the shootout.

According to Phil Bourque on the post-game show, Fleury has now stopped 12 consecutive shootout attempts.

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NFL free agency has started with a series of bangs as a bunch of GM's and owners have taken a cue from their Major League Baseball counterparts and started signing checks with a stamp.

- Kris Deilman, perhaps the best offensive lineman on the market, re-signed with San Diego.

- Eric Steinbach, previously of the Bengals, signed a monster deal with the Browns. Hopefully for the Browns sake he has better luck than last years big free agent haul along the offensive line - Lecharles Bentley - who may never play a game for them. Bentley ripped his knee to shreds on the first play of non-contact drills on the first day of training camp.

- Former second overall pick and current NFL underachiever Leonard Davis has trumped them all struck it rich with the Dallas Cowboys.

Steinbach and Deilman are good players - although I don't think Steinbach is THAT good - and Leonard Davis has been a rather large - pun intended - bust. Together they have combined for $52 million in guaranteed dollars with these deals. Between the three... Zero Pro Bowls. Not that Pro Bowls are the best assessment of a players worth, value or most importantly, his skill...but still. What a year to be a mediocre free agent...in any sport.

- Nate Clements become the highest paid defensive back in league history when he signed up with San Francisco.

- New England picked up Adalius Thomas from Baltimore and are now bringing in restricted free agent Wes Welker. According to Rotoworld the Patriots will offer him something along the lines 38.5 million over 7 years with the dreaded "poison pill" worked into the deal. I love guys like Wes Welker...but that's kind of insane.

- Tampa Bay signs Jeff Garcia and trades for Jake Plummer who has supposedly retired. Currently the Bucs have about 800 quarterbacks on their roster with Garcia, Plummer, Chris Simms, Bruce Gradkowski, Tim Rattay and Luke McCown. What Jon Gruden plans to do with all of these guys is a mystery to me.

Steelers Free Agent Notes: As usual, the Steelers take the slow and methodical approach to free agency...we already talked about Peezy being let go as well as Verron Haynes - although it's been talked about that the Steelers may look to bring him back, and I hope that they do. They did re-sign Najeh Davenport to a two year deal and tendered offers to Max Starks and Brian St. Pierre(!)...if you read through the Adalius Thomas article above the writer mentions that the Steelers as being one of about six teams to contact free agent linebacker Tully Banta Cain. I admit I don't know much about Banta Cain outside of looking at his stats and the fact he was a former seventh round pick out of California, but I will just point this out:

2006 as a part-time player: Tully Banta Cain 6 sacks.
2006 as a full-time player: Joey Porter 7 sacks.

Again, I realize there is more - a lot more - to being a defensive player and a pass rusher than recording sacks...i'm just saying. I don't expect Tully Banta Cain of all people to replace Porter, and i'm not suggesting the Steelers should get into a bidding war with five other teams for his services...i'm just saying. Just pointing out the info.

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The Pirates have actually started playing baseball games, which is still unbelievable to me, and have lost all three - assuming today's score holds up - in grapefruit league play. I don't really care about what they do in these games just so nobody gets hurt.

Andrew McCutchen homered in his first at-bat of the spring and doubled in his second at-bat off of Eric Milton. It's really dangerous to get excited about a Pirates position prospect because we've seen so many of them fail...but this guy could be the real deal. And if the Pirates want to have any hope of being good in the near future, he's going to have to be.

Farewell Sweet Peezy

And with that, he's gone. It's not really a surprise, but it kind of is. I knew it was coming, but it still kind of shocks me. I understand the reasoning, and I don't disagree with the move, but it'll be different for sure.

Not quite as noisy either.

After eight years with the Black and Gold, Joey Porter has been cut loose.

The move does save the Steelers quite a bit of money against the cap, which is a good thing, but it also leaves them - as they stand today - dangerously thin at the outside linebacker position, which is a bad thing. If the season were to start tomorrow - and thank God it doesn't - James Harrison would take over Porters spot, that is of course assuming he isn't doubtful with a knee which he seems to have a (un)healthy knack for doing.

So beyond Harrison, Clark Haggans remains and then after that things start to get sketchy. Goo Wallace? Eh.

Aside from Harrison's injury concerns - perhaps they're just my concerns, but I have them - it's worth noting that he is only one year younger than Porter. So while the Steelers save some cap room - which is important - they don't really get any younger at the position. Unless you count the previously mentioned Goo Wallace...which makes me repeat my initial..."eh."

All that being said, thanks for the memories Joey. Perhaps my fondest memory of Porter is his fourth down sack of Peyton Manning in last years AFC Divisional playoff game. Sure, he came in unblocked and Manning turtled, but who cares? It was the moment. It ruled. It was everything that was great about the 2005 season. Sure, all of our collective hearts stopped a minute later, but it was great. All of it. Every single second of it. Lets do it again.

I think the people that may be must bummed about this move are the Steelers beat writers, who will they go to now for quotable quotes?

Also today, and of significantly lower profile, the Steelers also parted with ways with Verron Haynes, which kind of disappoints me. I like Haynes. In fact, I think losing him last season played a part - even if it was a very small part - in the offenses struggles. I realize he's only a third-down back, but he's a very good third-down back and an excellent pass blocker.

And of even lower profile than that news, is the news that the Steelers tendered a contract offer to Brian St. Pierre. Say hello to the new Matt Cushing.

Earlier this week the Steelers locked up Aaron Smith to a new four year deal, which pretty much makes him a Steeler for the rest of his career, or the vast majority of it. I like it. I think it points to the Steelers sticking with the 3-4, or at least a lot of 3-4 looks, a lot longer than the national talking heads seem to think.

Regardless of what system they run, I think Smith will find a way to fit in.

That's all I've got for now......