Kovacevic's 21 Takes: Apathy vs. anger for Pirates, Steelers' O-line, Penguins' crease

It started with some unkempt dude in the upper deck off to my left. He pretty much leaped out of his seat, shifted his cup of beer to one hand, raised the other hand, palm up, and barked, "Come on, Shelton! No way! Not again!"

And with that, boos. Actual bleeping boos.

What a blessed event this was, on so many levels.

No, not what followed, of course. Derek Shelton's latest quick hook of a starting pitcher set the stage for the Pirates' 2-1 loss to the Indians on this sweltering Sunday afternoon at PNC Park, with super-efficient JT Brubaker giving way to super-nobody Chasen Shreve in the seventh inning and Shreve promptly conceding Cleveland's go-ahead run.

More on that in a spell, I promise.

But first ...

Oh, yeah! Turn it up!

Boooooooooooooooooooooooo!

That, my friends, is the sweetest sound I've heard in these parts since the outset of the pandemic. And I'd be remiss if I didn't pause to pay the proper attention to what so many of the 16,582 on hand achieved here.

See, it's become commonplace in these parts to suggest the public's tuned out the Pirates, and my counter to this concept never changes: That's impossible. The Pittsburgh Baseball Club's 135 years old. It's part of who we are, passed down from generation to generation. The franchise can lose 20 years in a row. The franchise can be owned by the most hated man in town. The franchise can be symbolized, fairly or not, by a first baseman and/or top prospect forgetting to step on first base. 

The franchise can suffer through a summer like this one, too, that feels at times like an amalgam of all of the above.

But don’t ever tell me Pittsburghers don’t care about the Pirates.

There’s a massive difference between apathy and anger. And what we’ve got in this city, as it relates to this team, is anger. It's disillusionment and distrust. And almost all of it's aimed at Bob Nutting, partly with cause but also partly, if I’m being blunt here, by out-of-control misinformation and outright lies. One can speak or write virtually any over-the-top criticism about the Pirates anymore, and it's accepted without a trace of skepticism.

How it goes these days ...

Common sports fan: 'The Pirates are just going to draft the cheapest player like they always do.'

Me: But ... there's a draft cap, and they've spent up to that cap every year it's existed. In fact, their $5 million signing of Josh Bell as a second-round pick is the very reason it exists.

Fan: 'Oh my God! Why are you defending the Pirates? Do you love Nutting? Why don't you interview Nutting? Are you afraid of him? Oh, wait, I know. It's because he's never around.'

Me: He's around all the time at PNC Park. Honestly, I've had more access to Nutting than I've had to Art Rooney and Mario Lemieux combined, and Art and Mario are both around all the time, too.

Fan: 'Ha! You're comparing Nutting to Rooney and Lemieux? Are you losing your mind?'

Me: Are those separate questions?

Fan: 'The Steelers and Pens always spend everything they can. Nutting pockets all the profits.'

Me: Where did the Penguins' payroll rank in the NHL in 2003-04, the season before a salary cap was instituted? It was dead last. Where would the Steelers' payroll rank if the NFL didn't have a cap and the Jerry Jones types could spend whatever they wished? It wouldn't be last, but it'd be close. And if you don't believe me on that, go ask Art. He'll tell it to your face.

Fan: 'You just love Nutting. Whatever happened to #OurTeamNotHis and your big crusade a couple years ago?'

Me: Do you remember what that was actually about? Do you remember the first two words of every baseball column I wrote that summer?

Fan: 'Yeah, it was 'Fire everyone,' right?'

Me: Uh-huh. And what did he eventually do that offseason?

Fan: 'Whatever, man. Nutting's the problem. That's what you need to be writing.'

Me: Maybe he is. I didn't like how things unfolded after 2015, and he's acknowledged himself he wishes he'd done some things differently.

Fan: 'He cut payroll!'

Me: Nope. Payroll went up that offseason. But he allowed his front office to make some terrible moves without once stepping in. Neil Walker for Jon Niese added payroll, but it backfired in the ugliest way. That's where an owner needs to make a difference.

Fan: 'He didn't do anything because he doesn't care.'

Me: Maybe he doesn't. But he sure didn't need to eat $17 million to fire all those guys that I wanted to see fired. And from there, he sure didn't need to go out and hire excellent, established executives away from existing jobs in Ben Cherington and Travis Williams. I've known Travis for some time, and I've gotten to know Ben. These are smart people who had no reason to leave their previous jobs if they were coming here to be part of some grand heist. To me, that was a signal that another chance had been earned.

Fan: 'So you love him now. You love Nutting. Just admit it.'

Me: Yeah, man, I love Nutting. Heading to his mansion up at Seven Springs for a cookout right now. Have a wonderful day.

And that's some of the more rational discourse you'll hear on the subject, scary to say.

People are mad. I get it. People aren't going to be inclined to dig into every detail of what separates the Cherington approach from the Huntington approach from any other approach. They've got their bogeyman, and that's that.

But once, more, don't tell me they don't care.

This team's 20 games under .500, and this happened Friday:

And this happened Saturday:

And on Sunday, by God, the citizens booed.

I asked Shelton, the target of those boos, how he felt about that, and he totally got it: "That response, that tells me that they're passionate. That's good. They wanted JT to stay in the game. I understand that. I made the decision that I thought was the best decision for us at the time. But the fact that they're passionate, I love that. The fact that they're back in the ballpark, that's great."

It really is.

Only winning will change all the rest. But it will change.

• I hated the hook. Everything about it.

Nothing matters more to this team this year than the maturation of the young players who can be part of the future. As maybe the only starter who qualifies, Brubaker matters as much as anyone. He'd busted his behind to get to 6 2/3 in sweltering heat, he'd done so superbly -- one run, three hits, nine Ks, zero walks, just 76 pitches -- and he'd earned the shot to get that last guy out.

Not all situations are created equally. Building up Brubaker -- imagine the ovation walking back to the dugout if he'd gotten that third out -- was infinitely more important than any left-left matchup.

• Bad as that decision was, burying Shelton over it would be so much worse. I've never gotten the sense that he's stubborn. He'll learn. He'll be better.

• The Pirates will never get two All-Stars, but good luck telling either Adam Frazier or Bryan Reynolds they aren't deserving. They rate among the top 10 hitters in all of baseball to this point, depending on the stat of choice. 

My first guess: Frazier will get the nod, while Reynolds is basically told to do it again since he's younger.

My second guess: The outcry from the baseball world won't amount to a whimper. Few outside Pittsburgh have any idea what they're doing.

• The only three players on the big-league roster Cherington should deem untouchable at the trade deadline are Ke'Bryan Hayes, Reynolds ... and Brubaker. Because starting pitching's so challenging to acquire from the outside -- even for the big spenders -- and because, man, this guy's getting to be pretty good.

When he's allowed to be, right?

• I'm now holding these truths to be self-evident regarding the upcoming MLB Draft:

1. I've never seen these kids
2. I'd love a starting pitcher
3. Just take the top talent, anyway

What do you mean these thoughts can't coexist?

• That pic I snapped for the top of this column shows all the expected empty seats, since PNC Park's still limiting sales to half-capacity until July 1. (Not that this'll stop the standard fact-free snickering on the subject.)

To me, it's a minor miracle the Pirates are drawing what they have. For one, obviously, they're 20 games under .500. For another, as any team executive will attest, season-ticket sales comprise a huge percentage of overall sales, and those were close to impossible to sell anywhere. It's basically starting every game from zero. And for yet another, they've been forced to sell seats in sets of two and four, turning off more than a few folks.

Normalcy in this area won't return until 2022. It might even impact the NFL. 

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

The Steelers at minicamp this past week at Heinz Field.

STEELERS

• There's no way it was coincidence that the Steelers invited free-agent guard Trai Turner, a five-time Pro Bowl pick, for a formal visit right after David DeCastro didn't -- or couldn't -- partake in minicamp. 

I've been saying for months now that DeCastro's status for the coming season is far more in question than most seemed to realize. He struggled in 2020, both in terms of performance and with dual injuries to his chest and knee. He didn't seem himself at all. And age 31 in the NFL, that's not a scenario where an athlete simply snaps out of it.

DeCastro watched the first day of minicamp in civvies from the sideline, then wasn't around at all for the final two. Mike Tomlin disclosed nothing more than that all non-participants were 'excused.' But come on.

• The Steelers have $7.2 million in cap space, per Spotrac, but that hardly tells the tale. They need to set aside roughly $2 million to account for the dozen players who'll populate the practice squad, and Kevin Colbert prefers to enter every regular season with $5 million free for emergency moves. Which leaves him with ... uh, yeah.

So, Keith Butler can publicly plead for a third edge rusher, and the team can still have legit needs at backup safety and now maybe right guard, but it'll take a lot more than a wave of Omar Khan's wand to make it happen.

DeCastro's cap hit, by the way, is $14,297,500. So if he returns rather than retiring, it's almost inconceivable he wouldn't get restructured.

• My up-to-date read on Ben Roethlisberger's relationship with Matt Canada is that, for now, they've found a Goldilocks phase that they'd do well to preserve.

Ben's invested far more time and energy into this time of year than what'd been the norm, and he's been especially engaged -- demonstrably so -- when it comes to new plays, new wrinkles. And Canada, in turn, has spoken all the right things about how "We’re going to do what Ben wants to do and how Ben wants to do it," thought it turned heads throughout the Nation, he was rightly reciprocating.

They will do what Ben wants. Because it's all got to go through him, anyway, and it's that much smarter to make him want it.

• Mason Rudolph's getting better. Visibly better. In every way. 

And that's all I'll say on that. For now.

• The separator for Najee Harris, at least from this perspective through covering OTAs and minicamp, is the feet. He moves like no one else entirely because he can move like no one else. His feet in the individual drills -- forward, sideways, over obstacles -- are like lightning. And from there, the vision, the decision-making, the upper-body shiftiness ... all of it allows him to attack holes and erupt for more.

It's hard to cite comparables. He'll go between tackles, but he's not Bus. He's patient and smart, but he's not Bell. He's more an amalgam, like a greatest-hits disc.

Can't wait for everyone to see him. Soon enough.

• That said, nothing made a more powerful sweeping impression at minicamp than the vocal emphasis on being physical. Every which way I'd turn, I'd hear something advocating a mindset of ultra-violence, even if the practices themselves were pad-free.

Or I'd see something like this:

That's not to suggest the other 31 teams aren't doing likewise, but I still love this. There are few problems in football that can't be solved by being snarlier than the opponent. And the 2020 Steelers, all too terribly often, were the ones being pushed around.

Not pictured but hilarious: Karl Dunbar, the defensive line coach, repeatedly shouting to rookie Isaiahh Loudermilk: 'ALL RIGHT, TWO-H! YOU GO, TWO-H!'

• Only asking: If Tomlin takes the Steelers to the playoffs, amid all these dire forecasts for their demise, he'll be a candidate for the NFL's Coach of the Year, right?

Hello?

Hey, where'd everyone go?

PENGUINS

• Ryan Pulock's remarkable last-second block in Game 4 of the NHL semis Saturday night on Long Island, seen above, reminds me to share this observation I'd had even while the Islanders were beating the Penguins: That group of big, hard-nosed, smooth-skating defensemen probably could've been appreciated more in that series when all we'd been buzzing about were Mat Barzal, Jordan Eberle and even Ilya Sorokin. But Pulock, Scott Mayfield, Adam Pelech and the rest of that blue line were as effective as anyone on the New York side.

• But no, they don't explain why the Islanders won. Tristan Jarry was why the Islanders won.

There's often a tendency to seek comfort in the success of the opponent that eliminated one's favorite team, but there's none to be found here. The Penguins would've advanced through that series with even league-average goaltending. They didn't get anything close to that. Hard stop.

• To further pound the point, I'm of the mind that there's nothing Ron Hextall, Brian Burke, Mike Sullivan or anyone else can do between now and the 2021-22 NHL season to craft some newfound culture of confidence surrounding Jarry.

If that seems excessive, so be it.

Picture Jarry and Casey DeSmith rolling through another regular season like the mostly productive one they just had. Picture people like me and you praising Jarry, in particular, for burying this past playoff. Picture all the pumping up he'd hear from everyone on the inside.

Then, picture the puck dropping for Game 1 of the 2022 playoffs. And how everyone -- as in everyone -- would feel.

See?

This team puts itself in the best possible circumstance by setting up Jarry as a 1B entering the season. I strongly believe that. Find a veteran who can push Jarry, even supplant him, but also one who'd grasp that the reverse also could be the case. They'll be out there.

• Riddle me this: What is there about the Penguins' wish to get bigger -- while staying swift and skilled -- that wouldn't be solved by giving a real chance to Drew O'Connor, Radim Zohorna and Anthony Angello? Heck, that's a left winger, a center and a right winger. They could be a line.

• Marc-Andre Fleury's done in Las Vegas. 

He's had Peter DeBoer's mythical sword planted into his back one time too many, now despite a 1.85 playoff goals-against average. And now that Robin Lehner backstopped the Golden Knights' 2-1 overtime victory in Game 4 late Sunday night in Montreal, that'll be that:

DeBoer had tellingly hinted right after Fleury's Game 3 flub that he'd make the switch, and he did. Shades of Mike Sullivan, similarly, with Matt Murray in Ottawa in 2017. Both coaches, for whatever reason, sought and seized their first chance to change.

No, I wouldn't manufacture any hopes of Flower returning to Pittsburgh -- Jim Rutherford tried that, and Vegas nixed it with the same people currently in place -- but I can't see him back with VGK, either. Not unless he's in the crease on the same night he lifts the Cup.

• No, the Islanders and/or Canadiens aren't changing the game by showing that defense works. And that's because they aren't really that good at it.

As I was writing about New York all through the Penguins' first round, the intent to defend isn't the same as defending. The Islanders have conceded far too many shots, shot attempts, scoring chances. On the latter count alone, the Islanders' opponents have attempted 891 shots to their own 696 at five-on-five, the worst such ratio of any active team and the third-worst of all 16 teams in the tournament.

So, how have they done it?

Well, in addition to the Islanders and Habs benefiting from the butchery that is the NHL's playoff officiating, they're both insanely opportunistic, gutsy, and all that other intangible stuff.

But neither's breaking any ground or setting some precedent.

• The Bolts are going back-to-back. That'll quash the Penguins' claim to fame in the cap era, but the hockey world should bite back with a big, fat asterisk. I mean, it can't be considered part of the cap era if you circumvented the cap, right?